X-Men: 10 Things That Annoyed Even Dedicated Fans | CBR - CBR - Comic Book Resources

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The X-Men have had a long and rocky road to their current standing as one of the most popular comic franchises of all time. Some of the greatest creators in the history of the comics medium have worked on the mutants, taking them from almost canceled to one of the biggest comics success stories, a juggernaut that defined comics for years.

There have been some amazing stories in the team's long existence and X-Men fans are among the most vocal and protective of their chosen franchise around. However, there have been some things over the years that have made even dedicated fans question their love for Marvel's merry mutants.

10 There's Too Much Wolverine & Not Enough Of The Other Members

It's safe to say that Wolverine is the most popular X-Man. Fans love the Canadian mutant and for years, they've been thrilled about his many adventures. However, there was a time when it was assumed that putting Wolverine in a book was like a ticket to print money and Marvel did it (and still does it to an extent) ad nauseam.

People love Wolverine but there have been times when he starred in multiple X books, a solo book, mini-series, and guest-starred in other character's books. This led to people becoming annoyed with his ubiquity, which is never good. The X-Men are full of great characters and always having Wolverine around stole the spotlight that could shine on others.

9 Cyclops Lacked Variety & Character Growth

Cyclops has long been one of the main characters of most X-Men books he's been in. As the team's most prolific leader, he's pretty much become synonymous with the team. However, for years, writers wrote Cyclops exactly the same way--the rigid team leader who was kind of a wet blanket.

This annoyed fans of the book because growth should be an inevitable part of every character and Cyclops never changed. Eventually, writers like Grant Morrison and Joss Whedon showed readers that Cyclops didn't have to be one-note and made them appreciate him. However, even when he would change, creators would still focus too much on one or two character traits, stifling the character.

8 Innumerable Crossovers That Slowed Down The Ongoing Storylines

When a book is one of the biggest around, fans like to see them interact with other heroes. When a franchise has as many related books as the X-Men do, it's also nice to see them all work together on occasion as well. However, the problem comes when it feels like that's all that happens and that's been a recurring thing in the last thirty years of X-Men books.

Crossovers are fine, but too many get in the way of telling the stories. Pausing everything so that everyone can hang out can be a very bad thing--the recent X-Men crossover X Of Swords is a perfect example of this. It's a good story but it also stopped everything going on that fans loved about the current X-Men books. Crossovers can be fun but too many are bad news.

7 Villains Become Watered Down When They Join The Team

Villains are an important part of comics, and it's not a stretch to say the X-Men have some of the best. The team doesn't just battle generic bad guys who want to take over the world or destroy all life, but nuanced characters who fans could almost root for. Some X-Men villains are even more popular than characters with their own books.

This a double-edged sword because it means fans want to see them more, and Marvel has a tendency to have them join the team. This takes a major threat off the table and can even water some of them down. While this works with some--Magneto, for one--it doesn't with others and is often a bad idea that leads to a predictable betrayal.

6 There Are Too Many Books To Keep Up With

The X-Men are a very popular team and putting out more books with them makes sense to an extent--it gives fans more to explore. With as many mutants as there are, it makes more sense to have multiple books than it does for, say, the Fantastic Four or the Avengers. There is, however, a tipping point.

Too much of anything can spoil it and that's one of the problems with the sheer amount of X-Men books there have been over the years. It takes away what is special about the franchise and waters the whole thing down. On top of that, comics are a rather expensive hobby, and having to buy so many X-Men books can hurt the sales of other books.

5 Killing Jean Grey Is Getting Too Repetitive

Cyclops and Jean Grey The Dark Phoenix Saga X-Men Marvel

Jean Grey is one of the most popular and beloved X-Men characters of them all. She's long been an integral part of the team but a major part of her character has been that she dies a lot. Death in comics isn't exactly uncommon but Jean Grey is the poster girl for it and it's a bit much.

Since her first death in "The Dark Phoenix Saga" by Chris Claremont & John Byrne, killing Jean Grey has become something that writers do when they aren't sure what else to do with her or want to give a story some oomph. It's a game of diminishing returns and it's gotten a bit annoying.

4 They Set 90s Trends That Backfired

The '90s were one of the X-Men's most prolific periods. The team ruled the sales roost and was the trendsetter for the comics industry. This was a mixed blessing as other books tried to replicate the X-Men's success by becoming more like the X-Men, which backfired spectacularly.

The biggest culprits included early Image Comics books. Four of the seven founders all worked on X-Men books and created teams and characters that were very similar to the mutants. It was an epidemic throughout the industry at the time, one that spread out and did a lot of damage to both the X-Men and the industry.

3 New Characters Were Often Pushed Aside & Forgotten About

When new creative teams work on a book, they want to do things that will make the books their own, putting their personal stamp on the whole thing. The X-Men were no different and new people working on the book would end up creating new characters, ones that were always heralded as the next big thing.

However, most of the time, these characters were never used to their full potential as they took page space from the characters already loved. They weren't given their fair chance to shine and once the creator left the book, they were shuffled aside for the tried and true and whatever new character the next creative team created.

2 Some Plotlines Are Left Without Any Closure

Chris Claremont's time as the writer of the X-Men was one of the most important in the mutant's history. He had a very particular writing style--he would set something up and let it play out for years in the background before bringing it to fruition. This paid dividends for the book but it also became a bad thing when other creators tried to do the same thing.

Writers would set things up and then just leave them there, not really doing much to build them up as Claremont did. This infuriated fans since they were given this cool glimpse of something that would rarely get any development until a new creator came along and decided to work with it.

1 They Were Marginalized & Replaced With Inhumans

House Of M pruned the mutant race down to a bare minimum and made mutants into a very endangered species. For a time, this was a good thing, as mutants had proliferated to an almost untenable extent. However, the plotline went on way too long and just got grimmer and grimmer. Avengers Vs X-Men's ending seemed to change all that, but then Marvel decided that Inhumans should be the new mutants and started the whole cycle over again.

For the better part of the 21st century, the X-Men were marginalized into a little corner and fans hated it. It only got worse with the whole attempted Inhumans replacement and only recently has been fixed.

NEXT: Chris Claremont's 10 Best X-Men Stories, Ranked

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David Harth (791 Articles Published)

David Harth has been reading comics for close to 30 years. He writes for several websites, makes killer pizza, goes to Disney World more than his budget allows, and has the cutest daughter in the world. He can prove it.