Fixing the Blue and Gold teams

The Blue and Gold X-Men teams of the 90s were terribly uneven. The Blue team had strong fan favourites Wolverine, Cyclops, Rogue and the up and coming Gambit. The Gold team had Storm and Jean. It almost seemed like Storm was intentionally being shafted to cater for a teenage boy demographic, but I digress...

How would you adjust the Blue and Gold teams to make two superb teams?

Fan favorites according to whom?? If you are a person that became a fan of X-Men through the 90s cartoon show, then yes, the Blue team is more stacked, and I think the comic sales reflected that. However, if you were a fan of the X-Men through the 70s or 80s I am pretty sure characters like Colossus, Archangel and Iceman are just as beloved as Cyclops or Beast.

The Blue and Gold teams didn't make much sense narrative wise. In the late 80s/early 90s Storm had led Psylocke and Rogue, developed a kind of conjugal relationship with Wolverine, and was the only person Gambit really knew and or trusted among the X-Men and all those characters were sent to hang out with Cyclops and Beast. Meanwhile, Cyclops's other half and characters he had been leading since he was sixteen were sent to serve under Storm....

Fun Facts; The line ups were always in flux right up until X-Men 1 was published in 91. Claremont, Jim Lee and Bob Harras had several different combinations featuring all kinds of different characters like Forge, Banshee, and Strong Guy, Magneto taking over as leader, Professor X walking instead of a hover chair etc.

They were not uneven. They only became uneven after X-Men tas turned blue team into mega stars.

I always thought the split was tactical. The Blue Team had more stealth and the Gold Team had more raw power.

@cattlebattle: Thanks for the comments. Those alternate roster pics are interesting.

I did become an X-Men fan through the animated series like many other people but since then I have gone back and read older comics (My favourites are the Claremont/Byrne era). I have never really been a big fan of Colossus, Archangel or Iceman, but maybe I would have been if the teams were different.

@thunderscream: Stealth in yellow spandex?

@tristanheron: It did feel like X-Men was a better book then Uncanny. The X-Men book would have interesting stories, like learning about Gambit's past, the relationship between Gambit and Rogue, Weapon X and Wolverine, Ghost Rider crossovers. The blue team had some huge charecter development for charecters like Wolverine, Rogue and Gambit which made it more memorable. The Gold teams only memorable moments seemed to come in the crossover events they would share with the blue team.

The X-Men are all huge stars to me. I didn't really think Gold was lacking on star power, they just did not have as many interesting stand alone stories.

Red team is really an underdog

Blue was stacked imo but only because it had Lee and Claremont. Those guys are THE best x-men team. What characters they used wasn't the reason it was better it was the guys creating the book.

No one wants to suggest modified lineups?

E.g. Swap Wolverine and Jubes for Iceman gives:

Gold - Storm, Archangel, Jean Grey, Bishop, Colossus, Jubilee and Wolverine

Blue - Cyclops, Beast, Psylocke, Gambit, Rogue and Iceman

Gold- Storm, Psylocke, Rogue, Gambit, Forge, Bishop, Collosus
Blue- Cyclops, Jean, Beast, Iceman, Angel, Jubilee, Wolverine

@poisonfleur: Nice. I like the inclusion of Forge to make the numbers even.

I would still split up the O5 to make things more interesting.

@tristanheron: Maybe trade Gambit and Rogue for Colossus and Iceman.

@immolation: Yeah, I like that, but it does give the Gold team 4 flyers and none for Blue.

@tristanheron: Wasn't thinking about that. Maybe also tradition Jean for Psylocke. Then we could get more character development with Scott and Jean.

That would be Gold: Storm, Rogue, Gambit, Psylocke, Archangel, and Bishop.

Blue: Cyclops, Wolverine, Colossus, Iceman, Jean, Jubilee and Beast.

Still don't seem right. All the tanks that can take a beating are on Blue team now. Trade Colossus back for Bishop.

@immolation: Swapping Storm for Cyclops and Wolverine gives similar lineups but a bit more balanced.

Gold - Cyclops, Archangel, Jean Grey, Iceman, Bishop, Colossus and Wolverine

Blue - Storm, Beast, Psylocke, Jubilee, Gambit and Rogue

IMHO the split was determined by Professor X wanting to ensure (with that deep deeply hidden darkness) that neither Storm nor Cyclops usurped his leadership position. The Blue team was comprised of almost all members of Storm's team. Whilst the Gold team had generally stronger ties to Cyclops. (with the exception being perhaps Colossus and maybe Bishop who was fairly new at that stage).

The Gold team had more power is the understatement of the X-century. Storm, Iceman, Jean and Charles individually have more power than the entire blue line up. Blue team may have had Cyclops and Rogue, but neither are in the league of the others - Cyclops' tactical accumen might help him tho).

From a purely storyline perspective, i much preferred Uncanny, (so Gold). Possibly because Storm was there, but also it seemed more mature. Wolverine is usually the bastion of the fan-boy reader (not saying all his fans are...) so cheesy "cool-for-cool's sake" storylines prevailed. Gambit, Psylocke, Wolverine and Rogue... its a cheesefest. (i love Betsy and Remy tho... but i know what their storylines are like).