5 Best things about X-men in the last 5 years

So, since 2008 or the end of Whedon's Astonishing run.

I guess I'm at least partially making this thread in response to the amount of negativity there seems to be about X-men comics lately. I'm looking for anything from a whole series or story-line to specific moments you found particularly satisfying, or what ever writers, artists, or characters you were most interested in or excited by.

Just whatever 5 things you liked best about X-men in the last 5 years.

@oldnightcrawler:

1. they didnt get cancelled
2. Grant Morrison didnt write anything X-men related.
3. ANXM, UXM and XMen#1 has a decent direction to it, writing is not the best but tolerable. Art is f***ing awesome on All New.
4. Moving past the No More Mutants crap
5. Grant Morrison didnt write anything X-men related.

I was looking for stuff that wasn't so negative (such as writer X sucks or whatever), but there's some good stuff here; you named three different books you appreciate and at least one artist just with your #3 spot. That's more the kind of thing I'm wondering about.

I love this post, this is suppose to be a fan forum and some times i get the feeling its the opposite of that lol. So yea i love some good positive energy, my turn.

1.) Cyclops, like period. I have always been a fan of his character but honestly this new direction (and even the way he was written under matt fraction) has really made me appreciate him more then any other character currently with the X men

2.) Stuart Immomen, not sure if this counts but i have never heard of this guy before (never really paid much attention to artist before either other then Bachelo) but this guy is fucking epic he jumped to my top slot of favorite artist really quick, his recent subs by the Lopez (i think is his name) were great too so im really diggin all the art in All new.

3.) The Death of Chuck. God i hope it sticks, I love Professor Xavier, i loved everything he did for the X men. Problem is over the last what decade? he has been a null factor and there was that whole period of time where they tried to make him look like an old pervert (onslaught >.<) so to restore his dignity and turn him into a Marty instead of some useless background character i think was a great choice. I hope they continue to play off it and make it stick.

4.) Bringing back bishop!! Ok honestly i was one of the few people in the world that didn't hate Bishop trying to kill hope. To me it made tons of sense, he was a guy who risked everything to go back in time and save his world from this terrible future. He did ANYTHING to achieve that goal, if it came down to killing the person responsible for it then i could see him going that far, but still he was one of my favorite characters ever and I'm not sure how it's explained in Uncanny X force (i am behind a few my subscription is slow as shit lol) but i am just glad he is back lol

5.) Unlike most people i liked alot of about x men, i didn't consider them the greatest era ever of X men but i didn't despise it like many seem to. SO my last spot is hard to decide on so Ima go with the one that catches the most grief i think. Brian Micheal Bendis! People hate him, i know nothing of him pre X men nor do i care, hes not perfect by no means nor is he Chris Clarmont but he is good so far and has provided a voice for two of the top X men books, a place where Characters are the same lol. So yea i can dig this, that will be number 5.

@oldnightcrawler: all of that is good and positive things. Don't see any issue, bra. Actually this may be hard to believe but I'm a very positive person I'm just very passionate in what I find to be perceived as a truth. Now if I said Grant Morrison sucks then that would be negative. But since I wrote Morrison hasn't written anything for "X" that is defined by its inverse as a positive. Damn I'm good.

@mcklayn: Good stuff as always. However I contest the bishop thing. Infanticide is always a bad thing and there was no guarantee that killing the infant would prevent his world's suffering or that it would effect his world at all. Surely as a X-man, a follower of the Xavier peaceful ideology and the very least trying to be a hero should have prompted him to choose an alternative to outright murder. Bishop as we knew him is no more. All new's art is the best isn't on a lighter closing note...

Oh finally a positive thread hahaha everyone is always complaining about writers, art, stories and characters lol.

My points are:

1. Cyclops: he's the ultimate mutant leader and finally we've seen him becoming the true leader he deserves to be. And finally not all the X-Men are just staying inside a school hiding from the world, but they're doing the right thing and they're earning the respect they deserve.

2. Magik: she's finally becoming a central character and I think she's going to have a central role in the MU or at least in the mutant universe in the next years the same way Emma became a central character years ago thanks to Morrison. She's got a great powerset and background and she's also got the potential to become a great character and to be part of great plots so, yeah, she deserves it. And she isn't the only New Mutant who has become a central character, so I'm very happy.

3. Magneto is an X-Man an Xavier is a dead man:. Ok, I admit it: I've never liked Charles Xavier, never. I think that his dream died a lot of years ago, it was quite evident that mutants and humans couldn't coesist pacifically(Genosha is an example), I've always thought that mutants must find their place in this world, with or without humans. I'm not saying that I think that Magneto has always been right with all the "killing all the humans" stuff, but since he became an X-Man all the positive things of Xavier dream and all the positive things of Erik's dream were merged to create a better version of both dreams.

4. Female characters are finally the main characters. Except for Wolverine and Scott Summers, is quite evident that now female characters are far more popular and important than the male ones. Emma, Storm, Kitty, Rogue, Psylocke and others have finally become the prominent characters that the male characters were(Beast, IceMan and the others are now far less popular than many women).

5. The relaunch. Marvel NOW gave new life to the X-Men. Titles like All New X-Men, Uncanny X-Men and X-Men are the best titles we've been for ages, even the less known ones are far better than many other titles we had before the relaunch. And the current mutant situation is very cool IMO

1. Scott and Emma had some good moments.RUINED
2. The mutant messiah storyline had potential. RUINED.
3. Colossus is alive again.RUINED.
4. Fantomex returned. RUINED.
5. Sublime returned. RUINED.

haha! Good! I mean, I know we all have things we don't like, but I was starting to feel like the complaints were getting too much focus. Hopefully we can avoid that here.

Yeah, Cyclops has regained my attention ever since the AvsX: Consequences mini series. Nice to be intrigued and entertained by an old favorite again.

Oh, yeah; I love me some Stuart Immonen! I first got into him on his New Avengers run (some really beautiful stuff) with Bendis, and then later realized he was the same artist that did NEXTwave (in which his style is far more loose and cartoony, but still kind of perfect); and, as you say, he's been a real treat to see on All-new X-men.

I'm glad that his death was heroic, at least. It doesn't get any more epic than facing the man you raised as your own son while he's the Dark Pheonix. Cyclops has forever worried about losing control, and now he finally has a legitimate reason to; in many ways, I think that will become Xavier's legacy as much as anything.

I actually really liked Bishop in the early 90's, and I can't wait to see him back in action in Uncanny X-force!

You make a really good point that he lends a level of consistency to the voice of the books, and I think that's probably helped by having written several of the characters before in both House of M and AvsX. I can tell a lot of people are put off by his pacing, and especially his dialogue style (which, I must admit, is really stylized), but I find that (perhaps partially because of that) he has an unrecognized economy of style.

haha.. nice try. But a double negative =/= a positive. Nice try though.

Yeah, I'm especially into X-men and Uncanny X-men, as well as Uncanny X-force, for all of these reasons.

@oldnightcrawler: Yea i totally agree about Scott being his legacy, the way chuck went out was top notch i just hope it sticks not cause i hate chuck but because when they bring people back it looses the death affect you know? But yea im loving Marvel now actually

@chasereis: Yea well i wasn't saying he was right to do it, or that I think he shouldn't of tried something else. Just that the logic and the character it was used on made some sense to me, and i liked the whole hero to villain who still thought of himself as a hero thing they did. "The man willing to do what others couldn't for the greater good" type thing

exactly.

I seriously can only think of one: Remender's Uncanny X-Force.

To be fair, I didn't start reading comics again until 2010.

@mcklayn: You know the funny thing with that? I absolutely adored the notion especially in the 90's with the original X-Force. Anti-Heroes and such, as time has gone on for me have worn so thin that I can barely tell the difference between villains and antiheroes when I truly cogitate on them. I see them trying to do good but ultimately not caring about the matter in either their fervor or impatience. But hey without that feeling there would be no Sith would there? Lol.

@oldnightcrawler: True success is measured by personal satisfaction. Thus it was as positive as you can get out me. Its my mutant power. My secondary mutation is to alter the course of the OP.

Uhm...X-Force was ok...that's about it.

1. Cyclops front and center character.
2. Magneto an anti hero instead of a villian.Magneto's parents were killed by nazis so him talking eugenics was weird.
3. Xavier dead.Since the X men grew up Xavier became obsolete.
4. Schism.A decent explanation for the 20 different X books.
5. Female X men get the spotlight

@chasereis: No love for the Scot?

1). Brian Wood's/Jubilee's return to the X-Verse. And with that, his fabulous run on the previous Adjectiveless X-Men volume.

2). The introduction of Si Spurrier to Legacy, while focusing it on Legion, Blindfold, et al.

And that's it for me, unless i were to nit-pick. The past five years and most of the things to transpire have been quite awful.

@ageofhurricane: "The past five years and most of the things to transpire have been quite awful." I agree with this. HOWEVER in keeping things positive for DG, I do think that the Art teams of late are quite good. I would venture to say the quality of art is likely to the level of the 90's prime X-Men/Uncanny, likely...

@knightrise: I'm sorry, can you rephrase?

Sorry that I can't come up with 5 things, OP, since time is limited at the moment...

But I'm very happy they found a way to "bring back" Jean without it being a clone or ressurection.

Folks may be right that it still isn't the "real Jean" or it isn't the same or they don't like this Jean, but if I'm giving credit where it's due. I'm thankful they found an alternative to a clone/resurrection.

Oh and kudos for making a positive thread vs. negative ;)

@squalleon Wow you're right about Xavier's death. Now that I think about it, I agree with you on that.

I mean I don't think Xavier was bad of course, but for the sake of the story "moving on", his death really was needed and has been for a while.

@chasereis: Yeah, i'm more for keeping things real. But agreed on the art, they've improved greatly in that department and it's because of this that most titles like WATX and ANXM have lasted this long. It's such a bloody shame that incompetent and talentless writers these days depend so much on the visual aspect of the creative process to get sales--so annoying. Exactly what Bendis is doing. Just waiting for Lafuente to get on board, and I'll see who the true fans of that horrible train-wreck are.

@ageofhurricane: "Real" in most contexts is mercurial and fleeting, sadly. Not something I cannot easily subscribe to however in this context of which I do enjoy your opinions (mostly) Lastly you are very right about comics as being essentially glorified art books as opposed to actual comics. Good stuff...

I would totally agree with this sentiment, in fact, I find that most of the time it's even better.

why, Hurricane, that's an excellent point. And so refreshing to hear that someone really appreciates what an integral part the art work plays in the medium. Good show, old boy!

Out of the whole franchise??

-They tried new things. Fans need to understand: Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean its stupid, you have try to reinvigorate the property. While not always a success, still some neat ideas

-X-Factor. This book put a new spin on the usual plight of X characters. This book plays out more like a well written television show than an actual comic, has nice characterizations of otherwise "lame" characters

-X-Men First Class. Kind of modernization of the original X-Men characters......but not really. The book takes place in between their original adventures so it takes place in the 60's but they use more modern slang and have more contemporary looks...its strange. Its hard to say the original X-Men were interesting seeing as they had a book that was pretty much canceled, but after reading this it goes to show that the right writer and artist can make any team in any situation great.

-Magneto: Testament. Just do yourself a favor and read it.

-Making Psylocke a better character. She was always so boring...to me at least. It seems they gave her more to do over the past couple of years and accelerated the character a bit.

The best stuff that happened were all around X-Force and Uncanny X-Force.Nothing better than that.

This, to me, is a great point. Were there any particularly controversial moves you yourself found interesting? or that you thought were unfairly judged by fans?

Yeah, I've noticed that it's mostly in the last few years that she became especially popular. I've certainly enjoyed the direction they've taken her in, in both Uncanny X-force and X-men.

@oldnightcrawler: Eh, we can't REALLY compare the two honestly solely based on computer coloring and background enhancements. I like judging by uncolored work myself...

yeah, I guess I count coloring as part of the artwork, especially in this genre, but I totally agree that contemporary X-men artists certainly do have an advantage in that regard.

• All New X-Men and the Brian Wood X-Men title are killing it so far.
• Magneto finally calling out Scott on his crap.
• The artist's.
• Schism is over.

The things is I really stopped following X-Men proper closely in about 2004, I read a lot of the spin offs and minis, so I can't really give a good example. I guess the Phoenix 5 would be one thing, the thing about something classic like the "Phoenix sagas" is that they didn't know that it was going to be a classic when they did it.....no one sits down to write or draw and says "this is going to be a classic". Classics just happen, and it looks like they were just trying to create a new storyline that would reverberate in the X-Men lore for years. So I can see where they try to go with story ideas like that......sometimes it just seemed like they just fell flat though.

Also, I don't remember if Colossonaut was accepted by fans but also, it was the creative teams trying to do something with Colossus....who, became stale like 25 years ago. Sure everyone loves Colossus because he is like a fixture of the X-Men and Whedon brought him back to life because he loved the character as a kid, but after that, it seemed as if no one knew what to do with him, and I can kind of see that he is a hard character to work with. So I felt like that decision was misjudged.

Yeah, I feel like those are things that I have a hard time seeing objectively because of how familiar I am with the lore, whereas if I had just gotten into the X-men in the last 5 years, they might not seem strange to me at all. I retrospect, they don't seem any stranger than what was actually going on in the comics when I started reading them.

1. More condensing on Cyclops: While I love Cykes and he is my fave character and I've marked out at some things he's done like hurting Dormammu etc, I'm glad they have condensed his presence in the X-verse after a great few years of limelight and development that even stemmed prior to the last 5 years. He is still acting as a main player, but every story isn't revolving around him anymore and I feel other characters are getting a chance to shine.
2. Bigger variety: This is for more recent times. I honestly hated the idea that Marvel is just putting out more X books. But, it kind of widens variety and gives chances to other characters and if you don't like certain aspects, you have options. If someone doesn't like Uncanny X-Men, but you want to know what's going down multiple books have mentioned Cyclops' stance. If you like the JG institute but can't stand Aaron's hack writing on it, ANXM has been better. If you don't like UXF, New X-Men is supposed to give Psylocke and Storm focus, along with the other females like Jubilee, Rachel etc.
3. Past no more mutants: Someone said it earlier and I am glad the X-verse can finally move in a direction again.
4. Colossonaut: I felt like he hasn't had development in years. Colossus to me has been the legit Namor of the X-Men. A powerhouse, but was just stagnant for years. Colossonaut let Piotr get an upgrade which put him with the legit heavy hitters for once since he has always been more of a low tier brick. It also gave a different spin on the character which I liked.
5. Jean Grey is no longer written like a holy grail: I hated how for awhile how she was always treated like G.O.A.T. of X-Men and is supposed to be perfect and her name alone has become a plot device. Someone mentions her name and sh*t hits the fan in stories. Now she is back and some hardcore fans assume she should be whooping everybody when they fail to realize she is 16, has unlocked her telepathy a year early, and her entire life was flashed before her eyes in Beast's head. She hasn't had time to become "Jean Grey" yet. So I'm kind of glad they took her off the pedestal and gave her a fresh start without making her OP from the get go.

Yeah, it feels like ever since the relaunch they've wanted to explore how Cyclops can be a central character without being the main focus of the stories, which I definitely think is a more natural role for his character, especially at this point.

This is something that I love, actually. When I started reading X-men, there were only the two main titles (X-men and Uncanny X-men) and X-men Classics to choose from, so I like that there's lots of different types of X-men stories to choose from now. Not every book is for me, but with so many options, that doesn't feel as frustrating. And, as you point out, I think it's actually really smart that a lot of the characters they know are most popular are overlapping into more than one book, so you get more options for those characters as well.

1.Schism. Not because it was a great story but because it split the X-men and now because of it the X-men have something for everyone. Black ops team (Uncanny X-Force), School (Wolverine &), Revolution/Terrorists (Uncanny), Nostalgia (All New X-men) and even now an all female team (X-men).

2. Magneto the X-man. Magneto as a villain really became tiring in my opinion. Seeing Erik finally stop murdering and working alongside Cyclops was truly a turning point for the better for his character.

3. More Mutants. Finally we get more mutants and everything can stop being so bleak for the X-men. I always believe that adversity is one of the many charms of the X-men but for years it was just a giant boot crushing down on them.

4. Magik. As @veitha mentioned already, Magik has easily become one of my favourite characters. Both her personality and powers are interesting and I hope she plays a larger role now that she is quite frankly Scotts most loyal ally.

5. X-men. Finally the x-ladies get their chance to shine. Rogue in Uncanny Avengers is being written poorly but this series seems to be doing her justice. Jubilee is back and Rachel Grey is finally doing something again. Loved the first issue and with the sales/popularity we've seen so far this series looks likely to be around for some time.

Bravo good choices, i also want to point out that i LOVED AvX

O . O WHAT DID THAT FOOL SAY?!?! HE LOVED AVX

Yes i did! But not cause of the story, much like you said about schism it was the fall out that was great imo. It opened so many doors, and actually seemed to change things, the story wasn't as bad as people made out but the ending did so much for potential stories that i think it was totally worth it. Esp since we got to see Consequences afterwards!

I think of X-men as the nostalgia book, and All-new X-men as more of a reintroduction to new readers, but I totally agree with your actual point here.

as @mcklayn: pointed out, while neither Schism nor AvsX were very satisfying to me in and of themselves, they both did great jobs of shaking up the status quo. Like them or not, they changed things in ways that moved the overall story foreword. Especially in terms of character dynamics. And, as you say, they have given us legitimate story reasons as to why there would be so many different versions of the X-men (and Avengers), with their own agendas, character dynamics, and tones to choose from. I think these are all good things.

Yeah. I was introduced to Magneto in the 90's as the X-men's worst enemy, but after going back and seeing how the character had developed through the 80's, it was hard not to see this as a step back. He's always been great as the semi-repentant anti-hero X-man in my mind, so I've enjoyed him being back in that role.

Oh, definitely this. More than the focus on an all female cast, this book really is a return to having these characters back in more central roles. To me, this really is an all-star cast. And that it's being written by my favorite current X-writer, Brian Wood, who really just seems to get the characters, definitely helps.

@oldnightcrawler:

1. Uncanny X-Force (Remender's run) - a brilliant book!
2. The Childhood's End story in New X-Men (technically it ended in 2008) and all of the New X-Men students, which are mainly my favorite characters.
3. The Messiah Trilogy - even though I despise Hope Summers, The Messiah Trilogy was really good (especially Messiah Complex and Second Coming).
4. X-Factor for being an awesome dependable series (but it is now cancelled).
5. The new all-female X-Men book that has started out very promising with a clear direction. The X-Men's best members are now being displayed in a series all their own!

@papad1992: Would you believe I still haven't read Remender's X-force? I guess I should, but I just never got around to starting. What trades does it run through?

It's an amazing run!

Well I'd recommend visiting their page on here.

1. Stuart Immonen

2. Olivier Coipel

3. This costume-

4. The Hope-is-Jean Grey-reborn-misleads have ended.

5. Sinister got some good stories.

Man, that was probably the best thing about Uncanny X-men (vol.2), Sinister had some of his best stories ever in that book.

Totally have to agree on Immonen and Coipel, too; those guys are amazing!

#1. Jubilee is back. Not just back in a title, not even just about her being a headlining character, but also her PERSONALITY is back. She's back to being spunky and fun; the Jubilee we fell in love with. Yeah, they left her the horrible vampire junk and she's still got no sparkles (I cross my fingers and hope based on the X-Men cover solicits), but she's no longer some sort of moody, brooding Goth kid of depression in a black jumpsuit with huge knockers. There are enough of those in comics; I need my Jubes who wears the sunglasses and raincoat so she's prepared for all weather. I need Jubilee that knows how to have fun, instead of, well, being turned into basically another X-23.

#2. Cyclops. Know that I have hated Cyclops for a full 20 years of my life. I thought he was the unrealistic little kiss-up to Xavier. The boy in the front row who always raised his hand. As field leader, I've always thought that the X-Men needed somebody who would bring a little pragmatic realism to Xavier's Vision that Chuck only saw through rose colored glasses. When Cyclops stepped up to take charge after the Professor's death, he turned my head and got my attention. The decision to form Utopia and (at least temporarily) give up on the idea of co-existing with people who want you dead. The ability to step up and lead his people doing what was best for THEM, instead of what he personally wanted. Making choices that would eat him up inside because he hated himself for doing it, but it needed to be done. That's what a good leader does. Accepting Magneto into the X-Men. Forming the Extinction Team, getting a PR representative to make them marketable, reforming X-Force to kill enemies that needed to be dead, and keeping it secret to avoid upsetting allies who needed to feel heroic. By the time Schism rolled around, I was firmly sided with Scott. Then hits X-Men versus Avengers and I was looking at all the garbage Captain America pulled and shocked to find myself saying "Cyclops is right". Xavier's dream is dead. Magneto was correct all along. There can be no peace; humans can't get along with each other, there will always be humans who want to kill the mutants. It will never be over; they will be fighting against some subsection of the population forever. Anti-Mutant Racism isn't going to ever be completely gone, the same way as prejudice against any other minority will never be completely gone. There will always be more narrow-minded biggots in the world, and the mutants can never stop defending themselves. If Uncanny X-Men was renamed Brotherhood of Mutants, I would still support them as the good guys in the story. Sorry, Wolverine, but you're backing the wrong horse.

#3. Uncanny X-Force. The idea of an X-Men hit squad worked for me. Some threats do need to be dead. But that first volume of Uncanny X-Force, with Elixir and Vanisher on the team, that was perfect. It made me love those two characters, and that team kept a wholy different dynamic than most superhero teams. It actually felt like a Black Ops.

#4. Jugger-lossus. I love Juggernaut. I love Collossus. But Cyttorak taking on Collossus as his chosen one gave us the best of both. I felt a greater understanding for Juggernaut than I ever had before, and at the same time, I got to see Collossus whomp some serious butt.

#5. No Grant Morrison. Everything that guy touches turns to crap.

1. I like the new Cyclops. I find it a bit ironic and very interesting that with his dedication to saing the mutant race by any means necessary (creating X-force and Utopia) he had become more like Magneto than Xavier.

2. Magik getting some time though i never really liked her I always thought her character was not developed well.

3. Xavier's death. I love Xavier but it seemed that he was becoming irrelevant plus it has the potential to create even more storylines/conflict with him gone. I hope this sticks.

4. I like the direction of Uncanny, though I'm curious to see to what end this mutant revolution goes.

5. Is a two-part . 1st I like the recent crossover that cut out like 3 titles and left only 1. 2nd the artwork is awesome.

I pretty much agree with all of this, although I did like Magik before.

I'm not going to lie, I haven't read X-Men consistently for the past decade. So here is my opinion basically from the past year or so.

1. Young Jean Grey! Plus seeing the O5 again as youngsters.

2. Cyclops turning into a modern day Magneto-like anti-hero

3. Remender's work on the legacy of Apocalypse

4. Besty actually wearing clothing.

5. A Iceman story worth reading.

Is this still true? If you like Uncanny Avengers you must read the Dark Angel Saga. It's explains much of what's happening.

1) Nightcrawler is coming back.

2) Focus on the great female characters

3) Kitty pryde is back

4) Psylocke became canonly queer.

5) I really liked broo in Wolverine and the xmen. Although im not sure how his dirextion is going since hes been shot. Which made me sad. But i really liked him as a new character.i

@knighthood: yeah, I still haven't read it, but I just realized I have 35 issues of it on my hard drive, so I'll probably read it Thursday. Thanks for the reminder!

@oldnightcrawler:

1. Uncanny X-Force, this book lacks nothing. Perfect.

2. X-Factor for being great to the end.

3. Second Coming, the best crossover in the last decade as far as I remember.

4. The New Mutants coming back as an X-Men team, the book had many great moments.

5. Utopia. (Cyclops)

Although many people claim the new X-men stories to be the most disappointing, I find them finally getting the right direction. Though I dislike the idea of HOM (once again, a mutant that is responsible for another mutant genocide) can't help but wonder how the consequences brought really impressive X-men and mutant stories:

1. Cycolps/Magneto/Xavier - I had to unite them as the leaders of mutant race and their different ideologies didn't have to clash as they've became endangered species. Must say, I've never liked Cycolps. Then I saw what Decimation has done to him and I could only wonder how the most annoying and lamest character could've become one of the greatest in comics at all? This leads to the question, what was holding him back? Here comes the idea I always disliked - the whole Xavier/Magneto ideology difference I find forced. I never understood how could they write a Jewish mutant that survived Auschwitz as a near-nazi mad man. Sorry, it never worked for me, it just didn't feel right. Also I was used to see Xavier as a wise man, kind and compassionate man of tolerance, like the way he is portrayed in the movies or cartoons. Well, he isn't exactly this perfect in comics. I don't want to start political views discussion, but I like it this way - leaders, lefties as well, are manipulative as all leaders supposed to be. His image of the perfect man was already ruined. Why? So this dream of coexistence, after the SECOND mutant genocide will look ridiculous. And then what will remain? Yeah, a fight for survival. Which leaves Xavier irrelevant and Magneto better with the fighting (not commiting human genocide) side like it was always supposed to be. Finally, a new era begins.

2. X-Force - I was always supporting proactive agenda when it comes to survival or punishing the guilty. Blood for blood finally unleashed, for mutants there was no other way. How many more had to die before they'd started to act? How many more, when there are less then 200 left? This team was a badassness in its purest form, no energy, element or matter manipulators, only sharp as hell claws, knives, wings, razors and bestial fury righteously unleashed upon those who deserved it. I miss the first lineup (I liked the second as well but I disliked the agenda, they were into cleaning their own mess more than fighting threats to the mutant survival), my only complaint would be the lack of Elixir development as I see his potential to become something more if rightly written.

3. Character development - Juggerlossus, Archangel, Gambits Death persona or Phoenix Cycolps all of them were really interesting readings as they were trying to realize how to overcome their new condition. A short Juggerlossus incarnation was the best Juggernaut I've read. I enjoyed everything about him, from the suppression of the destruction call in his head to the point, when he lost it and performed in this extremely powerful demonic form. Angel wouldn't be interesting if not his bloodlusted Death persona, it was one of the best X-Force moments when he regrew his razor-wings and finally transformed into Archangel again. Gambit's Death persona wasn't well developed, but was intriguing, I hope it will be developed bettet in the future. And then, Phoenix Cycolps. Somebody would call it blasphemy, but I find it really cool! The Phoenix 5 are one of the main reasons I started reading comics again. I was like 'What the hell happened there? I must check it out' and here I am. Actually, the only people I've listed were kinda possessed but that was not the point, more like characters inner struggles. Phoenix Cycolps just got my honorable mention, even without it, his character evolution was incredible.

4. Seemingly the end of status quo - I'm talking about the Xmen as representation of everything world wanted from them to be, not really what mutant race needed them to be. They failed to stop two mutant genocides, they couldn't make the mutant image better, hell they've failed at everything (they only succeed at backstabbing Magneto so he won't protect Genosha from the attack which led to the massacre of 16 MILLION mutants). Fighting mutant threats to the world while the world doesn't give a crap about them. But know what? Most importantly they weren't killers... To hell with this sh*t. As I said multiple times, the new direction is something that needed to happen far, far earlier.

5. Extinction Team - another brilliant lineup. This team had everything - powerhouses, telepaths, technopath and one of the best tacticians as a leader. Pricelss. The only complaint they were downplayed too much. And also they were disbanded too early..

*Am I the only one who finds Remeneder's Uncanny X-Force really overrated?

1. Zeb Wells -rebuilt the legacy of New Mutants. Reuniting the old school team, resurrecting Cypher and Warlock, and reintroducing Legion and the Darkchylde. But they were no longer just New Mutants, the were New X-men.

2. Victor Gischler -restarted the adjectiveless X-men again, but with the goal of having them connect to the larger Marvel Universe. Those books got me through the Utopia days of the X-men and would then form the Security team, which would give us the next writer to help fix things...

3. Brian Wood -has given us stories that aren't about the same old same old and is trying to do something Leading to the creation of a team X-fans have been waiting years for. He's my hope for the future because he can writer women as equals

4. Marjorie Liu -has been working so hard in her little corners of the Marvel landscape trying to write thoughtful story about characters and not plots or event. But as one of the only women in comic book she has to work against a system that ignores most of her efforts and contributions. She gets the X-men like a true fan would and knows how to breathe new life into many obscure and marginalized characters. She represents so much as her stories are full of that understanding and insight into being a minority or misfit in society. I hope Marvel has a new project for her to really make the best of her talents and affection with a much more important team.

5. Kieron Gillen -for the brief time he was on did a lot with so little. He created the Extinction team by recruiting the right characters for the task, and gave us a year of intelligent and exciting new development and distractions until the inevitable clusterfudge that was AvX, he made the best of what he was given, since he had no involvment in that crossover, and if had maybe it wouldn't have failed like it did, so badly.