Am I looking too much into this or...

[Phil]

does Dazzler (or at least the Dazzler-esque looking character) in Age of X look like she's sporting a certain sunburst motif...?

788

[Legerd]

LOL, I noticed that too. Did she have a full starburst pattern on her costume from the 80's/90's?

[Le Messor]

She has been hanging around with N'star a lot lately. In 616, anyway.

- Le Messor
Cordelia: I can't believe this loser look. I lobbied so hard for the teal. No one ever listens to me. Lone fashionable wolf.
Xander: I like the maroon, has more dignity.
Cordelia: Dignity? You? In relation to clothes? I'm awash in a sea of confusion.

[Tawmis]

http://www.marveldirectory.com/pictures/individuals/d_1d/dazzler.gif

[Phil]

Yeah, but the Age of X one doesn't look like that, it looks more like JP's one.

[Tawmis]

Yeah I think you may be reading too much into it. ;-) It's just the four main points (N, S, E, W, if you will) don't extend all the way down.

I assume AGE OF X is an alternate time line story?
Like Forever X-Men. Forever New Mutants. Forever _______. Ultimate X-Men. Ultimates. Ultimate __________.

So sick of alternate time line stories.

[MistressMerr]

Yeah, Dazz has had starbursts on her costumes for ages, this one's just a little more simplified than her classic one.

[MistressMerr]

I assume AGE OF X is an alternate time line story?
Like Forever X-Men. Forever New Mutants. Forever _______. Ultimate X-Men. Ultimates. Ultimate __________.

So sick of alternate time line stories.
Apparently it's more like Age of Apocalypse, where it actually has something to do with what's going on with the book at the time (it's in X-Men Legacy).

[Le Messor]

Like Forever X-Men... So sick of alternate time line stories.

Actually, I got the first to X-Men Forever trades, and they felt like X-Men when they were good. The thing that got you into comics.

Your mileage may vary.

- Le Messor
"I collided with a stationary truck coming the other way"."
~ alleged insurance claim

[Tawmis]

Actually, I got the first to X-Men Forever trades, and they felt like X-Men when they were good. The thing that got you into comics.

Your mileage may vary.

- Le Messor
"I collided with a stationary truck coming the other way"."
~ alleged insurance claim

I got the first... six or seven issues... of X-Men Forever. Now it depends on which one we're discussing. There was the 12 issue LS, that I believe Fabian did quite a few years ago (which was after AVENGERS FOREVER). But the series X-MEN FOREVER... I picked up like six or seven issues (mostly because it had Sabretooth in it too)... and... it was... okay... even maybe good... but then the thing with alternate time lines... no continuity to worry about. You can say and do whatever you want. The characters you know and love might be completely different.

But I just couldn't stay committed. Not with what comic prices being what they are. So it was an easy one to drop since it felt like nothing in it mattered. Had no impact.

[Le Messor]

That is the disadvantage, that it doesn't affect 616 continuity.
There are some bad ideas in there - 'There aren't many new mutants, which must mean they burn out and die young'. (Or... they're a relatively recent phenomenon?)

OTOH, it seems to remember when comics were supposed to be fun. Which is something I appreciate. I'm sick of the hard sci-fi age of comics where everything has to be taken so seriously, and has to be sooo 'realistic'. And orange.

- Le Messor
"I come unbundled."

[Tawmis]

OTOH, it seems to remember when comics were supposed to be fun. Which is something I appreciate. I'm sick of the hard sci-fi age of comics where everything has to be taken so seriously, and has to be sooo 'realistic'. And orange.


On this we agree (about being sick and tired of the scifi edge everything has). Honestly, I enjoy the days of good guy vs bad guy, clear lines, who is bad, who is good; simple relationships. Comics were enjoyable. Now they're dark, depressing, relationships are messy, or over sexed. If I want angst, depression, darkness, blurs of good and bad guys, I will turn on the news. Comics were my way of escaping all the grit and shiest of the world.

[Legerd]

On this we agree (about being sick and tired of the scifi edge everything has). Honestly, I enjoy the days of good guy vs bad guy, clear lines, who is bad, who is good; simple relationships. Comics were enjoyable. Now they're dark, depressing, relationships are messy, or over sexed. If I want angst, depression, darkness, blurs of good and bad guys, I will turn on the news. Comics were my way of escaping all the grit and shiest of the world.
It feels like they've turned Marvel into an indie comic company rather than maintain the long history and tradition built up over the decades. I'm not saying they shouldn't shake things up or try new ideas, but it seems like they gutted the Marvel U and are simply repopulating the empty shell of it with their "kewl" versions of the original characters.

[Tawmis]

It feels like they've turned Marvel into an indie comic company rather than maintain the long history and tradition built up over the decades. I'm not saying they shouldn't shake things up or try new ideas, but it seems like they gutted the Marvel U and are simply repopulating the empty shell of it with their "kewl" versions of the original characters.

I whole heartedly agree. What I don't get is - they populated Marvel with mutants. Tons of them. Because X-Men became so popular. Then they did 198, which I assume was to knock down the mutant population. And yet, it feels like 80% of the cast in the X-Men is newer mutants that are popping up constantly (and not just because of Hope). There's just a ton of characters that just don't need to be in the core book. Bring back the times when sales were good, and the comic did well. (And not just X-MEN, though that's most guilty of it). Even Avengers has returned to a more status quo type (Avengers, and to some degree Secret Avengers). But X-Men books... are... just... a nightmare. They even rebooted X-FORCE (the latest version with Wolverine, X-23, Angel) to UNCANNY X-FORCE, just because UNCANNY X-MEN I assume? Or a reason to reboot it and do another #1 issue.

I don't know. I lost hope a long time ago - and for about a year or two - thing seemed to be returning to normal. And now, once again, they seemed to have spiraled. It makes me sad.

[suzene]

Exactly, Tawmis. House of M/Decimation was an ill-conceived deck-clearing exercise (mostly just proving that Marvel editorial has no idea what a realistic minority population entails) that was supposed to get rid of all the mutants supposedly cluttering up the Marvel Universe, but just resulted in the books feeling more crowded with superfluous mutants than ever. "But," they protest, "it's a different era! These are ALL of the mutants in world now!" Yeah, and you've managed to hobble your writers by doing it -- a lot of these guys apparently aren't so good at coming up with antagonists if they can't go to the well of endless mutants. So all you've done is taken writers from introducing flavor-of-the-week mutants every other arc, to introducing flavor-of-the-week villains that need an extra page of exposition to explain how they aren't technically mutants, just really close to the real deal, and it's not doing the books any favors.

[Tawmis]

Exactly, Tawmis. House of M/Decimation was an ill-conceived deck-clearing exercise (mostly just proving that Marvel editorial has no idea what a realistic minority population entails) that was supposed to get rid of all the mutants supposedly cluttering up the Marvel Universe, but just resulted in the books feeling more crowded with superfluous mutants than ever. "But," they protest, "it's a different era! These are ALL of the mutants in world now!" Yeah, and you've managed to hobble your writers by doing it -- a lot of these guys apparently aren't so good at coming up with antagonists if they can't go to the well of endless mutants. So all you've done is taken writers from introducing flavor-of-the-week mutants every other arc, to introducing flavor-of-the-week villains that need an extra page of exposition to explain how they aren't technically mutants, just really close to the real deal, and it's not doing the books any favors.

Very, very, very, very well said. And so very true.

You know, in all honesty - I think you nailed it when you said that the books were full of fluff characters. That's exactly how it feels. There's just SO MANY characters now. It's entirely too crowded. I think that's why I like the older comics. They were far more basic. There was your standard folks you would see come and go. If someone left a team, it was a pretty big deal, because there weren't a lot of characters. Nowadays... there's just so many... anyone can leave and be easily replaced by the other five or six characters out there who have almost identical powers... no one feels unique anymore.

[MistressMerr]

Exactly, Tawmis. House of M/Decimation was an ill-conceived deck-clearing exercise (mostly just proving that Marvel editorial has no idea what a realistic minority population entails) that was supposed to get rid of all the mutants supposedly cluttering up the Marvel Universe, but just resulted in the books feeling more crowded with superfluous mutants than ever. "But," they protest, "it's a different era! These are ALL of the mutants in world now!" Yeah, and you've managed to hobble your writers by doing it -- a lot of these guys apparently aren't so good at coming up with antagonists if they can't go to the well of endless mutants. So all you've done is taken writers from introducing flavor-of-the-week mutants every other arc, to introducing flavor-of-the-week villains that need an extra page of exposition to explain how they aren't technically mutants, just really close to the real deal, and it's not doing the books any favors.
Man, I tried to reply to this but couldn't because it lays it all out so perfectly. Nice.

[Le Messor]

What she said.

[suzene]

Thanks, guys. Much appreciated.



You know, in all honesty - I think you nailed it when you said that the books were full of fluff characters. That's exactly how it feels. There's just SO MANY characters now. It's entirely too crowded. I think that's why I like the older comics. They were far more basic. There was your standard folks you would see come and go. If someone left a team, it was a pretty big deal, because there weren't a lot of characters. Nowadays... there's just so many... anyone can leave and be easily replaced by the other five or six characters out there who have almost identical powers... no one feels unique anymore.

Precisely. It's no bloody good telling us how few mutants there are in the world (though they back-peddled on the 198 figure pretty damn quick) when you're trying to 1) show us all 200+ of them in every arc and 2) using almost none of them or the story possibilities inherent in the concept intelligently. And then the big event/new series that we're all supposed to get excited for is that they're going to introduce more mutants with powers almost identical to those of characters already present and being ignored. It's an exercise in frustration from almost every angle -- the characters are served so poorly that I just can't lie back and enjoy the ride, and the writing and art are so bad that I can't ignore the flaws of the concept and just enjoy the stories. There's nothing there for me to latch onto and I never thought I'd say that given some of the writing talent currently at Marvel's disposal. (Though, to be honest, I never got what was supposed to be so great about Fraction's work even pre-X-Men.)