Too many X-Books!

[Keith_Martineau]

This is an old idea. People have often bitched about there being too many X-Books.
And then they list the sheer number of them. And thats pretty much the length of their argument. And then people rebute saying that since there are so MANY X-characters, that there are enough to support more books, and that these different books all have different points and different flavors so that there is something for everyone.
And thats true.

But i've been reading some old back issues. Back from the days when it was Uncanny, New Mutants and X-Factor, and I've also been rereading Claremonts existing Uncanny run since it's coming to an end soon, and comparing what I read.

And there are just too damn many X-Books. Now I ain't really talkin about things like X-Factor of New Excalibur. I'm talkin about New X-Men, X-Men, Uncanny X-Men and Astonishing X-Men, and then mini-series like Endsong and Deadly Genesis.

And this has nothing to do with the QUALITY of the stories or the talent of the writers.

Too many writers wanting to do too many different things with too many different characters, because their average cast of 5 characters or so gets stale.

In the old days, Claremont could devote entire issues to taking a character on a tangent. Bringing Rogue back and having her encounter Magneto at the end. He could take the X-Men to the Shi'Ar empire, and then he could have another issue entirely dedicated to Magneto and Rogue in the Savage Land vs Zaladane, and then a double sized anniversary issue that deals with that, AND the X-Men in space. Meanwhile in the background he's building up to the Muir Island Saga.
And the ENTIRE reason he could pull this off is because he had ALL of the "X-Men" to himself. New Mutants was New Mutants, and X-Factor was X-Factor. Back in those days, X-Factor was not just X-Men Team 2. It was a diff playground that sometimes crossed over with X-Men. These days something like the the dualing plot that happend over X-Men 275 would have been done as one plot in one title, one plot in another title, or in a mini-series.

But today we have 3 core X-Men books, 3 teams, and then mini-series that deal with the core X-Men as well. And it's a friggin mess. I'm enjoying the titles. I really am. But it now strikes me that something like Endsong, something like Deadly Genesis, should have been told as an arc within the monthly books. How any given writer having access to more characters, or better yet, having access to more villains so that they don't step on eachothers toes (Hellfire Club)... I dunno, I'm kind of rambling.

[Neolucifer]

er no not too many . Like you said different flavors for different kind of people . You also dont have to read the books you dislike .
And i'm not at all for the whole x-verse in the hand of one people .
Its might be awesome and dandy when everyone loves what that single writer/commander is doing , like it used to be with Claremont ...but in the current context it would degust plenty readers .
Just imagine the overall division and fans , if Austen or Milligan were controlling everything .


I'll agree thought that important events like Endsong and Deadly Genesis should have been handled in the monthlies ... but i can only guess that they used the mini as a failsafe , in case everyone hated those and they had to retcon it .

[Steven F.]

There are not too many...it is a silly thing for people to say.

[atlcane]

I do not think that there are too many x-books. For the amount of characters I think it is just fine. Spider-man on the other hand has too many books. Amazing, Sensational, Marvel Knights, & Friendly Neighborhood. One Character does not need four books.

I do like the whole "M" day event. I thought that there were way too many mutants in the Marvel Universe. The fact that there are now only a couple of hundred mutants makes them that much more special and really changes the dynmics and makes the mutant population that much more special. Having super-powers is something special again, which is the way it should have always been.

If I were to get rid of some regular X-books, I would end the X-Men, and New X-men. You have to keep Uncanny, which is a classic title and Astonishing is the best X-book going right now. If I ran Marvel, I would have put JW on Uncanny. Clairmont is past his prime and I'm glad he is towards the end of his run.

I will say that I get tired of all the mini-series. EndSong, Deadly Genisis, X-Men 198. The list keeps growing and my wallet keeps getting smaller.

[Keith_Martineau]

Okay, hows about this?

There many different flavors. Something for everybody.

But there aren't enough readers for all those flavors. Not enough everybody for all that something.

Why can't one book be more than one style from time to time? How come Uncanny X-Men couldn't have focused more on Bishop being a cop in District X, instead of having a whole title devoted to it that would eventually be cancelled, as part of one of the plots going through that book? (aside from the reason that Claremont likely would not have written stuff like that if it were his choice anyway.)

[streator]

Why can't one book be more than one style from time to time? How come Uncanny X-Men couldn't have focused more on Bishop being a cop in District X, instead of having a whole title devoted to it that would eventually be cancelled, as part of one of the plots going through that book? (aside from the reason that Claremont likely would not have written stuff like that if it were his choice anyway.)
i'd argue that district x wasn't really even about bishop at all. the book was about mutant town. so, in that sense what was told in district x couldn't have really been told in uncanny x-men (at least not in the same depth) unless the x-men were living in mutant town for whatever reason.

about too many x-books: i think there are too many mini-series out right now. in terms of core x-books (i consider x-men, uncanny and astonishing to be the core books) i think the number is fine.

[Nobbel]

Most of these mini's will be finished in a couple of months now. Generation M, DG and 198 have 5/6 issues.

The End is more than a mini I think (3x6=) 18 issues can't be called mini anymore.

I liked these mini's. I do care about the real spinn-off like SOM and O*N*E*

[Neolucifer]

Okay, hows about this?

There many different flavors. Something for everybody.

But there aren't enough readers for all those flavors. Not enough everybody for all that something.


Actually things tend to prove that there are enough so far . The supposedly outdated CC is still selling NEX , and his uncanny were holding up .
Exiles didnt dropped much through the years .
I coul detail all the books sales , and find basically the same pattern , the pretty much all sell their biggest with the first issues , then it drops to the average level of their whole history , except when included in a big event .

Anyway do you really believe that cancelling Cable deadpool , new xmen and lets say New excalibur would bring more money to the core X books ???
Frankly most of the satellite books fan already buy the core x books , and if they dont , its probably because of their tastes rather than money issues ... their money wont get reported to Astonishing , Uncanny and Xmen ...

[Keith_Martineau]

Not those books, no. They're all different and do something VERY different than the main titles.

I think if anything, go back down to two Core X-Books, and no more damn mini-series. If you are going to have something like Deadly Genesis, have a guest arc if anything.

[Neolucifer]

Ok i understand more your point ... and again i agree , those supposedly important event should just happen in Core books .

Hell there isnt a valid reason DG wasnt used in Astonishing while in hiatus .

[Keith_Martineau]

Ok i understand more your point ... and again i agree , those supposedly important event should just happen in Core books .

Hell there isnt a valid reason DG wasnt used in Astonishing while in hiatus .

There is, actually. There IS something to be said for an uninterrupted 25 issue run from Whedon and Cassidy. Putting DG in the middle of that woulda broke that up.

[fishtaco]

I totally agree with KM.

[xakko]

I don't mind the number, but I also miss those wonderful stories of yore.

I think editorial should work together, keep an overarching story in mind for books that are definitively connected (say, based in the same bloody mansion) and keep other writers apprised so that if they want to include a subplot that ties in to another writer's work, that's fine.

I fear writers are an egotistical lot, and don't take such dictation gladly. So it's a pipe dream.

[Alio]

One reason their are more books.....

$$$$$$$


Yes it was great back in the day, but X-Men is the biggest franchise Marvel has. X3 is coming out, you must strike why the irons hot (and has been hot since the late 80's, and will stay hot becuase they are the X-Men!!!!!! duh)

I personally don't buy all the books, the only mini I buy is DG.

[Xany Kaos]

And the ENTIRE reason he could pull this off is because he had ALL of the "X-Men" to himself. New Mutants was New Mutants, and X-Factor was X-Factor. Back in those days, X-Factor was not just X-Men Team 2. It was a diff playground that sometimes crossed over with X-Men. These days something like the the dualing plot that happend over X-Men 275 would have been done as one plot in one title, one plot in another title, or in a mini-series.

Thank you.

Too many or not, I always feel overwhelmed when I delve into the X-universe (which I only do in spurts these days when something intresting comes up). A few years ago, when I got back into comics, I tried to get my friends into the X-men as well...no dice. If you've been following the books for years, it's probably not that big a deal, but for newbies, it's just overwhelming.

Flavours are all well and good and all, but I still think you can have seperate teams that can remain as such, and still have one that's soap-opera-ish, one that's a light-hearted comedy, one that's a sweeping epic, etc.


The presence of series that do well and fizzle out, like Distric X, remind me of something I learned about last quarter. A while back, when comic shops were a fairly new thing (what, say, 80's-ish, right?), Marvel would purposely flood the market with inferior comics (DC did too, but to a lesser extent). The reason was simple--shop owners only had so much store-space. If they had ten spaces (yes, I'm exaggerating. Or whatever the opposite of that is), and Marvel published ten new comics that month, then they got all ten of those spaces, because shop owners "knew" that Marvel would sell--it's a big name, most of its characters have some degree of fame, etc. Which, in turn, knocked the small independant publishers out of the market. The crappy flood titles didn't have to be good, they just had to stick around for a few months, because if an independant publisher can't sell his comics for that long, they're probably going to have to fold.

Granted, I don't know how applicable that is these days (probably not at all), but just seeing a gazillion X-titles, some of which fold after a year or so... it just reminds me of that, is all.

[The Sword Is Drawn]

It's a very different world, now, to how things used to be.

I agree with you about the minis. They really should have been stories in the main books, as both Deadly Gensis and Phoenix: Endsong were both, arguably a lot more significant than a number of stories in the core books in the last 12 months. Occasionally I feel that there's a story in X-Men Unlimited that belongs here too, such as the Rachel and Alex story they did a few months ago, with Rachel venting her feelings about Scott and Emma to her 'Uncle'. That definitely should have been in Uncanny.

But with recent announcements of creative team changes, it's becoming pretty clear that maybe this was not their purpose. Deadly Genesis in particular was very much a way of testing out a new writer to replace Chris Claremont. Ed Brubaker's book has proved very popular, and more importantly proved that he WAS capoable of writing the kind of standard which Uncanny X-Men needs.

I wouldn't be surprised if this didn't become a more regular practice. Effectively giving a writer a mini as a tryout for one of the core books, to find out how people react to them.

Considering how violently people have spelled out their distaste for certain X-Writers in recent times this is a good way of doing this, without signing them on a big contract, and being stuck with them when things clearly aren't working out six months later...

However, this said, I do think that once Astonishing and Joss Whedon part company I'm not sure if 3 core X-Books will be justifisiable. On paper each will have a clearly defined role.

Uncanny: Brubaker. Working slightly more on an epic, big story, model. Emphasis on adventure.

X-Men: Carey. Darker writer, with a darker team. More serious?

Astonishing: Whedon. Slightly more light-hearted, in places. Witty. Clever.

Take Whedon out of the equation and if you can't find a suitable replacement then you're going to end up with a book which may start simply reproducing something stylistically similar to the other two.

Whedon himself has suggested Warren Ellis to replace him, something I know is unlikely, but you can kind of see where he's coming from there. It has to be somebody with that kind of wit, which marks them out as different, to bring to the table.

Otherwise Astonishing will become a dead title.

[MythicBrawn]

X-Men is not the only franchise guilty of this. Some others that can be included are Spider-Man, Superman and Batman. One problem with all these books is when there is a crossover. In order to sell more books, they run the story in all the titles. If I want to understand what's going on then I have to purchase all the books. PAD mentioned that was one of the reasons why he left X-Factor all those years ago.

I can understand the idea of different stories to appeal to varying tastes. But, the books aren't independent of each other. You almost have to buy the other books to understand the story in the one book that you collect. I used to buy everything mutant. This was back when there was only Uncanny and New Mutants. I bought X-Factor, Excalibur and all the annuals and mini-series. I got disenchanted with the titles shortly after X-Men was introduced. Comic prices were going up and the industry was into gimmicks. I've since stopped buying X-books on a regular basis. I tried X-Treme and dropped it. Years later, I started Uncanny again and dropped it.

It's all about the money and neither company is going to limit a cash cow. The title that looks interesting to me now is X-Factor. I know the characters well enough and the stories look good. It also doesn't seem to be as caught up in the whole X-Men family stuff. I also have to say that Marvel is showing extreme laziness by just attaching "New" to everything. I never did like the title New Mutants either. Give these books a real name (simply Academy X instead of New X-Men) or just utilize the old one (Avengers, Excalibur).

[The Sword Is Drawn]

I try not to look at this quite so cynically. Yes, money is the major factor now, but that's just the way the industry is now. It's exceptionally unlikely that will ever change.

Within the modern comic book model I actually think that right now - or at least as they will be in the summer - the X-Books are looking a lot more creatively sound than they have for a while.

Each of the three core books will have more of an identity, the satelite titles all have s distinct purpose (that makes them different to the main 3) and the limited series do at least seem to be interesting.