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The Claremont Run

26 Mar, 11 tweets, 4 min read

In 2000, former Marvel EIC, Jim Shooter sat down with CBR to discuss his legacy in comics, including his enduring perspective on his infamously contentious yet mutually beneficial relationship with Claremont on UXM. He tends to ramble a bit, but here’s some highlights: #xmen 1/11

“I inherited a company that was going out of business and losing money. I turned it around. In order to turn it around, I had to do things like tighten the ship. Creative people who have lived in anarchy do not like to be suddenly told no.” 2/11

“It's funny now, talk to people like Claremont. When I first sat down and talked to people like Claremont, and I'm saying story structure, identify your characters. Introduce your characters and concepts. Stuff he knew.” 3/11

“Thing is, it's so easy when you're a creative person, and the check will keep coming, to just jerk off and do a sloppy job.” *As an aside, we should note that this characterization of C completely contradicts Shooter’s later assessment of the writer’s passion, below* 4/11

“Or like Chris, he'll have Storm walk out, one guy calls her Windrider, the next person calls her Ororo, you know what I mean. If you're a new reader, who the hell is this broad?” 5/11

“Well, guess what? The books started to sell, I got these incentive plans in there, people started to make big money, Claremont makes big royalties, buys his mother an airplane and so they were happier with me. They started to realize the value.” 6/11

“Chris was great. We fought like cats and dogs, and I'm sure he hated me. But I do give him credit. He's the one who built the X-Men franchise.” 7/11

“He recruited artists when they needed artists. In order to keep the best colorists and letterers, he paid people out of his own pocket to Glynis Oliver and Tom Orzechowski. He really poured his heart into that.” 8/11

“If you edited something, don't touch his copy. Make a note in the margin, he'll fix the problem in his own words. He didn't want your words, he wanted his words. And I respected that. But I didn't have a problem telling him what I thought was wrong.” 9/11

“And he had good editors, Ann Nocenti and Louise Simonson. They beat him up pretty regularly…And I think the female point of view was partly why the X-Men was so successful.” 10/11

You can read the full interview at cbr.com/jim-shooter-in… 11/11

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The Claremont Run

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In UXM’s first hand-off of penciling duties from Cockrum to Byrne, we can see an important stylistic shift in panel structuring and character framing that had strong consequences on the theme of team unity and cohesion. #xmen 1/9

Cockrum was overtaxed in trying to keep up with the burden of UXM and of drawing Claremont’s enormous cast of characters (both heroes and villains). In the interest of economy, Cockrum would often isolate individual characters in individual panels through close-up. 2/9

While this technique of using extensive close-ups works quite well for establishing things like intimacy, character reaction through expression, and perspective, it can have a negative effect on things like scale and sense of the group dynamic. 3/9

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Though only briefly glimpsed at in the pages of X-Men comics, Captain Britain’s relationship to Meggan in Excalibur offers a poignant portrayal of a toxic and dysfunctional coupling in superhero comics. #xmen #excalibur 1/8

While there’s actually a pretty rich tradition of such relationships in superhero comics (Harley/Joker, Wasp/Giant Man, Reed/Sue), Brian/Meggan demonstrates a lot of self-awareness and utilizes superhero identity components to enhance the symbolism. 2/8

Meggan’s power set (empathic metamorph) serves as a metaphor. She changes her body to match the desires of those around her. In this she is quite literally adopting the toxic trait of defining herself through what her partner wants her to be. 3/8

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12 Nov 20

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

"And in terms of my writing there was a moment I think when I made a conscious decision by looking around seeing how few people were portraying heroic rational sensible women in books and comics. I thought, "I'll fill that vacuum - since no one else is doing it" 2/6

"Because in a sense I wondered in the ultimate kind of fiction, science fiction, could I put myself in the head of this being who was totally unlike me?" 3/6

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11 Nov 20

Today was Dave Cockrum’s birthday, and it’s Nightcrawler’s unofficial one in his honor. Cockrum's powerful affinity for the character he created is exemplified by the '85 Nightcrawler limited series, which Cockrum both wrote and drew. 1/9 #Xmen #Nightcrawler

Besides being relentlessly zany (remember the six shooter-wielding sentient gator-dino "Cretacious Sam"?), the ’85 Nightcrawler series reflects Kurt's “Creator Favorite” status, inventing a space particularly suited to showcasing what makes him unique and loveable. 2/9

In issue #1, Kitty accidentally opens a dimensional portal that sends Kurt (and Lockheed) to various fantasylands, with callbacks to “Kitty’s Fairy Tale” (including the return of the Bamfs). The original Fairy Tale reckoned with Jean's death. But this story is all about Kurt. 3/9

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27 Aug 20

Roberto Da Costa, created by Claremont (with Bob McLeod on art) for the New Mutants Graphic Novel in 1982, is currently the centre of white-washing accusations in the wake of the New Mutants film adaptation, so here’s some context from the comics: #xmen #newmutants 1/10

Roberto is the son of an Afro-Brazilian businessman and a White American archaeologist. In his earliest appearances, Roberto is consistently rendered with a dark skin complexion, nearly identical to that of his father. 2/10

Comics colouring in this era was not really reliable, though, so we need to turn to the narrative elements and, indeed, Roberto’s skin colour is directly referenced in his first ever appearance, where it plays a key role in defining the character from the outset. 3/10

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22 Jul 20

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. The result is a character-defining scene. 1/5 #xmen

Storm orders Wolverine to sheathe his claws. Famously insubordinate, he refuses. Storm stands firm even offering to sacrifice herself: “Sheathe them – or use them on me.” Wolverine doubles down, pointing his claws directly at Storm, declaring “That can be arranged, babe!” 2/5

Again, Storm stands her ground, despite recognizing the genuine danger she is in. Logan informs her “I wouldn’t take that from Cyclops!” a fact that continuity of the time had established quite clearly through the constant power struggle between Scott and Logan. 3/5

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