Decade Relaunch: Is this It? (NO SPOILERS)

In promoting Second Coming, Marvel repeatedly said that this is the "conclusion of five years' worth of storylines" and "the end of an era". Such talk would indicate that they're reversing or modifying M-Day, at least changing direction from the endangered species theme that has run through the books for 5 years. That direction was, in the first place, the result of a massive "baby boom" of mutants spurred on by Morrison's era. Thus, what we've been told is that this is a time of massive change. This is consistent with previous changes done to the X-men, which have taken place at the beginning of each decade:

Edited by ajandrew1212 - 20-Apr-2010 at 5:39am

I doubt that M-Day will ever be reversed under Joe Q's leadership, as it was a sticking point he wanted to change just like the Spider marriage. Once he's gone, who knows. What I hope happens after Second Coming though is a change in tone by mutant births being allowed so that this mopey extinction "We have to be an army to fight for our right to survive" stuff goes away. Cause really they don't have to really fight that much harder for survival now than the old days since still it's the same psycho bigots coming after them. The average person couldn't give two licks about mutants being around nowadays.

Dunno about it being a sort of 'relaunch' but I do see it as probably a tone shift much like Morrison's time and back in 91. A shift towards something that builds off what came before but opens things up again. Makes the X-Men more adventure based of old with new titles like the returned X-Men, new missions away from the protect mutant life from extinction like with the change in X-Force, and such. To go along with the Heroic Age, the X-Men need to be lightened up some and this change of things seems to be that. Like Grief said, if they keep up the mopey extinction focused stuff much longer than I'd be all for a full relaunch as I can't stand it most times. The X-Men have become no better than those that hate them as they are now segregationist and a bit self centered and selfish no longer even trying for acceptance and the hero gig of old. When's the last time they even bothered saving anyone but their own asses? Or tried to work with and exist with humans? First chance they had soon as something went a little bad they rushed off to an island to stay with their own kind.

Yeah this isn't gonna be some Avengers Dissassembled/Brand New Day/ Heroic Age restructuring of the line and it's direction.  It's just a shift towards different types of stories under the current status quo.  At least thats the feeling that I am getting. 

I don't think that Hope will even fulfill whatever her destiny is by the end of Second Coming.  The X-men may become more aware of what her purpose might actually be, and she will most likely be the key to stopping Bastion.  But she's not gonna do anything that drastically alters the No More Mutants mandate or the San Francisco army setup untill a future event.

True point BC. They've just become a lot more...insular since M-Day I guess could be said. The last decade has been good for the X-Men, with some low points for things that we won't go into since we all know most of them lol. Though I think that both big companies have realized that the dark and dreary and up against the wall stuff can't go on forever and the readers really want a change. Which I think is why we'll be getting a more out there action title in X-Men and probably some small tonal shift in the other books. Cause after awhile it just becomes so depressing to read constant death and dreary darkness in the stories that you wonder why they bother going on sometimes lol. 

But isn't that a good thing, UncannyScott? Shouldn't the X-Men deal with mutant-specific themes more? I think one of the downfall of previous decades was that the X-Men did far too many things that had nothing to do with the X-Men. The 60's was a revolving door of bad ideas. Claremont employed too much angsty outer-space action. The 90's was replete with grown-up posturing and one-dimensional bickering. This decade was gloriously insular, and featuring its own subculture. To be fair, I think this decade has been far less dreary than the 90's. I mean, look at the 90's! Following Age of Apocalypse, you've got Onslaught, Zero: Tolerance, The Twelve...all miserable, angsty X-Overs, black holes from which no happiness emerged in tact. And as drawn by Andy Kubert in the first half of the decade, it was all-scowling all the time. They were grown-ups with issues. And the decade began with (count 'em) THREE mind-control stories from Claremont in a row.

The past three years have been insular and angsty, but this is a decade with Grant Morrison, Joss Whedon, and you certainly can't accuse Chuck Austen of taking his craft too seriously. I think this was a vibrant mixed-bag of a decade that basically pushed the mythos forward.

While I do agree that the X-Men should work on mutant problems, it comes to a point where really they almost no longer seem like part of the Universe as a whole. At a lot of points over the past few years the X-Men books might as well be their own alternate universe as they only interact with the other heroes when said heroes either drag them into it or are the bad guys against them like Norman. I prefer to have it back to they are trying to integrate with humans, while also dealing with their own stuff. Instead of sealing themselves away and only dealing with them. Pretty much a ton of the stories we've gotten lately all take place on Utopia. The X-Men don't venture away from their little island. After the twentieth attack on the island, it begins to get a bit repetitive and boring. At least in the old days they had all of New York as a playground and went around the world. Now they barely even use San Fran since they left it.

I'm not calling for X-Men as the Avengers or such, but a shift slightly back from this doomy we're about to be extinct thing. Which I consider more gloomy than the 90's since at least there wasn't death after death in those days to keep underscoring the "Oh god we're about to go extinct" like now. IMO the next logical step after this, if they are going to keep drumming up Hope's importance or such, is for a return of mutant births. Not re-powering or such, but allowence of births and manifestations in teens or such so that mutants can slowly be around. Cause like Ajandrew pointed out, how long before creating all these human opponents or dragging up the old villains over and over or creating off shoots like COV gets to be repetitive as well. Most of their old enemies are now part of their island so no fighting them. The only other option is to bring them back into the Marvel U like they are doing so that their challenges can increase. While I love Sinister and Stryker and etc I don't need to see the X-Men beat them down every few months over and over lol.

@BC: Lol agreed. Wolverine and his spawn should be the really darker and such books of the X-Line. Sure there will be dark things and such, but hell even the X-Men need to have some good days again lol. How about some baseball games of old or such lol.


Edited by UncannyScott - 20-Apr-2010 at 4:05am

Lol, no bruising for you. I like the X-Men with back to the wall for certain amounts of time. On a continued basis year after year though I lose interest some in the struggle. Cause it's all doom and gloom and everything goes bad and people die left and right where I start to not really care about their problem. Which seems like it should be the opposite with sympathy and all, but I equate it to the phenomenon that makes people want happy endings in like all movies. I like messed up/ depressing/ killer endings in a lot of cases cause it goes against the norm and is more realistic, but I do crave the fun and happy sometimes for entertainment lol. The X-Men need some happy and fun again. 

You don't need to say anyone came back from the dead. They could just say that Wanda's spell is wearing off slowly, or in some cases. Just start new mutant discoverys again.

Edited by Anti-Limbo - 20-Apr-2010 at 6:04am

So what you're saying is that there will be a whole new conflict, akin to the Cold War? Sounds like a whole new era to me. I don't see what the real difference is. They're launching a brand new X-title, one that's meant to be a main one. They're relaunching some of the smaller titles, like X-Force and Wolverine. X-Factor has already been relaunched with a new purpose. The key, to me, is that they're revamping the whole Marvel Universe. That has to signal some changes.  

Edited by ajandrew1212 - 20-Apr-2010 at 11:15am