Okay, so I looked at Mr. Majestic #1-9, Uncanny X-Men #394-409 (including the 2001 annual) and Adventures of Superman #612-623: what do these three works have in common besides the fact that Joe wrote (or co-wrote) them?
The main idea that seems to run through them all is evolution. Mr. Majestic evolves, the X-Men are products of evolution and Superman evolves beyond his traditonal self. But, that excludes a lot of stuff, I think. The Majestic evolution only happens at the end, the X-Men don't actually evolve during their run and Superman's evolution is subtle and mostly ignored.
Are they all failures in the sense that each had little or no lasting impact? Despite the fact that I find Mr. Majestic and Adventures of Superman to be fantastic reads, are they both just as flawed as Uncanny X-Men? Obviously, they're more entertaining, but artistically--or is Uncanny X-Men the artistic masterpiece, while the other two are fluff entertainment?
Whatever, I still consider making Superman a pacifist to be one of the most forward-thinking, revolutionary things done in comics in the past decade. At least in the mainstream. The fact that it didn't last beyond those twelve issues is a shame and shows just how fucking spineless the company, editors and creators are. A real chance to move the character forward and seek new challenges thrown away because SUPERMAN MUST HIT THINGS! DERRR!
And Mr. Majestic put back as that fucking Superman rip-off when stories of him on that cosmic guardian level would have been fifty times more interesting.
Nothing from Uncanny X-Men was ignored that should have been used. Maybe pushing Chamber's telepathy a bit, but otherwise, nothing of note.
Maybe the only thing they have in common is Casey.
Uncanny X-Men #5 annotations
11 hours ago
