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Friday, December 20, 2013 

Mutants who were poorly crafted

Newsarama's running a list of what they call "the 10 worst X-Men characters of all time". I really wish they'd be more specific, as I'd decided to be for a while now, in explaining that those they bring up were simply the result of poor writing and developing. In fairness, they do say:
Of course, you know what they say, there are no bad characters, only bad stories - so maybe even some of these ten can be redeemed.
Well, I'll give them credit for acknowledging that. As I came to realize after Identity Crisis and Avengers: Disassembled, attacking fictional characters instead of how they're written is both illogical and childish, and I also realized something more: if I lambasted one fictional character I didn't like over something that wasn't their fault to begin with, would I be legitimizing one-dimensional attacks even on those whom I did like and had better writing in the yesteryear?

That's how I came fully to my senses and realized the grievous error I'd be making if I kept on making juvenile mistakes, and it didn't matter if it were just a handful of characters from Marvel and DC I'd criticized illogically yesteryear, even that can have terrible consequences, and did. Today, I think it's a shame that the leading hack writers of the times for X-Men - Fabian Nicieza and Scott Lobdell - made no attempt to appeal to good expectations and thus ruined the books with all their nickel-and-dime plots.

If the pedestrian characters seen in their run - almost all of them mutants or at least superpowered beings - could be redeemed, I have an interesting idea for how to do it: recreate, reboot, reintroduce without superpowers. Yes, seriously. Supporting casts are so lacking and marginalized in modern superhero comics, I'd think they could use some non-powered co-stars who do for the stories what Moira MacTaggart did in the old days. And, there's quite a bit of material published since the turn of the century that's better being disregarded, so that would provide a pretty good opportunity there. Then, maybe they'd show some improvement.

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About me

  • I'm Avi Green
  • From Jerusalem, Israel
  • I was born in Pennsylvania in 1974, and moved to Israel in 1983. I also enjoyed reading a lot of comics when I was young, the first being Fantastic Four. I maintain a strong belief in the public's right to knowledge and accuracy in facts. I like to think of myself as a conservative-style version of Clark Kent. I don't expect to be perfect at the job, but I do my best.
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