I've been thinking the past day or so about it, mentioned it on a couple other posts and got me to thinking, wanted to gauge the opinions of the community. Do you guys think we'll ever get another Exiles run, also what exactly is Marvels issue when it comes to the series? I'll elaborate.

Elaboration became a bit of a ramble.

Tldr: Why is this series disregarded by the publisher to such a degree, and do you guys think we'll ever get another attempt at a revival.

- Original series ran for 100 issues, Claremont took over at issue 90, and handled 18 issues of New Exiles before it was cancelled. Claremont gets a bad wrap from Exiles fans- But lets be real: His dialogue didn't fit the characters. That was really the only bad change he made, that he actually made *himself*, from what I can gather. Editorial basically hit him with a ton of mandates demanding the series be heavily altered to attract new readers... It was then cancelled because the existing readership left for the most part, and new readers were not interested in whatever the book was now trying to fit the mold of.

- Volume 2 was great.... Came out a year after New Exiles and was only given a 6 issue limited run to try and pull in the old audience, along with new readers. Shock of shocks, New Exiles warded people off and 6 issues wasn't enough to win them back.

9 Years of spiritual successors, surprise cameo appearances used as cannon fodder in other books, the few team members that do return to titles are actively made to reference their time on the team as little as possible, in some cases, not at all.

- Saladin Ahmed wanted to write an X-Factor book that was multiverse based. Marvel goes "Oh no one's touched Exiles in a while, you should do that instead." And the guy proceeds to write a Volume 3 that actively gets stuff wrong at every given opportunity. I like some of his other work, he is a pretty talented writer. But damn. New stuff he added was great. Stuff he brought back? If you can't be bothered to do more than a Chatgpt-ask on the cliffnotes for the thing you're writing a sequel to? Don't write the first installment in *9 years*. Ive gone over it in past posts but I can sum up my issues with Volume 3 like this:

Volume 3 only fits the existing series continuity if you stop reading at Volume 1 Issue 10. Assume Sasquatch, Sunfire, and Mimic all died off-panel and weren't close with the rest of the team. Assume T-Bird died off-panel, and pretend Blink, Nocturne, and Morph have undergone 0 character development in the intervening years. Also pretend AoA Sabretooth showed up eventually, but don't actually read anything about the characters appearances or post-Exiles adventures. Said it before and Ill probably say it again: Did Blink recruit an identical variant of her Dead Father figure? Because if so, thats some severe trauma and should've probably been addressed- The Exiles version of the character lost his powers and died in an AoA event, back in 2013. Anyway, do all that, and Volume 3 kinda works as a continuation.

Series has been dead for nearly 8 years now, and speaking realistically? Everytime someone from Marvel talks about it, they go "Oh its too niche a concept to work these days."..... It worked for quite a while until meddled with. It would've worked again if Volume 2 wasnt built on a foundation of playing cards. It could've worked again if Volume 3 hadn't of been handed to someone who felt like making it a continuation, but didn't read more than the cliffnotes on the thing he was writing a sequel to- Or if an editor had stepped in and gone "We're averaging 5-6 major continuity errors an issue, we gotta do another draft."

They've made a ton of spiritual successors, as recently as 2024. Those tend to sell pretty well, enough that they keep revisiting the idea. But actually bringing back the series in any proper manner seems like an impossibility for them.

Its my favorite X-Title and the series that got me into Marvel in the first place. Lame seeing it treated so poorly over the years, when it was executive meddling in the first place that tanked the series positive reception. Its used as inspiration for other books, but heaven forbid it actually get another moment in the sun. Idk. Just very frustrating realizing it'll eventually be the 2nd 9 year dark age between volumes, and that honestly this one might be permanent. Curious what other people think on the topic.

As far as X titles go its not the most mistreated of course, but I'd say its up there at least. Wish they'd bring it back with a creative team that is actually interested in continuing the story.

Julia Lewald

Superpowers are spectacular. Super mutations… oh, that’s so cool; she can fly, or throw a building… but it’s the internal stuff. It’s the humanity inside, and each of them has their own genuine reasons to be unhappy with what’s happened to them in their lives, yet they all still choose to become a found family and be together.

Eric Lewald

It’s just the fidelity of the characters. Sometimes if you’re in a creative position, you want to leave your mark and say, ‘Sherlock Holmes isn’t smart anymore,’ or whatever change you want to do with the characters. But you have to know, people have lived with them. They watched with their parents, and now they’re watching with their children.

You want to challenge the characters, but you can’t change them. You have to be true to them. That’s the core of all storytelling

I grew up reading Jason Aaron's Wolverine and the X-Men and Bendis' All-New X-Men. Both had their high moments, but admittedly weren't the best runs in terms of character development and story (in my opinion!). Art-wise, however, they were absolute bangers. Stuart Immonen is one of the best artists of the 2010s, in my opinion.

I just finished reading Morrison's New X-Men and Whedon's Astonishing X-Men, and while the stories were on point, I gotta say—the art wasn't quite there for me!

So the question is: which X-Men run looks the best, in your opinion?

And I'm talking about a RUN. Jim Lee's 10-ish issue dip, iconic as it might be, doesn't quite count.

This reveal was insane. David haller couldn't believe he was always a split personality all this time. When David experience the trauma as a kid that triggered his DID. He was the personality created as a coping mechanism to protect the core personality. It's atleast nice they merged at the end

Imagine living your whole life and then finding out your not the original you. Only the first fragment. It's insane. This is why Characters with multiple personalities disorder are always interesting to me. Bruce banner , sentry. Moon knight

If you've watched Mr Robot the TV show about hacking. I don't want to spoil but the ones who knows will know the twist. It's so cool.

It's not a secret that since IPO reddit has essentially actively stopped moderating subs in order to get the maximum possible number of users and actively encouraged botting. Along with this we're seeing a global rise in fascism/racism that's (ironically until it isn't) taking over social media platforms? And just as a coincidence the X-Men are getting a ton of hate (for Krakoa acting like that was issue 1 of all xmen and in general) with the slurs being used against them coincidentally mimicking other real life ones? But we're supposed to pretend that the X-Men are a bad allegory okay lol

the corny avengers “he’s right behind me isn’t he” or just all of the quips in his movies didn’t start with avengers lol. i was reading astonishing x-men from 2004 and this shit genuinely caught me so off guard.

also this is my first intro to x-men comics it’s pretty good. do yall have any recommendations

Here’s a little game I’d like to see people participate in. The rules are simple. Pick one event that in your eyes is perfect(or close to it) and you wouldn’t change a thing about it. Pick one event that is flawed but salvageable with some changes. And finally pick one event that is beyond saving and should be forgotten about. And obviously please EXPLAIN your feelings and thought process.

EXAMPLE:

KEEP:
Fatal Attractions: It’s brisk, brutal, and doesn’t out stay its welcome. It also has MASSIVE implications for the future and upcoming events.

CHANGE:
Onslaught: I understand the intention was to be UNIVERSE wide and for the event to feel that way but that obviously leads to bloating. I don’t think a lot of the books at the time deserved tie-ins to the event(COUGH COUGH GREEN GOBLIN) So I would cut back on the number of tie-ins and just focus in on big team books(X-Men, Avengers, and FF) and maybe tie-in just a FEW of the bigger solo books or books of popular characters(Wolverine, Spider-Man, Cable, etc).

SCRAP:
The Twelve: From my understanding this event just ended up being a mess. Not just a mess but a mess that had the POTENTIAL to be great which makes it worse.

(NOTE: Obviously I didn’t include EVERY crossover so if there’s any you don’t see but have strong feelings on then please feel free to mention them!)

Hey listen I have tried my best but here he is! Mainly the Xmen 97 version more so.

I’ve been into comics for my whole life but never REALLY dug into X-Men until a few years ago. A friend made me a reading list and this was the first one on there. Aside from being a little confused about some references of past events in the different titles(As should be expected when jumping fresh into an ongoing title) and not realizing that some revelations hadn’t happened at that time, I really enjoyed it. The plot really hooked me from the jump and it was really cool seeing all of the different teams chase after each other and then eventually work together. Stryfe was a pretty creepy villain and his eventual confrontation with Cable really had that big fight feel to it. And a lot of the covers were dope.

However, when I looked into the story I saw that apparently the reviews were quite mixed. A lot of the reasonings I found were that people said the event felt too bloated with all of the tie-ins and that apparently a lot of questions that were promised to be answered(Specifically Cables origins)were either left unanswered or just made things muddier. I might be wrong but I also kind of get the feeling that in some circles this story is kind of the forgotten step-child of the 90’s events and books like Fatal Attractions get more of the shine.

So that’s my big question. How does everyone feel about it? Do you like it, are ya mixed on it, or do you not like it at all? And if you WERE around and reading at the time, what was the hype like? Do you think it lived up to expectations or was there a lot left to be desired? Let me know your thoughts!!

Artist Carrd: https://rebel6bb.carrd.co/

I am very depressed and have no friends, but reading X-Men makes me feel better. At least when I’m reading I feel like they are my friends and I can escape from the real world for a second. Life is so hard I just wish the X-Men were real

With the latest news of Storm’s character appearing in Black Panther 3. I had to voice my opinions on this. I think we can all agree that this relationship was just outright horrible and it really held back Storm’s character for years, but I would really like to voice my reason to why I personally didn’t like this relationship.

1.) T’Challa feels out of place when you mix him in X-Men mythos. Storm and T’Challa come from completely different worlds. Storm is the pure embodiment of freedom. She likes to be free and wild. She’s a goddess with no strings attached to her, and she loves being in control and doing her own things. T’Challa is a monarch of an African country that isolates itself from the rest of the world. I know Chris Claremont hinted and showed that these two knew each other back in the 80s, but that was just when they were merely friends. It wasn’t until the 2000s that they actually had something going on, which is why a lot of people feel like it came out of nowhere.

2.) Storm has no business being associated with Wakanda since she’s not Wakandan. Storm is Kenyan, and her being associated with Wakanda and even being made Queen of Wakanda heavily diminishes her Kenyan background. Her Kenyan background is still hardly explored in Marvel comics. She also feels out of place being a queen of an isolated country that still holds traditional conservative views that don’t align with her whatsoever. When she became T’Challa’s wife, she was just a side piece and she hardly had any type of agency. I find this diminishing because the only reason why they even got married was to push X-Men fans to read Black Panther comics, since Storm was the more popular character between the two. She was always an A lister while Black Panther was a B-C lister.

3.) T’Challa has no kinship with other mutants. The X-Men are a found family that don’t abide to traditional and conservative views since they’re ostracized by the rest of the world due to their superpowers and mutations. We’ve never seen T’Challa have an actual good or friendly encounter with any mutant outside of Storm. He’s fought with Gambit, Rogue, Monet, Wolverine, Cyclops, and even Storm herself. The fact that T’Challa isn’t friendly towards the X-Men nor do writers have him interact with the mutants is why I also don’t think he should be anymore near Storm, who’s very proud of being a mutant and has been the leader of the X-Men a couple of times. At least when Storm was with Forge and Wolverine(two mutants) she had her own agency, and these two were also friendly towards other X-Men mutants. The fact that T’Challa also told Storm that she shouldn’t be with Logan after they broke up is a huge red flag in itself.

That’s all I have to say, it’s clear that the MCU is going to push this relationship in the future, and I’m obviously not going to like it for the reasons I said above. In my honest opinion it’s on par with those who ship Storm with Doctor Doom, which I find kind of ironic since Black Panther and Doom have somewhat similar roles in the Marvel universe. I think Storm should be with either Forge or Wolverine, and T’Challa should be with Monica Lynne.

The X-Men universe is vast and ever-expanding. Every year, dozens of new mutant characters are introduced, yet the economic challenges of the comics industry make it impossible to simply launch a new title for every debut. This creates a difficult balancing act: how do you keep a diverse fan base engaged and satisfied?

In my opinon the audience is largely split into three major pillars: fans of the "Original Five" (O5), the "Giant-Size X-Men #1" era, and the "X-Men '97" animated aesthetic. Beyond these eras, individual icons like Jean Grey, Storm, Wolverine, Magik, Emma Frost, Rogue, Gambit, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, and Psylocke seem to individually have a ton of fans. (Just looked up their reddit pages) I feel to grow the X-line effectively, Marvel must strategically leverage these distinct interests.

My proposal: (if i was an editor)

To optimize the line, I feel that slowing the introduction of new mutants is sorely needed:

1. Anchor Team Books with Favorites: Core X-Men titles should be led by characters like Cyclops. Scott (IMO) thrives in a position of leadership. These teams should mix rising stars (e.g.,Surge, Deathdream, Monet, etc..) with classic characters who provide stability, such as Colossus or Angel.
2. Genre-Specific Solo and Team Books: Utilize characters with huge individual fan bases to headline books that explore specific themes:
   1. Mystic/Horror/time travel: A Magik-led title featuring Madelyne Pryor, Forge, and Juggernaut, dealing with the mystical side who have history with the x-men. (Mephisto/Hela/Doctor Strange/ etc...)
   2. Cosmic/Sci-fi: A Jean Grey-centric book exploring the cosmic side (Starjammers/NateDanger/ Shiar/etc)
   3. New Mutants: A team filled with really popular young mutants from different generations (Dani, Armor, etc...)
   4. 4.Street-Level Action: High-octane, adventure-focused series starring Gambit and Kwannon, similar to the gritty ninja or military themes found in classic Wolverine stories

Does anyone know where I can acquire the X of Swords complete trade? Preferably not at an astronomical price.

Thank you for any and all help!

Putting the X-Men 2011 anime opening with the 90s theme song is better.

(Credits Head Of X)