In UXM #168, Nightcrawler is presented (and presents himself) as an object of sexual display to be consumed by both his on-panel girlfriend and by the reader, all in an homage to a landmark photographic spread with a deep impact on the sexual revolution. #xmen 1/10
The image references Burt Reynolds’ famous 1972 Cosmopolitan nude centrefold, an historic image that is credited with, among other things, inspiring Doug Lambert to create Playgirl Magazine the following year. Reynolds recounts the development as such: 2/10
“Although no one had ever shown a naked man in a magazine before, Helen [Gurley Brown, editor of Cosmopolitan] believed women have the same "visual appetites" as men, who'd been looking at naked women in Playboy since 1953… 3/10
…She wanted the same prerogative for women. It would be a milestone in the sexual revolution, and she said I was the one man who could pull it off.” 4/10
In this sense, the image that Smith was creating an homage to had a clear purpose of equalizing sexualized portrayals in magazine periodical spreads. Drawing on that image could thus be seen to do (or aim to do) the same thing for comics. 5/10
Supporting this, the panel is narrativized from Amanda’s perspective, thus presenting Kurt as an offering to a sexualizing gaze, a very rare treatment for a male comics character, though quite common for female comics characters of the time (and maybe still). 6/10
The sexual association with the bamf doll is potent, given its positioning in the scene in front of Nightcrawlers genitalia. Off-panel, Amanda replies “Yum!” a perfect encapsulation of the consumption metaphor. 7/10
The next issue of the series would feature a tightly muscled Nightcrawler teleporting around the city naked in order to rescue Angel. Again we see Kurt functioning as a sex symbol both in the unified displays of flesh and superheroics and… 8/10
…also in the narrative trope of “oops, I lost my clothes,” a trope long-entrenched in comics with regard to female characters such as Wally Wood’s “Sally Forth,” and a tradition that makes it quite frequently into Marvel comics of the time with regard to superheroines. 9/10
All in all, it’s a memorable inversion of gender type with an important antecedent in the sexual revolution. 10/10
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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
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
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
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
“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
“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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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