Marvel Omnibus/Oversized Hardcover Discussion Part IV

[Captain Craig]

Outside of Wolverine, cause I was getting just his book, the X-Men as a whole were on my periphary. The Inferno crossover was also my single biggest exposure to them. Although I did get the initial first few issues of X-Force, can't recall if that was before or after Inferno. Point is I wasn't a solid X-reader in the 80's.
The 90's is also when I gave them my longest stretch of a chance.
I'm not an active reader now either. I did check out portions of Curse of the Mutants, vampires was too cool to not check in on it.

[anthony!]

Probably 1991-1993 I was a total addict. X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine, X-Factor, X-Force and Excalibur. Along with all random Cable, Bishop, etc. etc. miniseries.

It took the Onslaught storyline to finally put me out of my misery.

[Captain Planet]

Yep. The issues were needlessly mired in difficult-to-understand continuity, AT BEST, and inpenetrable, AT WORST. The X-Men really weren't the X-Men, by this point. There was no school, there were no students, no X-Mansion or Blackbird plane, no freaking Magneto or Professor Xavier for gosh sakes. Just a bunch of X-Women running around with Havok and Longshot and Wolverine tagging along from time to tim fighting the Reavers, or Zaladane, or Cyborgs or some other silly nonesense.

Another oddity: Magneto was allegedly in charge of the X-Men by this point, yet he's never around. Where was he this entire time?

But how good of a narrative can you have with the exact some Xavier-mentor-X-men-student-school-blackbird setup? I grew up with the X-Men in that scenario and love it but I would not want to read 50 years of the exact same dynamic. Not to mention how difficult it would be for creators to continue producing interesting characters and story if they couldn't expand beyond the infant setup of the book.

[anthony!]

But how good of a narrative can you have with the exact some Xavier-mentor-X-men-student-school-blackbird setup? I grew up with the X-Men in that scenario and love it but I would not want to read 50 years of the exact same dynamic. Not to mention how difficult it would be for creators to continue producing interesting characters and story if they couldn't expand beyond the infant setup of the book.

Which is why it's understandable that Claremont split the X-Men up. But you have to be really careful with these sorts of things— the "scenario" is really crucial to the X-Men's concept, so any deviation can't destroy what's attractive about the idea behind the X-Men.

But really, what did the X-Men in was getting too large and complex. The consequences of that isn't fully felt until the early/mid 90s. All the time travel, clones, body switching, on/off romances, deaths & resurrections just became too tiresome.

[anthony!]

It's great that the omniboo really expose the problems people have with these runs, like in X-Men. It's interesting.

[merrick97]

The adult Storm in #256 is an image of Storm in Psylocke's mind, as Psylocke is being brainwashed and forced to (in her mind) kill her old X-Men teammates. This is how her mind remembers Storm. She had no idea Storm had been turned into a 12 year-old at the time by Nanny. Storm doesn't revert to an adult until X-Tinction Agenda.

I have always felt Claremont sucked from after Mutant Massacre to when he's (thankfully) gone. Sure, there's couple issues here and there that are good, but mostly, it's the artwork that kept the run going.

Artwork being good? Silvestri had some of my least favorite artwork from ANYTHING in the 80s. I thought he was effen terrible. Horrible. I HATED the way he drew Storm.

[Mobe1969]

Yep. The issues were needlessly mired in difficult-to-understand continuity, AT BEST, and inpenetrable, AT WORST. The X-Men really weren't the X-Men, by this point. There was no school, there were no students, no X-Mansion or Blackbird plane, no freaking Magneto or Professor Xavier for gosh sakes. Just a bunch of X-Women running around with Havok and Longshot and Wolverine tagging along from time to tim fighting the Reavers, or Zaladane, or Cyborgs or some other silly nonesense.

Another oddity: Magneto was allegedly in charge of the X-Men by this point, yet he's never around. Where was he this entire time?

Playing freaking den mother to the New Mutants. Of course in the New Mutants he never seems to do anything except come out of his room from watching his daytime soaps and scold the kids, or alternatively wonder where they are when they have snuck out. They could have put Aunt May in the same roile in the comics and it would have had the same effect. Better actually as you wouldn't be wondering WTF he was doing all the time...

Whoever came up with that crap role for Magneto ought to have been drawn and quartered.


And regarding Diablo 3 and thread traffic, nah. Maybe that is why the DC omnibus thread here is so quiet. Either that or the fact DC don't release many... :)

[manymade1]

Artwork being good? Silvestri had some of my least favorite artwork from ANYTHING in the 80s. I thought he was effen terrible. Horrible. I HATED the way he drew Storm.

He definitely drew my least favorite Rachel and Colossus. TBH it seems like every artist on Claremonts run got worse after Byrne and up to Jim Lee.

[DrGregatron]

Holy Crap, Wondertwinstoys has a whole bunch of Masterworks on Bid starting at 99 cents. Let all hell break lose on getting these.

Hey, I saw those at 5 a.m. this morning and they're not 99 cents anymore, thank you very much! I was planning on bogarting that deal.

[ViewtifulJC]

Artwork being good? Silvestri had some of my least favorite artwork from ANYTHING in the 80s. I thought he was effen terrible. Horrible.

I don't think I've ever disagreed with somebody so much.

[Captain Planet]

I don't think I've ever disagreed with somebody so much.

I like his work too but I know a lot of people around these parts don't.

[DrGregatron]

Artwork being good? Silvestri had some of my least favorite artwork from ANYTHING in the 80s. I thought he was effen terrible. Horrible. I HATED the way he drew Storm.

I don't think I've ever disagreed with somebody so much.

Merrick's got a point. It killed my X-Fanaticism. But there was a lot worse art in the 80's than Silvestri. I cringe to even think about some of the artwork in New Mutants after bill sienkiewicz left.

[manymade1]

Hey, I saw those at 5 a.m. this morning and they're not 99 cents anymore, thank you very much! I was planning on bogarting that deal.

Sorry, just excited I finally have a great tpb dealer on Ebay.

[LordJulius]

I cringe to even think about some of the artwork in New Mutants after bill sienkiewicz left.

Sigh. Sienkiewicz NM. Is it too much to ask for an oversized HC version of this run? This is overdue.

[DrGregatron]

Sorry, just excited I finally have a great tpb dealer on Ebay.

It's alright. Got my New Teen Titans Omnibus v2 in today and I'm still reading ASM v2., but I'd like more Thor and ASM MMW.

Sigh. Sienkiewicz NM. Is it too much to ask for an oversized HC version of this run? This is overdue.

A Claremont New Mutants Omnibus is overdue. Give the people what they want!