By Geoff Klock(geoff.klock@gmail.com) Another complaint about Claremont (there are so very many) is that his brand of superhero feminism was less than it should have been, because he “cheated” by making his female characters into powerhouses. A letter was published in Uncanny late in the run, opining that Claremont had only t...

By Geoff Klock(geoff.klock@gmail.com) Thus, this issue and the next comprise an opening one-two punch in Claremont’s attempt to get his characters out of the pressure-cooker and let them live, and breathe. The villains (a parody of Ghostbusters, portrayed by writers of the Wild Cards series, to which Claremont contributed a...

By Geoff Klock(geoff.klock@gmail.com) Still, it contains some intriguing turns. Psylocke, for example, wonders whether “the changes [to the X-Men] wrought by ‘Inferno’ … were more than cosmetic.” This is a fascinating development that Claremont will kinda-sorta explore over the next few months before dropping it (perhaps...

By Brian Cronin NOTE: I included those pencilers who worked on X-Men issues during Claremont's initial run, but only if they actually worked on issues with Claremont - this excluded three artists who worked on issues during Claremont's run NOT written by Claremont - those three artists were Bob Brown (...

By Geoff Klock(geoff.klock@gmail.com) Note: The full “secret origin” of Madelyne – her ties to Phoenix, etc. – is never given by Claremont. He leaves it to Louise Simonson to reveal in X-Factor #38. But we do get a lot of it here, and I still maintain that “Inferno” works perfectly well to explain the long-running mysteries, certain...

By ComicList Chris Claremont has written just about every character around, from Batman to Iron Fist to the Fantastic Four. However, to a legion of comics fans, he is fondly regarded as "the" X-Men writer. He's wowing readers with his take on the X-Men in the current series, "X-Men Forever." Come and get t...

By ComicList Byrne's rise to prominence, however, began at Marvel Comics. Providing art for books such as Iron Fist, The Champions and Marvel Team-Up (all subjects of childhood nostalgia for this columnist), gained the attention that landed him on X-Men. Along with writer Chris Claremont, and inker...

By Geoff Klock(geoff.klock@gmail.com) Claremont followed that example for years. Here, in the conclusion to the four-part Genoshan story, the author spends a massive percentage of the available 22 pages dwelling on Madelyne Pryor’s development into something otherworldly – it’s all less to do with Genosha and more to do wit...

By Brad Curran Involuntary response to Banshee speaking. Funny, it never bothered me in the Claremont stuff, but it's been so long since I've read it that I don't know if it's Gray or me. I literally can not read this comic, and I liked the first two issues. Of course, I could read years worth of stories of cultu...

By MarkAndrew 2)  John Byrne (artist/co-plotter) and Chris Claremont (writer) on Marvel Team-Up (1976-1980) 1) From Marvel Team-Up # 70.  Tony Dezuinga inker.) I could argue that Ultimate Marvel ... MTU 79 has a sequel of sorts in Uncanny X-Men (190-191 iirc) I'd read those issues years ago ...

By Glenn Hauman CM: Those being Storm, Rogue, Nightcrawler-- CC: Let me start at the top. Cyclops, Storm, Nightcrawler, Beast, Kitty, Gambit, Rogue, Nick Fury, and two others to be named later. Continue reading Interview: Chris Claremont on 'X-Men Forever', part 2 ›

By Geoff Klock(geoff.klock@gmail.com) In service of this dual-minded approach, Claremont constructs each chapter of the “Welcome to Genosha” epic to contain at least one sequence of wrenching brutality and tragedy (always set in the titular African nation), juxtaposed against at least one containing straightforward su...

By Greg Burgas Marvel: Marvel brings the Asgardian War thing with the X-Men and New Mutants back in print with a nice hardcover on page 90. This is quite good, with Claremont before he got too, too Claremontian, plus Paul Smith and Art Adams handle the art.

By Brian Cronin Okay, to set the scene for Uncanny X-Men #137 (by Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Terry Austin), do note that Jean Grey had become a powerful hero known as Phoenix, but she was then corrupted and turned into Dark Phoenix and went off into outer space and actually destroyed a whole planet!

By Graeme McMillan(noreply@blogger.com) More Claremont retrospective! This time, the first two years of the Byrne run, wherein everything comes together remarkably quickly, and I compare John Byrne to Joe Sinnott. Or something.Ignoring the fill-in in UNCANNY X-MEN #106 (Although: Chris Claremont and Bill Mantlo together! T...

By Glenn Hauman Due to a family emergency, Chris is running behind on answering your questions on X-Men Forever Alpha & 1. He'll get to them as soon as he can, and answer those that aren't answered by issue #2 on sale tomorrow.

By Brad Curran Hey, remember when Dirk Deppey reviewed a bunch of X-Men comics that one time? This is sort of like that, but without the dripping disdain for Chris Claremont, so some of you may want to leave now. Really, I just wanted to read more X-Men comics than usual and decided that blogging about it und...

By Geoff Klock(geoff.klock@gmail.com) As Patrick has already pointed out, the middle chapter of “Fall of the Mutants” – a double-sized issue – sees Claremont tossing out ideas and allusions at a schizophrenically breakneck pace, with almost every turn of the page revealing some new wrinkle. Alan Moore and Grant Morrison are g...

This past Wednesday, Marvel Comics released the first issue of their new series X-Men Forever. Chris Claremont writes this with art from Tom Grummett. The series is suppose to take place right after Claremont's original run ended back in the 90's. ...

By Geoff Klock(geoff.klock@gmail.com) With all the Claremont on this blog, how could we not review X-Men Forever #1? I read it, but having watched everyone talk about other Claremont X-Men issues I have read, I would not presume to take the top spot up here -- I really did want to participate in the Claremont discussion every week...

By Brian Cronin As you all saw from the Chris Claremont Comic Book Legends piece a few weeks ago, things were definitely a bit up in the air at Marvel regarding the X-Titles circa 1991, with different creative teams set to take over basically every title in the whole X-line of comics (except for Wolverine -...

By Glenn Hauman While we're still transcribing the rest of the first massive interview with Chris Claremont, he's graciously agreed to answer questions about X-Men Forever going forward. So here's what we're going to do: With X-Men Forever running bi-weekly, this will give you a fix to tide you over bet...

By Geoff Klock(geoff.klock@gmail.com) Containing an extraordinarily high incidence of thrilling moments in the space of only 23 pages, Uncanny X-Men #225 is a fantastic slice of superhero fiction. At this point, it seems certain that Claremont, Silvestri and Green can do no wrong.

 CA Marvel, meanwhile, are indulging a Chris Claremont jones, with the X-Men: The End Trilogy collection of Claremont's 18-issue finale to the franchise. (Be warned: He spun another series out of it, so it's not a final finale. ...

By Geoff Klock(geoff.klock@gmail.com) Jason is taking a deserved break with his Claremont posts, going down to once a week before his big push to the end, so I thought I might write about two interesting comics this week in his place. <br /><br />Batman and Robin 1. There was nothing I disliked about the Morrison and Qu...

By Geoff Klock(geoff.klock@gmail.com) The “Fall of the Mutants” trilogy beginning next month will wrap up several threads at once, decisively enough that – as Patrick has pointed out here – it will almost feel like an ending for the entire Uncanny X-Men series. But Claremont decides to ease us into the narrative tour de force of i...

By Geoff Klock(geoff.klock@gmail.com) Claremont knows how to have fun. A case in point are the Marauders – an agglomeration of super-villains, no one of which has a particularly compelling personality or superpower, yet who collectively made such a delightfully chilling impression during the “Mutant Massacre” storyline. N...

By Glenn Hauman Chris Claremont: Essentially nothing. Those were the issues going in, to establish all the fundamental parameters: the X-Men are a team of heroes that are based at Xavier school for gifted youngsters at Salem center, outside of New York City.

By Geoff Klock(geoff.klock@gmail.com) Claremont is being as clear with his implication as he can in a Comics Code-approved superhero comic, but the writing between the lines is not hard to read. As blogger Patrick puts it here, Logan and Ororo are “friends with benefits” – and seemingly guiltlessly too, despite Logan’s pledge...

By Jeffrey M. Anderson In the early 1980s I was an "X-Men" fanatic, eagerly devouring every comic book I could get my hands on. But my favorite, and it remains my favorite to this day, was a 1982 four-issue mini-series written by Chris Claremont, drawn by Frank Miller and devoted exclusively to Wolverine. In it, Wo...

By Glenn Hauman In anticipation of the May 1 theatrical release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, join us as Chris Claremont, best known for his work on Marvel Comic’s X-Men series, leads a discussion with Matthew K. Manning, author of DK Publishing’s newly-released Wolverine: Inside the World of the Livin...

By Geoff Klock(geoff.klock@gmail.com) That brings us finally to X-Men Annual #10, wherein we learn that Betsy (re-christened “Psylocke” by Claremont) is actually transmitting everything she sees at the X-Mansion to Mojo’s dimension via cameras in her bionic eyes. When the issue begins, the X-Men are fighting Magneto as par...

By noreply@blogger.com (Jim) This comic book has disappointed the Revolution. X-Men has traditionally been about the characters that we have read about for years. Claremont built up their personalities to the point that they seem like real people. Then when they are thrown into battles in the Savage Land, against gian...

By noreply@blogger.com (Jim) This comic book has disappointed the Revolution. X-Men has traditionally been about the characters that we have read about for years. Claremont built up their personalities to the point that they seem like real people. Then when they are thrown into battles in the Savage Land, against giant robots, and fight superteams from other countries(or worlds), we care what happens to them. Into all the traditional comic storylines, Claremont added some very serious issues. The Beast approaches Angel. He wants to know why Angel is keeping secrets from him. Angel says he can't tell him. Angel flies away. As the process begins, the machine explodes. The High Evolutionary cries "Erik". The man comes out of the wreckage and says "No. Magneto..."   [read the full post]

By Geoff Klock(geoff.klock@gmail.com) This is not quite using superheroes as metaphor, but there is definitely a unique energy in what Claremont accomplishes with the oblique sexuality of the Colossus/Shadowcat idea shown here. Like the asymmetry between Xavier’s mutant power and Magneto’s, which Geoff so cannily observ...

By Brian Cronin Uncanny X-Men #268, by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee, is a cool story mostly set in the past when a pre-Weapon X Logan teamed up with Captain America to protect a young Natasha Romanova (who would grow up to become the Black Widow - hey, folks, what is the explanation for her odd aging?). In prese...

By Travis by Jeff Parker, Nick Dragotta, Paul Tobin and Ramon Rosanas by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca New Exiles 16 by Chris Claremont and Jim Seeley by Matt Fraction, Dan Bereton, Doug Braithwaite, Mike Allred, and Miguel Angel Sepulveda X-Men: Kingbreaker 1

By geoff.klock@gmail.com (Geoff Klock) This is another example of Claremont creating more story threads than he can possibly keep track of. Wolverine-as-family-man is an intriguing idea, and Claremont surely intended to explore the notion further in future X-Men comics or Wolverine miniseries ... but instead got sidetracked...

By Chris Marshall Essential Wolverine Vol 2 TPB Essential Wolverine Vol 3 TPB Marvel Visionaries Chris Claremont HC Marvel Visionaries Stan Lee HC X-Men Inferno HC - 40% off until Friday 26th New Avengers Vol 8 Secret Invasion Book 1 Cover A New Avengers Vol 8 Secret Invasion Book 1 Cover B

By Mark Stoddard Now, this soap opera element is nothing new when it comes to the X-Men – indeed, the real golden age of these mutants under the direction of the legendary Chris Claremont was always hailed as a great success in fostering exactly this sort of atmosphere. But times have changed drastically in...

By Chris Marshall Marvel Masterworks X-Men Vol. 7 (Regular Edition) Essential Wolverine Vol 2 TPB Essential Wolverine Vol 3 TPB Essential X-Men Vol 6 TPB Marvel Visionaries Chris Claremont HC Marvel Visionaries Stan Lee HC Marvel Masterworks The X-Men Volume 7 Secret Invasion: Black Panther

By Geoff Klock(geoff.klock@gmail.com) In almost any Claremont superhero comic, the extraordinary circumstances work metaphorically. Here, the very comic-booky premise – a reformed super-villain finds her psyche invaded by the mind of a superhero she once fought and beat – is simply a heightened version of the prosaic phen...

By Geoff Klock(geoff.klock@gmail.com) The story’s epilogue also harkens to the past. Since Uncanny #181 is the first issue to be published in 1984, Claremont takes advantage of the date, deliberately alluding to the alternate history related by the adult Kate Pryde in “Days of Future Past” (Uncanny #141). In a panel from that st...

By Geoff Klock(geoff.klock@gmail.com) Having apparently struck upon the idea months ago to end Colossus and Kitty’s relationship, Claremont made the odd decision to lay much of the emotional groundwork for the idea in issues of New Mutants rather than X-Men. New Mutants #’s 13 and 14 see Kitty palling around with a fellow teen c...

By Geoff Klock(geoff.klock@gmail.com) Claremont also confronts the X-Men (both the characters and the overall franchise’s premise) with their own hypocrisy here, several times. Callisto shames Kitty at having exploited the trust of Caliban (the Morlocks’ other tragic character besides Leech), and Kitty in turn chastise...

By Geoff Klock(geoff.klock@gmail.com) A 22-page story, “Sanction” wastes a ridiculous 12 pages on a dismally unimaginative scene depicting Mystique in training against Arcade’s X-Men robots. Romita’s choreography is stiff, and Claremont strains, but ultimately fails, to give Mystique a compelling first-person narrat...

By Chris Marshall Essential Wolverine Vol 2 TPB Essential Wolverine Vol 3 TPB Essential X-Men Vol 1 TPB Essential X-Men Vol 3 TPB Essential X-Men Vol 4 TPB Essential X-Men Vol 5 TPB Essential X-Men Vol 6 TPB Marvel Visionaries Chris Claremont HC Marvel Visionaries Stan Lee HC

By Geoff Klock(geoff.klock@gmail.com) Thus, Claremont is deliberately flagging up problematic moments in the story of the X-Men – moments that Claremont himself is responsible for – in order to plant the first seeds of a new kind of X-Men. In the coming years, Claremont will upset the status quo in significant ways. Valerie Coop...

By Geoff Klock(geoff.klock@gmail.com) A shrewd plotter, Claremont also smartly weaves in other ongoing arcs into this climactic issue: His use of the recently-added cast-member Rogue is quite clever, as is the fact that Storm’s newfound affinity for “violent weather” becomes a key to the team’s victory.

By Geoff Klock(geoff.klock@gmail.com) Storm’s angst seemed so gradual, and repetitious, it makes for a wrenching surprise when the actual turn is so violent and so fast. What Claremont has created is an inverse of the “Dark Phoenix” cliffhanger at the end of Uncanny X-Men #134 (exactly three years earlier), where the sudden ch...

By Geoff Klock(geoff.klock@gmail.com) But how, then, to still satisfy genre requirements? How can Claremont still utilize recurring villains, for example, but fight free of the “riff” paradigm, wherein every creator of X-Men offers a new spin on the same old chords? We get a taste of the answer here, as Claremont begins to rec...

By Chris Marshall Essential Wolverine Vol 2 TPB Essential Wolverine Vol 3 TPB Essential X-Men Vol 5 TPB Essential X-Men Vol 6 TPB Marvel Visionaries Chris Claremont HC Marvel Visionaries Stan Lee HC Avengers First to Last Premiere HC Cover A Avengers First to Last Premiere HC Cover B

By Geoff Klock(geoff.klock@gmail.com) Conceived as a comic book that would stand on its own entirely apart from the continuity of the serialized monthly, “God Loves, Man Kills” is a 64-page self-contained story by Claremont and artist Brent Anderson involving a bigoted Christian preacher, William Stryker, on a crusade aga...

By Chris Marshall Essential Wolverine Vol 2 TPB Essential Wolverine Vol 3 TPB Essential X-Men Vol 6 TPB Marvel Visionaries Chris Claremont HC Marvel Visionaries Stan Lee HC Astonishing X-Men Volume 2 HC Cover B X-Men Complete Onslaught Epic Book 4 Comic Book Tattoo Special Edition HC

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) Geoff has noted that Joss Whedon seems to have learned everything he knows about serial writing from Chris Claremont. But the lesson in how to do a good vampire story that also incorporates teen angst ...? Clearly Whedon picked that one up somewhere else.

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) Trivia: That the new X-Men’s superhero phase ends with #166 is a striking coincidence of numbering, given that the Silver Age X-Men were cancelled with #66. In a strange way, Uncanny #266 will mark a similar milestone as the first appearance of Gambit – the first Claremont X-character del...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) In terms of storyline, “Wolverine” is cannily conceived despite its unapologetically anachronistic portrayal of Japan. In fairness, Claremont is hardly the only comics author to portray all of his main Japanese characters as honor-obsessed clichés, but that context doesn’t necess...

By Dan Grendell Big Hero 6 #1 (of 5) Writer: Chris Claremont Artists: David Nakayama and Terry Pallot Company: Marvel Comics X-Men: Magneto Testament #1 (of 5) Writer: Greg Pak Artist: Carmine di Giandomenico Company: Marvel Knights/Marvel Comics

By JK Parkin o Jim Cheung, artist of Young Avengers o Steve McNiven, artist of Wolverine and Civil War o Brandon Peterson, artist of Uncanny X-Men o Greg Land, artist of X-Men o And Chris Claremont, Marvel Comics’ legendary X-Men writer, who shepherded the title for over 20 years.

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) The best part of “Pursuit” is Professor X, whom Claremont and Cockrum seem to be suddenly on a mission to make cooler than ever before. His trashing of a Brood warrior with a fist to the face is the most satisfying moment of action in the issue, and the subsequent dialogue between Charles and S...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) To get to that point, however, Claremont first embarks on yet another homage to Neal Adams. It begins with Angel (plus Spider-Man) descending to the Savage Land and facing the Savage Land Mutates. Spider-Man leaves at the end of issue 2 but Angel sticks around, to be joined by the rest of the X...

By Geoff Klock(noreply@blogger.com) Claremont was superhero comics’ first feminist writer. He clearly had an affection for Storm -- the “new” X-Men’s only female member originally – right from the start. Indeed, it is Ororo who saves the day in Uncanny X-Men #96, the first X-Men issue that Claremont plotted. (Cockrum’s favor...

By Manolis Vamvounis CABLE #2 4/10 8/10 MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN #38 Chris Kipiniak / David Nakayama) 7/10 YOUNG AVENGERS PRESENTS #3 7/10 YOUNG X-MEN #1 NEW EXILES #4 Chris Claremont / Tom Grummett) I’ll just let Claremont himself -through his darling Psylocke- sum up my feelings on the New Exiles:

By Brian Cronin 90. Chris Claremont and John Romita Jr’s X-Men – 106 points (1 first place vote) Uncanny X-Men #175(partial), #176-197, 199-200, 202-203, 206-211 The Avengers #35-104 Stan Lee pronounces it "Boo-SEM-uh" in the How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way video, IIRC

By Geoff Klock “Magneto Triumphant” is part one of a two-part story that is considered by a large number of X-Men fans to be the best straight-ahead “X-Men vs. Magneto” story. It is the last one Claremont will do – after this, Claremont begins the deepening of Magneto into a noble character, so the pure, “go...

MARVEL ADVENTURES THE AVENGERS #24 32 PGS./All Ages …$2.99 MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #11 MARVEL ADVENTURES AVENGERS #11 MARVEL ADVENTURES IRON MAN #3 64 PGS./All Ages …$4.99 NEW AVENGERS #41 SECRET INVASION TIE-IN! 32 PGS./Rated T+ …$2.99 SECRET INVASION TIE-IN! 32 PGS./Rated A …$2.99 X-FORCE #4 X-MEN: KITTY PRYDE AND WOLVERINE PREMIERE HC Written by CHRIS CLAREMONT Trim size: standard These WOLVERINE: ORIGINS TRADE PAPERBACKS STILL AVAILABLE! WOLVERINE ORIGINS VOL. 1 – BORN IN BLOOD…$13.99 (ISBN: 0-7851-2287-7) WOLVERINE: ORIGINS VOL. 2 – SAVIOR…$13.99 (ISBN: 978-0-7851-2288-3 WOLVERINE: ORIGINS VOL. 3 – SWIFT AND TERRIBLE…$13.99 (ISBN: 978-0-7851-2613-3) X-MEN: LEGACY BY DAVID FINCH POSTER   [read the full post]

By Derek Marvel Comics Released on 2/20/2008 Avengers Classic #9 $2.99 CABLE & DEADPOOL #50 HULK #2 Marvel Adventures Avengers #21 $2.99 MIGHTY AVENGERS #9 Ultimate X-Men #91 $2.99 WOLVERINE: ORIGINS #22 COVER BY: DAVE COCKRUM WRITERS: CHRIS CLAREMONT and BILL MANTLO WOLVERINE: EVOLUTION

By Brian Cronin Ed Brubaker wants her on Uncanny X-Men? Easy - “It didn’t work out.” Claremont has them say IN THE COMIC that they are unsure if it will work - so really, not a big deal, and certainly not Claremont trying to screw with other writers. If Claremont had some pattern of trying to hurt other writers,...

By Brian Cronin When the Exiles show up later to help stem the tide, it also worked well, because, as I just said in the last paragraph, Claremont is quite good with fight scenes. In fact, when the Exiles show up, Claremont uses his trademark long caption boxes - but here, mixed in with Santacruz’ effective a...

By sdastle@hotmail.com Quote: Originally Posted by Chris Claremont Quote: Hey Chris, Nacht Dear Nacht -- Cordially, Chris Claremont Quote: Originally Posted by Chris Claremont Dear Nachturne -- Cordially, Chris Claremont Now, on to a GOOD Marvel X-Book! X-Men #204-

By Johanna is a huge doorstop of a book, as it has to be to contain 38 issues of the Uncanny X-Men title, beginning with #94, as well as Giant-Size X-Men #1 and X-Men Annual #3. (That’s over 800 pages, the equivalent of the first four Masterworks.) This is the run written by Chris Claremont (with a prelimin...