Why I Love And Hate The X-Men

By Comic Booked Guest Writer Features 07/08/2010

It’s X-Men Day today so I hope you’re all having a good one.

I have been reading the X-Men for a long time and I have developed a love/hate relationship with the series.

Some may disagree, but I don’t mind that Wolverine is on every team possible because I love the ‘ol Canucklehead. There’s something far more repetitive. Through the years, the writers – and artists – keep telling the end of mutantkind story, which inevitably concludes with saving their asses at the last minute. While the overuse of Wolverine doesn’t bother me, going back to the well for the same old plot lines is frustrating. Sadly, once the future of the mutants has been assured, the powers that be on the X-books seem to almost always reboot the series. Ugh. Bottom line, the constant starts and stops with this band of heroes is predictable.

Why I love them? Really cool characters. Some pretty damn good to look at (Psylocke) and others ugly as sin (Marrow), but in the end they’re the X-Men and I root for the characters at every page.

The X-Men is now in a place within the Marvel Universe where Porfessor X isn’t calling the shots. A long-awaited step forward was finally made in the last few years to progress the X-books by putting Cyclops in charge of the X-Men and mutants in general. I like that good old Charlie Xavier is essentially a supporting player. I also enjoy the direction the X-Men has taken by integrating the rest of the Marvel U into their story lines. The Scarlet Witch whispering, “No more mutants,” was an awesome turn of events.

Let’s fast forward to X-Men: Second Coming. I like the return of some wonderful old villains and that they have a mutant aptly named Hope as the so-called saviour of mutantkind. I’m not sure what’s on the horizon in terms of how this will conclude, but I am looking forward to the new titles of X-Men being brought into the “Heroic Age.” For far too long the X-Men has been holed up in their own little part of the Marvel U with little to no interaction with the rest of the heroes – unless of course they’re fighting one another. I am a fan of the X-Men and the many books. But I’ll stick by the series only a while longer and hope the X-Men keep moving forward rather than back.