The “angry Claremontian narrator” is a weird and delightful stylistic variation that has been elevated to new heights by @XPlaintheXmen. There might be a simple explanation for the odd style shift, wherein Claremont picked up the habit through osmosis with “Iron Fist.” #xmen 1/6
The angry Claremontian narrator doesn’t appear too often, shows up mostly in early UXM issues, and involves the narrator of the story actively (and aggressively) taunting and demoralizing the characters within the panels of the story. 2/6
In Iron Fist’s first appearance, legendary author (and Claremont’s mentor) Roy Thomas launched IF with a unique narrative conceit: a rare 2nd person narration style which immerses the reader in the life of Iron Fist in a manner quite similar to a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure. 3/6
The style become a fixture of Iron Fist stories, and was continued by later writers Tony Isabella, and Doug Moench as the Iron Fist mythology became fixed before Claremont took over the series (first in “Marvel Premiere,” then in an “Iron Fist” title). 4/6
Claremont inherited Iron Fist the same month that he took over UXM (both have cover dates of Aug 1975). Just a few months later (cover date Dec 1975) the angry Claremontian narrator would become infamous for berating Cyclops over Thunderbird’s death. 5/6
If this accounts for the narrator’s development, why Claremont applied the Iron Fist narration style to X-Men is a fun question to ask: was he trying it out in a new arena or did he simply slip in the division of his stylistic approaches while writing concurrent titles? 6/6
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In “The Tao of Women in the X-Men World,” scholar Carol Cooper draws in psychosexual theory to help explore the infamous sexual subtext of Claremont’s writings, with particular emphasis on the concept of sublimation. #xmen 1/9
Sublimation refers to the conscious or unconscious channelling of socially unacceptable urges into condoned expressions of those urges. Common examples of sexual sublimation might include singing, zealotry, sport, and dancing (“the vertical expression of a horizontal desire”) 2/9
Obviously, we can’t generalize this and say that all these things are always sexual. These are multi-faceted experiences that mean different things to different people, but for a lot of people, there might be a sexual component to them, even just as rechannelled energies. 3/9
On multiple occasions, when Claremont provides insight into Logan’s romantic desires, he’s also conveying Wolverine’s desires for who Logan wants to be, and, in multiple scenes, love interests actually merge into one amalgamated person. #Wolverine#xmen 1/11
In the Claremont/Miller Wolverine miniseries, Logan finds himself torn between Mariko and Yukio. As Yukio tries to seduce him, her face actually shifts to that of Mariko in Logan’s perception, and he subsequently refuses Yukio’s advances. 2/11
We’ve discussed before how Claremont’s notebooks specifically reveal a plan by which Mariko and Yukio represent different life-paths for the character - personifications of his own opposing values and ideals for self-definition. 3/11
While the academy essentially lost touch with Claremont’s work for a period of about a decade, a wide-ranging (and sometimes networked) community of fan-scholars kept the study of Claremont’s work alive and thriving, thus showcasing the value of blended scholarship. #xmen 1/7
The term “fan-scholar” was first defined by Media Professor Matt Hills in 2002 as “a fan who uses academic methodology and theories in work produced for fandom.” This can include interpretive/analytical work, as well as archival projects. 2/7
As North American comics scholarship took shape in the 1990s, Claremont’s work was very much in the conversation, appearing prominently in key works by traditional scholars such as Richard Reynolds, Roger Sabin and others. 3/7
Milestone acknowledgement: huge thank you to everyone for helping us crack 10K followers, 9,750 more than I had originally aimed for. In honor of that, I thought it might be a good time to reflect, in general, on the things that I’ve learned from this project. #xmen 1/8
The Centrality of Storm: the more I study the series and the character, the clearer it is to me just how much the entire run pivots around Ororo. Wolverine is the most famous (and a wonderful character in his own right) but Storm is the engine that moves the X-Men. 2/8
The Joy of X-Twitter: though afraid to enter a public discourse on social media, I found those fears to be unfounded. I’m sure there’s toxic fandoms out there, but X-Twitter has been, on the whole, delightful – welcoming, kind, thoughtful, generous. Deeply grateful there. 3/8
While Claremont’s “method writing” approach is well-known and well-discussed, his partner on Excalibur, Alan Davis, is on record in interview as taking a similar approach to his figure drawing, offering an explanation to the enduring poignancy of their collaboration. #xmen 1/5
“One of the things that I do with any group of characters that I work on is try to get under the skin of every character so that I become so familiar with him or her, that they actually exist in my head when I’m drawing them – so that I’m not drawing just stock figures.” 2/5
This intuitive approach lends itself to a certain naturalness of figure, posture, and expression – one that is only possible with a pre-existing mastery over structural method. The result is characters who speak volumes even when silent, even when standing in the background. 3/5
Though presented as the saner option within Excalibur’s love triangle, Kurt’s infatuation with Meggan – and vice versa – presents a number of symbolic complications that undermine the simplistic nice guy/trophy girl dynamic that we often see in the era. #xmen@GoshGollyWow 1/7
The most commonly discussed complication is the simple fact that Meggan takes on Kurt’s shape when attracted to him. Thus, his attraction to her could be narcissistic in nature, a projection of his desire to be desirable, despite his atypical features. 2/7
We also, of course, have to mention that when Meggan looks like Kurt, she’s incidentally taking on the appearance of Kurt’s biological mother as well. Kurt never knew Mystique in this capacity, as he was abandoned by her as an infant, but still. 3/7