The Claremont Run
@ClaremontRun
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The Claremont Run is a SSHRC-funded academic initiative micro-publishing data-based analysis of Chris Claremont's 16 year run on Uncanny X-Men and spinoffs.
Waterloo, Ontario
Joined April 2019
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I am deeply honoured to say that our weird little project won an Eisner Award last night. Thanks, everybody!
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Claremont is on record as being opposed to gendered superheroine codenames. As such, none of his female character creations have the word “girl” or “woman” in their superhero names, a choice that bucks a longstanding trend in Superhero comics.
#xmen
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In UXM 239, the Goblin Queen entraps her Goblin Prince – or Madelyne and Alex finally consummate their mutual attraction after months of support leading to a shared need – or both. Either way, the scene is loaded with dynamic symbolism and worth unpacking.
#xmen
#GoblinQueen
1/13
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Placing Kitty Pryde into the position of viewpoint character has to represent one of the most groundbreaking decisions within the entirety of the Claremont run – a move that ultimately impacted the series, comics as a whole, and even Western media in powerful ways.
#xmen
1/10
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2K
When the X-Men franchise finally expanded beyond Claremont’s capacity to write it all, it was Louise Simonson who had the greatest initial success as an additional writer within it. Their impressive parallel writing was the result of remarkable good fortune…and boredom
#xmen
1/7
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The original allegory of X-Men can be seen to conform to the concept of the “model minority” in abstract ways. Despite being definitive of the franchise, however, Claremont only rarely employed this foundational allegory, instead favouring a more fluid moral imperative.
#xmen
1/9
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In 1983, Paul Smith was invited to become the full-time X-Men illustrator after drawing the team in an issue of Marvel Fanfare. He would last only 10 issues before leaving, but left an indelible mark on both the artwork and creative direction of the franchise.
#xmen
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As noted by scholars such as Scott Bukatman and Carol Cooper, pre-Claremont Marvel heroines tended to have stand-and-pose powers such as telepathy, telekinesis, force fields, etc. Claremont pushed against this trend in UXM with heroines who got their hands dirty.
#xmen
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Where power creep is commonly viewed as an unfortunate side effect of comics storytelling, Claremont uses it as a characterization strategy in order to explore the social and cultural anxieties created by the empowerment of women.
#xmen
#comicsstudies
1/12
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Mike Mignola (
@artofmmignola
) is one of the great artists of his generation, but just before his ascent to rare heights of success, he produced a spectacular series of covers for “Classic X-Men” that merit consideration as works of art in their own right.
#xmen
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The idea of massacre in superhero comics has become something of a trope (often to launch a new creative direction); but not all are created equal, and a lot of the success of the Mutant Massacre can be ascribed (counterintuitively) to inconsistency.
#xmen
1/11
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TL:DR: wanted to end tomorrow with something regular, so doing the summation/thanks/goodbye thing today!
#xmen
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At the time of Colossus’s 1975 debut, America was embroiled in “The Cold War” with the USSR, a war that was often fought through media propaganda. Though Piotr was built around familiar US symbols of Soviet people, Claremont developed him away from type.
#xmen
1/8
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The launch of Kitty Pryde represented an important structural transition for X-Men, introducing a young female viewpoint character (highly unusual), and when the franchise expanded, it was often Kitty - to some degree - building definition across different X-titles
#xmen
1/6
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Claremont’s contribution to the discourse surrounding femininity in superhero comics is well-established, but his contributions to that of masculinity is also quite valuable, particularly surrounding the cultivation of a hypermasculine superhero icon in Wolverine.
#xmen
1/9
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While Excalibur was broadly perceived as “the British X-Men comic” (or even “the British Marvel comic”), the series was never situated within the kind of nationalistic structure by which comics typically express a patriotic mythology.
#xmen
#excalibur
1/8
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When the X-Men franchise finally expanded beyond Claremont’s capacity to write it all, it was Louise Simonson who had the greatest initial success as an additional writer within it. Their impressive parallel writing was the result of remarkable good fortune…and boredom
#xmen
1/7
14
187
879
In a 1982 interview Claremont describes his unique portrayal of women in comics as a conscious decision, made under epiphany. The result of this is one of mainstream comics most important and influential experiments in representation.
#xmen
1/6
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Placing Kitty Pryde into the position of viewpoint character has to represent one of the most groundbreaking decisions within the entirety of the Claremont run – a move that ultimately impacted the series, comics as a whole, and even Western media in powerful ways.
#xmen
1/10
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Knowing that Ricochet Rita is visually based on Ann Nocenti and that MojoVerse is a satire of media culture offers us the potential to read some aspects of Rita’s story as Claremont’s commentary on Nocenti’s role as X-Men editor.
#xmen
1/9
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In light of his recent passing, I’d like to re-post this thread we did in 2020 on Neal Adams’ immense impact on the Claremont run of X-Men comics, and on the X-Franchise in general:
#xmen
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Storm’s goto move for social confrontation is to use hurricane force winds to blast the person she wants to dialogue with a mile into the sky to speak with them. It’s an extreme and unusual character trait, but one with notable impact on characterization.
#xmen
1/8
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In UXM
#251
, Wolverine is crucified by the Reavers and falls into a pair of fever dreams as a result. Claremont being Claremont, the dream sequences that unfold are not random, instead illuminating Logan’s character. Today we’ll talk about the first dream.
#xmen
#wolverine
1/14
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Marc Silvestri is very good at splash pages that look amazing, but his splash for UXM 243 is perhaps his most symbolically dense, encapsulating (and maybe even resolving) the fundamental emotional conflict between Jean and Madelyne.
#xmen
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Building on initial character work by Roy Thomas and Neal Adams, Claremont cultivated in Havok (aka Alex Summers) a complex duality that set Alex at odds with his own power-set. Unlike other X-Men, however, Havok’s powers don’t offer him anything he wants.
#xmen
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As a collaborative medium, comics are sometimes denigrated for their committee approach to character-building, but a closer look at the 'committee' behind Wolverine shows how a character like Logan offers a multifaceted connection to creative genius.
#xmen
#wolverine
1/10
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Despite having all manner of characters (good and evil) express romantic interest in her, Storm’s first canonical love is Forge, a possibly counter-intuitive choice. But this might be the point, as Forge can better connect Ororo to her humanity.
#xmen
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One of Claremont’s most consistent approaches to character is to build their identities around dualities, with each X-Man embodying what seems, on the surface, like contradictory attributes.
#xmen
1/5
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Moreso than any character in the series (including Storm), Rogue’s gender expression is consistently foregrounded throughout the course of her character arc, drawing out key aspects of how the concept connects to sexuality, community, and identity.
#xmen
1/13
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Famously, Jean Grey’s death was written into UXM 137 at the last minute due to editorial demand, and while most fans and scholars consider it a milestone development for the franchise, the original ending is actually quite good in its own right.
#xmen
1/8
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Claremont’s text-heavy pages are the stuff of comics legend, which makes the contribution of letterer Tom Orzechowski that much more pivotal to the success of the franchise and series.
#xmen
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Despite their iconic friendship, arguably the two biggest scenes between Storm and Jean in the pages of Uncanny X-Men both occur in the same issue, 270, adding intimate character moments to the otherwise fast-paced X-Tinction Agenda.
#xmen
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Though the Claremont run is quite often singled out for its soap opera sensibilities, Claremont actually employs an interesting variation on that genre by leaving a lot of the relationship progression to transpire off-panel, rather than in front of the audience.
#xmen
1/9
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Nightcrawler’s fantastic difference can resonate with many kinds of Otherness, including disability, racial difference & gender or sexual deviance. This makes him very identifiable. It also makes his objectification very complicated—and fascinating.
#XMen
@GoshGollyWow
1/11
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Throughout the 1980s, Claremont explores the concept of suicide a lot with key characters like Storm, Rogue, Rachel, Madelyne, and even an author surrogate character in Classic X-Men 11 all contemplating suicide. The most memorable, however, may be Kitty in FF vs X-Men.
#xmen
1/9
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In 1985, Claremont and Nocenti edited a single issue X-Men “comics jam” called “Heroes for Hope” in support of African famine relief. The result was an X-Men comic created by a roster of legends.
#xmen
1/4
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In 1983, Paul Smith was invited to become the full-time X-Men illustrator after drawing the team in an issue of Marvel Fanfare. He would last only 10 issues before leaving, but left an indelible mark on both the artwork and creative direction of the franchise.
#xmen
1/5
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The Claremont Run is the largest in comics history. It’s an immersive, emotionally powerful, character-driven story (best perceived as one continuous arc IMHO). If you need something to read (or re-read) during long, lonely weeks of social distancing... 1/2
#xmen
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So, 4 years ago I wrote this. 2 days ago, in the X-Men '97 season finale, he was called 'Daniel.' As the parent of two Métis children, I cannot even tell you how happy that makes me; just thrilled that this series made such a simple-yet-significant choice!
#xmen
#forge
In honour of reaching 4000 followers, please accept this fun tidbit from Claremont’s papers: though still unnamed in Marvel canon, Forge’s real name actually appears in Claremont’s outline for the character’s debut in UXM 184: say hello to Daniel Lone Eagle!
#xmen
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Kurt Wagner’s arc is not a story about accepting oneself - he gets there almost immediately - but a much more complicated story about navigating your lack of acceptance in a society that fails to share the comfort and peace with which you view yourself. 1/6
#xmen
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The Wolverine/Storm relationship, in all its facets, is one of the most complex and longstanding in the entirety of Claremont’s run, focusing on his two most foregrounded characters as they mutually support each other’s development and growth as characters and as people
#xmen
1/7
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Where characters like Kitty, Storm and Wolverine are openly acknowledged pop-culture “game-changers,” Illyana is perhaps a bit undercredited in terms of her influence, but there are many more famous characters and properties that may owe something to Magik.
#xmen
1/8
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Frequently in X-Men comics, Claremont will use parenthood as a symbol of social obligation toward the future, often with villains sacrificing their children (intentionally or not) as a defining component of their backstory.
#xmen
1/11
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In his 2011 article “The Feminine Mystique: Feminism, Sexuality, Motherhood,” scholar Ross Murray laments the opportunity to subvert patriarchal values that was lost when Claremont was not allowed by Marvel to make Mystique Nightcrawler’s father.
#xmen
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Claremont can be evasive when speaking about his favourite artists to work with, but a front-line contender has to be Alan Davis, a man that Claremont frequently lured back to the X-Universe, and that Claremont was especially effusive about in print.
#xmen
#excalibur
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With “New Mutants,” Claremont expands his approach to character vulnerability. While still threatening personal safety and well-being (a lot, in fact), he also leans into the student cast by threatening their future development as virtuous beings/heroes
#xmen
#newmutants
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Nearly a decade after creating the character for Iron Fist, Claremont brings Sabretooth into the X-Men universe in order to provide a pivotal contrasting character to Logan, one that enriches the ongoing development of Wolverine’s character.
#sabretooth
#xmen
#Wolverine
1/9
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The queer subtext of Claremont’s X-Men is well established. But recognition of this subtext is sometimes mistaken for a 21st century phenomenon. A feature on “Gays in Comics” from the comics mag “Amazing Heroes” proves that by 1988, X-Men’s queerness was an open secret. 1/8
#XMen
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For legendary comics scholar Richard Reynolds (writing way back in 1992 in “Superheroes: A Modern Mythology”), it was John Byrne’s approach to subjective perspective in his artwork that led to the immersive character identification of UXM.
#xmen
#johnbyrne
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Even at his peak, Claremont’s writing credits were not all successful, but his famous attachment to the characters that he cultivated often resulted in characters from failed books getting sucked into the X-Men mythology and given a second chance as a result.
#xmen
#claremont
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Of all the superpowers of all the heroes that Claremont had the opportunity to write, the unique power-set of Meggan might be the most symbolically complex, offering a capacity to speak to hegemonic femininity and the pressures to conform/perform within a relationship.
#xmen
1/9
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In a 2014 essay, Louise Simonson describes the affordances of the comics medium that necessitated Storm’s punk transformation and the foreknowledge that the creative team had of the inevitable backlash that would arise.
#xmen
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The cover of UXM 137 features something John Byrne is famous for: dynamic, dramatic representation; but Byrne outdoes himself here, by creating what might be the most iconic cover in X-Men history – an image both beautiful and (poignantly) sickening.
#xmen
1/7
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In the particular instance of Jean, having an infantilizing name like Marvel Girl (despite being an adult woman) was especially condescending considering she shared a home and superhero team with a younger, less mature male mutant who went by “Iceman” rather than “Iceboy.” 4/4
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In an essay titled “Emma Frost, the White Queen: Superpowers as the Performance of Gender,” scholar Richard Reynolds explores the ways that Frost complicates her hypersexual appearance through layers of irony and empowerment.
#xmen
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Dazzler began as one of the most ambitious transmedia experiments in comics history. When she failed, Claremont reclaimed her and integrated her into the X-Men universe by decentralizing her and drawing out her relationships to other X-Men.
#xmen
1/7
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“The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans” is widely regarded as the best of the Marvel/DC crossover experiments over the years, and a rare event comic that actually lives up to the hype.
#xmen
#TeenTitans
1/9
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Of all those impacted by Storm’s transformation from Goddess to Punk, Kitty Pryde took it hardest, perceiving it as a betrayal. Interestingly, scholar André M. Carrington sees this as a symbolically important disentanglement of Storm from a Black caregiver stereotype
#xmen
1/7
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In a 1993 essay, Stan Lee, the iconic co-creator of the original X-Men comics, provides his personal perspective on UXM under Chris Claremont with the usual amount of Stan Lee hyperbole and verve but also some astute observations on what made the book unique.
#xmen
1/5
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Chris Claremont laid the groundwork for Kitty Pryde and Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler to develop one of the X-Men franchise’s most complex and sustained cross-gender friendships. 1/8
#xmen
4
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In an interview with CBR, New Mutants artists Bill Sienkiewicz describes the avant-garde approach that he undertook during his legendary run on the title and the deeply polarizing effect that it had on the existing X-Men/New Mutants fanbase.
#xmen
#newmutants
1/5
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While superhero comics are famous for advocating the existence of moral absolutes in the pursuit of justice, Storm takes that idea of the “one rule” and stabs it in the chest very early on in her tenure as leader of the X-Men, altering the paradigm entirely.
#xmen
1/8
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Arguably the most poignant costume transformation in UXM is that of Storm’s embrace of a costume that signifies the punk subculture (or counterculture) and digging a bit deeper into what it represents can illuminate the full significance of that shift on her character. 1/8
#xmen
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In interview, Louise Simonson’s account of the development of X-Factor, complete with the resurrection of Jean Grey, paints a picture of the ugly side of art vs commerce and the extent to which Claremont was impossibly invested in the characters he’d cultivated:
#xmen
1/4
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Where Mutant Massacre and Inferno have received a lot of attention as iconic UXM crossover events (including by me), there’s something to be said for the surreal and dissonant event that is “Fall of the Mutants,” an ambitious and experimental arc that thrives on chaos.
#xmen
1/8
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There are many different accounts of what drove Byrne and Claremont apart, but one of them – the concept of committing to status quo vs romantic progression (long continuity) - may be informed by Byrne’s observations on key necessities in the comics industry:
#xmen
1/6
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Storm’s Asgardian outfit is only briefly worn during the Asgardian Wars two-parter, yet it has achieved a rare level of iconicity in the X-Men fandom. Great costume design is a big piece of that, but there’s other variables to consider as well, leading to veneration.
#xmen
1/9
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Furthermore, as part of his immediate attempts to redefine Jean Grey, Claremont gives the character a new costume, a new power set (and scale), and changes her name from the diminutive “Marvel Girl” to the non-gendered and mythical title of “Phoenix.” 3/4
1
34
587
Rogue and Gambit have become an iconic Marvel Couple, and though it wasn’t Claremont who developed the romance between these two characters that he created, the author did script their first flirtation in the pages of X-Men 3.
#xmen
1/8
13
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An important aspect of Storm’s duality, and one that contrasts her passion and will quite starkly, is her sense of interiority and self-isolation. Perhaps even moreso than iconic loner, Wolverine, Ororo often needs to withdraw and be alone.
#xmen
1/11
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UXM 256 takes the classic heel turn narrative and turns it into a complex, character-revealing psychodrama as Psylocke murders her way through years of her characters’ comics continuity in order to finally achieve the power that a violent attack once took from her. 1/9
#xmen
16
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This past week I submitted my completed manuscript to the publisher for a book on Claremont’s subversive portrayal of gender roles in X-Men comics. In honour of that, I thought it might be good to share what’s in it for anyone who might be curious.
#xmen
1/13
27
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Chris Claremont laid the groundwork for Kitty Pryde and Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler to develop one of the X-Men franchise’s most complex and sustained cross-gender friendships. 1/8
#xmen
@LetsTalkKitty
@BlauerElf
8
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560
The concept of self-definition in resistance to external forces is one of the most pervasive thematic threads throughout the Claremont run – the idea that we, as individuals, get to define ourselves, even when pressured to conform to pre-existing expectations.
#xmen
1/9
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563
Illyana Rasputin’s initial character development unfolded along a complex and atypical trajectory, yet so much of who the character is and would become is deftly articulated in the prose found on the first page of the Magik mini-series.
#xmen
1/11
12
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Though Jim Lee gets most of the credit for the 1990s X-Men aesthetic, Scott Williams’ inks played an immeasurable role in taking Lee’s line art from house style to the forefront of comics illustration thanks to harmonious collaboration.
#xmen
1/10
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Just as Claremont reconfigures the role of women in the masculinist superhero genre, he also reconfigures the role of women in the samurai adventure genre that he integrates into a number of stories in Iron Fist, UXM, and Wolverine.
#xmen
1/9
5
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563
Kitty’s tendency to go through different costumes is something of a legend in the series, but her first was the original x uniform, a costume that later re-emerges in UXM
#168
to aptly symbolize the generational divides that the character famously navigates.
#xmen
#kittypryde
1/8
6
42
577
In UXM 201, Cyclops famously duels Storm. Immediately prior to this, however, he verbally duels his own wife, Madelyne Pryor over his desire to stay with the X-Men in an exchange that features some of Claremont’s most direct analysis of Cyclops’ character hang-ups.
#xmen
1/10
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Hank McCoy’s presence in the Dark Phoenix Saga provides a nice continuation of that character’s development, ultimately accelerating his difficult transition to the Avengers, in part, by having him here witness the true end of the original X-Men.
#xmen
#darkphoenix
1/5
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In UXM
#220
, Claremont takes a moment away from a chaotic era to touch back upon the longstanding, well-evolved relationship between Storm and Wolverine, giving readers another character-revealing scene between this iconic X-Men duo.
#xmen
#wolverine
#storm
1/9
4
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569
Similar to recent films like “Dredd” and “The Raid” (or old ones like “Metropolis”) “Wolverine Alone” uses a spatial metaphor that portrays a hero quite literally fighting his way up a social hierarchy, one floor at a time, to dismantle a crooked system.
#xmen
#wolverine
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Exciting announcement: after months of planning, the University is providing us with an undergraduate research assistant to support the expansion of our scope to include some of the key X-Men spinoffs: New Mutants, Excalibur, Wolverine and others. 1/3
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Though lighthearted on the surface, the Jubilee/Wolverine relationship is coloured by a quiet desperation on the part of Jubilee, one that is constantly threatened by Logan’s diminishment and his apparent death wish at this point in the series.
#xmen
#jubilee
#Wolverine
1/9
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In UXM 142, Claremont uses Storm’s relationship with Wolverine to validate Ororo’s new role as the leader of the X-Men at a time when no female superhero had ever been appointed the leader of a mainstream superhero team.
#xmen
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The emotional core of the iconic “Madripoor Knights” storyline from UXM 268 is the generational relationship between Black Widow and her “little Uncle,” Wolverine, a relationship that is built fast, but holds strong emotional resonance.
#xmen
1/9
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Though perhaps less celebrated than Terry Austin, as far as UXM inkers go, Dan Green’s 6 year run on UXM is pivotal, bridging key eras and creators whilst establishing a more modern aesthetic for the series that allowed for continuous evolution.
#xmen
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