Rachel Summers embodies an important contrast for key X-Men character projects: in a world littered with characters reforming themselves through found family and purpose, Rachel shows that you can’t save everyone ideologically rather than physically. #xmen 1/8 Image
Just as Thunderbird and Jean (Rachel’s mom-ish) establish physical consequence in defiance of plot armour for UXM, Rachel establishes that not every turn toward the gentler way can be successful. Rachel is a friend, Rachel is family, but Rachel is also a problem at times. 2/8 Image
Professor X has a strong record of integrating unstable characters who pose a threat to the X-Men and themselves (such as Wolverine, Rogue & Magneto). It’s also a very common comics conceit where a villain goes righteous and transitions pretty seamlessly. Rachel is different. 3/8 Image
The idea of heroic virtue being tested by one’s capacity to let go of their hatred is cliche, but Rachel’s violent outbursts are specifically framed as responses to triggers of her traumatic past, and thus a more complex psychological state. Her anger makes a lot of sense. 4/8 Image
Rachel also largely fails to integrate into the community of the X-Men, despite solid efforts to acclimate her to her new society on the part of Storm, Kitty, and the New Mutants’ Magma. Still, her isolationist streak tends to keep her at a distance. 5/8 Image
Equally problematic is her inability to adapt to the categorical imperatives associated with the role of hero. Rachel’s life history has taught her the necessity of moral fluidity, while her ruined world has taught her the dangers of bald idealism. 6/8 Image
Both of these failures to adapt intersect symbolically in her stabbing by Logan. The fact that he stabs her over a moral absolute and the fact that it’s a teammate doing the stabbing, symbolizes -instantaneously- her inability to grasp the situation and its severity. 7/8 Image
It’s a cool variation on a comics trope, executed effectively through the contrast of Magneto going straight at the same time. While the reader is waiting for him to falter, they might feel assured in Rachel’s integration, thus leading to a disillusion not unlike Rachel’s. 8/8 Image

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More from @ClaremontRun

9 Dec
The siege perilous was the magical artifact that book-ended the Australian era of X-Men. Those who pass through it are judged and given their greatest desire. As a plot device, it thus provides Claremont with a wonderful tool by which to telegraph character desire. #xmen 1/7 Image
Colossus gets to be a Soho artist. It speaks to his gentle, creative soul and the tragedy created by his mutant powers, due to the responsibility that goes with them, taking him away from the artist’s life. 2/7 Image
Psylocke becomes an emotionless assassin with a physicality and outward demeanour that more closely reflects the warrior heart and attitude that she expresses in earlier issues. It makes perfect sense that if Psylocke could be anyone, she’d choose Elektra 2.0. 3/7 Image
Read 8 tweets
6 Dec
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
Read 6 tweets
5 Dec
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
Read 10 tweets
4 Dec
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
Read 11 tweets
27 Nov
The concept of self-definition in resistance to external forces is one of the most pervasive thematic threads throughout the Claremont run – the idea that we, as individuals, get to define ourselves, even when pressured to conform to pre-existing expectations. #xmen 1/9 Image
As most people know, the revamped X-Men was specifically created to attract an international market, using stereotypical characters linked to different ethnicities. But Claremont complicates that almost immediately upon coming onto the book. 2/9 Image
He complicates Storm by giving her mixed heritage and a pluralistic experience of different African nations. He portrays Forge as an Indigenous man living outside of tribal culture. Toward the end, he brings in Jubilee, an Asian-American experiencing racism from both sides. 3/9 ImageImageImage
Read 9 tweets
3 Nov
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
Read 7 tweets

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