Uncanny X-Men Receives the Axe

And I gave it a good chance to stick around

BY COLIN ENQUIST

The X-Men have always been one of my favourite titles. When I really started getting into comics the two big X-titles were the first to be thrown onto my pull list. Not only were Uncanny X-Men and X-Men good at the time but it looked like they were not slowing down.

I got a lot of enjoyment out of the two X-titles. Uncanny X-Men was always the better of the two books in my opinion, even with the Alan Davis art on X-Men. Suddenly the fortunes of each book changed, along with the dynamics of the teams. Grant Morrison came aboard X-Men (changing the title to New X-Men) and started a legendary run that has shaped the X-universe still to this day.

Soon after Morrison left the book, it reverted back to its original title, X-Men. Not entirely sure how long I stuck around but it was not very long. The book got terrible quickly, so I stopped picking X-Men up.

A coupe of months later, I realized that Uncanny X-Men was just as brutal. So now I am picking up comics without my usual X-titles. And these were the two books that helped get me into comics.

I still checked out solicits to see if it looked like either series was getting any better. Even reading a few reviews online, these only helped cement my decision of dropping the books though. It sounded like the books were a complete train wreck.

Then issue #500 of Uncanny X-Men was going to be released. A new creative team was promising a bold new direction. Sure I hated the art by Greg Land and Terry Dodson but I really enjoy Matt Fraction’s writing. So picking up a couple issues was worth a shot.

16 issues later and I’m back in the same boat as before! Fraction just finished tying up his big crossover with the Dark Avengers, leaving the team headed in a “bold new direction” again. Yes I disliked the start of the Exodus crossover bit it did end really strong.

Sadly the next issue lost my faith in Fraction. Most of the issue was devoted to Cyclops telling us that he has no plan; he was just rolling with the punches. At this point it seems like Fraction is doing just that, rolling with the punches, having no idea what to do with the characters or the series.

*insert sound of an axe falling*

That was the sound of Uncanny X-Men getting chopped from my pull list. Yes out of those 16 issues I bought over the last year or so, 6 might have been really good. That just is not enough to keep me buying the book..