When a comic title runs for hundreds of issues, there are bound to be a few misses when it comes to storytelling. Maintaining a high quality over decades is next to impossible with constantly changing creative teams, characters, and storylines. Marvel's X-Men runs have showcased some amazing stories, however, one of the worst, most inappropriate stories ever came in the early 2000's thanks to Chuck Austen.
Austen's work on Uncanny X-Men was chalked full of lows for the superpowered mutants. One of the biggest issues with his run was his writing of Husk and Angel's relationship - specifically, one scene that involved the two mutants having sex in the sky - yes, you read that correctly. In Uncanny X-Men #437, Husk and Angel are having trouble defining their relationship. In Uncanny X-Men #440, they solve their differences and celebrate in an... uh... happy way.
After Husk finds Angel talking to her mom, she tells him that he needs to treat her better and goes for the jugular, saying "no wonder Betsy [Psylocke] stopped loving you!" Angel then goes into this long-winded spiel about how he needs someone who's strong and isn't afraid to call him out when he's doing wrong, telling Husk that he loves her more than he ever could his previous flame. That's when things take a turn for the inappropriate. Husk and Angel start kissing and fly into the sky and start having intercourse mid-air as their clothes fall onto the mutants below. "Oh, my. I do not want to see this," Husk's mom says as her daughter gets it on in the sky.
There are so many things inappropriate with the out of the blue sex scene, it's truly hard to fathom how the idea ever made it past the pitch stage. For starters, Husk is only 19 years old in the comic - Angel is not a teen, as he's in his early '30s. Also, did they need to start getting it on in front of their X-Men teammates and Husk's mother? Clearly, they've never heard the expression, "get a room." The X-rated scene also continues in the next issue, because of course it does. The moment is as unnecessary and it is inappropriate. Austen's sexualization of the characters wasn't interesting or believable - instead, it was ill-timed and gross. The mutants of the X-Men should be allowed to share romantic moments (Plenty of other X-Men runs have done this really well), but scenes like this are best left in the first draft.