It seems like a common complaint among many X-men fans here is that nothing much is being done with the New X-Men characters, that they should get their own book or be given more roles in existing books. While I can definitely empathize with this sentiment, what I don't understand is the logic behind the idea that because these characters aren't being used other characters that are being used are somehow at fault.

The New Mutants (1983), for example, ran for about 7 years before getting cancelled, and when they did get cancelled, almost all of the original members had left the team, been de-powered, or died. For a few years there just was no student team, and then we got Generation X (1994), a new class for a new generation.

Again, Generation X lasted about 7 years before getting cancelled, and most of the characters were relegated to character limbo. This time it made a little more sense, in that most of them were old enough to graduate, and there was a new school opening up in New X-Men (2001), with, again, a new generation of students.

Some of those students would survive to be in New Mutants (2003) and New X-Men (2004), but really, this class was the next generation. This class didn't last quite as long as the NM or GX, but that was really only because they finished their term as full on X-men. Which is itself kind of cool, since they were the first class of students to really do that since the original team.

Like the original team, though, once they realized they didn't have to be X-men, they discovered they'd lost a taste for it, apparently. Like most of the original members (and also Kitty), after spending their childhood as superheroes, they opted to go back to school and live like normal kids. Which, to me, is fine.

Especially since I know they'll all be back eventually. Remember how awesome it was to see the original New Mutants get back together in 2009? Or how the Generation X kids are all congregating at the new school? that's cool.. Or how Quire finally got to make a comeback after his brief but seminal origin story? It'll be that kind of refreshing to see the New X-men come back, it'll be that kind of cool.

In the meantime, I am actually interested in the group lined up for the relaunch of Wolverine & the X-Men (Armor, Broo, Oya, Quire, Evan, etc..). And I'm really getting into Uncanny X-Men and it has the Cuckoos and an intriguing new cast of students as well.

So basically, as much as I'm glad I have a lot more X-men books to choose from than ever before, I'm also kind of glad that I don't have to pick between every generation of characters all the time.

Because then they'd probably just give up making new ones.

Well, it's because people have developed interest in characters like Anole, Hellion, Rockslide, Dust, X-23 etc and apparently they are just floating around doing nothing. Then, they just bring in even more new mutants. It's sort of excessive.

the problem is that nrw characters get created yet not much time is truly put into there development. u cant just create a character u need a good back story & premise to follow so that the readers can see them transition & expand as an individual character instead of always developing as a group even the cuckoos needed individuality to make them more interesting

My whole problem is with the process that newer mutants have to go through nowadays is more along the lines that whenever I look at a new batch of mutant kidsit takes me some time before I actually care about the characters and given the track record of this process I find myself asking what's the point in caring about these new kids if about 80% would be forgotten completely. I mean yes this is a case for new characters in general and not just the X-kids but it doesn't really make the pill any less harder to swallow. And sometimes in the long run my main problem is that for some of these X-kids you just see a huge amount potential (either from a power perspective or a character perspective) and you can't help but feel sad that their potential will most likely never be met or expanded upon.

@johnnygat: exactly

yeah, I get that, and I really like those characters too. I'm just pointing out that even those characters only exist because they were replacing some other character roles. I'm not saying it's not excessive, but a majority of characters I like have been created and introduced this way.

Good point. I like how they brought the Cuckoos back as main characters for that reason; they've been around long enough that it seems like we should know them better by now, which is part of what makes them cool. Like the later New X-men, they became mainly background characters before they were developed much, but it happened much sooner, and for longer for them. So it's cool to see them with the new team. I guess I sort of feel the same about Quire on Wolverine's team, the fact that, after almost ten years I didn't know if or when he'd come back made me excited to see him again, and made me want to give some new characters a chance, even if just to see his character get developed.

i love quentin quire but he has been dumbed down so much since waphoenix endsong & id like for him ro show more of his badass side instead of just being another hellion... i mean isnt Q.Q a super smart as well as having powerful TP

I totally agree with this sentiment, but, theoretically, most characters will come back if they have any kind of potential at all. They'll keep inspiring people to bring them back because they give them new ideas. Cypher was the most unpopular X-men character in the mid 80's, it took him more than twenty years, and coming back from the dead, but he finally showed his true potential. How long had Madrox been around before Peter David gave him his own distinct mythology? 30 years? but it was worth the wait.

Heck, Iceman just realized he could basically destroy the world by thinking about it last year. Just last year. They all come back.

@oldnightcrawler:

I miss 616 blink i mean she came back from the dead and then it was nothing??? what was the point of bringing her back for nothing. Also isnt Feral back in x-factor, oh wait she wasnt a new mutant, forget it???

I think they were thinking New Mutants might last longer than it did, and they already had such a great cast.

Yes, but these characters were never even really fleshed out, then they just introduce more and more.

yeah, but when they were introduced there were other characters who hadn't been fleshed out around already as well, so, to my mind, they are sort of the beginning of that more and more trend.

They had their own book and were spread out among a lots of others, and there still just proved to be too many of them to flesh them all out or establish a specific group identity.

Now there's actually different teams of characters at different schools, some new, and some previously under appreciated gems, and each group has more of it's own identity. To me, it seems like a better way to do it.

I'm fine with some of the new mutants as I actually like them. I just wish that Aaron would've integrated some of the previous X-students into the stories like Hellion, Anole, Surge, Rockslide, etc. Sure they make some cameos here and there but mainly we've just been focusing on Quentin, Broo, Idie, and Evan mainly in WaTX. I'm hoping that in the relaunch some of the older background X-students will be used more than just for the occasional background appearance

My problem is that the characters that I've been invested in disappear completely or just become background fodder. From the New X-Men (2004) we got probably the largest student body and they've done a pretty good job since then exploring a lot of side characters. But then I think about the latest issue of X-Men vol. 4 where Psylocke and Rachel mention Surge and I realize that despite the important development that she had within New X-Men as a leader of her generation and an X-Men all of that became irrelevant the moment the book ended. None of the characters from that book, even when having two books centered on schools, have had any presence in X-books out side of guest spots for Hellion since then.

I know that there are too many X-Characters for everyone to have their own focus, but when they ask me to get focused on characters like Oya, Evan and Broo (despite there potential) my only thought is "What happened to the New X-Men/Young X-Men/kids from X-men Legacy that played that role, that you told me to focus on?".

My mom always told me to finish playing with the toys I had before I could go get new ones, and she didn't buy me more everytime I broke one.

This debate is an ongoing one. I loves the development and concept of that huge class in Academy X. That idea was one of the few thats transcendent in recent times. For Aaron to do what he's done with Schism and all is a travesty. I know the original poster and I have gone aroind and around about this before but I feel that the new characters that have been created by Bendis and Aaron and for that matter even the ones the WATX books seem to want to focus on are not worth it for me. Im actually only interested Oya. I never like Quire with the pink hair and just doin stuff fir the hell of it. Broo makes me wonder if Im reading Star wars or Gremlins, so never been a fan, and thats nothing new since I thought the idea of Lockheed back in the day was stupid too. Evan I just dont get and think its a bad concept. For the Bendis bunch I dislike all of them and Im only slightly interested in Tempus and Hijack and I guess the Cuckoos are ok. Ive argued constantly that the New Mutans and Gen X should get more spotlight, so basically telling me this has happened before is not comforting. Its as aggravating as the treatment given to the others. How i wish Academy X:New Xmen had been given 7 years

Just two factors for New X-men, powers and personalities.

I don't like the concept of teen heroes, but for some reason Decimation hardships made me relate to this exact lineup, plus awesome stories by K/Y. DePhilipis ans Weir first issues were a bit boring, but they introduced the great basis and characters to evolve. In the end, it were K/Y who made me fall for these kids. Many accuse them for including their "pet" X23 and making the stories revolve around her for a big part, I wasn't bothered, the Facility story with Mercury was outstanding, X23 and Hellion were so sweet :) (honorable mention also goes to their Emma Frost, she was at her really best for the last time I remember) And many other things that made this run the best teen-based book I was ever interested in.

I can't relate to anyone until I see my favorites get their spotlight lol

Well they cant really do anything 'coz Wolverine and Co don't want them involved, that was idea behind the school in the first place.

They could have written the characters to be involved somehow.

I agree with this. Instead of giving them a complete development, creators and writes have came up with many new characters lately and saying a little bit of them...with barely any backgrounds or story. I created 50 characters so far...and 23 of them with backgrounds and story...I still have to complete the rest of them though.

@oldnightcrawler said:

It seems like a common complaint among many X-men fans here is that nothing much is being done with the New X-Men characters, that they should get their own book or be given more roles in existing books. While I can definitely empathize with this sentiment, what I don't understand is the logic behind the idea that because these characters aren't being used other characters that are being used are somehow at fault.

The New Mutants (1983), for example, ran for about 7 years before getting cancelled, and when they did get cancelled, almost all of the original members had left the team, been de-powered, or died. For a few years there just was no student team, and then we got Generation X (1994), a new class for a new generation.

Again, Generation X lasted about 7 years before getting cancelled, and most of the characters were relegated to character limbo. This time it made a little more sense, in that most of them were old enough to graduate, and there was a new school opening up in New X-Men (2001), with, again, a new generation of students.

Some of those students would survive to be in New Mutants (2003) and New X-Men (2004), but really, this class was the next generation. This class didn't last quite as long as the NM or GX, but that was really only because they finished their term as full on X-men. Which is itself kind of cool, since they were the first class of students to really do that since the original team.

Like the original team, though, once they realized they didn't have to be X-men, they discovered they'd lost a taste for it, apparently. Like most of the original members (and also Kitty), after spending their childhood as superheroes, they opted to go back to school and live like normal kids. Which, to me, is fine.

Especially since I know they'll all be back eventually. Remember how awesome it was to see the original New Mutants get back together in 2009? Or how the Generation X kids are all congregating at the new school? that's cool.. Or how Quire finally got to make a comeback after his brief but seminal origin story? It'll be that kind of refreshing to see the New X-men come back, it'll be that kind of cool.

In the meantime, I am actually interested in the group lined up for the relaunch of Wolverine & the X-Men (Armor, Broo, Oya, Quire, Evan, etc..). And I'm really getting into Uncanny X-Men and it has the Cuckoos and an intriguing new cast of students as well.

So basically, as much as I'm glad I have a lot more X-men books to choose from than ever before, I'm also kind of glad that I don't have to pick between every generation of characters all the time.

Because then they'd probably just give up making new ones.

I really miss Gen X, but i am diggin' the Uncanny team

well, the idea was that they'd give them a sanctuary, a place where they wouldn't have to fight, a place where they could just go to school and be kids. And that, after all they'd been through, that's the place that most of them chose.

It's a fundamental difference in Cyclops' and Wolverine's approach: Cyclops was trained as a kid to send other kids into dangerous situations, and sees it as his duty to prepare them for the worst. Wolverine, on the other hand, has seen how the world takes advantage of mutants and sees it as his duty to protect them, thus choosing his proteges with more care.

Me too.

Now that Jubilee and M are both at the school on Storm's team, maybe we'll get some more interaction between them and Chamber and Husk. It would seem a bit of a waste to have them all there and not have some kind of reunion issue.

@cutter: I think we talked about this before, I'm ready to see your new characters. I would bet that they are more interesting and better than Bendis' or Aaron's muck

A realist's perspective is one that needs to be obtained whilst treading on these waters. Weir and DeFillipis successfully paved the way for an actual new era of X-Kids within modern settings and upon execution they delicately melted many hearts with their creations and developments.

The NM and Gen X are reminiscent of a more retrograde teen-X-era, for all the good they did and fan-base accumulation they also may have garnered. The NM are practically adults now and for the majority, are all doing their own things save for some select few--so they are the most successful out of the three re-creations, where Gen X is concerned most of their cast members did go on to successfully land spots in other titles as well, and like the NM who are in absence of a home title they're also generally split-up (even though you have gems like Wood who'd go out of his way to make use of character interaction history and familial bonds for his stories).

But times have changed. The corporatist machine that is Marvel has no desire or interest to appeal to old-time fans by relaunching peripheral series (that were quite successful in their own days) and kick-staring new stories for existing characters because that's all too much work for them and these characters are obviously collateral. Instead, we get what we've been getting since the birth of Hope Summers and that is the accretion of redundant power-sets and characters within an already convoluted franchise.

Bendis and Aaron's newest contributions to the franchise don't generally receive that much positive fan reception because within the narrative not much reason is given for fans to be going head over heels for them. And they're also a reminder that characters who are still available and have their stories untold are doing nothing but rotting in the background, waiting for a miracle, languishing in obscurity because there are supposedly some new toys to play with. It's just disrespectful and a waste of time. Bendis fails to provide pathos and substance when approaching his characters and story, but then that's a given lmfao so i'm just like..."so why are you here, exactly?" it's more so of an insult when these characters have the EXACT SAME POWERS as other characters who are apparently nowhere to be found at this point in time, see Elixir and 'Triage' along with Tempus and Kidden Nixon. I'm just like..."why? What's the point?" It makes you wonder about how creative teams view these characters and just how much they respect the intelligence of fans that are blindly buying their titles.

Aaron deliberately refrained from making use of the NXM even though he's the one that set the mandate but we get characters like Eye-Boy and Shark-Girl...it's just silly. Had these new creations gone through the whole 'trial by fire' procedure that is the standard that their predecessors went through prior to being shafted then i'd probably have a contrary take. But no. They take space and waste space. It's all just tacky, rude but most of all disrespectful.

None of this matters as they'll continue to bob around the X-World akin to rubber ducks in sewage waste with no particular consequential involvement save for something eye-opening here and there, but whatevs.

Also...lol, what makes you think the NXM are gonna make a comeback in the future?

I've been hoping for a while now that there would just make an ongoing Youth In Revolt book that would basically be a series of one shots and mini series following all of the younger characters marvel doesn't care about. Avengers Academy kids, young mutants, big hero 6, the cast of the initiative, alpha, lots of others. Basically a DC Comics Presents but for younger Marvel characters. I mean they have been dragging on A+X for like a year now and its the same thing pretty much.

@ageofhurricane: Well said. I agree wholeheartedly

so the characters that have been around longer have been in more stories and have more fans, I'm with you so far..

see, but that could just as easily be describing the New X-Men. I mean, who among them had original power-sets? maybe Prodigy? I can't think of any others.

if there are fans blindly buying their titles, I've never met them.

and, I mean, isn't it a bit besides the point if characters have the same powers as others? I mean, other than Cyclops, even the original X-men didn't have completely unique powers. Who were their next recruits? Havok and Polaris? you see what I mean. I mean, never mind that your comparing characters that have been around a matter of months to ones that have been around a decade or longer.

Again, these characters are still new, so of course they haven't been as well developed. You could make the same argument about any group of new characters. I mean, what makes the New X-men so special that the students that Morrison or Whedon created become background characters or are written out completely?

The New X-men are just as guilty of this, and Bendis and Aaron's characters are just as likely to become someone's favorites given the same exposure.

all marvel characters come back eventually, especially X-men. It's more naive to think they wouldn't.

I think at least in part some of it has to do with the silliness and sometime lack of creativity of the current writers who have created these new characters. The huge class of Academy X had a different feel from previous ones imo. I certainly think that the New Xmen deserved a longer run.

Uh, they didn't? Quire was shelved by Morrison, not anyone else. Dust was picked up by Academy X, hell people hated Austen's run but Academy X still used Icarus for their rooster, the Cuckoos were plenty used too. The mission statement for New X-Men was a combat team so yeah, Xorn's special class wasn't exactly the right fit. They never the less were picked up for New Warriors. Whedon and Cassady's OWN delays kept Armor away. Either Armor was not on a team yet or Kitty was already in space that's the timeline Kyost were dealing with. AFTER Whedon was done, Armor was used in New X-Men and Pixie Strikes Back. Blindfold was used in New X-Men and became the lead in Young X-Men.

Wolverine and the X-Men on the other hand sports a rooster of one Morrison character, no Academy X/New X-Men characters, no Whedon characters, no Young X-Men characters, and one Gen X character. And all these characters they are not using ARE still in stuck at this school, yet Wolverine expicietly passes them over when taking fieldtrips because surely characters like Hellion or Surge would never have issues worth addressing. We aren't even allowed the illusion they might have lives off screen.

@denam_pavel: sorry, my point was that that wasn't a good argument, but I can see how that's not very obvious now.

@hawk2916:

Thank you.

see, but that could just as easily be describing the New X-Men. I mean, who among them had original power-sets? maybe Prodigy? I can't think of any others.

...Oh, hahaha, i see what you did there. Funny guy. Rhetorical question hahaha, i'm sure...

if there are fans blindly buying their titles, I've never met them.

and, I mean, isn't it a bit besides the point if characters have the same powers as others? I mean, other than Cyclops, even the original X-men didn't have completely unique powers. Who were their next recruits? Havok and Polaris? you see what I mean. I mean, never mind that your comparing characters that have been around a matter of months to ones that have been around a decade or longer.

Yes. Not such a pleasant experience getting to know them and their psychological syntax as one would think.

Um, no. No, it is not. With the X-Men, aside from Claremont and PAD, most writers lack the finesse and creative edge to weave the main narrative around a powered down character (as a part of the cast for the long-term) or normal human being without having them fill some sort of stereotypical trope. It's never a compelling enough portrayal or conveyance through the lay-person's POV before the character does something ooc and crassly absurd otherwise they're dangling around to the point where readers are often left underwhelmed by the character's motivations and overall presence being that they're in a power-saturated narrative setting.

With that said, it's important to take into consideration that a mutant's power is, in fact, a definitive trait. A form of identification. A method of stamping your presence and self onto the battlefield and the prejudiced world at large. Where the X-Men are concerned, a family who've banded together in light of the archetypical societal misconceptions because they have these powers and with these powers comes psychological association. When you think of an optic blast you associate Scott Summers because that's his power and nobody else has that. It's him. Cyclops. That's who he is and nobody else has that distinc trait. When you think of a mutant female wielding the weather you associate the thought with Storm because that's her. That's who she is and nobody else has or will have that (i would hope). The inference is that in some ways more than one, these characters are their powers and vice verse. It's intrinsically holistic and you can't just get one without the other unless circumstances provide valid justification and you can't just flat-out copy or disrespect it.

This is what BendisxAaron lack with their characters. No personal resonance or depth. No reason to dig deeper and look beneath the surface to decipher the subtext because we are given absolutely no subtext. Nothing that makes them particularly distinct. The lot of'em are blander than pieces of cardboard boxes, but with Bendis at the very least, it is a given. Nothing that has them stand out of the crowd. Generic quotas of cannon fodder. Even the Gen Hope characters were given intriguing back-stories and introspective soliloquies to get the reader into their heads. This lot provide nothing. It's like since NXM, it's just less and less imagination, more and more convolution.

all marvel characters come back eventually, especially X-men. It's more naive to think they wouldn't.

Tell that to the Synch fans, Banshee fans, James Proudstar fans, the Laurie Collins fans, the Rubbermaid fans, the Jean Grey fans (lol most definitely the Jean Grey fans) and the fans of all the other characters who have of yet to prove this assertion of yours.

@ageofhurricane: yes synch was badass & died way before hus time. i still feel he is alive someware i mean look @ the people he came into contact with during the necrosha event. between elixir, wolverine, & x-23 synch could have healed himself of the transmode virus as well as death & use vanisher's power to leave the island before selene tried to absorb the mutants

@xspectre28: That would be an awesome development. I hope someone does this soon. What team would you put him on? I'd love to see him on Cyclops Uncanny team

@hawk2916: far as team placement, it would have to depend on what je has been doin since his revival. he died to save both humans & mutants but i feel that synch would respect scott for all he has done. so id say either scott's team, or be with magneto, or even reestablish a new gen x team with x-man, chamber, blink, husk, & mondo

Yes we did...and they're all coming out pretty cool. I'm working on them with the Photoshop. I'm doing their (gold) metal first, then their clothes, but I might post a couple unfinished drawings ...just so ya can get a hint of my characters. I do have a nice portfolio though.

I'd like to point out that I never said that the new X-men didn't deserve a longer run. If they still had their own book, or were in another, I would most likely read it.

I'm just pointing out that they were around for almost as long, and of equal or greater significance to the overall story, than the groups that preceded them. And that judging other characters for not being them is pointless.

I'm a big fan of how characters' powers can be seen as a manifestation of their personalities (and vice versa), it was probably the most important idea that the original marvel writers had. But it's not as cut and dried as you're making it out to be. Sure, characters like Quicksilver and Northstar share many "speedster" traits, such as being rash, arrogant, as well as genuinely clever, but Northstar is not Quicksilver. And neither is Serge. Elixir is not Healer, Dust is not Sandman, Blindfold is not Destiny, X-23 is not Wolverine, and the Cuckoos are not Emma or interchangeable. Simply, a character's power can express about their personality, but that doesn't mean it is their personality.

Firstly, I don't think it's fair to say they have no depth when they're all still so new.

Also, I don't think that's entirely the case. I think Bendis is thinking quite a lot about the concept of identity with his new group of characters, and though that's a bit of a trope for X-students, I think he's actually going about it in a pretty interesting way. The development of the Cuckoos struggling with their identity as both individuals and a group, Deeds feelings of inadequacy, the completely overwhelmed feeling that permeates the new characters as a group, these themes are nothing new; but, the precision with which Bendis has envisioned them is very earthy and singular.

There are no superhero powers among them, no specifically combat powers anyway, no out of the box and fight. And Though none of them have original powers, they, as a group, all have the kinds of quirky, non-traditional powers that turn plots. As a group, all of that makes makes them pretty distinct, giving the group itself a unique character. And as parts of that context, they each stand out as distinct, and I feel like they can develop as even more distinct characters because of it.

To be fair, Jean Grey is back; but yeah, not every character who dies comes back. But every character who doesn't die, and a lot who do, do come back.

@oldnightcrawler: he means jean grey fans want the actual jean back not a time displaced replacement or character that was meant to be a reincarnation(hope)

I know what he means, I just find the distinction between the All-new Jean and the original character to be arbitrary.

@oldnightcrawler: we want the old jean back because alot of what jas happened to the x-men since jean died would have went differently had jean lived. we want to gauge her reactions to the events & her feelings on the directionsof mutant relations & interactions we are ready for this borderline can go psycho jean to go back

alright, which Jean are you talking about then? the original Jean, or the 1986 Jean?

@oldnightcrawler: im talking about wanting the original jean or current 616 when i said we want jean back & send psycho jean or the teen time displacedd jean back to past

the distinction is arbitrary.

@oldnightcrawler: how do u figure one experienced & the other only knows because she basiclly has been mindraping those she has come into contact with for the info. i care none for how the past jean feels or views the future if anything is arbitrary having two scotts, hanks, bobbys & warrens is. to me the concept of having the o5 is to not have to bring the current version of jean back. having current x-men & the galactic counsel judge teen scott & teen jean for crimes the have yet to commit yet noone is blaming teenwarren for his past transgressions

I think what needs to be understood here is that, it's the writer's purview to choose to tell stories about the characters that are of interest to said writer. Not the fans. Now that might be a hard truth to take in, but it's a truth nonetheless. The only influence the fan base has over which characters gain exposure, or not, is with their financial support, or lack thereof. When the writer comes on board any given title, they're going to choose the characters they have the most interest in writing. On some level, they're fans, too, and they've just been given the opportunity to write their favorite characters, which they do. Which is what anyone would do.

After One More Day, there was an editorial mandate over in the Spider-Man titles, forcing the writers to create new adversaries for Spider-Man. Which they did. Some of those new villains were fairly well thought out, and pretty cool. Ultimately, though, as much as the fan base might like Mr. Negative or Menace, they want Doctor Octopus or the Green Goblin.... and so do the writers. So most of those new villains will end up falling into obscurity, & the focus will return to the classic line-up, which it, largely, did. It's the same situation with the X-Men.

There's also a business aspect that fans, generally, don't put much thought into. Love him or hate him, Wolverine sells comics. So, there's clearly going to be a push from the publisher to put him front and center of as many books as they can. That's actually a good thing. Because if Wolverine is helping to insure a healthy bottom line, then that allows someone like Peter David to come along, grab a handful of obscure X-Men related characters, and carve out his own little niche with them. The publisher, maybe, isn't as worried about how many copies of X-Factor are selling, if Wolverine is picking up it's slack with big sales on other titles.

My favorite X-Man is Banshee. I have absolutely no illusions that Banshee will ever hold down his own solo title, or ever rise to prominence within the larger X-Universe again. The fact that he's dead is a pretty good indicator of how much interest the writers have in Banshee. It's also a fair indicator of how much interest the fan base has, too. If Banshee were a wildly popular character, he wouldn't be dead. He wouldn't have spent nearly a decade without the use of his mutant powers. He wouldn't be on the fringe of the X-Universe. But that's where he is. And that's where all these other characters, like Mercury, and Surge, and Rockslide are. Regardless of how much potential they may or may not have, that's where they're going to stay, too.

@oldnightcrawler said:

Like the original team, though, once they realized they didn't have to be X-men, they discovered they'd lost a taste for it, apparently. Like most of the original members (and also Kitty), after spending their childhood as superheroes, they opted to go back to school and live like normal kids. Which, to me, is fine.

the only ones who have left are the ones who were depowered on M-Day...the rest are still at the JGS

@chalkshark: Then going by your argument, it would seem that since Wolverine the be all end all and prime mover of comic book sales as you allude, then just like PAD other writers should be free to focus on good stories and using characters in a way that would appeal to the diehard fans. I happen to think that just because you throw Wolverine in a book doesnt mean that in and of itself can atone for bad writing. Also how would you explain the fact that the New Xmen for instance was selling well, consistently outselling PAD's Xfactor and other books, yet it was cancelled. The Defenders for instance has never sold well yet in still it keeps coming back. I believe that there is a way to satisfy the company financially as well as the fans and its not by flooding the market with 10-12 books and have half of them feature Wolverine. But as long as people continue to try and justify the lack of creativity,vision and overall laziness thats being exhibited and expressed today, while trying to disguise it as an educated explaination of a business model, then I guess they will continue to churn out increasingly inferior product.

@xspectre28: amen to that!!!! Teen Jean isnt even being written in character. I get the feeling that Im reading the Carrie version that we got in the movies. The whole concept of the O5 was ridiculous to begin with. And you bring up a great point regarding Angel. To add to that what about Iceman who recently almost destroyed the world? Professor X hasnt notice that his students are missing yet? And my oh my... what will happen to world in the past since the O5 is not there to protect it.. is Magneto running wild? And now everyone is suppose to ignore continuity and forget history and one of the biggest xmen stories, for what, so we can have a meaningless trial and act like nothing remotely close has ever happened before and we are witnessing groundbreaking writing and character development at its best?!!! Please. What a waste of time that could clearly be spent further developing characters. Let's not forget that the xmen were virtually cancelled when it was just the O5 "the strangest superheroes of them all".

@hawk2916: My primary point is that the writers are going to write the characters they want to write, which will not, necessarily, appeal to Dust's diehard fan base. If you were the writer, you would do the exact same thing. Now, you might choose to write the students from the New X-Men series, but that's still you, choosing to write your favorite characters, or the characters that interest you the most . That's not you doing it to appease the fans. The fan base doesn't sign your pay check, so the fan base doesn't get to have a voice in what you write. That's not to say that you can't take the fan base's interests into account. You absolutely can, but you're not required to do so.

And yes, it is absolutely because characters like Wolverine and Spider-Man bring in the money, that Marvel will take a chance on publishing a new Defenders book, or have Legion be the star of an X-Title, or publish an Avengers title that stars a bunch of robots. I can't tell you why New X-Men was cancelled and X-Factor wasn't. I can say that it isn't always about the numbers. Sometimes, the editorial department decides to tilt the paradigm and books that don't fit the new model get dropped. I think Peter David is a bit of a special case. For whatever reason, he seems to be allowed to work in his own little corner, with "his" characters, and was largely left alone. X-Factor didn't seem to be required to participate in every single event. It tended to have pretty minimal contact with the other X-Titles. X-Factor has not been a strong seller, but Marvel seemed to turn a blind eye to it's sales, and continued to publish it.

I'm not trying to justify any lack of creativity, vision, or overall laziness. I don't work for Marvel Comics. I don't have to defend them. I've got nothing invested in their product, other than the money I spend on the titles I choose to read. What the fan base needs to understand, though, is that Marvel is always going to "churn out increasingly inferior product" while "flooding the market with 10-12 books" featuring Wolverine... or Spider-Man... because the fan base continues to support those titles. You get what you pay for, and that is what the majority of the fan base is telling Marvel that it wants. All you can do, as someone who doesn't want that, is not support it. If enough people like you, stop buying what Marvel is selling, then you might.... might.... see some changes in what does, or doesn't, get published.

The problem is, ANXM sells are ridiculously good, much more then they deserve, and so they stay.

exactly!

unless, like you say, a writer who is interested in them gets a chance to write them. Which I still think will happen with most characters eventually. Banshee was around for more than 25 years before he was put in a really central role, and he owned it. I'm sure many of the New X-men will do the same at some point.

I'm a big fan of how characters' powers can be seen as a manifestation of their personalities (and vice versa), it was probably the most important idea that the original marvel writers had. But it's not as cut and dried as you're making it out to be. Sure, characters like Quicksilver and Northstar share many "speedster" traits, such as being rash, arrogant, as well as genuinely clever, but Northstar is not Quicksilver. And neither is Serge. Elixir is not Healer, Dust is not Sandman, Blindfold is not Destiny, X-23 is not Wolverine, and the Cuckoos are not Emma or interchangeable. Simply, a character's power can express about their personality, but that doesn't mean it is their personality.

The character juxtapositions negate your point (which is just as (if not more) arbitrary as mine) because even within these instances there are definitive niches and traits within the comparisons that distinguish them greatly from one another. Even in Destiny and Blindfold's case an opportunity was taken to vigorously soak the narrative and have it teeming with fruitful interactions by intertwining the two's histories and physiological similarities to form a whole new world of possibilities. That's called writers subconsciously working in tandem to innovate the mythos and lore of their characters whilst keeping things fresh and not pervading the problem of stagnation and character convolution.

In relation to Triage and Tempus...lmao.

Firstly, I don't think it's fair to say they have no depth when they're all still so new.

Also, I don't think that's entirely the case. I think Bendis is thinking quite a lot about the concept of identity with his new group of characters, and though that's a bit of a trope for X-students, I think he's actually going about it in a pretty interesting way. The development of the Cuckoos struggling with their identity as both individuals and a group, Deeds feelings of inadequacy, the completely overwhelmed feeling that permeates the new characters as a group, these themes are nothing new; but, the precision with which Bendis has envisioned them is very earthy and singular.

There are no superhero powers among them, no specifically combat powers anyway, no out of the box and fight. And Though none of them have original powers, they, as a group, all have the kinds of quirky, non-traditional powers that turn plots. As a group, all of that makes makes them pretty distinct, giving the group itself a unique character. And as parts of that context, they each stand out as distinct, and I feel like they can develop as even more distinct characters because of it.

No need to brazenly reach. A passionate writer who is dedicated to the fleshing out of their creations' motivations, histories, quirks, personalities and overall story contribution will take more than enough time and creative effort to provide the readers and fans a justification for their existence right off the damned bat. I can give Bendis the benefit of the doubt in that he takes an inexplicable amount of time to progress his stories (which provide for an underwhelming finish), but his characters have been around long enough. No excuses for that. His team have been around long enough, yet they have done nothing of consequential value.

A creation should be an extension of some imaginative aspect of yourself and of who you are, further cementing your flavour in a franchise. Bottom line is, Bendis has flat out failed in given this particular reader a good enough reason to care for his characters because, to be frank, there ain't much to care about.

They don't even feel like a group with proper dynamic due to their creator's interjection of Bendispeak as opposed to character voice to help distinguish themselves from each other. In this case they literally are their powers but as i've conveyed to you, that's not helping matters. Time may or not prove me wrong and as much as i'd love to be proven wrong, i believe Bendis will undoubtedly prove me right.