When there's too many X-Men with no clear focus, there's too little to care about
The Tearoom of Despair writes about how the X-franchise, when under the helm of Chris Claremont, was comprehensible enough, mainly because the 3 titles they had at the time were usually kept stand-alone so that their casts could be handled well within a manageable boundary. It's after they left and hacks like Scott Lobdell took over - and more numerous cast members were stuffed in - that it fell apart drastically, as the cast count went over 40 plus, and there were only so many characters weakly written that you couldn't care about them.
I'd note though that Louise Simonson wasn't the only other writer who was allowed to work on X-books: Peter David, who'd been new to the scene at the time, worked on X-Factor, and that too was usually kept stand-alone, which is why is worked well enough during the first half of its run.
I'd note though that Louise Simonson wasn't the only other writer who was allowed to work on X-books: Peter David, who'd been new to the scene at the time, worked on X-Factor, and that too was usually kept stand-alone, which is why is worked well enough during the first half of its run.
Labels: marvel comics, X-Men
