In light of some of the recent reveals concerning the new line ups for the x-books, I wanted to ask this question.

It seems that most of the time when new teams are announced or whatever there's quite a bit of angst about who is or isn't on the team or why a certain character is being sidelined or whatever. I'm as guilty of that as anyone.

Along with that though, most of us want defined premises when it comes to books not just having groups of people out there running around for nothing. And when teams get too big it seems that a certain dynamic is lost. In a previous thread about the ideal size for an xmen team, it seemed that most were in favor of 6-7 members with a few going as far as 8. So going by that as well as looking at the upcoming landscape of the x-books, quite a few xmen get shelved it seems.

So then it raises the question.... Have the Xmen gotten to large and unwieldy as a group? Are there just too many ? After a while the powers seem to get a little redundant and repetitive. And although its not always about the powers but also about the character and personality of the individual possessing those powers, would it be better if there were just less Xmen out there? I think recently at the comic book store someone counted around 40 something active or semi active xmen and that's not included the students.

Thoughts?

Eh, not really.

The X-Men operate out of a school, and the mutant species is presumably thriving again post AvX -- it makes sense that there are a lot of characters.

As for who gets picked in books, well, writers usually choose the popular characters regardless of how many options they have. Pick the ones you want and ignore the rest; that usually works well enough.

@hawk2916: i know this is unrelated but i think (whats going to happen between mutants and inhumans is) teen jean grey will fall in love with medusa and blackbolt's aged to a teenager son :PPPPP :)

Nope.

I think were at a point where we should(read as "need to") flesh out rather then add to the roster, if only because adding more at this point sort of takes away from the groups feel.

But there's a habit among comic writer's when they approach the X-Men to think that its better to create new characters then to use the old. Which is funny because X-Men is the only series where new heroes are consistently created in almost every run, while most books only create new villains with that level of frequency.

@koays: I agree 100% about the creation of new vs using the already existing. It would be a great way of fleshing out the characters as well.

But really doesn't it feel like we have too many xmen and they just keep creating more? We have no villains because they are all dead, depowered or in the xmen teams now but we keep getting more and more new mutants with the same old powers joining teams. I think its enough already and maybe too much. And now to have multiples of the same characters running around.

@hopesummersforthefuture: Please god no!! We really don't need that foolishness happening

@koays

they will be like romeo and juliet with a happy ending but then teen jean has to go back to her time keeping them apart. kinda sad ending but not too sad

@hopesummersforthefuture: Noooo!!! My eyes are bleeding!! You're scaring me!

@hawk2916: Well Yea the X-Men need to be fleshed out because even rosters of comparable sizes, like the Avengers, Teen Titans and Justice Leagues have much more focus on their teams and its the villains that are usually forgettable. But right now aside from Gambit, Rogue and maybe Kitty no one could return to the fold and be a big deal.

To me, I think it has a lot to do with X-Men writers being afraid of continuity and the nature of the series (random people gaining powers and being helped to control) makes it easy for writers to say "Who's Kiden Nixon? Screw that I'm making my own Mutant with the same powers so I don't have to explain things". Even though a good writer should make explaining the different characters and their backgrounds part of the story and having older books and stories should only help to further the experience.

But that's just the writer's...the fans are just as bad. To me Wood adding Arkea to the mix was interesting and while neither she nor Jubilee's baby daddy were all that great in their showings they should both have been returning villains that someone would've made better. But X-Men fans knee jerk and only want to see older villains to the point that they squeeze Mystique into every "sneaky villain" role that they can. And if Magneto left the books for 4 months people would drop books. I mean I'm not defending dumb things like "kiddy Hellfire club opens up their own school to teach kids to be bad guys" but we need to be open to the things we need more of...because really Mr. Sinister is as stupid as a lot of the newer throwaway villains we have and there's a lot of ppl who would love a return for him.

I think we have a good sized roster of characters now. It's a prime opportunity to give these core characters some much needed attention and development. A few years back though there most definitely were too many.

@koays: I do agree to a certain extent. I think we do need more villains however as you pointed out a kiddie hellfire club is not a good idea. And while Wood did some decent work, bacteria and computer viruses becoming people is really kind of a weak premise for a villain. Even Cassandra Nova being whatever the hell she is was a little convuted and silly to explain. I'm not saying everything should be generic but there could be more thought and realistic elements put into establishing an antagonist to the Xmen. Fans should be more open true but you also mentioned "good" writers. So yeah...the writers should bring a little more to the table

There are.

That doesn't mean I think the X-Men need another M-Day or Mutant Massacre, but they just need to be more spread out and fulfill different roles.

More things like X-Corps or people just trying to live normal lives.

More world-building, less collecting X-Men like they're Pokemon.

@hawk2916: Yea, i mean i'm not saying we have to take everything at face value and love it...but we've got Magneto, Sinister, Apocalypse and Mystique as 1st class villains, Phoenix is overused and ignoring all the X-Men gone bad or evil relatives...the next relevant villain is Sabretooth. So to me any returning villain is gonna be worth it at this point, because we need more of them and less "create a mutant". Either that or just actually make the Avengers or Inhumans or another X-Men team the primary antagonist of the book and stop hinting at it and then being to scared to commit or deliver...because really infighting is only taking you so far.

Yea and this.

"World Building" is the keyword that X-Men have been missing. and writers are scared to tackle.

Apparently too many X-Men and not enough Inhumans, according to Marvel.

Mutant Massacre, Fall of the Mutants, Legacy Virus, E is for Extinction, Decimation and them muties are still overpopulating... they're like f@king cockroaches refuse to die!

where is hope?!?!?!?!? and fix havok's face already yish

@hopesummersforthefuture: No, I like Havok's hamburglar look. It gives him character.

Yes they are too many X-Men but, it is as it should be imo. They are not like the Avengers, New Warriors or whatever superhero team out there. The X-Men is a team of a people/species trying to survive in a world that fears them. Key word being "trying to survive." Their duty is not to group up together to beat a big bad guy, although they do it anyway, but to help their species thrive and be safe. This has been best represented during the post-M-day era until pre-Schism. I actually like it better when the X-Men act more like a paramilitary organization than a superhero team.

Yes.The problem is they keep making more, without using the ones they have. IMO marvel should have another wipe out event like "no more mutants" , in this they can cleanse the Marvel universe of unneeded and unused mutants.

@kcomicfan: Why do they need to be killed off if they're not being used? Just let them exist in the background.

@sprior93: Because it makes it neat.

They should have hit the chill button a long time ago. It's not special if there are hundreds of thousands of mutants.

As much as I hate having my favorite mutants being used as wallpaper, I would rather have them in the background doing nothing knowing that they are alive than having them killed off in a wipe-out event. Dead mutants can't have a chance to be added in a story but alive ones could still be used by writers eventually.

True. but at least a wipe out event would give the character some sort of closure