Most writers today would serve themselves well to revisit Claremont’s seminal Unanny X-Men run at Marvel Comics. The series features a small rag-tag group of heroes from across the globe. They all had very distinct voices, strength and weakness. Cyc…
Most writers today would serve themselves well to revisit Claremont’s seminal Unanny X-Men run at Marvel Comics. The series features a small rag-tag group of heroes from across the globe. They all had very distinct voices, strength and weakness. Cyclops, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Sunfire, Storm and Banshee learn to work together while confronting a who’s who of X-Verse villains. The series addresses social issues from time to time but the central focus is always on fun adventure and team dynamics. Claremont is also a master at catching new readers up as the series moves along.
There are other good and even great X-Men runs but none come close to Claremont’s achievement. It’s also been years since any of the X-Men books have been fun. Claremont’s X-Men is a great action comic that features social commentary when it suits a character or story. For far too long X-Men books are about social issues like discrimination and persecution in society that feature exciting adventures if writers have time for it. Marvel has a terrible track record finding creators who love and understand the X-Men of late. Far too many creators see the X-Men as a vessel to deliver their views on racism, gender discrimination, the environment and even their personal displeasure with President Trump.
Marvel Comics actively sandbagged X-Men series for years because they were butt hurt 20th Century Fox owned the movie rights to the X-Men. Marvel legend and the man most responsible for the success of the X-Men Chris Claremont explained in 2016.
The final issue plaguing X-Men titles is Marvel’s insistence on creating the next generation of mutants. Most readers don’t want new X-Men, they want to read about their favorite mutant heroes and their adventures. Every attempt at creating the next generation has failed miserably except Generation-X, which was mildly successful. Marvel readers simply do not care for the new characters introduced in Young X-Men, Wolverine and the X-Me..
