While Claremont left the series before unravelling his full plans for Meggan, we do get a sort of AU glimpse of the elemental nature of her powers and their symbolic potential in the background of Excalibur 17, presenting her as life/sex/joy/harmony incarnate. #xmen 1/10 Image
The issue presents the aftermath of the legendary “Warlord” issue of the Cross-Time Caper. It’s essentially a denoument for that story mixed with an interesting new story about Rachel’s pursuit of identity. Meggan is barely in it, but there’s a lot happening for her still. 2/10 Image
Centring all of this, however, is a jubilant, planet-wide party and in a couple brief pages of that, Meggan comes to life – quite suddenly – as a jubilant, confident and powerful woman in complete control over every aspect of her environment (contrary to her usual portrayal) 3/10 Image
The story presents her as a subtle conduit for the collective celebration, bringing people together as if she were the personification of the planet itself. “And wherever the mood was most joyous, there you’d find Meggan. Almost as if she was somehow their inspiration.” 4/10 Image
Brian, who rarely has a kind word for Meggan, takes notice. “That was magnificent – as are you. I’ve never seen you more lovely.” She responds “I’m but a reflection of this world, my Lionheart. All its beauty and passion and life so long enchained….” 5/10 Image
“…desperately yearning for release through me.” And with that she embraces Brian signalling the sexual connotation of the scene. This is, of course, greatly enhanced by the sexual atmosphere of the party itself, which borders on a PG-13 orgy scene. 6/10 Image
In these elements: sex, life, cohesion, joy, song and dance, and cosmic exchange, Meggan is very much connecting to the Phoenix mythology that C had originally built around Jean Grey. Dancing around the fire in ecstatic joy, she becomes a sort of Wicca-inspired Earth Goddess 7/10 Image
She even brings the dead back to life shortly thereafter by pairing with the Phoenix. She also speaks in Shakespearean dialect as she undertakes this mission, which is a bit jarring but signals an enhanced intellectual capacity and wisdom. 8/10 Image
The overall suggestion is that Meggan finds on this planet what had eluded her on Earth: complete elemental harmony - allowing her to unite the people in joy and to even repel the evils around them, up to and including death itself. 9/10 Image
It’s a provocative glimpse into what she could be to Earth 616 if whatever barriers that surrounded her there were somehow lifted, thus creating a bit of foreshadowing for the character – a sort of “chekhov’s gun” that adds a sense of anticipation to her character. 10/10 Image

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More from @ClaremontRun

Jul 20
Knowing that Ricochet Rita is visually based on Ann Nocenti and that MojoVerse is a satire of media culture offers us the potential to read some aspects of Rita’s story as Claremont’s commentary on Nocenti’s role as X-Men editor. #xmen 1/9 ImageImage
The first thing to note is that Claremont sees Mojo as some commentary on the comic book medium. We see this quite clearly in Mojo Mayhem when the X-Babies escape into a Mojo-Verse building labelled “The House of Jack and Stan” as well as other Marvel signifiers. 2/9 ImageImage
In UXM Annual #12, Claremont presents Rita still attached to Mojo’s ship as a sort of pilot slave. The connection is especially obvious given that Nocenti herself is drawn on the previous page (in a 4th wall break moment) looking exactly the same as Rita. 3/9 Image
Read 10 tweets
Jul 19
In an interview with Jon B. Cooke, beloved X-Men Annual/Special artist Art Adams offers his personal multi-faceted take on the classic “Mojo Mayhem,” one of the more polarizing books in Claremont’s canon. #xmen 1/5 Image
“The one Marvel book that actually made a ton of royalties for me was the Excalibur special I did, which surprisingly enough, is the book I hate the most that I've done!” 2/5 Image
“Mojo Mayhem, they called it. It's baby X-Men who were on Longshot's planet who get away from Mojo and come to Earth and meet Excalibur. At this point in the series, everyone thinks the X-Men are dead, so Kitty's like, "Oh, my God, it's the X-Men, but they're babies!"” 3/5 Image
Read 5 tweets
Jun 22
The core superhero fantasy is associated with simplicity (or juvenilia) and is often brought forward as reason to devalue or dismiss the entire genre, but that fantasy of heroic virtue and endurance can be lifesaving to those in need and that merits consideration. #xmen 1/9
The unplanned-for joy of the project has been the social component of the social media, of talking to people for whom X-Men meant a very great deal, as it did for me personally as well. This isn’t always literary valuation – sometimes it’s about getting by. 2/9
Superheroics, in general, however, are considered sub-literary, despite having a rich place of respect in classical literature; the Ancient Greeks, for example, highly valued the concept of “aristeia,” the moment of great deeds in battle - basically action sequences. 3/9
Read 9 tweets
Jun 21
As noted by scholar Jeremy M. Carnes, the debate over the ethics of killing off Thunderbird in UXM #95 began quite early, and may reflect a failure of imagination on the part of the character’s creators to acknowledge a modern Indigenous existence. #xmen 1/7
As Carnes notes “As early as The X-Men #97, Marvel printed a letter from Tom Runningmouth, a self-identified American Indian, who writes ‘I was proud to see one of my people, an American Indian – America’s First citizens – become a member….’” 2/7
“’….but to my dissatisfaction in X-Men #94, you started to oppress him. But the clincher was in X-Men #95. You killed him. Why was he chosen? Why Thunderbird?’” 3/7
Read 7 tweets
Jun 20
In the pages of New Mutants, Xi’an Coy Manh (Karma) can be seen to function as a constant disruption of some key elements of the superhero fantasy, most prominently through her sense of priorities, which essentially never include actually being a superhero #xmen #newmutants 1/8 Image
First and most obviously, her backstory is truly horrific. She debuts in Marvel Team-Up #100, co-created by Claremont and Frank Miller with a backstory connected to the Indochina Refugee Crisis. Her parents died shipboard, and Xi’an was subjected to sexual assault. 2/8 Image
Xi’an’s younger siblings survived with her, however, and they become the focus of her life. She was appointed the first leader of the New Mutants, but never thrived in that role. She was, simultaneously, the school’s secretary to bring in income to support her siblings. 3/8 Image
Read 8 tweets
May 30
According to former Marvel EIC Jim Shooter, where most Marel writers took a hands-off approach to recruiting artistic talent to work with them, Claremont instead actively participated in scouting artistic talent for UXM. #xmen 1/5
Shooter observes that “Chris was very good at finding artists. I mean, other writers, they just let the editor find an artist. Chris is out bird-dogging artists all the time.” 2/5
“He was actively looking for artists. I know one time in Chicago, Chicago Con, this guy comes over asked me if I’d look at his samples and I did. They were really great. I said, ‘This is really good.’ I said, ‘Listen, give me your information, I’m going to see what we can do’”3/5
Read 6 tweets

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