The thing about the X-Men is that they are very much like Batman and Superman... they're out of stories to tell about them. Everything you could possibly say has been done, for better or for worse. The X-Men, in case you didn't know moved to San Fransisco... the um, happiest place on earth. I guess Marvel was just really desperate to have a team on the east coast so that people would stop calling bullshit on everything happening in New York. I wonder at what point the X-Men stopped being for everyone and just became for under-laid men? In fact when did comics just become one big sex joke? I mean tastefully done it can be hilarious, but a rant from Emma about how much her stockings cost and that she only kneels in them if she really must, wink, wink; is just pathetically bad. Not only I was I able to see the set up coming a mile away but the punch line (for lack of better words) sucked!

You'd think that the team that made people take Iron Fist serious would take the same approach with the X-Men instead of putting something out there that any lazy ass fanboy could write and probably has written. There's just nothing going on with this story, it's all over the place and with no signs of stopping. Recently in my life I've stopped reading books based on how long I've collected them, I've decided not to be one of those readers that continues reading the book even when it's bad just because I always have before. Uncanny X-Men, no slate that, X-Men as whole have become unreadable. In an attempt to make them popular again Marvel has shaken up the pot one too many times which has left me just not giving two shits about what type of car Wolverine drives, or Cyclops' sex life, or how Beast just really seems like a total tool. It's not that I dislike the team or the costumes or the loca... no I do hate the location, I just don't care for anyone's take on the characters right now.
You know what works best for team books? One character narating the issue, you get to know that character and then you move on to the next. Now I know your team, your take, your feel for the book rather than 32 pages of people taking and honestly if they didn't have word bubble leading right to their damn mouth I would swear they were the same person talking over and over until I put a gun right by my ear and pulled the trigger instantly deafning me for life... and seriously San Fran? You have a team that fights evil, that's the basic structure of the X-Men, why not put them in the city that has constant danger and free storylines just by reading the news... San Fran? Why the hell not Oakland or at the very least Sacramento? Shit San Diego is the most obvious choice, after all that's where nerds of every clothe come once a year to meet and mate and mastrabate over everything NERD! But hey the 9er's use to be good right?

I don't think I care for Greg Land either, I mean I'll still enjoy Brubaker and Fraction's other books (until they fall down this same path that is) but this is it for Greg Land he doesn't have any other books... just this highly inconsistant, photorealistic, Beast's head looks like the Lion from Narnia, nicely colored book. I've liked Mr. Land's art in the past, I even like it when I looks like a celebrity. What I don't like is when Cyclops' head and face don't look like they belong together, or when suddenly Emma look's like a body builder, or Dazzler just looks like some chick off the street in spandex because really if they didn't have costumes you'd never be able to say, "Oh yeah that's Dazzler alright look a the jaw line, wait a minute... didn't she use to have short pink hair?" That's the problem with Mr. Land's work everyone looks the same and really it's the colorist that has the hard job of figure out who the hell everyone is.

One day I'm sure I'll pick up X-Men again, just like I have with Bat and Supes, and maybe they'll be a writer that gets the characters that were established long ago and will return them to something I recognize rather than something that I detest and wish to spit on. Someone like Geoff Johns that understands what made the character great and is putting them in new situations rather than a new personality. Brubaker stick to Criminal and Daredevil... and Cap (Still good so eat shit) and Fraction... hurry up with Iron Man will you it's boring the shit out of me.. but your Thor is really good! As for Mr. Land, well he moved out of the neighborhood shortly after, his dad got a job in New Mexico... I told him to always wear a hat. That was the best summer of our lives, well at least mine, at least mine.