X-Men Legacy #210

I haven't liked this storyline at all yet, but in carey i trust.  i'm optimistic this is where he changes my mind

I'm most definitely digging this book.  Carey's doing a fabulous job of refracting key events in X-men history through Xavier's damaged psyche.  It's so nice to see the character of Charles Xavier written with some respect, for the first time in a while.  And I'm loving this take on Erik Lehnsherr, who isn't quite Magneto anymore. 

This set of characters is much more in Carey's wheelhouse (drink!) than the rather incoherent team he was writing before Messiah Complex/the renaming.  Good comics. . . and the Hellfire Club on the cover of this issue.  I can't wait!

@ohcaroline - eric's awesome in this. i can't get enough of this thing going on between him and charles. i also can't get enough of emma frost in panties and thigh-high boots! keep it coming mr. finch

I've read these (I bought the first one for the John Romita flashback art) and I have to say that everytime the story leaves Xavier's mind I fall asleep.

This is really starting to drag...in fact I think ALL the X-books are dragging right now. This whole "Divided We Stand" thing strikes me as similar to world war hulk...lack of true stakes. We KNOW the X-men will eventually get back together, we know the mansion will one day be rebuilt, and until then we have to endure a bunch of tiresome issues and stories like what's happening in Uncanny right now. X-books need a writer rotation I think. I'm kind of over Carey and Brubakers take on the X-universe.

@ AlexG, I disagree.  I mean historically the X-men work best when a writer has control to build himself an epic with a good long slug at the book.  Claremont and Morrison anyone?  Granted I am struggling a little with this one, but I too love Finch's White Queen, so I'm buying.

@conor Granted the present-tense story isn't as interesting as the mindscape stuff, but I guess I'm enjoying that enough that it bothers me.  

Call me crazy, but I'm enjoying the 'reality' based storyline.  I've always been intrigued with Exodus as a character and its been fun to see him go head to head (lame pun intended) with the injured Prof.  I find this book to be the most rewarding out of the 'divided' books.  Its directly addressing what happened in the X-over, and I'm intrigued whats going to happen issue to issue.

I like the reality stuff better than the stuff in Xavier's mind, simply because we've seen the old memories so many times before. Little new information is being presented.  I'm much more interested in knowing the opinions of the people around him right now.  Still, this book needs to go somewhere soon. Not that I'd drop it or anything. It's a great read.  I just don't want this book to simply be about Xavier. He's probably the least interesting X-man out there.

I heard an interview with Mike Carey waaaaaaaay back - sometime before messiah complex.  And he said Legacy would feature Rogue and Gambit, so I assume they're coming up soon

a few months ago, i had the idea to do an illustration of all the xmens greatest villains in a wide panoramic shot. i made a list of who should be on it, and in what kind of hierarchy, i worked tirelessly on thumbnails trying to figure out how to make them all fit, and then these started coming out. now it would just look like im apeing finches art. although, i could probably still do it, given that david finch doesnt know what a human face looks like.

I got to agree with Conor, I want more memories and less people with 80's hair and capes who I don't know.

I dont like reading this anymore. people can stop calling my home asking for my "stack"

I love Mike Carey's X-Men run, but this is awful.  Xavier should not be the focus of his own book

What in the world is the basis for calling Charles Xavier uninteresting?  I can understand saying that the character hasn't always been written well, or consistently.  But the X-men wouldn't exist without this guy.  He's one of the most powerful telepaths in the universe, one of the Illuminati, a player in cosmic-level conflicts, an ambiguous father figure to a lot of major characters, and has a complex love-hate relationship and philosophical conflict with his worst enemy.  All of that is inherently uninteresting and unworthy of being the focus of a book?  Really?

He works great as part of a team-book, but to be the focus of a long drawn out story-arc?  Just because he's got some credentials, doesn't make him work as a main character, and it certainly doesn't make his monologue interesting.  And as far as I'm concerned this is all been there/done that.  How many times can we see a villain try to torment Charles over Thunderbird and Legion?  I wish he would've taken up Exodus's offer to lead the Acolytes, at least that would have been unexpected.

@cutty -- Maybe this aspect of Xavier has been explored before, but it hasn't been done this decade in a book that I've read, and I've read a fair number of them.  This seems to be a catch-22 of X-titles; half of the readers will complain that they've seen this before at the same time that the other half say they have no idea who these characters are.  I guess there's an elusive middle ground that's hard for writers to hit.  

On another note, as soon as I picked up this book, I saw Land on the cover and said, 'Oh, I bet Conor didn't even buy this.'  I didn't find his part of the interior too painful; just a couple panels of 'Oh, look, it's the same girl Greg Land always draws!'

I thought the art was sub-par for this issue.  It hasn't been great, but I felt like it slipped a bit from last month.  Maybe its because I read this immediately after new avengers... not sure.

@cutty - I'm with you in that I would have enjoyed a chance to see the Prof leading teh Acolytes, even if if only for a short time.  I think that could have led to some interesting character dynamics.  Something tells me that not all Acolytes would receive him with open arms.  What if Charles then went to recruit some the former (now abandoned) X-men or New X-men?  Guess we'll never know, but its fun to think about.  

@Ohcaroline - What did you think of the pre-Messiah Complex Carey stuff on X-Men?  The reason I'm kind of annoyed with this arc is because of how unbelievable I thought that stuff was

@cutty -- Unbelievably good, or just unbelievable?  I was enjoying the book pretty well from issue 200 or so (though would have liked it better if I could comprehend Bachalo's art at all).  But I felt like the stories were resolved by MCX.  I don't feel like there's anything left hanging.  It seems like they're given Carey a wide canvas to work with and permission to actually tell stories that matter with characters people care about (which didn't seem to be the case for his first year or so on the book).

The reason I say Xavier is uninteresting is because all of his storylines deal with the same issue lately. "Charles isn't as good as he presents himself to be".  I get it already.  Ever since the build-up to Scott and Jean's wedding, when it was revealed that he had some sort of crush on Jean, it seems like every writer wants to add a new sin to his past.  Frankly it's a bit boring now.  Also, I'm tired of seeing characters through the lens of Xavier. It's been done to death. I'd find it much more interesting to see Xavier through the eyes of others, such as what we had the last few issues with the Acolytes. Right now, I think Xavier has worn out his usefulness to the adult X-titles, and would be better suited to being in a book like Young X-men, which is more in line with what his mission was initially. 

@shogunt - i second the Young X-Men idea.

@shogunt   I think the trend for a while has been to see Xavier as 'flawed father' from the 'childrens' point of view.'  And I agree that's gotten a bit repetitive.  But this book seems devoted to turning that around, and actually dealing with the stuff that's been piled on from Xavier's point of view, while still acknowledging that he has heroic qualities and has been important to the development of the X-men.  I find that really interesting.  Maybe it has been done before (which people keep saying).  If so, when and where? 

I think a really good Xavier book could exist.  I think a really really good Xavier/Magneto book could exist.  This isn't that book.  Part of it is because of the cast, with the real X-Men busy in other books we're left with Xavier, a de-clawed Magneto and a cast of people who just aren't interesting. 

Gene Siskel used to have a way of rating movies that asked whether watching the characters (or actors even) eat lunch would be more more or less interesting than what's happening in the film.  I'd pay to see Magneto and Xavier eat lunch.  This I'm regretting the purchase.