X-cessive

I really like the X-Men. It's the first series that got me hooked on comic books.

But the X-Universe is growing at too rapid a pace. When I first started buying books, the titles were limited to Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, New Mutants and Wolverine. At the time, even four titles seemed like quite a few. Soon, Excalibur followed, then New Mutants became X-Force and another X-Men book was introduced. But now it's pretty wild -- to the point where continuity and characters are just too confusing. Take a look, this September sees the solicitation of 22 X books!

Uncanny X-Men
X-Men
Astonishing X-Men
Wolverine
NYX
Madrox
District X
Ultimate X-Men
Excalibur
X-Force
Cable/Deadpool
Jubilee
Nightcrawler
Emma Frost
Gambit
Mystique
Weapon X
Starjammers
Exiles
Rogue
X-Men The End
New X-Men

Now to be fair, X-Men The End, Starjammers and Madrox are limited series, and Weapon X is being cancelled. This is pretty outrageous. For example, I never read Exiles and now characters from that book are being referenced in X-Men The End. That's nice and all, but I can't afford the time (or more importantly the money) to follow all the goings on in these books. It's quite unfortunate.

My suggestion would be to create a series such as "X-Men Spotlight" where story arcs featuring solo character adventures or team ups could rotate through, with varying creative teams. Hopefully these adventures could also have a meaningful effect on the comic continuity, unlike annuals or the quarterly X-Men Unlimited. There's just too much out there right now.