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Coming this fall, to a comic store near you, 25 monthly X-Books! Yes, that's right. Roughly 25 comics that can fall under the X-Banner will be published on a monthly schedule.
For anyone who may be curious as to what they can possibly be doing to fill about two dozen comics, here's a list of what's coming: Wolverine (Two issues in October!), Uncanny X-Men (Another doubled month), Sabretooth (Thankfully just a limited series), Adjectiveless X-Men, X-Men: The End, Wolverine: The End (Final issue, at least), Astonishing X-Men, New X-Men, Excalibur, Nightcrawler, X-Force, Cable/Deadpool, Starjammers (I'm not sure if this is an LS or not. It changes monthly...), X-Men Unlimited, Gambit, Jubilee, Exiles, Emma Frost, Rogue, Mystique, Ultimate X-Men, NYX, Distrct X, and Madrox.
Weapon X and X-Statix were just cancelled, or the list would be just that much longer.
Now, I understand the mentality of seeing something that sells well - the X-Men - and wanting to milk that for all it's worth. That's not inherently a bad thing. Marvel is a business, and they would like to make money, to continue to make more comics. That's all fine and good. I even give them credit for actually trying to find unique voices, storylines, and ideas for these comics, so they all have their own singular place to fill on the rack - giving a little something to everyone, basically. Again, that's a fair idea, wanting to reach out to new readers, or older ones that may have different tastes now, but still hold an affinity for certain characters or situations.
But even understanding all that, I have to ask, isn't this still just a little much? I'm as big an X-Fan as the next guy - and indeed, I'm buying a high percentage of those titles, at least to try a number of the new ones to see if I like them, as well as actively enjoying the ones I'm already reading - but even I have started to balk at the sheer number of titles being pumped out. This is only compounded by Marvel's recent policy to frequently put out two issues of a title a month. Imagine if one month came along where they did this for all the X-Titles? Fifty comics! My wallet screams in fear.
I am tempted to organise a boycott, to try and show Marvel that this is pushing the border of nuts, but really... If you like the books, go ahead and read them. For the ones I'm reading, I have very few complaints to make; hence this broader article on a larger issue.
I will, however, warn people away from X-Force. With all apologies to Fabian Nicieza, I will actively try and get people to stop supporting the Rob Liefeld crapfest. Yes, that's right, Rob's back on the X-Books, with only a slightly increased grasp of human anatomy - he can draw toes now. You can be the judge for yourselves, though, since Marvel and Mile High Comics have seen fit to provide us with a complete preview of it online to peruse beforehand. Check it out, if you dare: http://www.milehighcomics.com/firstlook/marvel/xforce1/cvrpage.html
When it's quality over quantity that you're looking for, can one really complain about the amount? And when do things just get stretched too thin, and the quality starts to suffer, because there's only so many quality artists and writers to go around - even if the fall of CrossGen did release a pool of them back into the wider work force? I think that Marvel is about to reach that very critical point, and can only hope the fan backlash, if there is any, isn't too major or damaging, still allowing for these quality projects (X-Force aside) to be produced. I'm actually finding I look forward to my comics more and more these days, the solicits are a joy to read over, aside from the X's everywhere, and I hope that doesn't change too soon.
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