I have been an avid X-Men fan for a very long time, that being said, am I the only one who is getting bored of the progression, or lack there of, of mutants and humans coexisting amongst one another? There has been very little progression (if any with all the set backs lately) in these last 25 years and I am getting really tired of having the same issues arise with the same characters, (Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Jean, Beast, Emma), don't we all (and by we I mean audience members and authors) think it's time for some of these X-Men *cough* Cyclops, Beast, Wolverine, Storm *cough* to hang up their suits and retire?

I remember back during Messiah CompleX or Second Coming, Cyclops was looking for a new Leader to run the X-Men, particularly someone from the New Mutants, Moonstar, Cannonball or Karma. Whatever happened to that? I think it's time to stop with these 5+ X-Books revolving around the same boring non-progressed characters and get something new going. I get it, the writers are probably scared that they won't get the same audience or ratings, and to be honest they probably wont, but being a long time X-Men fan I'm tired of reading the same recycled garbage over and over again, we want something NEW!

If Wolverine, Cyclops, Emma, Storm, Beast want to be teachers to the new generation of mutants then be teachers. Introduce new mutants and get them rostered on a team get their own X-Book out there. Develop new characters like we had with New X-Men (Academy X), get something started so we don't have the same roster in every X-Book. I'm not saying scrap all the original X-Men, they can have their own X-Book fine but get something started! Get Cyclops, Emma, Storm ext. to start families, die, retire do something with them because X-Men comics are honestly in Limbo where nothing has changed in the last 25 years and I am slowly getting too old for the same crap happening over and over again.

I agree with you but you could say that about most Super Hero comics. We know no ones going to die or anything crazy and that after any " crisis" it'll be a return to the status quo more ir less. That why I'm picking up more and more independents especially Inage books. I love superhero books but I also need something to read where I have no idea what's going to happen. Do you read Saga? If not you should, go out right now and buy the first trade! That last issue had a cliffhanger that makes me want the next issue so bad I can barely stand it . I rarely get that feeling with a superhero comic. I understand your frustration but do you really want to see Wolverine or Storm raising kids? That's why I don't read the Fantastic Four. Not very compelling.

Superhero comics yo.

I'm fine with the X-Men *Shrug*

I wouldn't want them to retire.

You could always read Ultimate X-Men. Pretty much every major character we have in the 616 Marvel universe are either dead (majority are), or just being added. Scott and Logan are dead as well as Xavier and Magneto and Kitty is prety much leading any mutants at Utopia

the films made wolverine into a phenomena.

They don't even need to like, retire retire or anything like that. Just GET SOMEfocus on the nxm already! Like, seriously. The excuses they've been crapping out just aren't cutting it anymore.

All New Astonishing X-Men. (W) Chuck Kim (A) Michael Ryan/Russel Dauterman.

In the aftermath of the X-Men's Battle of The Atom, the next generation of Westchester's Merry Mutants decide to take matters into their own hands. Having grown tremendously wary of the callous and life-threatening choices their progenitors have made thus far, a select few feel the pressing urge to depart from a team that's seemingly lost the meaning of Charles Xavier's Dream--only to strike anew! But the unprecedented favour from an almost unrecognizable comrade of the past only seeks to confuse matters more. Will they prevail? Pixie, Hellion, Dust, Mercury, Surge, Rockslide, Match and the young X-Man-turned-young Avenger, Prodigy, led by Armor with assistance from honorary Defender, Moonstar and fellow New Mutant, Karma, embark on a perilous journey into the depths of Mutantkind's dark history. Mending the gaping rift within the X-Men, if possible. This team, seeking to put the "X" back into the X-Men. But most importantly, seeking to make Professor Charles Xavier's dream, a reality.

All i could ever ask for.

i havent touched an xmen comic ever but i will say marvel will never retire there biggest cash cow. i would however suggest sticking with one version that way noobs like myself dont have to worry about 15 versions

@tazzmission: The X-Men haven't been Marvel's biggest cash cow for a while. It's all about the Avengers now.

Is this a real solicit?

alright well 2nd cash cow. im still a noob when it comes to comics and alot of stuff does peak my interest but i just have zero idea where to start. the only comics ive really read was honestly mainly gl and glc now gotg. . that is why when it comes to both comapnies really they just stick with one version of the title like one batman instead of 15 versions or 100 plus avengers dark avengers ect

That sounds Awesome. For real this is it. And for those that still want the old guys maybe the new team can banish them to some other universe/world. Like maybe the Otherworld or the Cancerverse (if it still exist) that way you get new stories or whatever. That said......

As far as answering the OP's question... I still enjoy the characters and with the death of Xavier I think it has changed the status-quo so to speak. However.. and I just had to squeeze this in... I think it is time for the deaths of some major characters and the subsequent ascension of others to take their places for a little while. I know its crazy but if I could I would kill off: Emma Frost (though i'd miss the lingerie, but I haven't been getting that lately so.. off with her head), Wolverine, Beast, Legion and Cable. Not to mention some of the New Mutants and Academy x folks. I think a mass killing would make the stories much fresher and talk about redefining everything.

@hawk2916: Thanks! Although i'm studying to become something else--the OTHER dream would be a cb writer, although the future of the market seems so damn bleak. I'd love to see something a long these lines produced by Marvel, but that's asking for way too much.

Unfortunately not :(

I made it in response to a "create your own all new marvel now title" on CBR. This would be a DREAM, though.

Yeah, gotta kind of agree. They keep introducing new characters at the expense of the previous 'new' characters, all the while keeping the same old senior X-Men front and center.

Thinking about it, they could have done the reverse of what's happening now. Instead of the O5 coming from the past to the present, they could have had the current senior X-Men travel to the future and get stuck there, trying to survive and figure out how to get back. Could have had a couple of titles focused on that (Uncanny / All New, with an X-Force unit sent after them to get them back), whilst the remainder of the X-Universe focuses on the second tier characters and kids as the struggle to adjust and cope with all the big guns gone. Maybe leave a few A-listers in the present, some unusual/conflicting pairings.

I agree, but the majority of the readership would blindly choose following their favorite characters over a good story.

One thing that can help is for the main focus to shift from the "regular" x-men and move it to new up and coming memebers.

same can be said for avengers. after avengers 3 ( and there is one planned) should marvel do a avengers 4 or focus on the dark avengers afterwards?

@tazzmission: I'm hoping that by the time avengers 3 is done marvel some how is able to get the rights back to most of their other heroes and they can dive into a New Avengers movie with Power Man Spider-Man Spiderwoman in it. Or they can go with the Mighty Avengers way with Ms Marvel Wonderman and antman.

@ageofhurricane: You got my hopes up, I actually thought that was for real. BUT that's exactly what i'm saying, something like this could open doors for new characters, have some of the senior x-men like Moonstar and Karma thrown in the book with the nxm. It could honestly work!

And to someones post, I can totally understand why they haven't done it. The majority of comic book readers have been reading X-Men because of their fanboy/fangirl crushes on certain characters, I'm not saying they retire completely from the X-Books, but they do not have to show up in every series. It's getting to the point where the X-Men, as as many people here have said, Superhero comics on repeat. I just want to see something different and I think all of you do too. :(

X-Men stories just need to start making progress again. It's kind of annoying how people are STILL prejudice against ALL Mutants. I get that's the whole point of them but character/story development is very much needed.

Seems like there's been a lot of X-Men hate threads the past couple days.

@extremis: it's because of BotA, Jason Aaron and Amazing X-men.... oh and the terrible trailer for X-men: Days of future past. For me, i'm actually feeling the opposite, i'm loving all this X-men stuff happening (not so much for the movie but oh well)

Agreed. I don't find most of the newer mutants interesting anyway.

I don't think that the original X-Men should retire per se, but I do think that there needs to be more focus on the students than just keep putting out the same X-Men in every title. I actually thought that Marvel was going in a more interesting direction when they introduced the New X-Men, but now we're back to square one again with the same X-Men characters we've been seeing for the past 50 years.

What I would like to see is the original X-Men being relegated to teaching positions and trying to teach the new students about defending themselves and becoming X-Men themselves. The original X-Men would still be there, but they would actually be shown as teaching the students. I know that the reason why we are still seeing the same X-Men over and over again despite there being newer X-Men characters being created over the years is because they are popular with the fans (I still love characters like Colossus, Storm, Wolverine and Nightcrawler, even though they been around for many years now).

word. We get it, you're a metaphor, but you've been the same metaphor for 50 years, move on.

I agree with this. I think that they could have used different characters besides the younger versions of the O5. I actually thought that after Avengers vs. X-Men, they were going to finally give the spotlight to the students, but that didn't seem to happen.

batman needs to retire first before any other charachter let alone group imo

I kind of agree. Everything has become so messy to the point I have no interest in following anymore. The best time for X-Men in my opinion were the late 70's and 80's. Maybe I'm biased to those story arcs because I grew up with the 90's animated series that used those stories, but I can say those stories are more simple. Days of Futures Past was a good little story, but no one knew the time traveling thing would be murdered beyond belief lol. That's part of the problem imo. So are the problems each character faces over and over throughout the year.

We need someone with a set of balls to come in and completely push the X-Men story to the next level. Either have a legitimate genocide where key characters die or let Magneto have his way. In the real time line or whatever.

The last X-Men run I enjoyed was Wheddon's and Cassaday's. It was like they completely ignored everything that has happened and wrote simple team based stories that I for one miss. It is time for a change and I think making everything more simple is one of the answers.

im in here to agree on with basically what most have said.

the only thing you can really do is write letters of complaint and stop buying the comics. I don't know who out there is still consuming the trash marvel is putting out but its happening. oh well.

I don't buy current x-men comics, no way, or any marvel outside of the THOR GOT arc. Other then that I'm beyond skeptical of Marvel's writers ability to put together a consistent plot without inconceivably fluctuating power levels and character behaviors.

That's what upsetting me about the current X-Men comics is that there are way too many different stories and character behaviors going on and I just can't keep up with all of that.

but you don't have to read every X-book to enjoy the ones that are good. And there are good ones coming out all the time, too.

personally, I like that there are more books to choose from because it makes it more likely that there will be ones I do like.

I actually do agree with this. You always have the option to read these comics or not and that's what's important. Also, if there were any X-Men comics that were terrible and fans don't like the direction that the characters are going, then that could convince the company to start producing titles that most fans will enjoy.

The x-men have probably had the most character development out of every superhero.

Cyclops went from a boyscout to a mutant revolutionary, wolverine went from a savage killer to a glorified babysitter, magneto went from a leader to a follower, colossus went from an optimistic gentle artist to a to a battle hardened cynic, emma frost is still a bitch but she's been getting softer, rogue went from an emotional little girl to one of the x-mens best field leaders etc.etc.

Marvel kept trying to develop peter parkers persona but every time he grew as character they had to do something to take it away.

How has cap changed, how has the hulk changed, superman, batman and many mainstream characters remain essentially the same but the x-men try to change the status quo and people complain about character development? I don't get it.

One of the main criticisms i see in regards to the x-men storyline is the lack of belief that prejudice still exists in the MU, have i missed something? Has our social consciousness evolved to such a point that prejudice and bigotry has become a non-factor in our lives? If not, then the social implications of the x-men mythos is still as relevant now as it was in the past.

This, all of this.

Someone once told me that if you start to think it's stupid that Batman dresses like a bat, maybe Batman's no longer for you. If you start to think that the X-men should retire, maybe it's time for you to retire from the X-men.

The lack of progression with humans and mutants is fairly cumbersome--especially since they seem to accept the Avengers and Fantastic Four. There really needs to be some logical progression there. It's time to put the whole "prejudice" idea to rest for a while and focus on other things. That's what Grant Morrison did during his run, and that's one the reasons I like it so much. He instead focused on the mutant drama, which I really liked.

@illyanarasputin: I agree entirely. So much potential for development wasted!

Yeah, I mean people aren't still prejudiced against African Americans, Muslims, or the LGBT community anymore right? Oh wait...

Here's a list of the anti mutant organizations/villains in the X-Men titles.

• Bolivar Trask (creator of the sentinels) - Saw the rise of mutants as a threat to humanity.
• Church of humanity - Religious anti mutant hate group.
• Friends of humanity - Opposed to mutant civil rights, they view them as abominations of nature.
• Humanity's last stand - Their goal is to discredit mutants by framing their terrorist activities on them.
• Purifiers - Another religious group that views mutants as the spawn of satan.
• Donald Pierce - Hates just about anybody that isn't white, but has a genocidal outlook on mutants.
• The Right - Wants to exterminate and/or enslave every mutant, they view them as a sub-human species.
• The Leper Queen/ Sapien League - Wants to kill all mutants, she blames them for the death of her child (a mutant).
• Sublime/U-Men - Wants to keep mutants from becoming the dominant species on earth.
• Bastion - An advanced sentinel from the future that manipulated the masses using prominent political figureheads to increase anti-mutant sentiment in the MU.
• POTUS - While he doesn't hate mutants he doesn't want the public to view them as heroes either.

None of these people/organizations hate mutants because because they have powers, only the friends of humanity and the media use it as a talking point to bolster their position but the real reasons are largely prejudiced in nature and have nothing to do with their super-human attributes.

exactly.

though, if you were to make a distinction, there's also that many terrorist organizations band together as mutants, like The Brotherhood of (Evil) Mutants, the Acolytes, the Mutant Liberation Front, or Quire's New X-Men (that everyone else called the Omega Gang), all of which separated themselves from the rest of humanity for their cause.

The problem with new X books is that the don't sell so to improve numbers the old guard are brought in to boost sales and take over the book banishing the new blood to the D list again.

Way to blow my comment out of proportion. All I said was that the X-Men community as a whole needs development. 90% of the Marvel U still hates mutants and it's been that way since their creation. Over the course of history much has DEVELOPED within the American (and world) community to the point where Americans have a Black president with a muslim background. So where is our Mutant President? Oh wait, the one Mutant President we had died in a alternate future story. The X-Men represents a metaphor that has greatly evolved with the times and they should too.

• Like i said earlier, the x-men community probably have the most character development out of all the mainstream heroes.
• There are plenty of mutant sympathizers in the MU, Idk where you got that 90% figure from.
• Much has changed and much remains the same, sure we have a black president but we also have people that hate him because he's black.
• Perhaps the reason there's not a mutant president in the MU has less to do with the real world and more to do with the fact that it's a comic. A comic where they created giant robots to hunt down and kill mutants.
• There were white supremacist groups plotting against Obama when he first got elected, you think they wouldn't take a shot if they had the means to achieve their goals?
• To say that racial prejudice and bigotry has "greatly evolved with the times" is a subjective statement; one that i believe to be patently false.

QFFT.

Another thing I will never, ever understand, what do people who can nuke you with a stare, mind rape you, teleport you to the Mars or other variety of super-ways to make you suffer, have to do ANYTHING with religion and LGBT?

@adamtrmm: Discrimination. Discrimination? Discrimination?? Are you an actual fan of the X-Men or...?

@ageofhurricane:

Ha! Tricky one I guess. I'm an X-fan since my childhood, with the 90s animated series being the main cause. I've grown up now, and I want my X-men to grow too. There's an very nice conversation of mine and @oldnightcrawlerthere, if you're interested in how I view the X-men and what I want them to become.

Btw, you still avoided the question.

I actaully got in to the comics XMEN after AvX, so I'm loving their comics. And Marvel would never retire X_MEN.

I hate to say it, but it's possible you've timed/aged out and should consider retiring from X-Men comics. You should consider checking out Harbinger from Valiant. Very similar but fresh characters, or possibly the upcoming Inhumans title.

@illyanarasputin:

I agree in that I would like to see some of the characters progress further by retiring. Perhaps in the same way Jamie Madrox did at the end of X-Factor. Let a few of them move on, at least for a while. Make families, have kids, whatever.

I don't agree with @captainhoopla about you aging out as a reader and given some of the storylines and groups, what's wrong with some of the characters leaving for a couple years? At the rate Marvel is going with the re-launches, they'll only miss one iteration of most books anyway.

Sad to say, but I think you're right... I'm definitely going to pickup the new Inhumans title and I should definitely check out Harbinger from Valiant... Fresh characters are where I need to be right now.

I don't think you're ever too old for the X-Men comics. There's always going to be a time where you don't enjoy the direction the characters are going and give up on the comics (that's probably why I haven't been reading any of the current X-Men comics lately since I'm not interested at the moment at the direction they are going). But, I do agree that there are always other titles out there to check out! Like for instance, I'm enjoying Brian K. Vaughan's Saga series and John Layman's Chew series is really good too, so I would definitely check out those titles!