Monday, February 4, 2008

The X-Men *musings*

The X-Men are, by far, my favorite team. I don't have much of a Marvel/DC bias, but one thing I'll always want to know is what's happening in X-Men, even when I lose track of everything else. Maybe it's the broad metaphor they present; whatever you are, if you feel oppressed, the Mutants of X-Men can be that too. Maybe it's the huge, rotating cast of characters with the constant potential for new ones, everyone with their unique powers and personalities. More than likely, it's the way all of these come together, often with top-notch writers pulling the strings.

They may not have the automatic mythology of one of the DC greats or the constant personal struggle of Spider-Man, but the X-Men have a feel to their stories that is specific to their world, one of scientific philosophy, soap opera dramatics, and as much action as any other premise.

Which is why it's so frustrating to see people get it wrong. Coming first to mind would be the movies; which I enjoy on the base level of a moviegoer, but loathe to my core as somebody who actually (god forbid) likes Cyclops. On this week's Blackboard forum, you'll see I'm no major Wolverine fan, but I'll admit he has his place in the menagerie. For me, reading the highlights of the Clairmont run are essentially history lessons, as he made the X-Teams into what they are today, allowing Whedon (and soon Ellis) to create such superhero masterpieces.

This post is kind of aimless, but it sets the tone for this week-and-a-half. I'm going to talk about the X-Men a lot over the next few days.

1 comment:

Xwing212 said...

Indeed you are. And I'm glad you see the value in Claremont -- he's so easily dismissed these days. (His recent work is a shell of those earlier stories, but that doesn't make the earlier work less great.)