Back in the day I did a chronological X-Men readathon, through packs available in the usual sites. At the time I was consuming as fast as I could to get to the important bits and pieces. Lately I've been revisiting them randomly, a New Mutants issue here, some X-Factor there, and I've come to the sad realisation that, no matter how much Claremont and others hate it, X-Men is just Cyclops/Summers-Grey and Magneto and Xavier. Any other book, any other character, the further they stray from them, isn't just apart from the main story that makes the X-Men "X-Men", but they're just trite and uninteresting placeholders having watered down and blase adventures without moving forward. The moment Cyclops leaves, UXM becomes the Storm show, where we're subjected to OCs with no staying power and issues upon issues of melodrama that goes nowhere. Here's 10 issues of Storm LARPing as Pocachontas while Discount Loki wants to fuck her. Here's issue upon issue of slice of life nothingness. Here's Maddie's big fall which is a 2-page breakdown followed by her touching glistering fingernails... Magneto as Headmaster amounts to him appearing every 5 issues in a small sequence, having a subplot about joining the Hellfire Club that amounts to nothing. The art during those precious 80s is genuinely awful. It's rectangular characters sitting in flat spaces and the most boring of locations. It's the equivalent of a CW show following the main blockbuster film series.No matter if you go to New Mutants, which introduced a cast so dreary it's no wonder none of them caught on (until the demon girl got a Goth makeover), or the Post-O5 X-Factor, all of them are just useless. Havok's X-Factor became a 3rd string X-Book fighting OCs not even their creators remember. New Mutants was always forgettable. Excalibur was fun when it was Bri'ish wacky stuff. It's all useless.People harp on the 90s but it's no wonder that's what made the X-Men a phenomenon. Cyclops/Xavier/Magneto are the X-Men, period.
>>153718104I wouldn't go that far, Apocalypse and Mystique have some weight too, but I guess at the center will always be the three you mentioned because of the work put into the backgrounds, families and influence.
What are some of the better Scott comics? I've only read the Astonishing run and whilst he's pretty good in there I kinda felt the team were all sort of shitheads to each other and he wasn't able to tard wrangle them.
>>153718104Cyclopse as the leadXavier as kindly headmasterJean Grey as boring but needed hot read head matronly peace makerIs neededMagneto litterally only works as a villain. Every single time hes in the xmen ranks its a sign its going to be shit. Every single time. And the constant dindu nuffin because holocaust thing has totally run its course and youmger readers just dont care>>153718236She has never been good reading. Not ever not once.
>>153718236I was going to get to Apocalypse, but I was running out of characters and I didn't want to break it to two parts. You're right, Apocalypse is part of the main story, and he's in that second tier after Cyclops. My point is that essentially the book with Cyclops, no matter what it's called, is always the main book. When Cyke left UXM, it became an aimless slog of soap operas. X-Factor was the main book. Apocalypse originated there. Sinister and Archangel, Maddie, all plots stemming of X-Factor. No matter how much they try to move past it, there's just no X-Men without the pillars because they are the ones that represent all the various facets of the book. The repetitiveness is the same as every other superhero book, which is the fault of the industry. But there's no X-Men without the core characters, in the same vein that there's no Batman without Bruce. Despite the sprawling cast, X-Men is just a few central important people.>>153718405I was talking about Magneto in importance to the narrative, not necessarily in regards to his alignment. >>153718314X-Men is basically the Cyclops story. You start from the beginning and then you keep going. He's one of the few characters who has evolved.
>>153719473The ones I've read he's basically just been Emma's bitch or getting shown up by the other cast.
>>153719542Maybe try and read the decades before and after?
>>153719788Which ones specifically...? I was planning to try reading the House of M next but if there's a particular run that leads into that well I'd happily take a detour
>>153718314Just read the main X-Men book (New X-Men, then Astonishing, then Uncanny) from Morrison through Bendis.It's a decade of comics and it's all the Cyclops show. Stand-Outs for me are the Whedon, Ellis, and Pak Astonishing X-Men runs, the Fraction and Gillen Uncanny X-Men runs, and this one little short story in Mike Carey's Age of X event where Cyclops is called Basilisk.
>>153719473>He's one of the few characters who has evolved.The problem is he eventually evolves into something that's just awful, as the entire franchise evolves into something awful as well. And instead of going into reverse or changing direction, Marvel just passed the point of no return and kept on going into the abyss for 25 years.And people are recommending it even here. Jesus.
>>153718104Man Scott really does have the most deluded fans.
>>153721735>Just read the main X-Men book (New X-Men, then Astonishing, then Uncanny) from Morrison through Bendis.
