32) You need a place that lists the rosters of each team, or the different line-ups over the years. Could you add a Hero Team section, similar to the Villain Teams and Friends or Foes ? I’ll answer these two request together, for actually the first idea will be a part of the second one, if (or better: when) it’s realized. Of course, as soon as we added the Villain Team section we also thought about one for Hero Teams, it’s an idea we have had in the back of our minds for quite a long time now, but there are some minor problems. For one, we can’t simply adapt the style of the other two sections, for the Hero teams (unless we are talking about such short-lived groups as the Champions or Big Hero Six) have made appearances in hundreds of comic books, and we simply can’t list each individual issue with a brief description. That’s why the plan is to divide the histories of the Hero Teams into certain eras, which is where the line-up idea comes in. For each era the articles would list line-up of the group, the issues that belong to that era, some longer text describing the main plots and turning points (instead of an issue-by-issue approach), and some sort of aftermath or follow-up. As for what size each of these eras would be, I imagine it about 30-40 issues each, wherever a separation makes sense. For example for the X-Men, it would be like
- UXM #1-39 (formation of the X-Men, trained by Xavier until they received individual costumes)
- UXM #40-66, XMHY #1-22 (death of “Xavier”, Havok and Polaris join, ends with X-Men heading for Krakoa)
- UXM #94-137 (all-new, all-different team, entire Phoenix story)
- UXM #138-... (Storm becomes leader, Kitty joins the team, ...)
Anyway, an ever bigger problem than the sheer workload of this project is that getting it started would take away from the time spent on the other sections. That might mean less Issue Summaries, Spotlight entries, and Event Months. But some day we will start on the Hero teams.
33) The Morlocks page needs to be updated with headshots. I’m so sorry, I have been planning to do that for about two years now (hides in shame), and always pushed it back for one project or the other. Will try to get to that and a cool group pic in my next holidays, which should be around February 2005.
34) Please add more Family Trees. Frankly, there aren’t too many huge families left. Clan Yashida were added during the time the Feedback Poll was running, and the often requested Magneto Tree will probably get released along his spotlight, which means it will be part of an Onslaught Event concept. That leaves only some minor families such as the Trasks, or maybe the St. Croixs.
35) How about an area to describe the places of the X-Men? Like X-Marks the spot, listed under X-Universe? Sure it doesn’t have that many entries yet, but ultimately the plan is to have entries on all of the X-teams‘ bases, and other important locations.
36) Could you add more Dangler Lists? “More Dangler articles are on the way. However, keep in mind that a lot of research needs to be done to make sure that everything is accurate, and then of course there needs to be time to be found to actually do the research and put everything together. In any case, expect a new Dangler list within the next several weeks.” (Redguard)
37) More Event Months, especially Wolverine and Zero Tolerance. Whew – to quote Douglas Mangum, “Would you want fries with that ?“ Seriously, we love these Event Months ourselves, but like with the polls from above, we can only do them when all regular duties are up to date and we have the time to do some additional work. A Logan event Month surely is an option, just like Onslaught or a technology-centered theme (of which Zero Tolerance would be part). But when we'll get to either topic ... only time will tell.
38) Although the UXM.Net’s main focus is factual information, how about some opinion articles or parodies? Sure, why not. Actually there are a few such articles in the Merging Minds section, for example “Sex Sells”, the Limericks, or a critical review of the Twelve Crossover. There’s always room for more, though we need someone willing to write.
39) Could you add a section for characters romances and love interests? Well, that has been asked before, but the answer remains the same. Kind of we already have that on the site, as each character’s love interests and relationships are mentioned in their Spotlight On... entries. There’s also the “Summer Loving” article in Merging minds about the many love interests of the Summers Clan.
A general such article doesn’t work though, for it’s too unspecific and ill-defined. When does a love interest count as a relationship, or was it a mere attraction? Does the other character have to respond, or not? And listing all love interests and relationships might be too big, and with similar info being in the spotlights it’s also redundant.
If we have relationship articles, it should be always with some certain theme or goal, like the Summer Loving feature. For example I can imagine a take on “Interracial Relationships” or “Huge age-gap couples”.
40) I want to see “The Freakiest of the freaks”, an article on odd-looking mutants. See, this is a rather specific article idea, and surely an interesting one. It might involve characters such as the Morlocks, Ugly John, Nightcrawler,... However, just like above, we would need someone with enough time, skill and interest to write such an article.
41) I would like to see you do more Creator Interviews. “Already in the works, just wait and see.” (Iceman)
42) How about an entire Creators section, featuring entries on the most important creators of the X-titles, like maybe a small bio, if possible a picture of them, and a list of their x-related work. “Great idea. Basically what I've come up with so far is a listing of writer and artists and the X-titles that they have worked on. So what you'll see first is just a simple listing with the creators name and below that what title and issues they have worked on. As time goes on I'll add short-bios, pics and other relevant info. Plan on seeing this by the beginning of next year.” (Iceman)
43) How about summaries of any X-Men movies that are out? There is a section for that, the movies already have been summarized! It’s listed under “Features”.
44) Could you add more info about the X-Men TV show from the early 90ies ? “Right now I'm working on an info section for the Evolution series, which should be up sometime next month. As for the X-Men series in question, I'd still like to get more contributors for that section, so as to up the summaries before I add more info about the series. If my time is freed up, you might get your wish granted sometime at the beginning of next year.” (Iceman)
45) Could you please get the Fan Art section back online ? “Expect to see a new Fan Art section appearing at some point in the new year. We'll be making an announcement prior to the section going live about submissions.” (Dean Clayton)
46) How about some Wallpaper section or some other downloadable goodies ? “We did have a wallpaper section previously on the site but this had to be closed down due to issues with our previous host. It's planned to return, although it probably won’t be until after the new year. Unfortunately we cannot have a download section on the site at the present time, mainly due to the types of files that can be put on our server.” (Dean Clayton)
47) What’s missing at the site are some excessive Picture Galleries, or maybe pictures from the summarized issues appearing along the text. Unfortunately that would be too much, next to the pictures we already have. The Spotlight On... entries are rather image-heavy, and the Crossovers too show some turning points from the stories. Ever since we have moved to our own server we have to keep an eye on webspace and Bandwidth costs, and especially with Fan Art and Wallpapers eventually returning to the site, we have to make a cut.
48) How about you displaying a world map with dots to show where each X-Man is right now? That would be a cool visual effect, but with the locations of team members changing quite often, this map would require constant updating. More effort than use.