The One About the Claremont Run
Hey, I hope you’re doing well! Good to see you here.
This week promises to be a busy one, so I figured I’d knock out my newsletter early-ish.
First off, I want to remind you all of the exclusive Dick Tracy #1 page I debuted last week - art by the amazing Geraldo Borges. This is the first interior page we’ve shown, and it really paints the picture of what Michael Moreci, Geraldo, Chantelle Aimée Osman, and I are trying to do with this book at Mad Cave. Noir. Gritty. Cinematic. The first issue hits in March, and I hope you’ll let your retailer know you want a copy!
I also want to thank everyone for their kind words about my impromptu Beatles piece last week. That’s the kind of stuff that’s fun to write and makes the newsletter feel like more than just LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME, you know?
So, speaking of that - I want to spend a minute talking about something else that I love.
The X-Men.
Particularly, the X-Men by Chris Claremont.
I’ve had the pleasure of chatting with Chris a handful of times in my life, twice for interviews - once when he relaunched Excalibur in the wake of Grant Morrison’s epic X-Men run (which is a post for another time) while I was at Wizard Magazine, and more recently at CrimeReads about Dark Phoenix.
I’ve often referred to myself - especially to comic book reading friends and colleagues - as a “Claremont Apologist.” This isn’t meant to minimize the amazing work Claremont did (he wrote the X-Men continuously for almost twenty years!), but to note that I’ve stuck with him throughout, even on projects that might not get the same critical response as his beloved, iconic run - including stuff like Sovereign Seven (which I can talk about for much longer than I probably should), his return to Uncanny X-Men (see the Neo), and X-Men Forever, to name a few off the top of my head. I’ll get to that in a second.
My first exposure to Claremont involved three paths. Remember that stack of comics I mentioned a few weeks ago? It included my first issue of Uncanny X-Men ever - #237. There’s this old adage that all comics need to be “new reader friendly,” and that’s fine - but I also don’t think it’s necessarily a foolproof statement. It certainly didn’t apply here. Let me paint you a picture of what this issue covers (you can also listen to me talk about this issue at length on the X-Reads AIPT podcast!):
The issue is a middle chapter of Claremont’s first Genosha storyline, where we learn of the existence of an Apartheid-era South Africa-like country that enslaves mutants to serve their economy by wiping their minds and making them subservient to the (white) human upper class. Terrifying stuff. It’s also illustrated by the great Rick Leonardi, who was alternating with regular artist Marc Silvestri while the comic double-shipped. What a treasure! Two comics a month, drawn by two legends. What a time, huh?
The full X-Men team is nowhere to be found until 2/3 into the issue, with Rogue and Wolverine as our viewpoint characters.
Wolverine is de-powered (thanks to the Genoshan mutate Wipeout), so he’s slowly dying without the help of his mutant healing factor.
Rogue is also de-powered, and has abdicated control of her mind to the psyche of Carol Danvers, the former Ms. Marvel (now Captain Marvel), who resides in Rogue’s skull because she accidentally absorbed Carol’s memory, personality, and powers a while back. Got all that?
The Genosha storyline is also teeing up what many consider to be the apex of the original Claremont run, “Inferno,” a storyline that attempts to resolve a myriad number of plot threads - including the existence of Madelyn Pryor, wife of former X-Men leader Cyclops, a.k.a. the woman who looks a lot like Jean Grey, who we all thought was dead until very recently.
My point is, it was a lot for a seven or eight year old mind to process (ironically, my oldest - who is seven - just finished reading the first half-dozen Essential X-Men collections, which stop right around this issue). By the “new reader” theorem, I should’ve been turned off by this admittedly confusing and complicated comic. There was a lot to parse, and not everything was explained. If every comic was supposed to be “new reader friendly,” I should’ve given up on comics forever after this.
Instead, I was enthralled.
The X-Men were unlike anything I’d ever read or would read for some time. They were complicated. They were messy. They weren’t steel-jawed heroes/super-cops doing what was right, they were outcasts looking to find their place in a world that hated them. Like Peter Parker connected with me, I felt a strong bond with the X-Men as a shy and introverted kid. The X-Men were the heroes for the freaks and geeks of the world - and I was ready for it.
The other two paths that introduced me to Claremont were more direct:
Remember the Marvel Comics trading cards? I’m talking about series one, in particular. Around this time, after my parents got divorced, I had a friend who had the entire run. it was like a potent IV of information, in those days before wikis and, well, the Internet. I had a passing knowledge of the characters, but the Marvel cards were the crash course I needed - mapping out characters, attributes, famous battles, and arch-enemies. I got to learn a lot about my guy Spider-Man, but I also got to meet a ton of characters I just didn’t have the budget to explore on my own - like the Avengers, Daredevil, and the New Warriors, and the ones that seemed to grab my attention most were the X-Men. They just seemed so cool - a testament to the murderer’s row of artists Claremont got to work with during his epic run: Dave Cockrum, John Byrne, Paul Smith, John Romita Jr., Marc Silvestri, Jim Lee, Barry Windsor-Smith, Alan Davis, Bill Sienkiewicz, and more. Especially as I read the “new” adventures and, the third path I noted earlier - Classic X-Men.
Back in the late eighties/early nineties, Marvel produced the main Uncanny title and a few sister series - most notably the teen-team-in-training, New Mutants (which was firmly under the Claremont umbrella, and written by him and frequent collaborator Louise Simonson) and X-Factor, which consisted of the original five X-Men reunited as fake mutant hunters (to quote Cerebrocast, don’t super worry about it…I won’t get into the early issues of the series, but it course-corrected after its initial arc, under the supervision of Louise and artist Walt Simonson). In addition to that, there was Classic X-Men, a reprint series that introduced new readers to, well, classic issues of Uncanny. But this wasn’t your standard reprint book - it was remastered, basically. Not only did Claremont add essential, character-driven backup stories to each issue (beautifully illustrated by John Bolton), spotlighting a number of key characters, he also reworked the reprinted stories - adding nuance and context where needed, and - to be fair - tightening plot threads that he developed while writing. I didn’t fully understand what was going on when I first started reading the book, mind you, but I’ve come to really appreciate it as I got older.
My first issue of Classic X-Men was #58, which reprinted Uncanny X-Men #154, an, ahem, classic Claremont/Cockrum issue - which picked up after the events of the legendary “Dark Phoenix Saga” (which I wasn’t aware of when I picked this up at my local newsstand), and featured Storm, Cyclops, and Cyclops’s space pirate dad, Corsair, doing battle against the Sidri, a creepy alien race that just seemed hellbent on destroying everything. But boy, did they look cool. Again, this was another example of an atypical issue, one that wasn’t particularly welcoming to new readers, but one that still managed to hook me in.
Okay, so that’s the stage-setting. I was reading the current X-Men issues (around that time, I believe the main Uncanny book was careening toward X-Tinction Agenda), and learning the backstory via Classic, while poring over Marvel cards. I had a lot of questions that were not easily answered. Like, why did the original X-Men leave the team? Where was Professor X? Who were Psylocke, Gambit, and Jubilee? What the heck happened to Cameron Hodge? It was awesome.
I won’t bore you with a monthly recap of my X-Men readings dating back to the beginning, but I want to get to the essence of why I love this run (and, to varying degrees, Claremont’s second and third acts as a writer on the X-books - not to mention his meaningful stints on New Mutants, Excalibur, and the various solo mini-series like Wolverine) - and why I hold it up there with books like Love & Rockets as some of my favorite comics ever:
Change. These characters evolved. Few creators are ever given as much runway as Claremont had in his initial run, or even as much real estate as he’s had in the X-universe after that. Claremont, with his esteemed collaborators, was writing an epic, winding Russian novel in many ways. Characters joined the team. Characters left (Cyclops quit to be with his wife and kid!). Relationships ended and were formed. New characters were introduced. Villains became heroes. People died. Case in point, by the time he left the X-Men books, Claremont had just concluded a long, complex saga that involved the X-Men basically…not being the X-Men anymore? I won’t spend time explaining what the Siege Perilous is, but suffice to say - all the members of the team were tossed around the globe, many with the memories and brains scrambled, and Claremont wrote a novelistic saga about them coming together. It was not typical superhero team comics at all, and as a whole, Claremont’s X-Men work rarely felt like a villain-of-the-month serial. Perhaps the best example of character evolution was Claremont’s masterful take on Magneto, who had previously been established as a fairly typical Silver Age villain - foaming at the mouth and bent on world conquest. By exploring Magneto’s tragic backstory as a survivor of the Holocaust death camps and weaving in a past friendship with X-Men founder Charles Xavier, Claremont added a depth and nuance to the character that had just not existed before, and set the stage for Magneto to evolve from one-note villain to relatable bad guy to full-fledged hero and headmaster of the Xavier School. Claremont’s work, at its best, felt organic and natural - we weren’t reading a monthly brawl, we were getting a peek into the lives of our friends Ororo, Kurt, Logan, Piotr, Kitty, and more. The characters you meet in Claremont’s first issue are not the same as the characters you see in his last, and that’s a testament to the care and thought he put into pushing them forward, and something that really came to inform my own writing of novels and comics.
Diversity. The X-Men felt like the world. In part due to original editor/writer Len Wein’s efforts to make the team seem more “international” to appeal to foreign markets, the “All-New, All-Different” era of X-Men were unlike the mainly white and male superhero team contemporaries (which included the team’s original lineup, I should note). Sunfire was Japanese. Colossus was Russian. Thunderbird was a member of the Apache tribe. Storm was born in Harlem and raised in Africa. Nightcrawler was German - just to name a few. Out of the gate, the book reflected a wider world, and Claremont took the baton and ran with it at warp speed, not only introducing readers to a diverse representation of race and ethnicity, but also an exploration of the concepts of gender and sexuality (inasmuch as you could in a Comics Code-approved comic in the 70s and 80s). It was welcoming, as a Cuban-American kid who didn’t often see himself in the comics he read, to enjoy a series that reflected the real world. Also, it’s really important to note that X-Men was a super-feminist comic book, and that was a joy to read - Claremont loved writing powerful, independent women. It’s as refreshing now as it was then.
The long game. This is tied to the first point, but merits more real estate: Claremont’s original run was long. But that’s not a bad thing, per se, especially when discussing his first run. While there’ve been many lengthy runs in comics - Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four, Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley on Ultimate Spider-Man, Mark Gruenwald’s Captain America, Marv Wolfman’s New Teen Titans, Mark Waid and Geoff Johns’s respective runs on Flash come to mind - Claremont’s almost 17-year run is still extremely rare, especially in work-for-hire superhero comics. Having that kind of time allowed Claremont to write…differently. I first learned about the term “dangling plot thread” while reading rec.arts.x-men posts as a kid. It was often used as a pejorative in relation to Claremont, who would often let subplots simmer for years and years and often not resolve them, but I found it pretty fascinating, especially when Claremont would resolve a thread that had been cooking for almost a decade, and often in a different book(!!!). It felt like a nice vindication or payoff to those of us who’d been reading all that time.
I could talk about this forever, but there are a lot of other things to cover this week, so here’s a quick primer of great Claremont stories that’ll get you started if you’re not a devotee like me. This isn’t a Best-Of list - just arcs that’ll give you a taste of what I’m talking about. If you dig them, you’ll probably enjoy the rest:
God Loves, Man Kills by Claremont and Brent Anderson. While most of Claremont’s “main” run is hard to divvy up into standalone arcs, GLMK is a great introduction to what made Claremont’s run so essential, and taps into many of the themes he would continue to explore. Some of the dialogue hasn’t aged well, but the overall pacing and theme of the story still resonates, and Anderson’s art has rarely looked better.
X-Treme X-Men by Claremont, Salvador Larroca, and various. This - and Claremont’s third run on Uncanny X-Men - can be seen as the high water mark for his work after his initial “Claremont Run.” I still have trouble with the “digital inks” on this series, a byproduct of the era - though I do love Salvador’s art - but overall it’s an entertaining series that’s often judged harshly in comparison to Claremont’s first era. Worth checking out if you’re curious to read what he was working on while Morrison revamped the main series, or what his work was like upon his return to the properties after a long absence. If you dig this, you’ll also enjoy X-Men: The End and X-Men Forever.
The Demon Bear Saga by Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz. This is an arc from New Mutants, which as noted earlier followed a new team of Xavier School kids learning to use their powers and grappling with getting older. It’s worth a read for Sienkiewicz’s stunning art alone, but the potent mix of Claremont’s character development and Sienkiewicz’s mind-blowing lineart makes for a really special story, and is up there with some of my favorite X-tales ever.
Inferno by Claremont, Simonson, Silvestri, Simonson, and more. As noted earlier, to many, Inferno is the apex of the original Claremont run - resolving a handful of major, long-running threads and culminating in a battle between the X-teams and Madelyn Pryor, Cyclops’s wife + mother to their son Nate (soon-to-be Cable!), the team’s former ally, and now corrupted by the demonic forces of limbo. It’s really a testament to Claremont’s skill as a work-for-hire creator that he always managed to stay flexible and pivot when editorial or other factors interfered with the greater story he was trying to tell, and it almost made his work stronger - as if the variables and uncertainty granted his stories a verve and vibrancy they otherwise might have lacked. To his credit, Claremont was always willing to play along in the greater universe, whether it was using characters from other areas of the Marvel universe or utilizing characters from series he wrote that had ended, like Carol Danvers or Jessica Drew and their respective supporting casts. After you read this, if you have sixteen hours to spare, listen to the four-part Cerebro episode on Maddie, with host Connor Goldsmith and the wonderful Sara Century. You won’t regret it.
Again, that’s just a primer. You’ll note I didn’t include The Dark Phoenix Saga, and that’s by design - like many, I think the story itself is really augmented by reading the issues leading up to and coming after, so it’s not the kind of thing you can just experience as a trade paperback. If you dig the above, start with Giant-Size X-Men #1 and keep going.
Resources:
I’m by no means an academic, just a guy who writes a lot and has a great fondness for these comics. That said, I’ve read and listened to my share of academic and thoughtful analysis of Claremont’s run and related materials. Here’s a handy guide if you find yourself getting immersed and want to do a deeper dive:
CerebroCast: As mentioned above, Connor Goldsmith is a lifelong X-fan and runs my favorite podcast - spotlighting an X-character each episode while in conversation with an amazing guest, usually a creative with some connection to the character. It looks at a lot of Claremont’s work, obviously, and gives some meaningful and super-smart perspectives on the work - with a particular nod to Claremont’s run and the current House of X era. I did an episode on Sunspot and it was a blast! I’m particularly fond of the episodes featuring friends like Sara, Tini Howard, Spencer Ackerman, and Valentine M. Smith, but they’re all wonderful in their own ways.
Oh Gosh, Oh Golly, Oh Wow! Another wonderful podcast, this one focused on the entire run of the original Excalibur, which launched under Claremont and frequent collaborator Alan Davis. Dr. Anna Peppard, Chris “Mav” Maverick, and J. Andrew Deman (more on him later) and guests spotlight an issue per episode, and it makes for a fun, informed listen. They’re nearing the end! Enjoy.
The Claremont Run by J. Andrew Deman (remember him?!). I just started this book, but if it’s anything like The Claremont Run Twitter or Instagram accounts, I’m surely going to love it - an academic deep-dive into the original Claremont run, with data-driven analysis and focus on the comics’ subversion of gender norms. It’s fascinating so far, and I’ve barely started.
The Best There Is At What He Does: Examining Chris Claremont’s X-Men by Jason Powell. More of an analysis via index, this book recaps Claremont’s run and spinoffs issue-by-issue, with commentary that expects you to have read the books (which is, of course, the target audience). I read this one in fits and starts over a year, but mostly enjoyed it and thought Powell had some really great insights.
More podcasts: I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Greymalkin Lane, by Chad Anderson and friends, which focuses on the Silver Age X-Men adventures with some fun detours. Also, the OG X-Men podcast, Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men is consistently wonderful and very welcoming - it was my entree into X-Men podcasts and always a fun listen.
I think…that’s it on that? I hope this brain-dump was enjoyable. Okay? Okay.
So…look at me! Some quick updates:
Reminder: I’ll be at Motor City Comic Con this weekend! I was also quoted in this Oakland Press story about the show! Hope to see you if you’re around.
Next Friday, I’ll be at The World’s Borough Bookshop in Jackson Heights, Queens, reading alongside some of my favorite people and authors including Kellye Garrett, Ed Lin, Erin E. Adams, and Shizuka Otake! Thanks to Radha Vatsal for organizing.
I had a nice time talking to Duy Tano on his YouTube show/podcast, The Comics Cube, about, well, everything?
Star Wars: Scoundrels, Rebels, and the Empire is out this week, collecting Marvel’s Return of the Jedi 40th Anniversary one-shots! I wrote Star Wars: Rebellion, which is included in this collection, with art by Matt Horak, Brent Peeples, and more! Admiral Ackbar must enlist the aid of Poe Dameron’s parents, Shara Bey and Kes Dameron, to prevent Mon Mothma from being assassinated! It’s a fun story that I really enjoyed working on, and it serves as a soft prequel to my Star Wars YA novel, Poe Dameron: Free Fall! Grab it wherever comics are sold.
Last week saw the release of Edge of Spider-Verse: Bleeding Edge, a trade paperback collecting the most recent Edge of Spider-Verse mini-series, including a fun Araña story by me and artist Enid Balam! I loved working with Enid and it was really fun to revisit Anya after we got to put her back in the Araña costume in the previous Spider-Verse mini. Love that character.
ME ASIDE, I wanna point you all to a handful of things I’ve been reading and enjoying lately. It’s not comprehensive - I read a lot, and a lot of it is for research and other business-y stuff, so keep that in mind.
On the comics front:
I’ve been catching up on /Chip Zdarsky’ and Jorge Jimenez’s run on Batman (with some great work by Mike Hawthorne and Belen Ortega, too). It’s a neat little love letter to the Dark Knight, and I love that Chip leans into the dynamic between Batman and his various partners and “soldiers.” This page by Ortega was particularly lovely.
Anyway, Chip writes a good Batman. Jorge is an amazing artist. The Gotham War stuff with / Tini Howard’s Catwoman (another book you should be reading) has also been entertaining. Get on it!
I’ve been thinking about Keith Giffen a lot (these two remembrances have helped), like many of us have, and it’s a reminder to tell people you appreciate them before they’re gone. I didn’t know Keith well, but I was on the DC PR side when he did a large chunk of his most recent work there - on things like 52, Blue Beetle, and more. I reached out a few months before he passed to check in, but I wish I’d done it sooner. Anyway, all these retrospectives made me want to go back and revisit his “Five Years Later” run on Legion of Super-Heroes, which has been a really fun ride.
I was lucky enough to get an early copy of The Punisher #1, from writer/pal David Pepose and artist Dave Wachter. It does what great first issues need to do - introduces the premise, gives us a compelling protagonist, and also raises a lot of questions. I’m intrigued and impressed. The idea of relaunching the Punisher is no easy feat, but these guys make it seem like it is. Grab a copy this week at your local comic shop.
Shocking no one, I’ve been re-reading a lot of the House of X/Powers of X books, including the core mini-series b Jonathan Hickman + Pepe Larraz + R.B. Silva, Tini and Marcus To’s Excalibur, Zeb Wells and Stephen Segovia’s Hellions, Vita Ayala and Rod Reis’s New Mutants (which brought me to tears in a good way), and Gerry Duggan’s Marauders and X-Men, plus all things Kieron Gillen and Al Ewing. The world-building is phenomenal, and it really merits a reread. I’m particularly impressed with how many seeds were planted at the very beginning by Hickman and co., especially in the supplemental materials. It feels immersive and thoughtful in the best way possible. Hats off to the artists, too, who are just consistently spectacular - guys like Larraz, Silva, Lucas Werneck, and To can do no wrong. Also hats off to Al Ewing’s other Marvel books - The Immortal Thor and Avengers Inc. I’m always impressed by the sheer momentum Ewing creates with his work, with each subsequent series building and evolving what he’s done before, which is already steeped in Marvel history, yet never feels too complicated for newcomers. He’s one of my favorite writers at the moment.
Also, big shout out to Steve Foxe, Jonas Scharf, and the entire Dark X-Men team! This book has been a blast. Maddie Pryor forever.
Birds of Prey by / Kelly Thompson and Leonardo Romero has been an absolute delight. I love this team and this book has been loaded with surprises, heart, and humor. It’s the first thing I read when it comes out.
I’m also very intrigued by Batman: City of Madness, by writer/artist Christian Ward - if you’re craving a more psychological Batman tale akin to Arkham Asylum, this one’s for you.
My oldest and I have been reading a lot of Batman Adventures and, as I mentioned, classic Chris Claremont Uncanny X-Men - comfort food for me, and it’s such a trip to see him react to twists and plot beats that have become narrative furniture in my head. It’s a reminder that not everyone has read everything at a given time.
I realize this “list” is light on non-Big Two stuff, but that’ll change. This is going to be a recurring feature, don’t you worry.
On the book side, like I mentioned - I’ve been doing a lot of research. Particularly for Alter Ego revisions. I recently read and enjoyed MCU, a deep-dive into the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe by JoAnna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards. I’m a sucker for these kind of “how the sausage is made” books, so I sped through it. I also just finished End Credits, by Patty Lin, a memoir about the author’s time working as a writer for television. You get a lot of fun insider stories and get a firsthand account of how hard it is for a writer of color to find a place in a brutal industry. By the end of it, too, you also feel like you get to know Lin as well. Worth your time if you have any interest in writing for TV or just learning about what happens behind the curtain as they say.
Another research-adjacent book was Press Reset, by / Jason Schreier, a follow-up to his acclaimed Blood, Sweat, and Pixels. Both are deep-dives into the video game industry, with Reset focusing on the dark side of working in video game design. It’s a mesmerizing look under the hood, and reminds me a lot of comics, sadly! But that’s kind of the point of reading it for research. I’ll say more once Alter Ego is out.
A few novels I loved that I want to plug a little more:
Dark Ride, by Lou Berney. Lou’s one of my favorite writers and this book is arguably his best. Crisply paced, featuring the kind of characters that feel lived-in and real, I couldn’t put it down. More people should be talking about it.
Vampires of El Norte, by Isabel Cañas. I love genre-blending stories and Isabel’s such a gifted writer. I got to read this one early for a blurb, so I’ll let that speak for itself!
“A hypnotic, genre-bending supernatural historical novel that grabs you from the opening sentence. Haunting and pulsing with emotion, Cañas's writing crafts a world where monsters are real - but they might not be the kind you’re thinking of. A one-of-a-kind novel that only she could write.”
I want to see more people talking about Prom Mom, by / Laura Lippman, too! I devoured it when I got my copy and it still sticks in my mind. Grab it if you haven’t yet.
Big Time, by Ben H. Winters was another fun genre smoothie that I was lucky enough to blurb. You should put it on your radar:
“Ben Winters is a genre alchemist - the kind of writer who blends and weaves the preconceived ideas of story to create something wholly new and riveting, and Big Time is no exception. A brilliant thriller that also dances between the raindrops of reality and time itself, Winters continues to keep readers on their toes, in the best way possible. I’m so glad this book exists.”
And please don’t sleep on Missing White Woman by Kellye Garrett, Almost Surely Dead by Amina Akhtar, and Assassins Anonymous by Rob Hart (with a shiny new cover above!)
Here’s what I said about Rob’s next book:
“Rob Hart’s Assassins Anonymous isn’t just a great, brutal, action-packed hitman story—it’s a simmering character study that digs deep into what it’s like to struggle with addiction. Few books can balance being a thrilling page-turner and heartfelt personal saga, but Hart makes it look easy. Dark and kinetic but also starkly human, this is Hart’s best book yet—which is high praise indeed.”
Aaaaand here are some links:
My buddy Ron Cacace talks about writing character Scam Likely into “main” Archie continuity.
Great chat with Skybound’s Morgan Perry - who is one of the smartest people in the business.
Loved this spotlight on my dear friend, the super-talented Sarah Weinman.
Of all the Matthew Perry obits, I found ’s to be the most spot-on, focusing on Perry’s efforts to help others in their recovery journeys. Hepola’s memoir, Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget, is a must-read.
So excited for Masterpiece, from and Alex Maleev. IGN has a sneak peek at the first issue.
It’s a busy new book week, too, with new releases from pals like Raquel V. Reyes, David Swinson, Michael Connelly, Ausma Zehanat Khan, and more.
That’s all for now! See you next week.
Alex