Has anyone thought about all the ruined potential over the years?

I was just thinking back to AvX, to that scene where Bobby was pipelining water into a desert (under Magik's guidance) to cure thirst in a third world country, and realizing how awesome that idea truly was. I mean 5 pheonix'd out X-Men taking care of the world. It was great, but then they went weird with Colossus and Magik (the whale lobsters?) and the rest of the team. That story could have been great, but then the Avengers came and ruined it.

BotA, that was another story with a great premise, but ended so awfully. I mean, I actually liked handle bar Piotr and warlock Bobby. Hell even future Kitty (Raze) was a fun twist. It could have even ended the ANXM appropriately, before it got worse, and it would have been fun. But no, ruined.

Any views/additions to this? Or am I the only one?

The death of Madelyne in the end of Inferno, the dead (imposed by Harras) of Revance…

The list is too long, but if I think only about the current stories, I can say the relationship between Rachel and Scott, during Avengers versus X-Men she acted like a Scott's infiltrate in the Jean Grey School, but that plot was dropped with the end of the event. The relationship between Teen Jean, Old Scott and Emma: how is possible why make them friends, killing the possibility to tell how the presence of Teen Jean, can influence the relationship between Old Scott and Emma?

Teen Scott that leave the Earth without Jean: why don't tell their tentative to create a new future among the stars, with Corsair who tries to break their relationship?

There are so many interesting cue dropped only in the last three years, that it is impossible to list all of them.

I confess, I have started to planning a comic of mine because I have seen too interesting stories, abandoned to tell more simple stories or to find some easy coup de theatre.

@dman1366: bendis broke up kitty and bobby because he(likes kitty best) wanted kitty with starlord to boost GotG sales. also bendis hates colossus and doesnt want him on his team

@hopesummersforthefuture: Bendis also hates Iceman

but he also loves teen bobby because hes lovable in ANXM

@hopesummersforthefuture: Yes, but does he bring any relevance to the story???

He's just there as comic relief...

That's "ruined potential"

This.

Bendis doesn't actually like any X-Men. It's just an easy check. He heard one time that Kitty is Jewish and he's Jewish and a bit of an egoist, so he uses her often because of that connection, even though that's not really a major part of her character.

His entire run has really been wasted potential. One example is when Emma Frost and alternate reality Jean Grey become friends...with no story-reason why. They have an off-panel conversation and then they are close, just like that. That is totally wasted story potential and very typical of the run.

lol thats what i said on another thread 0.0

I've sad it once and I will say it one more time-

"Four years of hinting, warning and alluding to the fact that the Mutant Messiah that everyone is turning to in the darkest hour of Mutantkind might actually turn evil only to have the story highjacked by an Avengers Movie plug that crippled the X-Men and resolved none of the most interesting plot points (all new mutants and Rogue being obssesed with Hope, several dark futures ending with Hope, Destiny's diaries being fought over for Hope) IS THE MOST WASTED POTENTIAL IN THE HISTORY OF MARVEL COMICS!!!!"

Love the art!

I will agree that Hope by far the biggest piece of wasted potential...so many ways they could have gone with her, so many plotlines they had built up and ready to go, only to completely drop them when the time came. Instead of being a real character with significance Hope ended up as literally nothing more than a plot device.

Also I agree with Dman in that...when the P5 first started out, they literally did nothing beyond provide food/water/aid/and stopping violence. Beast (who already had HUGE beef with Scott) even walked out on the Avengers when they were thinking of ways to kill them because they were actually doing good. Instead the Avengers kept poking the P5 with sticks until they Namor does what Namor does and went aggro on them. This could have been a great story point....Mutants doing REAL good for the world, people noticing, and then its the Avengers that start messing with things.

There was a brief mention I think in an early issue of UXM where it was said that this is part of the reason Scotts revolution has a decent degree of civilian support...but beyond that we never hear anything about it.

Which actually reminds me...the Revolution itself so far has been a HUGE waste. It started off so promising in my eyes, Scott rescuing persecuted mutants, showing up a rallies held by Humans supporting him, releasing videos, hitting SHIELD in regards to its Sentinals, and in general not playing nice with the powers that be....but since those early scenes UXM has been completely derailed from what was a good premise. Dragged into BOTA, and now the Last Will of Xavier....when was the last time we saw anything even remotely "revolutionary"?

Teen Jean isn't a Jean Grey from an alternate reality. Se is the Jean Grey of Earth 616, displaced in time and Bendis removed all doubt about that in Battle of the Atom Chaper 1: when Young Scott was killed by a sentinel, also Old Scott was erased by the existenced and only when Triage resurrected Young Scott, Old Scott reappeared in the main reality.

Said that, I can only agree with you: that friendship is a nonsense.

Lol was looking for the "Most Skilled Telepath" debate in my old post and saw @hopesummersforthefuture had tagged me in this so i stole it......i regret nothing

Avengers vs X-Men

Call me contentious but why would people want to see this?? Especially in a Phoenix kind of context...we have already seen this kind of thing happen with Jean Grey in the excellently executed Dark Phoenix Saga written over 3 decades ago. Then the whole character going bananas while possessed by the Phoenix has been done to death.....it's just treading the same old ground. That is the problem I kind of always have with most Marvel comics these days....no end game, they shouldn't have even of introduced Hope if the whole climax of her existence is not decided.

Well my interpretation of how it would've played out wouldn't have really seen it retread the Dark Phoenix Saga as much since the Phoenix wasnt a major factor in terms of what precogs, time travelers and the like say she would do. It seemed like it was just a sign that she was going to be powerful up until right before the start of AvX when its role seemingly jumped to center stage.


My idea was that in place of AvX, Hope(and possibly her lights) would gain the power of the Phoenix and restore the mutant population. Only the restored and new mutants would have the same connection (dedication/obsession) with Hope that her Lights and Rogue did. Hope would play her role as Messiah giving powers to new mutants and bringing the mutants back from extinction only for their obssesion with her and the humans fear of these new mutants to come to a head and Hope would either be forced to just become darker through the events. Some of the X-Men (Rogue) would join her to defend the mutants while others would be hesitant because stopping Hope might mean ending mutants but not doing anything would mean the humans and new mutants would go to war. Eventually it would be the old mutants (X-Men) pitted against Hope and her lights with the long story short being "Bishop was right".

That's sort of how i always thought things would play out to some extent using the info given to us. The Phoenix would really only be a battery in that sense and instead of the 2nd or 3rd Phoenix saga we'd be getting the 1st "Holy War Saga". Really Messiah Complex and 2nd Coming are unique enough, but the idea that the mutant that everyone is fighting and dying to protect is actually the biggest threat to the world is new ground.

*looks at the title again*

I will just leave this here:

Gallery

I guess there's no need to elaborate...

do they really need matthew malloy??? scott said xavier was a hypocrite and iceman said it makes scott feel better about himself. matthew becomes the new beyonder in secret wars/battleworld, lol

@adamtrmm: You have made remind me that in the nineties there was already been a schism, with the New Mutants who left the Xavier School to create X-Force with Cable. There was already an X-Nation: Genosha, which was ruled by Magneto. There was already something could have become what now is Uncanny Avengers: the governmental X-Factor.

There was already everything, but among the order of Bob "the dictator" Harris and the will of change everything of the Quesada & Co., all that was thrown in the trash and they prefered change everything to return in the starting point; making an enormous mess in the meantime.

Now instead with Uncanny X-Men who are a revolutionary team, what is the purpose of X-Force?

With Cyclops who is the most radical leader, what is the goal of Magneto?

@hopesummersforthefuture: In my opinion Malloy will not live untill Axis.

@ec2277:

I stopped trying to figure out if there's a sense to anything that's going on right now. Especially with SW coming out, everything feels unimportant now :(

@adamtrmm: I have the feeling that almost all the titles and a lot of characters, have only a purpose in this days: give to the readers something to read between an event and another. At least this is the feeling that I have reading All New X-Men, which is became a boring series of books livened up by some event like "Battle of the Atom", "The trial of Jean Grey" or "Black Vortex"; where these latter two seem have the only goal to push Guardians of the Galaxy. Although the first issues of All New X-Men were good and there are all the premise to build a great saga.

I think the same thing is happened to Hope, who after X-Men versus Avengers could be the core of a saga, on which the author could tell us how she will become the monster that Bishop said.

@koays Hope will become a monster and who was choose by Phoenix like its host?

Hope.

Rachel didn't kill nobody during the period on that she was Phoenix (neither the Beyonder) and who was choose by Phoenix like its true embodiment?

Jean, the woman whose emotions did crazy Phoenix, pushing it to destroy some billions of broccoli-men™.

Scott became one of the Phoenix 5 and when he obtain the entire power of Phoenix?

Only after the killing of Xavier.

What did Scott immediately after have obtained all that power?

He started to destroy the entire world, because he wasn't able to control the Phoenix and this forced Jean (who is one with Phoenix) to intervene to putting an end all that destruction.

I have some doubt about Phoenix and its logic.

Well, this would have been great and everything if you would have written it and executed this story but, unfortunately you didn't, and nothing came out of the story or the character.

Ever since Hope took the form of a young red headed girl she just has been surrounded by controversy of becoming the Phoenix or having some Phoenix potential, which, I for one, could care less about at this point. They always seemed to tout her as this great character and didn't do much to build on her importance.....at which point she becomes a plot device. All the "Messiah Trilogy" crossovers honestly reminded me of a modern day "X-Cutioners Song" with characters just scattered about fighting various groups of people with very little of an intriguing narrative. I have just never seen any potential in Hope other than 1--A plot device to undo M-Day, or 2--Another vessel for the overused Phoenix plot point. I am honestly glad that her momentum, or lack there of was stifled.

@ec2277: What logic are you attributing to the Phoenix? The point with people that use the Phoenix is that the Phoenix only serves to empower them and that having that power does not mix well with negative human emotions. The Phoenix is not directly responsible for the actions of its vessels, it is their own inner darkness that corrupts the bond, the Phoenix is a force of passion, the stronger the passion the hotter the flame which is why all it took for Dark Cyclops to be stopped was him letting go. How many times does the statement no one can control the Phoenix be uttered before people realize that it is true? You have to be in control of yourself in order to prevent a Dark Phoenix manifestation, and having absolute power tends to make people lose control of themselves, as it becomes easier to give in to your darkest base emotions when you have the power of creation and destruction just a thought away. It was shown with Jean, before Mastermind she had control of herself so she was able to control how much power she used, as she was corrupted her dark side surfaced and the Phoenix went dark. Rachel decided to use the Phoenix to redeem Jean and that was enough to keep her from going dark, but when she felt there was no way to stop the Beyonder she was ready to destroy everything, until she was forced to experience the minds of all living which took her away from the dark place that would have kill all those people in order to stop something she was trying to protect them from. We see it again in HCT Jean is confused and Beast uses that confusion to have her kill his enemies, when her confusion is ended she is no longer under his sway, and removes his corruption. She then nearly kills the universe because she is still confused but once gaining her composure heals it. The we have Endsong, where the force is only going crazy because it thought it was Jean and went nuts due to her emotions, she is then mind linked gaining control over those emotions and her self and saves her friends.

The Phoenix is not good or evil it simply is, the host/vessel/avatar is responsible for what they do when they have its power whether they know it or not.

@cattlebattle: Also I'm in the opinion that Hope was only a plot device: if Phoenix need an host, why don't use Rachel or resurrect Jean, even if they would have been the most logical choices?

Because with Rachel or Jean, the writers couldn't have write the Messiah Trilogy. So the writers have conceived a new character (strangely similar to Jean and connected with the Phoenix) and a great saga. They have put that character on the centre of the saga. After that saga they started another great event: Avengers versus X-Men. After the event they renewed all the Marvel titles and then they threw in the trash Hope, because they had not any other project about her.

Hope was a money maker, but now isn't more a money maker. The new money maker are Teen Jean and Secret Wars.

@cattlebattle: Well see that's the thing, as hyped up as she was as this plot device, they only truly failed her once she was back in our time.

Messiah Complex, 2nd coming. They were about raising the stakes to the point that you knew this character was going to be a game changer. But the only problem is that when it came time.to characterize her she came off unlikeable or lacking dept.

Hope still has a very original back story and the questions and assumptions made about her prior to the payoff are some of the best long term build up we've had in the X-books. To me its just sad that the character fell flat on her face the moment 2nd coming was over and it was time to prove her importance. Otherwise hard to agree that the build up wasn't there until that moment.

I'm not the only one who thinks the younger X-Men characters are being wasted am I? I mean I'm glad they seem to be getting a slightly bigger push in certain titles like Spider-Man & the X-Men, XX-Men sometimes and Amazing X-Men but the majority of them have just been reduced to background fill-ins. I also don't get why out of all the younger X-Men characters, Pixie was the only one who graduated while the others are still students.

I liked what Wood was doing with the younger X-Men actively going out and getting involved in the current events. I wouldn't have minded if the sub-plot of Psylocke and maybe another X-Men character (preferably one of the New Mutants) had continued on training the younger characters again.

@ec2277:

I think the same thing is happened to Hope, who after X-Men versus Avengers could be the core of a saga, on which the author could tell us how she will become the monster that Bishop said.

Yes! I always thought that Cable was given precognition for a reason. I was wrong...

I had a similar idea to what @koays mentioned as far as the Dark messiah story with Hope. I just had some additional things happening to her and the lights which gives her an even bigger push. I think such a story would also help with the travesty that was done to Bishop. And talk about irony with the Xmen's dream and their protection of Hope.... God what a waste

Just as an example of the lost potential with Hope and that story.... there's a book by Marie Lu called Young Elites. Basically its a villain origin story but you see the motivations behind this person becoming a villain. In reading it you might find yourself sympathizing with her. I always thought this is sort of what Hope's story should have been. The more I think about it AVX was really unnecessary. I would say that if it just had to happen then it should have been done with Civil War under the premise of Mutant Registration and the registered and unregistered heroes thing. It felt like with Hope and AVX and everything with her they just ran out of ideas and hit a wall as to what they wanted to do with her. I guess in some way it could still be salvaged but it's not looking hopeful.