Growing up, the X-Men were it. The bomb. The bee’s knees. Back in the 150 area. X-Men and New Teen Titans were the top books. Then in the 90s it was even bigger. Nowadays … not so much. Since I have been open, the X-Men have had a ton of good creators. I think Brubaker was on it when I opened. Fraction, Gillen, lots of others. But then they gave the books to Bendis. Not to hate on Bendis, but something happened. There were 2 books. All New X-Men with the kids and Uncanny X-Men with the bad guys. Missing was that main book. Back in the day there were the 2 teams, Blue and Gold (my high school colors btw). Suddenly there was no main book. People didn’t know where to go and they walked away. My X-Men sales numbers are a fraction of what they used to be.
Now there’s just kind of a jumble. Extraordinary X-Men has a random assortment of characters. All New X-Men is still the kid X-Men (that everyone expected to go back in time many times now). Uncanny X-Men still has not launched, but looks to be the villains again. Its frustrating to me that there is no “Main” book to put people on to. Extraordinary lead by Magick? Umm ok. With Old Man Logan? Neat idea for a story arc or maybe a side book. But, for what is the main X-title, I don’t know if its what people are looking for. I keep hoping they remember what they once were and bring back an X-Book with Cyclops, Wolverine, Colossus, Beast, Nightcrawler, Iceman, Storm, Kitty Pryde, Jean Grey & Angel. THEN split off the other books.
On a total side note, the lack of a strong core seems to be their biggest problem right now. A solid core Avengers book, with other Avengers books spinning off. (is the main book the one with Ms Marvel and Miles Morales or the book with Squirrel Girl and Brother Voodoo or the one with Deadpool?) A core X-book with others spinning off.
BUT, my whole point of this post is that the new X-Men Age of Apocalypse movie and the comic event tie-ins looks to be a way to get people back to the X-Men comics. I really hope that they can hit this one well and not just decide to make everything Apocalypse just to tie into the movie. I am really hoping for a breath of fresh air into the the whole line. Make the books “MUST READS” again. The trailer for the movie and the fact that they are doing a line-wide Apocalypse event gives me hope.
