Has any book starring an X-Man besides Wolverine ever lasted all that long?

Come to think of it, how many ongoing titles have ever been launched with an X-Man? Mystique. Does SWORD count?

Fact is, though, I like that the New 52 has featured characters who you wouldn’t expect to get their own books. Have any really taken off yet? Animal Man, maybe. Dial H? I love it, but no. Still, there needs to be some risk taking. And having Spidey, Iron Man, Wolvie and Deadpool appear in six books each is not risk taking. It’s just milking the same cows till they run dry.

Though I have to agree about Vibe and Katana.

I’m not even a Marvel fan. Their books are gimmicky, their weird trend of nonstop relaunches and renumbering is confusing and the total opposite of new reader friendly. Seriously, to cancel Uncanny X-Men and reboot a new Uncanny X-Men #1, only to cancel it again like a year later and reboot ANOTHER Uncanny X-Men #1? Returning books to old numbering just to hit anniversary issues, just to reboot them a few months later with another new #1? Or the weird numberings and title changes with books like Thor/Journey into Mystery. Giving Jeph Loeb writing work? Actually keeping any of the Red Hulk characters around?

So let’s make it clear, I’m not Marvel apologist. I hate their new ideas by and large. But compared to DC, it’s like a renaissance. DC is that bad. I don’t know how people can even defend their stuff. Even their best stuff is just overwritten, full of purple prose, rushed, confusing, and dull.

It sucks because I think their terrible quality has allowed Marvel to let their content suffer as well because they know by comparison they will still look good compared to DC.

Graeme, why would you repost what is basically a slam piece from an author you have verbosely shown distain for? At least say why you would post a link without offering up a point/counterpoint of your own .

Liefeld is 100% correct here, and thanks T. for being someone with actual reading comprehension skills.
Marvel’s bench of characters (and teams) that can carry a series is vastly deeper than hat DC has to offer. Cable has had a couple long running series, Hope Summers has even done so.
How many X books are on (and flying off)the shelves right now? 5, 6? Each with diverse teams and leads (X-Men Legacy anyone?)and there’s 3 more in the works coming.
And then Marvel goes and does the unthinkable by combining it’s two biggest franchises so they aren’t competing with each other anymore.

Has DC ever been able to have multiple successful spin-off team books? JLDark hasn’t been that great, and although I love Lemire, I’ll just wait for his Green Arrow.

All this tells me is that Rob Liefeld doesn’t have one creative bone in his body.

The difference between DC and Marvel is that Marvel knows how to market their product and their editorial staff seems to actually have a plan with a long term goal in mind.

marvel’s plan seems to be “the road to the next big event”–>the big event–>the road to the next big event–>&cetera.

This is the exact same plan DC has. In fact, DC created the game plan when Didio came to power and they printed Identity Crisis, the road to Infinite Crisis, Infinite Crisis, One Year Later and 52, The Road to Infinite Crisis, and so on. Marvel at the time was still on their NuMarvel kick with Jemas, where it was first and foremost about content and creativity and continuity and events mattered less. After Jemas was fired and Buckley was hired, Marvel saw the success Didio was having with the whole Identity Crisis and Infinite Crisis event-to-event pattern and hopped on the same bandwagon with House of M and just ran with it.

but at least it’s a plan. dc’s plan was “let’s reboot everything (except the stuff we don’t or can’t)”–>???

No, DC’s plan is the same as Marvel’s plan: to go from event to event. In fact, it’s not even fair to say that DC’s plan is the same as Marvel’s plan since they created the plan themselves and Marvel just followed it. It’s just that Marvel executed DC’s own plan better. As crappy as Marvel’s events have largely been, they at least seem better organized than DC’s. Marvel can at least pretend there is an illusion of a linear, long-term plan. Even if they are making up a lot of it as they’re going along, they at least try to act like there’s a consistent narrative arc. For example one could feasibly look at House of M with the loss of mutants and how that led to the militarization of the X-Men in response to their new endangered status as the start of a mega-arc. Then to Civil War with its fracturing of the nonmutant hero community. By the end of Avengers vs. X-Men, all of the events set into motion by House of M and Civil War have basically gotten some sort of closure. Now we’re moving into a new phase of increased interaction and synergy between the mutant and nonmutant heroes. The point is, even though Marvel is moving from event to event and the quality of many of those events is questionable, they at least seem to be steering the ship in a generally consistent direction, and there is a certain amount of flow and continuity from one event to another. An overall story arc you can track.

DC goes from event from event but it’s like a chicken running around with its head cut off or a maniac driving blindfolded at top speed constantly slamming breaks, going in reverse, making you turns, crashing into poles, and with no end destination even planned. Everything rushed, no coordination between involved parties, constant changing of minds, etc. They are going event-to-event just like Marvel, except they’re not doing it in a way they can even pretend is linear.

And let’s call a spade a spade, the reboot is a crossover and event. You have to get every issue of the reboot to get a full picture of what the new status quo of DC is. In the very first month of the New 52 the same character had a one panel cameo appearance in every title, reinforcing that there was just giant, overarching mega-story being told. It was strongly implied that you needed to read as many books as possible to get a more complete picture of what the new status quo was, and the appearance of the Pandora character in every book strongly implied there was a bigger, mega-story going on throughout the whole line. The “reboot” was a crossover event in disguise, with 52-installments in its first month and open-ended, with no firm end date. DC went from one event, Flashpoint, to another bigger event, The New 52, and then into Trinity War, Death of the Family, and the new Superman crossover. They are just as “event-to-event” as Marvel, if not moreso.

Events are tiresome. I dropped Marvel about a year ago and I’m sticking to it. It’s the scheduling of books that is weird. 2 or sometimes 3 books a month. Seriously? And Marvel NOW! already had delays with a few books, in the first 2 months!! They had a whole year to plan. On the other hand, DC had 52 books with the relaunch and all were on time.
Another problem with Marvel I find is with the characters. They’ve evolved too much over the past few years that they don’t feel the same. The characters I love feel are out of character. Yes, DC has done a reboot of a number of characters too but somehow you can still see what they stand for. The core is still there no matter how badly written. DC also has diversity. Though not all books are bankable but they offer titles that might appeal to certain groups. I did take a shot at the dark titles and I never thought that I’d enjoy them that much. Marvel on the other hand offers more sci-fi and hero beating another hero stuff. Their dark stuff is weak and isn’t that much appealing. Taking the Spirit of Vengeance from both companies, I’d prefer the Spectre any day.

I’m surprised that nobody mentions that books from the big 2 are now just 20 pages of story. I think that many times just 20 pages isn’t enough to tell a good story in that one issue. Some writers can do it, but many can’t. It’s a shame that a book can’t be 22, 23 or 24 pages of story ( if needed ).