Austen off Marvel

[Mokole]

Austen gone from X-men, finally, but his run proves my point about fanboys/girls. His work was and his plots just plain stupid. The characters he created were 90% idiotic, yet x-jerks keep buying x titles because they have x in them. Idiots. Now he's gone, hope nothing like him ever gets to touch AF again.

[HappyCanuck]

Austen gone from X-men, finally, but his run proves my point about fanboys/girls. His work was and his plots just plain stupid. The characters he created were 90% idiotic, yet x-jerks keep buying x titles because they have x in them. Idiots. Now he's gone, hope nothing like him ever gets to touch AF again.

Well being one of said 'X-Jerks', I'll let that slide - this time (btw, I don't buy because of the 'X', I buy because I enjoy the characters). However, I didn't mind Austen's work - sure hellova lot better than that pure, unadultereated bovine feces ala Morrison, Whedon and Claremont (Claremont tho has a few saving graces, but his hayday is done).

And hell, at least he USED AF and Northstar -- especially since, until Lobdell launched ANADAF and Tieri Weapon X, he was the only one who would TOUCH Alpha. Sure he did a not-to-par job with them - I blame the editors - but at least it kept them from falling into the limbo that claimed them after the fall of Vol. 2.

[kozzi24]

Chuck Austeb did some real bad, horrible things during his tenure with Marvel. But he also did some pretty good ones too. A very hit or miss writer, I'd rank him about a 6 out of 10.
One of his misses was exploring the relationship between J-P & Logan. Considering their origins but that they had limited and ill-defined exposure to each other in their tenures with Alpha, it's been a lost opportunity to see just how well they could or could not get along.

[Mystic]

I frankly didn't like Austen's work all that much. I used to be a die hard 'X-Jerk' (and normally fall in and out of it), but found that he really just kept wanting to bring in all of these characters into the UXM and then he wouldn't touch them, so it seemed rather pointless for them to be there. It was almost as if someone with ADD had been given the reins on Marvel's 'flagship' book, and couldn't decide who he wanted to write for. Was I happy that he included NS?? Absolutely. I kept getting the book because he was in it (and that was pretty much the only reason). Although towards the end of his run on UXM and the couple of issues of X-Men I got with him writing, I did like how he was handling things...though that seemed to be too little, too late.

Now while I didn't like Austen's run up until the end of my collecting everything 'X', I did like Morrison's run on 'New' X-Men up until the last couple of story-archs. He had a good handle on the White Queen, and he had some entertaining stories...up until the last two. 'Planet-X' and 'Here Comes Tomorrow' just seemed to be a little contrived. Did Jean really need to die AGAIN?? No. And the whole storyline of some form of after effect of the Phoenix Force within Jean Grey seemed a little forced too.

Now...for Clairemont...I loved his stuff back in the day...

And Whedon, well...I really like Astonishing X-Men. He has a good grasp on the characters, and I have always enjoyed the way he writes character interactions and the way he tells a story. I'm not too happy that Colossus is apparently back after such a noble sacrifice, but I should realize that with Marvel, death is never permanent...especially if there is an X on your uniform. I'm looking forward to seeing where he goes next.

HC, why is it that you don't like Whedon, Morrison, and Clairemont??

-Mystic

[HappyCanuck]

HC, why is it that you don't like Whedon, Morrison, and Clairemont??

-Mystic

Pretty much for the reasons you stated about Austen, Mystic:

Claremont was good - back in the day. When he came back on on X-Men 100, it was like he was forced back on. Until he got XXM he continued that. Now that he's on UXM, it's like he picked up on Morrison, whom I'll talk about here in a second. It feels like he just lost his drive.

Morrison seemed like he felt he needed to up the ante to earn his keep - the whole 'secondary mutation' thing with Hank and Emma was contrived, the whole 'Weapon Plus' was an attempt to up Logan's Weapon X thing, which just threw me from the title. Basically, I kept buying to see if things got better, but as 'Planet X' and the debacle that was 'Here Comes Tomorrow', I had enough. Thankfully, he left shortly there after, because I was ready to drop the title.

Whedon - now there's a loaded name. Like Claremont, he reads like he's trying to recapture some of the fame he got from 'Buffy' by altering things for X-Men, a plot not needed in most cases.

As for Austen, yeah, he's had some problems, but I've found that they all started to work out later in his run, especially around the time he reintroed Northstar (whom I know he wasn't sure what he was doing there other then to fill a 'niche', but he started to make JP work in the series), and brought on Juggernaut as an X-Man. 'the Draco', 'the Trial of Juggernaut', 'She Lies With Angels', 'Darkest Nights', 'Bright New Morning', and even the current 'Heroes and Villians' arc - as far as I'm concerned, some of the best X-Men stories in the last twenty years, not because they are X-Men issues, but because each issue is about the characters en masse and in person. He brought the X-Men together as a team, and brought them out as people, all at the same time.

Those are, of course, my twelve cents. Gimme change or ask for a refund, that's your perogative, but I stand by it: I liked Chuck Austen's work and would prefer he kept it on on the pages of X-Men.

[Phil]

I liked 50% of Austen's Uncanny run.
I liked 50% of his Exiles run.
I've liked 100% of his (adjectiveless)X-Men run.

I find that Austen's work is great when he's only writing a few books.
When he's stretched to over 8 titles a month he seems to write bland soap opera generated plots and have a whole load of editorial interference.

[HappyCanuck]

Thank you Phil, you summed up what I was trying to say quite well.

[seroquel]

i do/did like austen's emphasis on characters as well. i would never have become an alpha freak if he hadn't brough NS on board even though i was well aware of their existence. it was a nice change from the 90's super cross over, crazy plot-tastic-ness.

i was so all about morrisson until the end as well. the nice macabre tone was fun for the x-men, for awhile. not forever or anything .but i am so not a Cyc/Frost fan at all, so admittedly that might have spoiled it for me a bit.

Austen seriously writes 8 books a month? (i am extremely humor impaired at times if that was just comedic exaggeration.)

"I got a new kitten" happy dance!

[Phil]

There was a point where he was writing:

Uncanny (2 issues a month)
Exiles (2 issues a month)
Eden's Trail (Script/Plot re-write)
War Machine 2.0
Captain America (Script/Plot re-write)
The Eternals
Superman Metropolis

and probably dabbling with his creator owned series "Worldwatch" at the same time.

Possibly plotting for his Avengers run too.

[kozzi24]

I don't think the timing of War Machine (great read BTW!) would have any overlap with Avengers.
I figure he kind of was considered by TPTB similarly to how Mantlo was considered back in the day, solid enough and prolific enough to get a fill-in out in a pinch.

[Phil]

War Machine 2.0 the 2nd series that he wrote but didn't draw.

[templar]

yeagh, I would have to agree that Austen's work is highly overratd,

[Scarlettspiderg]

OK i'm not Austens biggest fan, and most of his work on Marvel titles has been sucky - but (and its a big but) I have to stick up for some of his ideas.

A new Captain Britain (introduced in Avengers) was a great idea, adding Northstar (although originally tried by Scott) to Uncanny was a great idea and most of his Exiles issues (except for the Uncanny crossover) were a good read. He also gets a thumbs up for bringing Havok back.

Other than that, I hated his stuff.

[Le Messor]

I thought Grant Morrison's run on X-Men would've been a great comic - if it hadn't been X. As X, it ignored too much that'd gone before.

(I still do -not- believe Scott mercy-killing that guy.)

- Le Messor
"Committees do harm merely by existing."
- Freeman Dyson