I absolutely love the early issues for sentimental reasons, BUT "more engaging than FF" ??

"What was it that people didn't enjoy?" "Arcs?"

Shut my mouth !!

I mean it's really obvious why this title failed. No theme carried out in any way. No consistency of art or writing. No particularly good quality art or writing, terrible villains, terrible breaks in the flow of the only arc between 19 & 42. Terrible misuse of decent if not great villains like Unus, Blob & Lucifer.

If you read X-Men 27-29, 31-33 & 35 in that order you will get perhaps a taste of what might have been without all the interruptions. (I think the 3 issue Factor 3 wrap-up sucks.) And how anyone can think the Merlin or Mole Man diversions had any merit is beyond me. I mean building 50 foot tall robots to fight in the crowded caverns of the underworld? It read like a brand X story not Marvel. The writers thought that story had any value in the context of where X-Men was in 1967?

I understand the nostalgia for the books but I can't see defending the quality.