"What, you thought they'd live forever?"
by Kyle Gavin

First off, let me say, that I'm one of the few (quite possibly, the only one) here at X-Rising still enjoying the X-men books. While I do agree that they have seen better days, I do not see them as being "horrible" as my friends here have described them.

Now, this is to those that are of the negative persuasion, in regards to the X-men books.

Beginning in the mid seventies, the X-men began a phenomenal run of great stories, characters, and sales. It was picked up with Scott Lobdell in the early nineties, and he kept it going for another six (?) years. Also in that time, Uncanny X-men, and later X-men always had top notch art, maintaining the greatest and most consistently good art teams in comics. That's over two decades of unparalleled greatness. And I pose this to you; did you really think that the X-men would be the supreme quality standard for comics, forever? I know, what you are thinking, "yes it should be, there's no excuse for it to decline, if Marvel puts the best people on it." The reality is, that isn't always possible. Marvel is hard pressed to find a big name writer (not that Davis isn't, I would say he is more known for his art). Like nations and economies, comics go through ups and downs. You just sit back and ride it out, because before you know it, they'll be booming again.

And something to leave you with, Avengers and Fantastic Four readers spent the majority of this decade with stories that hated (from what I gauge on the AOL Avengers' board), plus the Avengers folks, had to endure Liefeld.

We (well, you actually, since I like the books) get to "endure" Adam Kubert and Alan Davis (oh that's tough). I'd say we're getting off easy.