I wouldn't be surprised to find out that I'm the only one who's been reading X-men since Brian Wood's run ended, but I have, and the last four issues got me thinking.

Issues 38 and 39 seemed a bit like random filler, not bad, not great, fun, but not essential; just a neat little one off random story. Issues 40 and 41 could easily be described the same way, and it made me think that both stories (38/39 and 40/41) would have held up better if they'd been printed as single, self-contained, double-sized issues, like annuals used to be. Or like X-men Unlimited originally was. That made me realize:

I can't remember the last time I saw an annual for X-men or Uncanny X-men, (so) do they still do that?

I'm pretty sure Astonishing had one in the last year, but I really don't remember seeing any other X-title have one. I realize that at least three of the X-men books have been bimonthly for months at a time in the past year or so, which would arguably negate the demand for one more random issue per series, but I kind of liked how annuals, and the original X-men Unlimited quarterly, held these random, generally self-contained stories. They weren't usually necessary to the main title, but generally added another dimension to what the regular creative team was doing. Often, they were just a breath of fresh air for being self contained.

Is it just me, or would anyone else be interested in seeing either

A) the return of annuals and a 13 issue year, or

B) a home book for all of these random, one off stories they keep printing to keep a series on (or over) schedule?

Also, I'd be super interested to hear any of your favourite examples of annuals you've read, since I'm always on the look out for those..

@dangallant984: I don't know. Both DC and Marvel either seem to release everyone's annuals one year and no one's the next. Personally it is a wasted opportunity for their yearly crossovers. I would prefer them stay contained there as well, but I'll digress there. I would love to have an "unlimited" format book that never features big name characters so it could be like a training ground for breakthrough characters which let's be honest a real "it" factor character hasn't come out in years.

So let's do a 64 page bi-monthly book with brand x characters that if proven popular make the jump to the main books.

@chasereis: I was thinking recently that that might be a good way to reformat something like Wolverine and the X-men; have it come out every other month, but be twice as long, with two stories by different creative teams per issue. There could be one main story that focuses on the students, with back-ups about faculty members, or solo stories about some of the less used student characters. It just seems that this type of format would make for more focused stories and more satisfying reads overall.

@dangallant984: Actually I would prefer only All new and uncanny to be published on a monthly basis. Everything else is bi-monthly, quarterly with same idea as you however I would prefer a single creative team unless it was two different teams of mutants. Maybe then...

@chasereis: yeah.. I just think the sheer size of the potential cast based at the school could be more diversely explored if more than one writer was utilizing it. And they already have revolving art crews.

@dangallant984: It sounds terrible I know but there are so many characters that such an anthology would be a nice place for some characters to ride off into the sunset...