X-Mutants ( The "all -things- X" topic)

[jjreason]

Did a re-read on Morrison's New X-Men run, at least the first 3 tpbs worth (which leads in to Riot at Xavier's - we haven't met Quentin Quire yet).

Quite the mish-mash of art when you read them all together like this. Not holding up as well on the 2nd read as I might have liked - but to be fair I'm not done with the Fantomex business, the Riot or the Jean/Phoenix stuff at the end with Silvestri art. Kinda makes me want to dig up the old old vynsane forums so I could re-read my synopses and see if my first impressions were so much different than how I felt upon re-reading a few years later.

EDITED: Finished the last book - Silvestri art, story set 150 years in the future - it was pretty good actually. Now I just have to find copies of books 4,5,6 for $10 each and I'm good to go.

EDITEDED: broke down & dug out the floppies - both the Riot at Xavier's & the Murder at the Mansion stories were pretty good, even though Quitely departs after the Riot (at least he drew the whole thing, not like the other arcs he only started). All I have left is the Assault on Weapon Plus and the reveal of Xorn as Magneto - err I mean Planet X bits.

[jjreason]

/sigh - another tie to my childhood & adolescence to be severed:

http://marvel.com/news/story/16070/unca ... en_the_end

Growing up sucks.

[anarky]

Haven't they learned that this is nothing but a short-term gimmick?

Oh, wait, businesses thrive on short-term gimmickry instead of long-term planning.

[jjreason]

My comment on the forum thread was something snarky about market research showing folks prefer more X-Men #1s to having long, continuous runs of a classic title. They're never going to learn. I could conceivably drop off the book here, the more I think about it - and they've had guaranteed sales of this book to me for more than half my life. Why does comic collecting feel like so much work lately?

[Rollo Tomassi]

Every time Marvel and DC do this, I just look at it as an opportune jumping off point. Especially since I discovered I can find these back issues much cheaper down the road.

I'm hoping that Legacy also doesn't get ended because so very very few comics make it to the 250th issues in this day and age. But that's probably a pipedream.

[anarky]

Technically speaking, though, Legacy is a "cheater." It started as X-Men, then became New X-Men, and didn't it revert back to just X-Men before becoming Legacy?

[jjreason]

The title has changed, but the numbering hasn't had a break. I guess for purists, either one of those things would break the string, but to me it's still one ongoing series.

[Rollo Tomassi]

For me as well. I see it as one series. It's not like I have the Morrison Run filed in the "N"s. And it's kinda more legitimate to me because most of the original Marvel titles were copped from the earlier 1950s books like Journey into Mystery and Tales of Suspense.
But it's also partly because that series started after I started collecting. I bought the first issue off the racks(several first issues in fact. Well played, Marvel marketing team, well played). And of all the series that started after I began collecting, thats pretty much the last man standing. I mean, there's a lonnnnng list of books that have come and gone since 1987. Barely any of them even made it to 100 issues, let alone 200, or 250. Heck, most of 'em barely made it into the double digits. I remember how Marvel would put out their #1s in waves. Namor, Quasar, She-Hulk, What If?, etc. Then Ghost Rider, and Guardians of the Galaxy, and New Warriors. Then the big Spider-Man launch. Then the even bigger X-Men/X-Force launch. Then over at DC you had Legends of the Dark Knight. And Shadow of the Bat. And a hundred other titles from both publishers that barely registered. And all of them are gone. Or restarted so many times their history and legacy is insignificant.

And then look at Marvel's "Core" titles. Captain America has been relaunched like six times now. Iron Man four or five. Thor's had three #1s since the 90s. Avengers? Ferget it. Moon Knight? Ghost Rider? Daredevil? Punisher? Rebooted. Over and over. Even Hulk is ending yet again.

And now DC is taking that one step past ludicrous. I mean, if you're gonna cancel Action, why even bother starting it over? Its an anachonism of a title. It's a totally 1930's sounding title. If you aren't going to have the history of its numbering to go along with it, why not just have a brand new title like Superman:Hand Down His Pants or Superman:Bieber Fever.

But Uncanny and X-Men have HAD weathered the storm until now. And if Legacy gets relaunched alongside Uncanny, I strongly feel as if no comic will ever reach triple digit numbering ever again. Leastways legitimately. Oh sure, they can "revert" to legacy numbering any time they want a quickie sales boost. But, to me, it just aint the same. If Legacy ends in favor of a new #1 X-Book, then the last remaining longest running uninterrupted books are things like Sonic the Hedgehog, Spawn, Savage Dragon, and Hellblazer. And some of the Archie titles.

[anarky]

I know it's all one series (and I file it under whatever I see as the most important name--in this case "X-Men," and, if I had any pre-Uncanny issues of the original series like that lucky prick jjreason, I'd file them under "U" for "Uncanny"--maybe I'll make y'all jealous when I say my Hero For Hire #1 is filed under "P" for "Power Man and Iron Fist"). But, still, a name change that's not intended as a minor adjective addition that de facto becomes part of the title (wasn't that how "The Uncanny" became part of the title?) would technically count as a broken run to some people.

I have no doubt people will still be debating this next year, when X-Men Legacy reboots at #1.

[Rollo Tomassi]

But would you file Wolverine and the X-Men under "W" or under "X"? Is Wolverine just the adjective to that particular X-title?

I have Uncanny in the "X"s by the way. After X-Factor and X-Force, but before X-Men Legacy on account of its the senior title. But, I think, I had New X-Men (Academy X) and Astonishing before Uncanny. So once I get to X my filing is all over the place. Which would be a lot smoother if Marvel would just stick to one goddamn title and not be rebooting a muthahfuckah every six months!!

[jjreason]

The uncanny was added above the original title in issue 114. Prior to that it was "ALL NEW, ALL DIFFERENT" from 94 to 113 and plain old X-Men/the X-Men before that. To me it's filed under X, and it's the lead book under X because it started first, even though X-Factor would alphabetically trump it.

[vynsane]

[...]even though X-Factor would alphabetically trump it.

as would 'x-force', but then liefeld would be in front of it.

[Rollo Tomassi]

Liefeld wasn't on the book that long. And Warren Ellis and Mike Allred and Peter Milligan would be the guys "closest" to the Uncanny issues. So there'd be a..buffer? of a hundred issues or so. The Liefeld stuff might even be in a different box.

Back to this post-Schism stuff. As interesting as a Jason Aaron X-Team book would be and the idea of the two different X-Men teams sounds, the turn off for me is the $3.99 price. I'm getting less and less whelmed by the higher price point in relation to the quality of the stories I'm getting. It seems like every month, Marvel finds a reason to jack up a different title's price, like Amazing Spidey with 40 pages! But then they quietly drop the page count back to 32 but leave the higher price. Or they say its because they have A-list talent like Brubaker writing Secret Avengers, but then he leaves and a relative newbie starts writing, yet the price remains the same. Nothing against Nick Spencer, who may even be a better writer than Bru is, but he isn't a proven commodity yet.
So now we're "losing" Uncanny, and "gaining" Uncanny and Wolverine. Both at $3.99. And we just got the other Useless X-Men series last year at $3.99 which I didn't even bother with. So I think I'm gonna avoid these two new books, as interesting as they sound, and vote with my wallet.

[jjreason]

I'm confused. Right now we have Uncanny, X-Men & Legacy for team books (X-Men only, not including Forces or Factors as those don't rate for me). After the Jizzum, we're going to have Uncanny, X-Men & Legacy but Uncanny will be from #1?

[Rollo Tomassi]

We will have Uncanny, Legacy, Astonishing, Useless, and Wolverine and the...
As well as X-Factor, Uncanny X-Force, Generation Hope, and New Mutants.
And then Wolverine, X-23, and Daken.

EDIT I forgot Astonishing.