Issue 7: Looking ahead in 2005 - The New Mutant Renaissance?

Could 2005 be the year of the mutant? I believe it just may. Marvel has tried to revitalize the X-Men franchise several times since their last super-huge-mega-explosion in popularity in 1991. There was the revolution that brought X-father Christ Claremont back to both core titles in 2000. The there was the addition of Grant Morrison and Joe Casey to the books just a year later. For one reason or another though, the X-Men franchise (while still wildly successful) has not been able to hit the same stride that creators like Lobdell, David, and Nicieza were able to accomplish with X-Men, and X-Factor, and X-Force.

And yet this could be the year. After scores of writers, artists, and failed series, the X-franchise is poised to go into the new year stronger than ever and here are a couple reasons why 2005 could be their best year yet and as always, my suggestions for what would ensure creative and financial success (because I, of course have run a multi-million dollar comic company and know all).

1. Whedon and Cassaday: month by month, Astonishing X-Men keeps getting better and better. Here's a book that includes three of my four all time favorite X-people (Beast, Shadowcat, and the very much alive Colossus - the fourth is Nightcrawler). I can't remember a time when the characterization and dialogue has been better in an X-Men book. Marvel needs to find a way to keep these two men on this title for at least another year.

2. Claremont finally hitting his stride: His revolution work was spotty, and X-treme was hit-and-miss. His current run started slow but he's begun crafting classic Claremont story arcs with "Chasing Hellfire". Plus, his Christmas issue was some of his best work in years. Over in Excalibur, disparate pieces are beginning to come together, and it looks like the Scarlet Witch will be joining the cast (fresh off her crazy-spree in Avengers Disassembled.)

3. Peter Milligan on X-Men: If you've talked to me about X-StatiX, you know what a big fan I am of this guy. The only guy I would've wanted on X-Men more may have been Mark Millar - but he's too busy making Wolverine interesting again. Chuck Austen's corner of the X-verse has dragged it all down for the last few years and here's a chance to get a fresh start with a really good writer. X-Men could be the breakout hit of 2005.

4. Great supporting books that complement the core books well. More and more, the X-verse is starting to come back together as a unified whole. Nunzio Defilippis and Christina Weir are doing impressive work in New X-Men, balancing a huge cast but managing to flesh out every character and show Xavier's from the student perspective. David Hine's District X is one of the best books out there bar none. Cable & Deadpool is way funnier than a book starring Cable should be; FabNic is tying to two characters together far better than any of us ever thought he could. Finally, Tony Bedard, after a kind of hiccup start on eXiles, has really begun telling stories worthy of the book and his talent. This man can do scifi, he can do humor, he can superhero action, and he can do fantasy, back to back to back. Add all that what looks like positive motion to the Timebroker storyline and a return to the Age of Apocalypse and I think he'll win over nay-sayers he didn't like his first few arcs.

Is everything perfect going into the new year? Of course not. Despite the canning of Jubilee and Emma Frost, there is still an overabundance of redundant monthly titles like Gambit and Rogue. Rob Liefield's wonderful X-Force mini is being rewarded with a Shatterstar solo book (and by wonderful I mean painful to read). X-Men: The End hasn't been much more than "shove as many characters as possible on panel and kill them" but that could change as Book 2 prepares to debut. We still have no idea what the fate of Weapon X is, or whether the marvel office will let Frank Tieri tell us that yet. We need to get Leech out of Neverland! What we do know is that 2005 is year with more promise for our mighty mutants than ever before.

- Dwain Smith has several New Year's Resolutions: More Artie and Leech lobbying, less Liefield bashing, and more creating words by adding an X- to the beginning of them.

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