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
The Claremont run begins with Cyclops as the main viewpoint character. Kitty joins the team right at his departure and soon enough takes over as a main viewpoint character for the rest of her tenure, as reflected in our data (noting that Kitty’s only on for 70ish issues). 2/10
At the time of her arrival, Claremont had already executed a turn toward more adult-oriented stories (something that becomes even more pronounced after the death of an X-Man in DPS). It’s therefore perhaps odd to bring on a teen protagonist. 3/10
Kitty’s capability is immediately established, however, first with a “Days of Future Past” story that establishes her position of prominence in the team’s future, then immediately after that in a solo story which sees her defeating a demon by herself. 4/10
Once established, Kitty carries more and more of the viewpoint character role in the series. That role is always distributed across different characters, but never equally (see Colossus as example) and Kitty becomes Claremont’s goto. 5/10
This transition has a number of notable effects: First, it creates a greater sense of parity between the protagonist’s age and that of the series’ implied/intended audience, making immersion into the X-Men’s world that much easier for younger readers. 6/10
Second, instead of allowing Kitty to make the text more juvenile, Claremont persists in his depiction of horrific experiences - using Kitty’s sense of being overwhelmed (despite her capability) to enhance the sense of vulnerability and tension within the series overall. 7/10
Third, having an emotionally vulnerable hero take center stage in a conflict between superpowered beings presents opportunities to speak to the cost of the conflict in much more human and relatable terms, leading to a more nuanced representation of emotional toll. 8/10
Finally, we have to note that even though X-Men was already defying the masculinist norms of the superhero genre at the time of Kitty’s arrival, having a 13 year old girl serve as the protagonist of a superhero adventure comic was wholly unique. 9/10
As scholar Margaret Galvan notes: “Fighting against expectations, Pryde extends the field of what powerful superheroines look and act like.” That she did so from a position of prominence, and that it worked so well, serves as testament to the character’s legacy. 10/10
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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
As noted by Marvel historian Sean Howe, Wolverine was first “named and conceived by Roy Thomas, who detected a need to exploit the Canadian market” before being “developed further by Len Wein and John Romita” ahead of Logan’s debut in “The Incredible Hulk.” 2/10
Throw in Claremont, and the pedigree is quite impressive already. Thomas is perhaps best known as the greatest writer of Conan comics, a character that later artists would draw from quite directly in their interpretations of Wolverine. 3/10
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
The scene initiates a journey of self-discovery for Ororo, one of many throughout the series but this one will specifically create the rising action for the “Fall of the Mutants’’ event. She has to go alone, but someone has to lead the X-Men in her absence. She recruits Logan 2/9
The power dynamic is foreshadowed in the simple fact that Wolverine (an archetypal hunter) has literally scaled the highest mountain to be alone, but it doesn’t matter. Even without her powers, Ororo has tracked him down. 3/9
In an introductory essay penned in 1980, John Byrne recounts his personal perspective on Jean Grey and her transformation to Phoenix. His candid account paints a less grandiose view on the cultivation of the character within the series than we normally hear. #xmen #JeanGrey 1/7
“I’ve never liked Phoenix. There, I said it...It’s not that I don’t like Jean Grey. I have an abiding fondness for readheads, and have been in love with Jean since we first ‘met,’ about a millions years ago when I was 13.” 2/7
“Granted that her power were not nearly as spectacular as Cyclops’, or Angel’s, or even Iceman’s, but she looked real good in a tight uniform and could – and did – serve to get the X-Men out of tight places.” 3/7
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
The Claremont run begins with Cyclops as the main viewpoint character. Kitty joins the team right at his departure and soon enough takes over as a main viewpoint character for the rest of her tenure, as reflected in our data (noting that Kitty’s only on for 70ish issues). 2/10
At the time of her arrival, Claremont had already executed a turn toward more adult-oriented stories (something that becomes even more pronounced after the death of an X-Man in DPS). It’s therefore perhaps odd to bring on a teen protagonist. 3/10
Sharon Kelly is introduced to the readers in UXM #246 and is all-but killed in that same issue. She’s a character whose entire life and especially death exist in service to the plot, but, in spite of that, Claremont gives her story complexity, contradiction, and pathos. #xmen 1/9
We are first introduced to Sharon as she arrives at the Hellfire Club during a meeting between her husband (Senator Robert Kelly) and Sebastian Shaw. It’s revealed that Sharon was a Hellfire Club servant before marrying the senator. 2/9
Her brief interaction with her former colleagues showcases the kind of class exploration that one would see in a Bronte novel or, more recently, Downton Abbey. Hers is a story of rare class mobility and the perspective that comes with seeing both sides of the class divide. 3/9
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
Silvestri’s now iconic cover sets the tone with an homage to Buscema’s work from the 1970s Savage Sword of Conan, presumably, in illustration of a very famous scene from the Conan mythology, first published in 1934 in “A Witch Shall Be Born.” 2/14
Like Conan in that scene, Wolverine is left exposed to the desert climate as a form of torture. In the midst of his suffering from dehydration and exposure, Logan falls into hallucinatory dreaming. 3/14