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CLAREMONT RUMBLE!

X-Men just after Kity joined, say circa Annual #5; Cyclops leading, pre-mowhawk Storm, Wolvie in tan, no Rachel or Rogue yet. (Uncanny Annual 5 was, in fact, the fist comic I ever bought.)

Booom Tube drops the Sovereigns into Salem Center instaid of Crossroads, and the superteam meetup fight ensues.

a little info on the seven?

OK, apperantly I'm the only one of the four S7 fans out there who frequents ths board. The Sovereigns (There were 7 of them , thus the name) were each the heirs to a/the royal family of a different alt-earth. Each of them had their world taken over (or nearly so) by an interdimensional soul-plague/hive-mind called The Rapture. S7's leader and her psi-dekick had gathered/rescued the others from the Rapture, and eventually the royal refugees settled in a small town in NY state in the DCU.

The town of Crossroads had a coffe bar run by avatars of Life and Death (though this wasn't adcertised as such), and touched on many other worlds.
Claremont would occasionally drop X-men checks like Kitty and Illana coming to the cafe to study.

The original Sovereign Seven was:
Cascade: Very strong, wore battle armor, could teleport/dimension-hop
Network: Team telepath. would mindlink the others etc, also a goon hant to hand fighter.
Rampart: Moderately strong forcefields.
Cruiser: Telekinisis
Indigo: Stealth, hand to hand, tracking, empathy
Reflex: Huge, but only moderately super strong. Super-reflexes but not running speed.
Finale: A female Namor without the flight but with a greatsword.

thats one of the weakest X-teams of all time... not even one telepath... but it doesnt look like the Sovereign Seven are all that powerful. Still, I think the X-men lose.

The X-men went through a crazy power escalation from the , and I don't think it made the stories any better. I've been rereading the old stuff lately, and I think the run from Days of Future Past up through the Australia period were lightyears agead of the other Superhero comics of that time, in terms of good writing, and hold up quite well today. Melodramatic without seeming fake or forced. When Chris's mojo's workin, he pulls it off. My other comics from those days just cant hold a candle. From Inferno on, it was all downhill, at least for my taste. A couple friends tell me they're good again, but I haven't really looked.

I picked those teams because they share a similar vibe.

Those are some of my favorite issues too, although not as much as some, because my favorite character was just dead (of course, my favorite run is the DP saga- big surprise).

Theyve improved a lot recently, although it looks like it might be heading towards crap again. Morrisons run, New X-men 114-154 and current Astonishing X-men by Whedon are keeping the flame alive I'd say. Claremonts current stuff is pretty mediocre in my opinion.