I think there is a certain paradox when it comes to the X-Men.

The core of the appeal of the X-Men has been their outsider nature and when they surged to the peak of their popularity, the fanbase was mostly disaffected and disconnected youth-the outsiders on the fringes of culture and counter-culture, those who felt unaccepted and identified with the core concept. They were anti-establishment, somewhat counter-culture. Those who felt marginalized felt the appeal of the X-Men-geeky kids who loved comics and sci-fi, the queer culture of the late 70s and 80s that was not out and accepted as much as it is now, those who were drawn tot he appeal of punk culture, etc.

For many, those who feel that in youth outgrow parts of it and move more towards the accepted, more towards the establishment, become more settled and less disaffected, or their outlier nature becomes more mainstreamed within the society so they are less on the fringes. The appel of the X-Men to these is now more of the nostalgia bent, remember when we were young and disaffected and the X-Men embody the fond memories of youth-but what made the youth of their day is not what made the youth of the current time disaffected so if the X-Men are to maintain the core demographic of their appeal, i.e. the disaffected, they have to change to reflect the youth culture-but comics today is a nostalgia business in many ways and this impacts the X-Men moreso than almost any other franchise because of the nature of what the X-Men traditionally appealed to.

If the X-Men hew to close to what they were and the nostalgia of what made disaffected youth at the peak of the X-Men's popularity they are no longer an outlier but part of the now current establishment and lose what the central appeal of the concept was. There are your father's X-Men so to speak. But if they go all out for the core of their appeal and glom onto what makes disaffected youth today to appeal to that central conceit, they alienate the nostalgia audience which is the core customer base of comics these days.

They cannot be what they were and gain a new core audience without reinventing themselves but they cannot survive in the market today if they do reinvent themselves.

The X-Men in some ways were lightning in a bottle occurring in the right place at the right time to create that surge in popularity that made them "The X-Men" but this is a different time and a different place and I don't think there is a way to catch that lightning in a bottle a second time without a new surge of customers to fill in the hole in the market that a the loss of a nostalgia market creates, and that next generation of customers/fans isn't there because comics as a whole didn't cultivate that ground letting it lay fallow from the late 80s until just a few years ago when they were getting fat selling to the nostalgia market not worried about what happens after...

I think what we are seeing now with what Marvel keeps trying to do with the X-Men is find a way to please both sides and they are pleasing neither, so the luster has fallen off the franchise.

-M