Who are the X-Men?

Ideal: Hmm. Let me get back to you.

Actual X-Men? Pffft, I don't know, there's always some tool like Wolverine hanging around.

Cyclops, Phoenix, Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Nghtcrawler, Beast (sometimes), Banshee (sometimes), Kitty (sometimes).

Now if only we'd have Charlotte (sometimes), I'd be able to maket he Cure fans happy...

Charlotte Sometimes
High
Primary
Lullaby
Lovecat
Catch
Forest
Heaven

In all honesty, I'd probably put the _Astonishing_ team at the top if Laurence Olivier went at my teeth with vice grips, but, uncoerced, I can't do it in good conscience.

My ideal team will have to wait as well, though I can't see the team with only one of either Kabob or Cyclops in it - the Wolverine / Cyclops dynamic is so key that they'd either have to both be in or both be out.

Dan OTM, although it wasn't my first exposure -- if anything, I think this was the last lineup before I stopped reading the X-Men regularly. Other lineups look better to me on paper, but never ended up being written as well (even if they often had better stories -- the Dark Phoenix Saga was a great story, it's just that it's kind of a shame it was a story happening to Jean Grey and Scott Summers).

Ideal, no idea, but I'm tempted to say the Astonishing lineup, but that's probably only because it's what I'm reading lately. I'd otherwise be unlikely to pick Cyclops.

Cyclops
Jean Grey/Marvel Girl/Phoenix/whatever
Wolverine
Colossus
Nightcrawler
Rogue
Storm
Angel
Beast

Which realise is most of them from teh Claremont/Byrne era.
And I feel really guilty about leaving out Forge, Shadowcat and Longshot....especially Longshot...

2000AD-style-kick-ass X-men would be pretty much the Morrison/Whedon crowd. Possible get rid of Kitty Wanky Pryde and have Storm in there instead if she promises not to talk crap. And all the freaks like Glob Herman and the Beak.

Then you'd have pissy-goth-pain-angst-feelings-soap-opera X-Men. Angel, Nightcrawler, Kitty Wanky Pryde, Jubilee, Psylocke, Rogue, Gambit, Boom Boom and anybody else who talks about how THE PAIN is TOO GREAT but I MUST CARRY ON. Shove them all in a big mansion on Plot Device Island so they don't get in the way and let Chris Claremont do any horrible thing he wants after you've given him a hige stack of MISTY and a note saying 'MORE OF THIS PLEASE'. It'd sell like a motherfucker. Wolverine's in it too because he knows the lonely pain of the samurai and there are eight of him.

Pretty much what we've got now, only a bit less flooding the market.

Juggernaut on the 2000ADesque team instead. Storm moves over to the whining team who I shall dub X-Position.

Yeah, I see her more as a Willow. No wonder she totally bugs. Emma should be off melting her brain or something.

Wolverine has been doing a lot of Xanderesque zingers in the past few episodes (esp. to Kitty; I think #3 is the issue where this really stood out to me) while retaining the savage intensity he always had (which reminds me of Whedon's Spike).

Wolverine
Nightcrawler
Shadowcat
Rogue
Longshot
Havok

http://www.uncannyxmen.net/images/article/relationship/relationshipmapv1.htm

A seebelow dude put me up on this - too amazing not to share.

oh I've seen that before

It is about the only nerd thing I've ever wanted to print and frame.

Good grief, that's partially why I get too scared to start reading X-Men.

Having said that, speaking as a non-regular X-reader, I thought this week's Fraction done-in-one on Uncanny was pretty terrific fun. The first issue of his I read -- #500, I think -- was absolutely awful. Has he gotten better?

ha I haven't read this week's yet but in general I feel Fraction has gotten worse and more unfocused since #500

You'd like it, Dan! It's pretty much a transparent Doctor Who rip-off tribute.

Why does the graph claim Cannonball had a "one-sided infatuation" with Magma? Weren't they dating back when Claremont wrote the New Mutants?

Knowing Claremont, one or both of them were being mind-controlled, so it doesn't count.

tl;dr

My favorite X-Men line-up is Professor Xavier, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Emma Frost, Cyclops, and Beast. The Morrison team.

My ideal X-Men line-up would focus on Storm, Wolverine, Dazzler, Nightcrawler, Beast, and several new characters.

Prof X, Cyclops, Jean, Wolvie, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty , Storm. I'm an early 80s Claremont kind of guy.

^^ This, but with Emma instead of Jean and Beast instead of Storm.

Prof X, Cyclops, Jean, Wolvie, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty , Storm. I'm an early 80s Claremont kind of guy.

That's my favourite too, though I liked the addition of Longshot and Psylocke (before she was turned into a leather fetish babe) during the Romita/Silvestri era. But when Kurt and Kitty moved to Excalibur, my interest with X-Men didn't last for long after that.