This is the cover to the upcoming cover to X-Men Legacy #225, and it makes me sad. Not because the book is eh and rewrites x-history every month. But because the cover depicts the X-Men during the classic Claremont/Cockrum days - the All-New, All-Different X-Men - which reminds me of how good the X-Men USED to be, versus how abysmal they currently are... and have been for the past 15+ years.... ok, "abysmal" might have been too harsh. Yes, I think its time for this old fanboy to finally throw in the X-Towel. Do I have the strength?.................
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
X-MEN LEGACY #225 MAKES ME SAD
This is the cover to the upcoming cover to X-Men Legacy #225, and it makes me sad. Not because the book is eh and rewrites x-history every month. But because the cover depicts the X-Men during the classic Claremont/Cockrum days - the All-New, All-Different X-Men - which reminds me of how good the X-Men USED to be, versus how abysmal they currently are... and have been for the past 15+ years.... ok, "abysmal" might have been too harsh. Yes, I think its time for this old fanboy to finally throw in the X-Towel. Do I have the strength?.................
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17 comments:
Do you really think the book was that great way back then? I've tried to re-read the stuff from that era and it's a completely different kind of story-telling. So is your beef with the actual stories or the way they are told?
More so the actual stories themselves.
And I still like that era of storytelling.
A nice blend of the imagination of Then, with the "smoother" storytelling (writing/dialogue) of Now would be nice.
Instead we get Gilmore Girls writing mixed with unoriginal rehash after rehash topped with retconning the past.
I would like Marvel to hire some writers that can bring something new, different and imaginitive to the table.
Also, back then Claremont was pretty much the sole driving force of x-books. So everythign flowed in the same direction. Now you have everyone touching various books, all trying to make their mark by doing something "drastic" before they leave in 6months.
Bah!!!
:)
oh, and yes I do think the book was that great back then. Are you kidding me?! Dude....
I can't say if the books are abyssmal today. I didn't pick up the X-Books when I started collecting again. The last ones I remember liking (which I am rereading in Essential b&w form) are up to about Romita Jr. coming on board. I kept buying them up through Gambit and the Goblin Queen and Mr. Sinister mess out of habit.
I think I liked the whole "every issue is somebody's first" mentality that drove the writing and storytelling. Nowadays, it seems if you want to jump on to a title, you do need to buy four or five years worth of back issues to get into things.
That's just my opinion. But reading the "good old days" issues right now, I think, yeah...they were that good. Paul Smith rocked.
Argh! I was typing while you were posting...but you encapsulate everything I wanted to say, much more elegantly than I did.
And I was wrong, I did pick up Morrison's X run, which started out good and then got confusing. I also tried Whedon's Astonishing which had its moments but never recaptured what I remember liking about Uncanny.
ok, "abysmal" was too harsh. I wokeup on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Post updated with the "too harsh" bit.
I haven't enjoyed the X-Men as much since Claremont left. Hmm, he did give us 'Inferno' near the end of his run. ;)
Post-Claremont...
Age of Apocalypse was fun.
But after AoA, the X-Men drifted into stagnation and crap, IMO.
I didn't like Morrisson's run, although I did appreciate the effort.
Post-Morrisson, the X-Men have been better than those days just before... but still nothing near the "glory days" of the Claremont/Cockrum/Byrne/Smith/JRJR/Silvestri/JimLee days.
Messiah Complex was alot of fun.
And Whedon's Astonishing was great despite the lame Danger character. But boy, did he write some kickass moments!
Kyle/Post's New X-Men and current X-Force was/is great! I wish they were on Uncanny.
But overall, the past 15+ years have felt like the ship was off course and the crew inflicted with Cabin Fever.
Speaking of Uncanny.... I didn't like Brubaker's run... and Fraction's is just the same. Greg Land's art is the worse.
Right now, Uncanny is too painful to read.
X-Legacy is Carey retconning and connecting everything. It's like having George Lucas writing the book.
Warren Ellis' Astonishing IS abysmal. I normally love Ellis, too. But fuck.... abysmal.
X-RANT!!!!
Oh, and my writing on JimSmash is anything but 'elegant', Mock! hahaha
I've been called alot of things before, but never that. heh
:)
For my birthday, I received the X-Men Omnibus that has those first Claremont stories. I'm almost finished reading and agree it kickass. Sure the writing style is different from todays books. But that's because its not written by WB writers. It is still great!
Ok,..( deep breath)
I have to agree with ole JIM here. granted there is something to be said about " what you pick up for the first time is how you like it" theory. My analogy is the Mc Danolds Approach. take some one who has never eaten a cheeseburger in their life, and you hand them a Mc D's double cheese. Well that person is probably going to freak out on " just how good it tastes. why this thing is AWESOME." and so they, from that point think a Mc Donalds Cheeseburger is the end all be all, and that's the way cheeseburgers are supposed to be. While on the contrary, it's just a cheep easily manufactured corporate product focused on the bottom line, and probably one of the worst you could eat. And that is what Marvel is like now. A lot of older writers had degrees and backgrounds in something other than writing. What they lacked in form and structure, they more than made up for in imagination, creativity, and original thinking due to their former jobs, education, ect.....Today's writers are great at "structuring" stories, but the content is nothing less than mindless page filling dribble, peppered with plot points. Everything follows a "hollywood" structure. Big Strong Guy??? well he has to be an idiot, and we have to give him a smart alleck side kick bc that's just how that works. Out of Ideas??, well bring in a sibling, or a child, or alter gender, you've never heard of. Need an Alien or alien tech?? well pull up the latest sci fi you've seen and copy that. " hey look another giant robot that looks like a Mech Warrior",..Seriously how many times am I going to have to see a re-hash of something I've seen for the past 15 years??? there is no originality. If Galactus, or The negative Zone where to be conceptulized today, What do you think it would look like? something original?? or just a re-hashed image from (or even photoshoped image) something you've seen on screen or on print? Characters like Wolverine and the Hulk now have multiple variations of themselves in one form or another, taking away from the uniqueness they used to posses. You have writers who have never even read the subject material they are writing about, so then you get HUGE inconsistencies, bad stories, and complete restructuring of characters. They are more worried about the form and structure, than they are about the knowing the ACTUAL character, telling a story, or creating something new. Simply put, they're just not as smart, or creative. go look up WOLVERINE in the 80's Official HandBook , and then look him up in today's handbook. Which is more creative and imaginative? Which one is better thought out in outlining the character? Which one was more intelligently written? MU (abrveated): " Captain America represented the pinnacle of human physical perfection...... Captain America has the agility, strength, speed, endurance, and reaction time superior to any Olympic athlete who ever competed. .......The Super-Soldier formula enhanced all of his bodily functions to the peak of human efficiency. Most notably, his body eliminates the excessive build-up of fatigue-producing poisons in his muscles, enabling him to perform physical tasks without tiring..."
OR todays standard: strength 6
durability 6
fighting skill 7
-that in a nutshell is how uncreative, unimaginative it is now. everything is dumbed down, and streamlined into a marketable package. I've recently gone back and read/collected abunch of the silver and bronze age stuff, and while most of the art is sub -par, and the writing is a little busy, the ideas, imaginative aspects are INCREDIBLE, especially for being written 30-40 years ago. Also stories took as long as they needed to take. it wasn't "DARK PHEONIX SAGA, Prt 1 of 6" . It wasn't even given the name until afterwards. Unlike today, where all comics are catered to mimic television season.
I'll shut up now, bc i could write a friggin paper on this....
-(breath out)
Don't you dare bring "Gilmore Girls" into an argument as a negative unless you are fully prepared to rumble.
In terms of "greatness" I'm too young & started reading comics too late to have a real appreciation of the Claremont era. I did read Uncanny 100-132 in comparison to the onslaught and 90's which I couldn't even force myself to read. So weird how much storytelling in comics has changed.
In terms of the recent stuff I LOVED Yost and Kyle's New X-men. I enjoyed Whedon's run. And Carey confuses me. I flip a page and then scratch my head not sure of what's going on.
Then reading anything recent of Claremont's I find painful. It feels dated and stagnant. I have no idea how he still gets the sales numbers he gets.
Haha, ok for sake of argument replace "Gilmore Girls" with "Charmed", "Dawson's Creek" or "WB Teen Show". :)
I don't think you being "too young" is relevant. I came into the X-Men with Uncanny #228. By then, the Uncanny X-men had been around for over a decade. But I quickly went back and absorbed the previous issues.... and quickly discovered that I had arrived to the party late. That's the beauty of it, though - its never truly too late because you can read them anytime.
Its like when I hear "kids" say they're too young to like the Beatles, Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath. WHAT? Just because something was released before one's time does not mean one cannot enjoy and appreciate it.
"New" and "Current" does not mean "Better".
Sorry, slight tangent there. But you get my gist.
oh, and I agree that recent Claremont stuff is really hard to read. :)
A decade is a lot closer than two and a half decades. By the time I read the Claremont stuff I had already seen it adapted in places like the X-men cartoon, in Exiles, and a billion other places.
So when I read the source material for the first time there weren't any twists, surprises, or cool character stuff. I knew everything that was going to happen.
...that's what I meant by saying I'm too young to real appreciation from it.
That make sense?
Yeah, but my point still stands ;)
Led Zeppelin died/dissolved in 1980, but someone born Today can still love their music 15yrs from now.
But I get your point about the cartoon and crap oversaturating everything. I suggest a revisit sometime to read them as they are, not as what they became.
Scott, your correct Yost and Kyle's stuff is great, but that goes back to my point,..they grew up on the stuff, and KNEW the characters and history, which is why they are able to put together a great story. Whedon's run was also great. It was the first time in 15 years I've gotten that "magical" feeling when reading the X-MEN,
I always feel like comics today have lost a lot of the sparkle they used to have. Now, it all looks like screenwriters trying their hands at comics, because they can't make it in film. Or trying a shortcut TO film, instead of treating the comic art form as it's own separate medium with it's own strengths and weaknesses.
Whoa whoa whoa. I'm going to have to disagree here. I've been reading X-Men since the X-Men in Australia days, and 1) Before Marvel forced Carey on Legacy, his run was far superior to Brubaker's or new Claremont stuff. Tons of new characters,taking Rogue in a great new direction, and characterizing individual characters very well. Sure Legacy has had ups and downs and Xavier cannot really sustain a series for long, but he rehabilitated Gambit after years of overuse, dumbing down, and soap opera personality disorder. I'm really interested to see where Legacy goes once this stupid Utopia crap is over.
Also, in defense of Morrison, his run was awesome. Nothing but fresh ideas, showing the readers that we had grown up from a villain like Magneto and needed something much bigger. Plus he made Cyclops interesting, which, I'm sorry if you disagree, Claremont never did. He was ever the Boy Scout until Morrison made him into a man. As much as I hate this whole Dark Reign thing, at least Cyclops is one of the few characters at Marvel who hasn't digressed since having a major character change - he's finally leading the war.
Major rant over. I just needed to stick up for Carey since he seems to be thrown to the wayside when he is a talented storyteller. also Morrison because his X-Men made me forget the nineties onslaught (no pun intended) of crap after AoA.
I will agree though that post-Claremont, things changed for the worst in the 90s, but the storytelling in some cases has grown up for the better and I just take the little surprises of ingenuity when I can. Carey does very well when his stories move characters forward instead of linking up the past, so I'd give him a few months and see if his "new" direction is a good one. And as annoying as it is for him to rehash old stories and connect them, I do think you are mistaken in saying that he retconned continuity. He's literally changed nothing.
Sorry for exploding on you.
Thanks for posting, Ben! I actually agree with MOST of what you said while still standing by what I said, if that makes sense.
No ranting or exploding taken.
:)
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