Hi ComicBookMovie Readers! Once again, I am back with my own level of dementia involving comic books, television, and science fiction. As promised, I will relay to you folks the reasons why I am deciding to stop collecting my favorite comic book series of all time: The X-Men.
Don't get me wrong. I have a fondness for all of the characters. They were my "family" when I felt like an outcast to the rest of the world. You saw from my favorites list how high I regard Nightcrawler and Iceman in particular. But there comes a time when a man must move on from the trappings of his youth. When an act becomes one of repitition rather than love and it all feels like a chore. If doing something you love feels like a chore, I view it as time to stop the addiction. Cold Turkey...
To me, a major hook on a comic book, or any literature / piece of entertainment, is the connection you have to the characters. Part of the allure of literary entertainment are the sensations you feel living through the hero / protagonist as he / she along the journey. With the X-Men, you felt every mistake, every difficult moral choice, every hard decision members of the team made as they strove to get a handle of their powers while fighting for their rights. Jean Grey's first death, Magneto originally joining the school, the departure of the first class, Wolverine's inner struggle with his beast, Juggernaut's hatred of Charles, Beast's yearning to be normal and storylines of the like were touchstones for the reader which, for lack of a better term, made these powerful heroes seem human and relatable.
Now? The books simply have become a Wolverine - Cyclops pissing contest over control and this has leaked onto every satellite X-Book there is. Outside of Emma Frost, Rogue, and to a lesser extent Colossus (much lesser), it is hard to come up with well defined mutants that you identify with and relate to. Sure, this is happening in books like X-Factor and New Mutants but let's be real here: within the major two books of the franchise: Uncanny and Legacy.. character development has become a lost art. Which leads to the other major reason I'm jumping off this ship....
This is a superhero comic book when all is said and done. A good one has heroes you can get behind with AND villains that are intriguing which bolster the quality of the heroes.
WHERE ARE THE GOOD X-MEN VILLAINS?
Magneto, like it or not is now a part of the team. So are The White Queen, and now Sebastian Shaw. Sentinels have been done to death and they have just gender swapped Mr. Sinister just to have an antagonist. Apocalypse is tied up with X-Force and every book seems to be the X-Men infighting with each other. I want good kicka$$ villains again. I crave to have my heroes use their minds and intelligence to try and win imaginary battles over the city / world / universe. If I wanted to see no resolutions from people with power, I'd watch news channels 24/7.
Maybe that's the problem. I've gotten older and the new age wants this. Their version of world building would involve all this minutae while mine would involve various plots building over time as fights would be happening. All I know is that somewhere along the way X-Men lost me and I lost the passion to hop back on the bandwagon.
Thanks for reading my fanboy rant ComicBookMovie Readers. Next Week, I'll have links and fun but now, between the Penn State stupidity and this emptiness, I in a melancholy mood. So until next time, Keep Fantasizing!