Rather than simply framing “The New Mutants” entirely from the students’ perspective, Claremont places a great deal of emphasis on the challenges faced by their educators, tasked with nurturing the young mutants through their individual challenges. #xmen#newmutants 1/10
The stories invest the reader in the pedagogical hurdles that the team presents by providing a great deal of internal narration from Professor X and later Magneto as they contemplates how to reach the students – how to help them overcome their individual challenges. 2/10
Rahne is sheltered and traumatized. Karma is traumatized and disinterested in superheroics. Magma is sheltered and entitled. Illyana is traumatized and obscenely powerful. Roberto is headstrong and prone to posturing in order to mask his insecurities (and also traumatized). 3/10
Dani comes to the school a bit headstrong, but already quite capable as both a leader of the team and as the protagonist of the series. X has to build trust with her and mentor her in the use of her telepathic powers, but she immediately takes on a leadership role. 4/10
Sam is complicated. He has a (charmingly) good heart, but he is socially dense, shy, struggles academically, a bit of a show-off with a poor understanding of his own limitations, and, in general, he can sometimes be easily manipulated – in essence, he’s naïve. 5/10
Collectively, the entire team is insubordinate (even rebellious), overconfident, and undisciplined. The entire series leans even further into this concept once Magneto becomes headmaster and struggles to keep control. 6/10
This also becomes one of the great underlying tragedies in the series: Magneto succeeds (mostly) in his internal moral conflict; he adopts the gentler way quite successfully. Where he fails is as an educator and caregiver. 7/10
We can also extend this heroic-educator narrative to a few side characters such as Stevie and Moira, both of whom likewise struggle with their responsibilities toward the development of the young mutants. The thread is even picked up by Cable late in the series. 8/10
Finally, we should note that the heroic quest of the educators comes to the surface quite directly with the established contrast to the Hellions and Emma Frost’s more villainous education methods – a perfect foil to Xavier’s approach. 9/10
Through this pedgagogical theme, New Mutants adds a secondary internal melodrama surrounding those entrusted with their education and upbringing. It’s an especially fun dynamic to revisit when re-reading the series as an adult. 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
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 1/10
Storm is routinely courted (or abducted – or both) by the wealthiest, most powerful beings on the planet/cosmos. She could be a queen, a goddess, a vampire, you name it, but she rejects all of these suitors out of concern for her own independence. 2/10
When asked in interview why it took so long for Storm to receive a relationship partner, Claremont would often reply “because nobody was good enough for her.” 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