Not to long ago, I posted an article about how we need to start writing to Marvel on our thoughts on the mutant subject.  It was intended to motivate people to save the mutants.  I've gotten very little output from you guys.  You complain about the plots and art but now is the time to take action.  We must band together and save the mutants.  Three people have already contacted me and have given me ideas but I still need more.  PLEASE e-mail me ideas to help the mutants.  We're counting on you!!!         I would also like to take those three people for caring enough to write in: Will, Martin, and ZIM.  Thanks guys.                                                 The Man (A Loyal Fan) Keep the Faith readers of the 'Children of the Atom'!                                         -Fred @ UB

complain about the plots and art but now is the time to take action.  We must band together and save the mutants.  Three people have already contacted me and have given me ideas but I still need more.  PLEASE e-mail me ideas to help the mutants.  We're counting on you!!! Alright, here's things I think we need to do to help fix the X-books: 1.  Retcon away the Upstarts and Omega Red, as well as Cable, Feral and Shatterstar.  This won't happen, but it would be nice - all of these are extremely stupid characters.  The Hellfire Club as developed in old continuity would have kicked these 'Upstarts' asses.  Feral and Shatterstar are bad one-note Wolverine clones, and Cable is so messed up by now it would be better to just have him fade away.           Deal with Omega Red in the Wolverine book when he gets his true origin, once and for all, no bullshit this time.  Cable gets sent back to the future, and stays there.  For Feral and Shatterstar, see the plot sketch below. 2.  No more time travelling.  Period.  Good time travel stories require extremely tight plotting with very careful attention to detail and continuity, which the current X-books do not have.  Also, characters with time-travel on demand are just too powerful - see Bill & Ted (dude - we gotta remember to leave some keys here for us - excellent! here they are!). 3.  Get rid of Gambit.  There's no reason for the X-Men to trust him.  I'll accept Bishop - he worships them, and this has been verified by a brain-scan by Xavier, so they can trust him, but Gambit hasn't been checked out at all. Furthermore, they have lots of reasons not to trust him - they know he's a thief and he used to hang out with Sabertooth. 4.  The X-Men have lots of old friends they haven't looked in on in a while. They should do so - round up Excalibur, the New Mutants members of X-Force, the other loose New Mutants, Amanda Sefton, Stevie Hunter, etc.  People who get attacked all the time shouldn't go for long stretches without checking in on their friends who also might get jumped.  They should also go after Forge and Mystique - when your friends go unstable and act out of character, you don't just let them leave, especially when posession and shit like that happen to your friends all the time. 5.  Shi'ar technology and Forge have to be up to the task of letting Prof. X walk again - they did it before. 6.  Xavier should open another school for training mutants, and abandon field leadership of the X-Men.  This school should not be at the mansion - too many enemies attack that joint.  For that matter, the X-Men should leave there too, for the same reasons.  These students should NOT be involved in fights, but stories _base_d on them should resolve on learning and teen peer group stuff, like early New Mutants issues. 7.  Wolverine's origin - give him one once and for all, and stick with it. Stop overexposing him in every book in the Marvel Universe.  Return to the Wolverine who tried to keep his rage under control, and ditch the one who relishes bathing in blood. 8.  Betsy shouldn't like being what the Hand turned her into.  Build a story arc around her quest to get changed back.  Potential guest stars:  Dr. Strange, Merlin, Roma, Saturnyne.  The X-Men know enough magical big shots that this shouldn't be too hard.  Archangel could also try to get some help. 9.  Cable's original plan, as presented to the New Mutants, made sense: you have all these enemies, which come here to attack you all the time.  Why not take the fight to them?  Of course, X-Force hasn't done this, and has spent all their time fighting CABLE's enemies, and the enemies he was talking about in his proposal were the X-Men's, not the New Mutants.              It would make sense for the X-Men to form a strike team of their heavy hitters to go after their enemies and put them down:  Wolverine, Archangel, Storm, Bishop, Rogue. 10.  The X-Men get restrained by power-dampers all the time, and often they're customized for the victim.  Why not have Forge build one for Rogue so she can touch people - note that her flight, strength and invulnerability are not a mutant power, but a permanently absorbed one, so it wouldn't be too hard to say that the damper leaves her all those powers, and only damps the touch power. 11.  Why aren't the X-Men looking for Dazzler and Longshot?  Longshot should be kept out of the X-Men, since he's been out of character since his very first appearance outside of his own mini-series, but they still should be looking for him. 12.  No more appearances by the Mojoverse either.  It was funny the first time, as written by Ann Nocenti.  Now it's tired. 13.  Restore the Magneto characterization from the later New Mutants issues, where his time as a teacher taught him that compassion and cooperation may be the way to go after all.  All the suffering the recent all-combat X-Men have been through should help convince him, and his efforts to go after X-Force and convince them that terrorism is not the way would make a fine story with which to bring him back. 14.  When the X-Men meet strangers, they talk before fighting  (see the Beast's speech in issue where Xavier gets kidnapped by Ryking's kid). 15.  Finally, lots more of the sitting by the pool/picnic/softball game issues with no fights, just character development, which are what made the X-Men great in the first place, lo those many moons ago. MY ideas for X-Men plotlines: 1.  Gambit IS the traitor, and he DOES have a charm power (as SHOWN already in some old X-Men book), which is why the X-Men have not been as suspicious of him as they should have been.     This charm power has clouded the X-Men's minds, leading to their strange and out of character recent behavior.  He goes for it, with help from some of his clan members, and the X-Men put them down.  Bishop gets lots of airtime in the final fight - this is his plotline, after all. 2.  The X-Men realize they have lots of stray friends out there, and go to check up on them.  They split into teams to go visit their friends - 3 or 4 issues of visiting with friends.  Begin developing subplots:  Magneto tracking X-Force, Selene pops up with Sebastian Shaw in Nova Roma. 3.  Search for Dazzler, Forge and Mystique.  Begin hinting at Mystique's connection to Nightcrawler. Afer they find Forge, restore the bald guy's legs and give Rogue the damper so she can touch people.  Forge and Storm get married - art by BWS, Lifedeath III. 4.  X-Force wrap up:  X-Men reach X-Force at same time as Magneto.  They don't fight, but all talk.  Feral gets sent to the cops for disemboweling an innocent bystander somewhere along the way.  Shatterstar realizes his time on Earth does nothing for his cause at home, and returns to the Mojoverse, with Feral, who he sprung from jail cause she fights well.  Last appearance ever of Mojoverse until Ann Nocenti writes Longshot II.  No Cable with X-Force now;  he's returned to the future (to stay) after X-Cutioner's Song.            Magnus and Charles realize there's still a need for a school for young mutants.  Boom-Boom, Rictor to be first students, new characters to be introduced later.  Turn X-Force book back to New Mutants.  Send some surviving Hellions to this school.  Scott/Jean and Forge/Storm to be faculty, along with Prof. X (married couples want to settle down some, maybe have some babies). Magneto becomes field leader for X-Men.     Sam and Warpath are too experienced now to be students, attach them to X-Men.  Continue Nova Roma subplot - (old) Hellfire Club takes over, by political subterfuge, not violence. Amara on the run from them. 5.  New school set up on Graymalkin Lane.  Is attacked by Upstarts, big fight, some casualties on both sides.  Spurs decision to move _base_ of operations due to all enemies knowing where G. Lane is.  Fight with Upstarts is draw, leads to info about Hellfire Club takeover in Nova Roma, X-Men go there to bust them up and rescue Amara.            On arrival, find population likes being run by Selene/Shaw - they fit right in.  X-Men and HC form uneasy alliance to go after Upstarts together, X-Men pick up Amara.  X-Men/HC team break up Upstarts organization, but lots of 'em get away.    Split into X-books 4 books:  X-Factor still government agency, current direction good, lots of crossovers of characters into the 'hanging by the pool/going out for a beer' issues.  No crossovers into the strike-team fight issues.    New Mutants to be focused on the new school.  Scott, Jean, Ororo and Forge move to this book as faculty, as does Prof. X.  Students of all ages, not just teenagers.                  2 or 3 monthlies with Superman-book _style_ continuity between them focusing on the strike-team X-Men and supporting cast.  Merge Excalibur with X-Men.  This is a big cast, some characters may have to be written out (sensibly, not arbitrarily) to keep cast size manageable.  Maybe lose Wolverine, as he goes to find himself in the woods (in his own book). 6. Strike-team X-Men tired of getting jumped, go on hunt for Upstarts, Marauders, Apocalypse, Hodge, etc.  1-2 years of 2 out of 3 issues focusing on hunts and fights, 1 out of 3 issues with no fights showing group interaction between missions for character development.  Battles will be hard-core, people will get hurt - injuries are good excuse to write characters out temporarily to keep cast size manageable.  With multiple books, can keep fights in one books and 'hanging out' in another, to allow fans to buy only one type of story if they don't like both. Other plots to be developed:    Nightcrawler's past, and his connection with Mystique.    Wolverine's real past - in the Wolverine book.    Dazzlers sister    Illyana's magical potential    the Hand.  crossover with Daredevil, since they're really DD's villains.    visit with Dani Moonstar.           the state of the Shi'Ar empire after Operation Galactic Storm.
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In article < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (Kevin Maguire) writes: NOTE: Some stuff was deleted... | Alright, here's things I think we need to do to help fix the X-books: | | 2.  No more time travelling.  Period.  Good time travel stories require | extremely tight plotting with very careful attention to detail and | continuity, which the current X-books do not have.   I agree!  Time travel is not an easy concept to write about in the first place, let alone in an ad hoc manner... | 3.  Get rid of Gambit.   At the risk of being labelled a 'fanboy', I think Gambit has some potential as a character when written well.  It gets a little boring when you're sure everyone is a good guy. | 7.  Wolverine's origin - give him one once and for all, and stick with it. | Stop overexposing him in every book in the Marvel Universe.   Definitely!  I don't know anyone who appreciate Wolverine's over-exposure in the Marvel Universe.  But, alas, he sells comics... | 10.  The X-Men get restrained by power-dampers all the time, and often | they're customized for the victim.  Why not have Forge build one for | Rogue so she can touch people - note that her flight, strength and | invulnerability are not a mutant power, but a permanently absorbed one, | so it wouldn't be too hard to say that the damper leaves her all those | powers, and only damps the touch power.   A nice thought, but I don't like the idea of using Forge for this. Maybe it's because I'm an engineer, but I find the idea of inventing fantastic things on demand a little hokey, mutant power or not . | | MY ideas for X-Men plotlines: | | 1.  Gambit IS the traitor, and he DOES have a charm power (as SHOWN already | in some old X-Men book), which is why the X-Men have not been as suspicious | of him as they should have been. |     This charm power has clouded the X-Men's minds, leading to their | strange and out of character recent behavior.  He goes for it, with help | from some of his clan members, and the X-Men put them down.  Bishop gets | lots of airtime in the final fight - this is his plotline, after all. |   This would probably make some pretty good comics.  But, I can't help thinking I'd miss Gambit... | 4. <Stuff Deleted | Magneto becomes field leader for X-Men. |   I think this idea has a lot of potential.  Unfortunately, any return of Magneto would just contribute to Marvel's growing problem with the Revolving Door of Death . | 5.  <Stuff Deleted |    New Mutants to be focused on the new school.  Scott, Jean, Ororo and | Forge move to this book as faculty, as does Prof. X.   It would be nice to see these couples in more peaceful, family oriented environment.  However, it requires a writer of great ability to keep something like this from getting boring after a while.  Are you sure current Marvel writers are up to the task? |  Maybe lose Wolverine, as he goes to | find himself in the woods (in his own book). |   Hey, get rid of Gambit AND Wolverine?!?  You're talking pretty big changes here...  I maintain, it's not necessary to get rid of them, only to write them well. | |

In article < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (Anshu Prasad) writes:    In article < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (Kevin Maguire) writes:    ...    | 3.  Get rid of Gambit.      At the risk of being labelled a 'fanboy', I think Gambit has some    potential as a character when written well.  It gets a little boring    when you're sure everyone is a good guy. When's the last time he WAS written well?  They're making him into a big cliche like all of the crap with Wolverine's pseudopast.    | Stop overexposing him in every book in the Marvel Universe.      Definitely!  I don't know anyone who appreciate Wolverine's    over-exposure in the Marvel Universe.  But, alas, he sells comics... If they'd write him in an interesting manner I wouldn't hate it so much.    | Magneto becomes field leader for X-Men.      I think this idea has a lot of potential.  Unfortunately, any return    of Magneto would just contribute to Marvel's growing problem with the     Revolving Door of Death . I don't think you kill the acknowledged master of electromagnetism with an electromagnetic weapon... Besides, Magneto is a great character... I'll trade him for, oh, (dare to dream) Liefeld?    | 5.  <Stuff Deleted    |    New Mutants to be focused on the new school.  Scott, Jean, Ororo and    | Forge move to this book as faculty, as does Prof. X.      It would be nice to see these couples in more peaceful, family    oriented environment.  However, it requires a writer of great ability    to keep something like this from getting boring after a while.  Are    you sure current Marvel writers are up to the task? Not at all.  (I'm sure; that's about the ability, as evidenced lately.)    |  Maybe lose Wolverine, as he goes to    | find himself in the woods (in his own book).      Hey, get rid of Gambit AND Wolverine?!?  You're talking pretty big    changes here...  I maintain, it's not necessary to get rid of them,    only to write them well. Seconded... but then, that should be obvious for comic books that degenerate into mere printed material.

Turn X-Force book back to New Mutants. Well, with Cable and Domino gone that leaves Shatterstar and Feral to be written out.  Then they could bring back Karma and siblings and there you go.