The X-Axis – w/c 15 September 2025
UNCANNY X-MEN #21. (Annotations here.) No X-Men Unlimited issue this week – they often take weeks off between arcs but for some reason they’ve started doing it mid-story of late. Which is a silly idea but what the hell, it’s only the Infinity Comic. So we’ll move straight on to Uncanny X-Men as it wraps up for “Age of Revelation”.
Now, I remember the original “Age of Apocalypse”, which also did the stunt of “cancelling” the line and replacing it with stand-in books for the duration of the event. And the first time around, they made a point of actually leading in to the event. The official prologue was confined to the core X-Men titles, but the other books at least ended on a cliffhanger before going into their break. We’re not getting that here – in some cases that’s because the book had been cancelled, or perhaps they just weren’t sure what it was doing on the other side of the crossover, but even Uncanny X-Men isn’t actually doing anything to set up its participation in the story. Which is very weird in terms of momentum. It hasn’t felt in the slightest like we’re leading in to a big event – it feels like the line is closing down for the winter.
Still, on the level of individual issues, it’s probably for the best that they aren’t forcing a tie-in. This is the second part of Ransom’s spotlight story, in which he goes back to Argentina to rescue his estranged ex-brother from a cult, and winds up visiting a comicon with Wolverine. It’s an odd issue. It looks nice enough, and Vecchio has some fun with the convention cosplayers (even if the place does look a bit spartan). The emotional beats with Ransom and his family land decently. There’s maybe a bit more nuance to his father than we’ve seen before, and some more hints about a family history to be explored in future, but Ransom’s complaint of feeling rejected by his father is basically made out. What’s not made clear is why his father ever took him in in the first place, which is a story for another day. And all this just about gets away with there being a gaping hole at the centre of the plot where the villain’s motivation ought to be. It’s never at all clear what Proctor actually wanted, or what the purpose of his cult is, or what they were trying to achieve (or even what his cultists think they’re trying to achieve). Which… has the advantage of leaving the way clear to tell us that Benicio just wanted to belong to something and allowing him to redeem himself, without the awkwardness of making him an explicit racist. I guess. But without ever really knowing what any of this was about, parts of the story float uncomfortably.
PHOENIX #15. (Annotations here.) So, look, I sort of get what Stephanie Phillips is trying to do here: she wants to do the story where creating Sara Grey creates a massive problem, and the cosmic powers that be want to deal with that problem by eradicating her. But Jean shows them that there’s a better way. And everyone learns that Jean is bringing something new and worthwhile to the cosmic gods by adding the perspective of the little person, which in turn justifies Sara’s new role as… well, a cosmic Jiminy Cricket.
But the execution fails comprehensively. The plot hinges explicitly on the fact that if Sara is allowed to continue existing then this will bring universal disaster. And this is evidenced by showing the White Hot Room breaking apart, and a trip to a future timeline where, for some unfathomable reason, it’s all zombies. Nobody at any point suggests that there’s a possible solution that doesn’t involve killing Sara, even Jean. She’s simply written as refusing on principle to sacrifice one “life” for the greater good, without having any explanation of how else she’s going to avoid the mass extinction thing. So when she just out of nowhere declares that it’s a solvable problem and everyone goes “oh, okay, fair enough then”, that’s a massive cheat and the story collapses.
Plus, if this is the story, it should have been one of the cosmic entities or their messengers setting out the problem, not Cable. By using him, the story inadvertently positions the cosmic entities’ attitude as one shared by reasonable mortals, and completely undercuts the idea that it’s something about cosmic perspective. Then we’ve got a bunch of former Phoenix hosts, from the prominent to the extremely obscure, showing up as guest stars only to do literally nothing.
Artist Roi Mercado has their moments – I think they’re actually a good artist for more down to earth material, and they do a pretty solid job when asked to draw the cosmic beings in their human forms from G.O.D.S.. Oblivion comes across particularly well here. It’s the grand cosmic bits that fall a bit flat, but that’s more a case of Mercado being miscast on this particular book; I’d be happy to see more from them on a book better suited to their strengths.
Overall, though… yeah, a bit of a catastrophe.
MAGIK #10. (Annotations here.) Another final issue. The absence of this series from “Age of Revelation” raised eyebrows, since on the available data it seemed to be selling respectably. It turns out that the same creative team are starting a new book in January – presumably not just a Magik title, or they’d have said so – which is something. This has been one of the stronger X-books of late. That’s not just in terms of having a strong sense of identity, but also in terms of finding a way to make Magik a viable character again after many years of using her as a mobile snark delivery system, simply by leaning into the idea that she hides behind her persona, and then putting her in situations where she can’t. Or indeed by putting her in situations where she can, but her first person narration is more honest than her dialogue. Germán Peralta has even managed to make her costume work, and very few people have.
So it’s a book that’s done good work in reviving my interest in Illyana, and it’s had some good concepts as well. This final issue is maybe not its strongest outing; it feels like plotlines about the Exemplars turning on Embodiment are being rushed to a finale that was meant to come in another arc’s time. And the way that Illyana defeats Embodiment kind of depends on inventing some previously undeclared rules about the villain’s precognitive powers right before they’re conveniently needed, when this book is usually better than that at laying its groundwork. But it’s still good enough, and delivers as a resolution to that last ten issues. Magik has been better, but this is perfectly fine.
DEADPOOL/WOLVERINE #9. By Benjamin Percy, Robert Gill & Guru-eFX. I ran out of things to say about this comic months ago. If you were into Benjamin Percy and Robert Gill’s X-Force issues then, well, tonally, this is very much like that. But the decision to drag out this one storyline for 10 issues, when it feels like even five would have been pushing it, is baffling to me.
It shows how badly this X-line has been managed. In order to maintain interest for books that are coming back after a three-month hiatus (which, to be fair, isn’t going to be many), there were some strong cliffhangers waiting for the final issue reveal before AoR started. We’ve had hints dangled at times over the past year, then forgotten, for Uncanny and X-Men. It would have been an easy matter to reveal the identity of the “Endling” at the end of this issue of Uncanny, and then finally reveal the identity of “the Chairman” at the end of the X-Men issue.
It would be harder to do with Wolverine, as Ahmed is probably being replaced by a new writer. Extraordinary needed something, as it seems Brevoort is hoping the next relaunch helps keep the book alive as its sales have put it in cancellation territory, although it’d be harder to come up with a hook to make readers want to return in that book. Uncanny and X-Men are the two titles which need the cliffhanger ending least. Still, ending Uncanny X-Men before AoR with a story that makes readers respond, “I could use a three month break from this.” doesn’t seem like a sound idea.
Does anyone really feel like this line has been well-managed over the past year?
Exhibit A is the endings of books like X-Force and X-Factor (plus whatever the hell happened with Weapon X-Men). Books get cancelled, no line has a 100% hit rate, the problem here is that the writers were apparently entirely unaware that they were only guaranteed 10 issues – a good editor would not only make that clear up front, but also counsel them when sales are looking dodgy as they approach the (non-)renewal point, that they best make sure they can wrap this up in the next three-four issues. So you get ridiculously rushed final issues, of which X-Force is an ur-example of all time – having books which were all-but-cancelled having to devote an issue to a relatively incoherent crossover (is Xavier hallucinating, or is he just a jerk?) rather than wrap up their own plots doesn’t help anything.
Even some of the relative successes, like Magik, come with caveats – if you want a load of solo books, do you really want to take them from the cast of your newly-launched team books, so they run into the JLA problem where the writers have to tiptoe around each other, rather than have proper control? This clearly isn’t changing – Cyclops is one of Mackay’s central characters, but he’s the only non-continuing or direct-relaunch series currently known for the post-
Album-Orientated RockAge of Revelation period.More than AOR annotations, I would honestly love to see Paul do a “From the Ashes” retrospective in the vein of his old Year In Reviews during the interregnum.
(And no, the snarky strikethrough wasn’t meant to continue past “Rock”. Typo. Last line says “More than AOR annotations, I would honestly love to see Paul do a “From the Ashes” retrospective in the vein of his old Year In Reviews during the interregnum.”)
I like how you decided to cross out that last paragraph. “No. Nevermind. On second thought, it’s not interesting enough to want to see.”
As far as Cyclops-That’s what happens when you run through every viable solo mutant character within the first year. If you’re going to solve out sixteen comics within a four month period for a franchise known for teams rather than engaging solo personalities, the well is going to start running dry. Their choice is throwing out a Cyclops comic, or relying on a Maggott series or Dr. Cecilia Reyes: Mutant MD at this point.
Okay, so the new X-Men era will be called “Shadows of Tomorrow”.There are teasers for Uncanny X-Men 22, Wolverine 14 and X-Men 23. There will also be a new Cyclops series and a new Wad Wilson: Deadpool series but it’s not clear when- the solicits say January but the promos say February.There will also be a Psylocke: Ninja series in January. The Cyclops series will apparently be a miniseries based on previous comments from Breevoort. It’s not clear whether the Wade Wilson: Deadpool and Psylocke: Ninja series will be limited series or ongoings.
I wonder what it means that there’s no Laura Kinney: Wolverine 11, Exceptional X-Men 14 or Storm 13 listed. Have those series been cancelled? Are they being rebooted? Or did someone just not bother to include them?
I also wonder if Psylocke: Ninja will feature Wong as a writer.
And what sort of a title is Psylocke: Ninja? Are we also going to see Professor X: Telepath and Hellion: Telekinetic series? (Maybe it’s a continuity implant set in her Hand days? Or maybe she’s back in the bathing suit?)
In other news, the Sorcerer Supreme series will be written by Steve Orlando. So apparently the Sorcerer Supreme will be the Scarlet Witch, not Illyana.
Can somebody explain to me why Breevort handled Magk’s series this way? Wanda’s series under Orlando has had very low sales. It’s had to be rebooted several times just to avoid cancellation. Meanwhile Magik’s series under Allen has been very successful.
So what’s the point of cancelling Magik’s series for the duration of the Age of Revelation, hinting that Magik was destined for something bigger, and announcing that Magik will be returning but not announcing the name of the book? Was this all just a way to trick Magik fans into buying Wanda’s book?
The whole thing is just bizarre. There was no leak from Marvel that Illyana’s series would be returning until Tuesday- many fans thought the series had been cancelled altogether. And leaving Magik’s series off the market for three months is bound to kill momentum. Is Breevort trying to sabotage Magik’s book or he is just an idiot? Did he risk hurting Magik’s sales just to prop up a failing Scarlet Witch book?
“In other news, the Sorcerer Supreme series will be written by Steve Orlando. So apparently the Sorcerer Supreme will be the Scarlet Witch, not Illyana.”
Meh. My interest regarding Wanda fluctuates between “Okay” and “that’s nice.” My opinion of Steve Orlando is “He’s a nice guy who writes decent stuff, but rarely gets too exciting.” His 2099 stuff is… competent but sometimes ridiculous and seems to miss the energy of the original line. So… I’m not too excited about Wanda Supreme, since it’ll just be a continuation of her past 5 limited runs as she gets her status quo shaken up YET AGAIN.
A lot of the current books really ended on a “okay, we’re probably cancelled, so here’s a group shot of everyone hugging/laughing/fist-bumping, roll credits” which overall gives the line the impact of a wet paper bag.
I’ve been through a LOT of X-Men line relaunches in my day and this one is definitely a really mixed bag in terms of consistency, quality, and overall memorability.
I guess we’ll see what Shadows of Tomorrow will bring.
The worst line relaunch for me is the one they did just before Krakoa – launching a new Uncanny X-Men volume just so it could set up the Age of X-Man crossover that it wasn’t taking part in, then cancelling everything to make way for Krakoa. The whole thing didn’t even last a whole year, if I recall correctly.
(I’m in the minority who liked Rosenberg’s kill-happy Uncanny run that went alongside Age of X-Man, but it doesn’t change how frustrating the whole exercise was.)
There have been worse relaunches – certainly in terms of content if not sales – but I think the real downer is that there’s no reason to think things will improve any time soon.
If Psylocke: Ninja and the Cyclops solo are any indication, Brevoort’s strategy for 2026 is the exact one that just failed him in 2025: flood the market with disposable, short-term “maxiseries” featuring characters who are already getting the spotlight in core books, and schedule at least three crossovers/events to boost sales (for as long as that trick works). He doesn’t have any other ideas.
@Michael
I’m guessing Sorceror Supreme isn’t under Brevoort’s office and has nothing to do with him if it isn’t Magik.
@Krzysiek Ceran
Pretty sure that UXM/AoXM period was straight-up stalling because Hickman wasn’t ready.
Brevoort can’t even be taken at his word. He argued that by throwing twenty random mutants comics on the market, he’d find some new characters Marvel could feature more prominently. Well, he discovered that fans liked one character: Magik. Instead of capitalizing on that momentum, he decided to try to sabotage Illyana. So, the entire “From the Ashes” period is a total abs complete failure. By sampling all those mutant titles, Brevoort “discovered” that Uncanny X-Men and X-Men are the two books that X-Men fans are interested in buying. Great job, Brevoort.
I mean, yeah, obviously we already knew it was a failure when all but four of the comics fell to cancellation levels within one year. Marvel has nothing else to rely on, as the Avengers franchise is in no condition to carry Marvel’s sales, so Brevoort has to publish sixteen X-titles at once so Marvel can keep its share of the comic book market. I wonder what Disney will do if Marvel’s share of the comic book market slips below 50% though? There will be a major deck clearing of executives, an editor-in-chief, and editorial staff.
I’m sure it wasn’t Brevoort’s decision to pick the new Sorcerer Supreme. However, if Brevoort knew another editor was not going with Illyana, ending the Magik series with confusion, and not giving Ashley Allan anything for AoR isn’t the way to treat the one unexpected success from the muddled mess of FtA.
I’m also one who liked the Rosenberg Uncanny run, especially since it was in contrast to the much less interesting Age of X-Man stuff. I felt like he did a good job of ending the “hated and feared” era, turning it up to 11 before we entered the “you have new gods now” paradigm.
If I were in charge of the X-books, half of the line would be comfort food comics and half of the line would be swings at something different. But I’d make the tentpoles (i.e. Uncanny and adjectiveless) the comfort food ones written by newer writers; those books should sell no matter what and newer writers should take editorial dictates, I mean, advice, better than established writers.
On the swing side, I don’t know whether we’re too far away from Krakoa to have books based off of it, but a book about characters who were dead for a long time, but are alive and uncertain about the world would be good (I’d use the Hellions, but there are other mutants out there too). For another swing, I’d go with former villains who really liked not having to go rob banks or do crime during Krakoa, so they’re trying not to backslide. When I mentioned this to a friend, he called it Mutant Thunderbolts, and that’s probably as good for getting the concept across as any thing (but that would be a terrible name). With both of them, long dead and former villains probably have little characterization, so they’re practically new characters from a writing perspective, so you could do whatever you want with them.
I love a “burn it down” type story, so count me as another fan of the short Rosenberg run. It wasn’t exactly sustainable, but fun while it lasted.
The way I see it, this era is essentially dealing with both the stuff that was thrown under the rug during most of the Krakoa Era (mostly the later half, but not exclusively) as well as the hypothetical pressure from above to avoid making the franchise “look weak” when contrasted with the rest of Marvel’s and DC’s output.
That it found the space on the side to actually nurture viable and interesting Psylocke and Magick (and X-Force too, if I am being sicere) books is a nice and perhaps discouraged bonus.
I also think that it was a mistake to create an entire month event around Xavier’s escape from Graymalkin, and that it is a worse one to weakly emulate “Age of Apocalypse” this soon after the pieces began to find a reasonably viable configuration.
I do not know that Brevoort was given any choice on those matters, though. I do not expect that any editor in Marvel has or had that much autonomy in decades.
Frankly, I am starting to suspect that Brevoort’s mission as X-Editor has always been to accept the flak from fans of Krakoa quietly and therefore put the line back into a workable shape while sparing the reputations of other staff that may have a shot at being perceived as more artsy. There was no way forward after the last year or so of Krakoa that could avoid displeasing most of the fans of that era, which ended with quite a few stinky clunkers and never satisfactorily answered several very significant questions.
So it is quite the unpalatable role, the one assigned to Brevoort. I don’t think Marvel could easily convince the likes of Axel Alonso or Jordan White to accept it, but neither can it say outright that there is a lot of unpleasant reform to be done right now.
Nor do I think that it is possible to actually win at the role at the moment. People will complain that it is more of the same, that it changed everything beyond any reasonable sense, that it is daring too much, that it is not daring nearly enough. We always do.
At this point we have a small dedicated readership of actual comics fans that will simply not be given the chance to overrule directives coming from the movie studios decision-makers and is very fragmented to boot. Pretty much any direction followed will cause some disappointment. We just forgot about that for much of the Krakoa era.
Axel Alonso was fired from Marvel years ago and started his own publishing company (AWA).
Jordan White was intending to stay on the X-Men after Krakoa, and Marvel removed him for the low sales (ahem) at the end of “Fall of X”. He was the one who initially planned the “Heir of Apocalypse” nonsense, which Brevoort decided to take over. That’s most likely why the X-books seemed to be in a mess at the end of “Rise and Fall” and beginning of FtA due to the sudden editorship changing between White and Brevoort.
Having said that, I doubt that White could have done better coming off Krakoa. Considering Heir started off as his idea, I don’t have much faith.
@John, @Thom
Rosenberg went too far though – he had a mutant vaccine which apparently worked and was (forcibly) mass-administred, which never came up again, even with Orchis in Fall of X
@Luis
Further to what Chris V said, Brevoort is the second-most senior guy in editorial after the EiC, while JDW was effectively demoted, going from group editor of the X-titles to a subordinate role in the Spider-office.
I think the sentiment that Breevort in in an uncomfortable (maybe impossible) position, after the end of Krakoa (both in its tremendous success and in its fumbled latter phases). But I don’t agree that it would be structurally impossible to find a solution that taps into the fallout of the Krakoan era, while pressing the soft reboot button.
To be fair, maybe that was precisely NYX’s role within the line, and the unsustainability of the title pretty much closed off that possibility. But I think it would be a mistake to read that book’s primary failings as being its theme.
We three concurrent main titles (not really) which are separated only by their locations, and not yet (if ever) fully justified in that separation.
We could just as easily have a mini about Arakko, about mutants that never aligned with Krakoa, about splinters of familiar characters following different paths in response to the Fall, anything really.
Instead everything is made to disappear (Arakko, the Morlocks, the physical spaces, the political consequences of Krakoa economy completely collapsing, the beginnings of mutant mysticism, the collectively raised children, the House of Summers – *everything*), for the sake of a set-up that isn’t even clear on why its team rosters can’t simply be brought closer together.
Sorry, maybe this is a bit rambling and pointless. But the idea that it would have been untenable to actually build From the Ashes as a meaningful response to what preceded it really makes no sense to me whatsoever.
And every single bit of “news” from rhe Breevorr office just feels hopelessly tired.
*I think the sentiment … is understandable.
The bones of a decent back-to-basics relaunch are there. Rogue and Cyclops find different ways of handling the mutant diaspora and the emergence of new mutants. Forge follows his own path, and the government tries to weaponize mutants. Young mutants try to find their own way. Kitty and Emma become mentors to a new group of mutants despite trying to avoid getting caught up in mutant problems. Phoenix evolves beyond humanity and tries to fix problems on a galactic scale. Storm strikes out on her own to help mutants on Earth.
The problem has been the execution. Muddled plotting, pointless mysteries, incoherent writing, rushed conclusions, dumb crossovers, undercooked villains, etc. So much of the issues could have been solved in the planning stage. I hope AoR allows Brevoort and the creators to have enough time to hash out their plans for the next phase.
I agree. The bones for a post-Krakoa setup were there. With their nation-state no longer viable, mutants are scattered and vulnerable, and numerous leaders arise to try and approach things in different ways. Even books like X-Force and X-Factor had appeal in their concepts.
It’s just… *handwave* everything else. And this is where the editorial failure is so painfully obvious. Krakoa had its share of duds, to be sure, but Breevort’s management has been an epic clusterfruck.
Agree to disagree, I think. Not that the problems you mention aren’t crucial. But I just don’t see it. Emma Frost putting herself in that context/setting indefinitely makes no sense to, nor does Ororo’s suddenly private fortune of resources and invisible connections. And I genuinely struggle to understand and why any of the problems appearing in Adjectiveless wouldn’t/couldn’t spill over into Uncanny. Nor for that matter how everyone is seemingly suddenly completely disinvested from the immense amount of mutants who lived in Krakoa, or the massive amount of Genoshans resurrected.
In the weird IvX era, I could at least make sense of some of the weirder decisions in Uncanny X-Men. Here, I can’t find a single book with that distinctive a take, with the possibility of Uncanny (current), which kind of operates successfully in its own bubble.
For me the worldbuilding just feels very… dead.
I may be totally wrong and maybe there are other reasons for this (such as the chaos due to the change between editors and Brevoort not knowing where exactly “Fall of X” was going), or maybe it was Brevoort, but I have a conviction that Marvel made an executive decision that “Krakoa became a failure, Krakoa is too divisive, the X-Men are popular again, we need to move away from all that and get back to basics, the fans will flock back.” Hence, they got rid of White putting trust in Brevoort to be the one to make everyone forget about Krakoa and move on with a soft reboot. Which, as is being pointed out, creates a lot of problems to get from there to here without hitting a big reset button.
Which, I’m not trying to make excuses for all the other problems that plagued “From the Ashes” (as delineated by Mike Loughlin), such as stretching out reveals (or obvious pacing issues) like the “Endling” and “Graymalkin” or “3K” for the equivalence of two years worth of comics and doing it in such a haphazard manner.
I agree with much of what everyone has said. However, I always thought FtA was such a mess because Marvel wants both a back to basics approach but also an approach that keeps the X-Men running in place so they dont have to reset again before the new movies. For me though, that’s exactly what i would’ve done, end the Krakoa era, and let another writer go nuts for 3-4 years (until they know about the films and have a script etc.) Build a baked in ending from the start. Then the you can drag it out or shorten the era based release dates by throwing in or removing a crossover and end with a big reset.
Either way, FtA has been the worst thing stories can be…boring and slow. It feels like there are few stakes and the x-men are twiddling their thumbs. The solo books are the only ones that feel like they have forward movement and like they’re doing things (for good or ill) with the characters. Adjectiveless has some momentum as the flagship but it still feels slow. An issue of Cyke in jail arguing with a character we’ve met twice who somehow feels betrayed? Wtf?IMO, being boring and slow is what caused the failure of many of the new titles like NYX and X-Force (despite all the interesting ideas). The best writing in X-Factor were the serious moments with Havok, not the cloying cringy attempts at ironic humor.
Uncanny’s weird focus on the kids and the team just hanging out at a farm where nothing happens is also not working for me (though I do like the art and character moments). The line/books/characters outside the solo titles lack world-building, momentum, and urgency at the moment.
@Salomé H: MacKay and Simone *have* been pretty clear on why the books are different, though – Scott’s running a strike force that goes out and fights Upstarts, 3K, aliens, whatever; Rogue and Gambit are trying to *avoid* conflict (it finds them anyway, but that just goes with the territory). It’s the same difference in offensive/defensive stances that characterized the post-Utopia era, so I don’t really see any dissonance on that front.
As for the rest… I know there’s a lot of love for the solos, but I’ll be damned if I can understand why: they all had the exact same promise, they were all double-dipping (granted, LK:W outlived NYX, but it’s not like Schultz was all that concerned with incorporating any of K&L’s Laura-related bits into her run), none of them were particularly inventive or brought anything new to their respective characters.
…”premise” is a word, autocorrect
Given the rumored amount of difficulty Brevoort had with identifying talent for books, one could understand the inconsistency initially. However, IMO the communication/coordination should have been better by the time folks started discussing X-Manhunt. At that point, the X-books got demoted from purchasing off the rack to reading on Marvel Unlimited.
I agree, there have been other periods of time post-big eras in which the X-books struggled. This time it feels different, IMO. I am not sure if it is me getting older and (somewhat *chuckle*) wiser with my spending habits. Or Marvel’s budgets getting lower while sales expectations remain high. Or perhaps, it is a combination of the two.
I also wonder about the degree of difficulty that Marvel (and DC) may have in finding and keeping talent these days. The days when they were the only real choices in the town are long gone.
They may have the largest numbers, but that comes with a lot of creative restrictions, coming from the suits as well as from fan expectations. They probably pay better, but not anywhere near Hollywood star levels – and probably not all that much above what Image or some of the alternatives might, not as a general rule at least.
On top of all that, we no longer live under the expectation that monetary income will or should always be the decisive factor for a job decision. Even if we did, it seems that many a creator ended up making a name in Marvel and/or DC and eventually moved to freer pastures.
Not sure that there is actual problem somewhere in there. There is now a multitude of characters and teams with a correspondingly wide variety of paths. Marvel and DC’s tend to be kept commercially viable because that is required by the suits who want to mine them for other media products. That results in cycles of change and partial restoration that are not always the most fulfilling or rewarding.
Even the sheer size of the catalogs are something of a double-edged sword. Each new mutant ongoing now has to face competition for readers’ dollars from the other ongoings, from the many limited series, from other Marvel titles, from DC books, from widely available Manga, from other independents… and to deal with the often difficult choices and consequences coming from the now predictable “events”.
Maybe there is a clear best way forward for the X-Books in there. I sure don’t know what that would be, although I sometimes feel like I might.
If we’re trying to pinpoint the moment when the X-books went off the rails, I vote for Hickman’s departure and the Krakoa era’s subsequent extension.
Things started getting messy around then with the hasty wrap-up to Moira’s storyline, the incomplete thematic about-face (“Krakoa might have seemed creepy at first, but it’s actually great!”), and eventually the deus ex machina ending with Phoenix.
Then the abrupt editorial change, then the limp world-building. It’s one executively mandated decision after another starting with the extension of Krakoa. If anyone actually cared about leading with good stories, then we might have gotten more than a handful of good stories peeking through From the Ashes. But it’s been about sales first and foremost for years now.
Bleeding Cool’s Weekly Bestseller List is out. Uncanny X-Men 21 came in 8th. Magik 10 didn’t make the list at all- not a good sign.
> Magik 10 didn’t make the list at all- not a good sign.
Given that Uncanny barely made the list, probably not.
Was a pretty loaded week.
@Thom H.: To paraphrase Giancarlo Esposito, when in Big Two history has it ever been about anything *but* sales? Sales is why Hickman was given X-Men in the first place.
That aside, there were still great Krakoa stories being told after Hickman left. They may not have been *his* stories, but hey, he chose to leave, it’s rather unfair to blame his successors for not knowing or understanding where he was trying to go.
Hickman left because it wasn’t his vision anymore. It had strayed too far from his own vision for him to know if he could get to his end point. He did leave plot details for where he was going with Jordan White, which other creators adapted in the way they wanted (or were told).
Hickman did the right thing. He understood this was a corporate property he was being allowed to play with, not a creator owned series. So, he just quit. I don’t blame Hickman.
I’d also argue that the X-Men franchise went wrong long before Hickman left the title. Hickman’s Krakoa era was the X-Men being set right again for the first time in a very long time, and I did not foresee anything except something like “From the Ashes” following, as it’s the nature of corporate superhero serial publication. If this was something other than comic books, the ones guiding the ship would say, “The franchise is in the doldrums. Best to put it away for five years, find someone else with a vision for the franchise, and bring it back fresh.” That’s not how comic books publishing conglomerates work though. It’s not just the mutant titles.
If I had to pinpoint a moment where things went wrong, it would be Marvel deciding that Bendis’ “No More Mutants” was the direction for the future of the franchise over following Morrison. While there have been good X-Men stories since that point (Mike Carey), it eventually led to “The company wants the Inhumans to replace mutants”.
“If I had to pinpoint a moment where things went wrong, it would be Marvel deciding that Bendis’ “No More Mutants” was the direction for the future of the franchise over following Morrison.”
I agree. That’s precisely the point where I dropped the X-Men for good after having been a (mostly) regular reader since 1980.
“Hickman did the right thing. He understood this was a corporate property he was being allowed to play with, not a creator owned series. So, he just quit. I don’t blame
Hickman.”
Okay, but he would have already understood that when he took the job though, right? Unless he belatedly realized that Marvel wasn’t actually gifting him the X-Men franchise when they hired him.
Right…with a truckload of money asking him to make the X-Men Marvel’s top-seller again. Marvel did give Hickman a lot of power with the assignment. Then, Marvel saw the sales for House/Powers/Dawn and wanted to extend the Krakoa era. At which point Hickman saw the writing on the wall and realized that Marvel was pulling away more of his power, at which point he decided it wasn’t what he signed on for anymore.
@Chris V – Okay, then that’s on Hickman, as far as I’m concerned. He’s hired to bring up sales on X-Men, he sets up a new direction for the books, and he doesn’t anticipate that, if successful, Marvel might not be keen on the idea of him bringing it to an end?
How did Hickman not plan for that? The guy’s obsessed with charts and graphs. He seems very strategic and well-organized. I imagine the contents of his kitchen pantry are organized in alphabetical order.
@Diana: Absolutely, it’s all about sales. The distinction I’m trying to make is “sales with story” v. “just sales.”
Some sales/marketing decisions are made with compelling storytelling as a main concern. Other decisions are made with strong storytelling somewhat lower on the list than milking the franchise while it’s popular. Same goal, different tactics.
@Chris V: It’s possible to go back even further than that, but I agree that things were broken before Hickman came along. I was confining myself to the recent past and the current X-book malaise.
@Chris V, Moo- Why is Bendis being blamed for the “No More Mutants” mess?. He wrote the story, yes, but it was Quesada’s idea. Bendis wouldn’t right the X-Men for another decade- he wouldn’t have the power to override the wishes of the writers and editors that were actually working on the X-titles. No More Mutants was Quesada’s idea- he felt there were too many mutants in the Marvel Universe:
https://icv2.com/articles/comics/view/7670/no-more-mutants
And yes, I agree that it was a dumb move that nearly destroyed the franchise.
I get a bit fuzzy and warm inside whenever Mike Carey is mentioned. I think his work always showed a lot of genuine affection for the characters, and a lot of verh intentional details in how they relate to one another.
@Moo: Grant Morrisson came in, rejuvenated the lign (even if indirectly, with a number of questions his own XM run opened up), and completed a set of stories with a relative degree of internal consistency.
I don’t think it’s impossible for that to happen with Hickman, or anyone for that matter, especially if they are propped as the main architects of a certain stage in the comics.
I also get a bit tired of the “but sales” argument. Not that anyone is wrong on that point, nor am I criticizing folks for raising that point.
More so, if it *is* for the sales, how idiotic of a businessperson do you need to be to think this stagnant, circular mess is the best or only option available?
Maybe the answer lies in this sort of quantitative, competitive edge over DC, which I can’t say I understand very well.
But if you know the property is fundamentally unchangeable, that you can reset any exercise in worldbuilding, that you can retcon everything out of existance, and that not even 3 or 4 years of storytelling will fundamentally impact your IP – especially with the caveat of multiverse amd multimedia variations alike -, why not reverse the logic?
Why not follow the indie market, let folks do what they can with the concept, and actually keep it continuously gaining forward momentum (despite the obvious failures and backandforths that involves)?
Why not just *go for it*, precisely because you know there are large readerships out there that aren’t reading these comics, and the completionists are too fiercely loyal to ever give up completely?
Let Hickman do his thing. Task Gillen with the follow-through. Hire an editor with writing experience, or couple editors and writers more explicitly.
I don’t know, just… Please. What’s back to basics when the basics last so long you can’t point to anything like a contemporary classic at all?
@Michael- I wasn’t agreeing with Chris that Decimation was Bendis’s idea. I was merely agreeing that it was a very, very, bad idea.
I’m well aware that it was Quesada’a idea. In fact (and I know this is going to sound ridiculous) but I’ve long suspected that I might’ve inadvertently given Quesada the idea (long story involving a post that I made, that I know he read, and that he completely misunderstood if in fact it did give him the idea for Decimation).
I can see why the line dropped the vaccine plot after the pandemic. I would speculate that the mutant medicines would have played a more prominent role in Hickman’s plans had real world pandemia not occurred.
As for Dr. Cecilia Reyes: Mutant MD, I’d read that. Piggy back off the Pitt but make it mutant. And let’s finally elan into Dominican NYC. It practically writes itself.
In news other than past glories and the evils of capitalism poisoning the arts, X-Men Unlimited tied up the Changeling/Morph story today. If the plot were watered down any more it would count as homoeopathy I’m afraid, but there is an interesting point of view on mutants expressed by a nameless general (of all people) that almost makes it all worthwhile. Echoes of Magneto’s boasts from the other side, as it were.
@Chris V: You’re reciting debunked conspiracy theories – Hickman has already explained why he left, in great detail, and “his vision” had very little to do with it.
@Diana: If you’re referring to Hickman’s interview in episode 498 of the Off-Panel comics podcast, I listened to that interview and my recollection is that while Hickman expressed deep dissatisfaction with his inability to conclude the story, he didn’t offer any details of what happened, just vague assurance that it wasn’t possible to finish his arc for reasons that were out of any particular individual’s control. If you’re referring to something else, please let us know; I’m interested.
Before that interview, I recall that Hickman linked the extension of the first act of his Krakoan story to his decision to leave, but in a very positive, PR-friendly way. “Everyone wants to keep working within this new status quo and that’s not really what Marvel pays me to do, so I’m moving onto another project. Best wishes.”
@Sam– I like that idea. It could have been a very straight putt for either the X-Factor (instead of just mutants working for govt. an outright Mutant Suicide Squad) or X-Force series (More extreme, but still trying to stay from the edge), instead of the more convoluted pitches we got.
I would love to read/hear the truth behind that PR line from someone who was there at the time. It read so hollow to me because a) I didn’t believe that Hickman would happily just walk away from his own story halfway through and b) since when do writers make those kinds of decisions? So weird.
The next big project Hickman did for Marvel after Krakoa was reboot the Ultimate line, which seems to have been a very big success, so moving on from X-Men was probably the right decision for him and for Marvel, at least in terms of month-to-month sales.
I think we’re all curious what his original plan was and how it was changed, but I expect it was probably a confluence of many things – the pandemic most of all, but also not being able to use characters like Franklin and Black Panther in ways that he had planned. Also, the fan response to Krakoa was weird and quite possibly not what Hickman and Marvel expected. I seem to recall people getting tattoos in Krakoan before HOX/POX had even wrapped up. There were debates, but I think the overall understanding was that fans loved Kraoka and even identified with it, kind of like those fans of Avatar who reportedly wanted to live in Pandora.
Hickman’s stories are usually about irrational hope in the face of escalating existential dread. The ambient creepiness of the island and ambiguity about everyone’s motives is a big part of the narrative tension in the early Krakoa stories, but I think the gorgeous artwork and X-Men fans being desperate for the line being given a spotlight meant that this nuance was broadly missed, and fans missed this subtext and saw Krakoa as a paradise.
Then the pandemic hits, the comic book market nearly collapses, fan discourses become super-heated thanks to everyone being on Twitter … and I don’t think there was any appetite at that point to continue with the story that would have (almost inevitably) been about a parasitic island paradise corrupting everyone, leaving only a handful of heroes to fight back against a fallen dream.
I don’t think even Hickman probably wanted to fight for that story at that point, or he would have made a bigger fuss and left Marvel for greener pastures (I mean he did start a Substack thing, I guess).
But I would expect that Marvel, like many fans, did not remain happy with the state of the X-Men line after Hickman left, even though it was one of Marvel’s biggest hits of that era. Jordan White being effectively demoted suggests that management felt it could have been handled much better, and I would guess that internally he may have taken a lot of the flak for how the line ended up.
The other clue is that Brevoort wrote about not particularly wanting the X-Men gig and being offered the role without much time to plan. Those aren’t ideal conditions, and are a pretty big contrast to how Krakoa was launched with a lot of forward-planning and a huge marketing & PR push. As the FTA era wraps up, I think it’s pretty clear that keeping the books afloat was the mandate, and ‘mixed at best’ was probably the highest benchmark they could realistically hope for.
I think X-Men books are most interesting to me when there’s an overall vision and direction for the line. The huge roster of X-Men characters and their interconnected histories open up storytelling possibilities that other media properties don’t really have. However, the realities of monthly superhero comics publishing means these possibilities are usually more hinted at than they are really utilised.
“… also not being able to use characters like Franklin and Black Panther in ways that he had planned.”
Well, that’s his own fault. Those aren’t X-Men characters. I wouldn’t make Nightcrawler plans if I were hired to write Spider-Man.
@Adam: Hickman’s own words from an EW interview right after he left:
“Marvel doesn’t really pay me to just write ongoing monthly books, there’s an expectation for me to write bigger books that have a wider reach than that. In an effort to facilitate both things, we’ve all spent the last six months or so reorienting the line, me creating Inferno to assist with that, and then bringing in some new writers to add to the existing team, and then plan for the next several years of X-books. So after Inferno, I’ll be leaving to go work on my ‘Next Big Marvel Thing’.”
The fact that he went on to do GODS and relaunch the Ultimate line prove as much: Hickman didn’t leave because his precious “vision” was being interfered with, he left because his paycheck was too big for the gig.