It's true Claremont made the X-Men into likely the best-selling comic sensation ever, for years and years. The mutant family at Marvel still reaps the benefits of his work. It doesn't change that he had to leave eventually, he was getting so stale. It was becoming a unique problem - the mutantverse became the only kind of title he could write. He became trapped by the familiar speech patterns, constantly used phrases and words; the last issue he wrote of Wolverine in 1989 was so over-the-top tough it could be read as parody. Only with Excalibur did he seem relaxed, and have fun comic adventures with Alan Davis. Now, his return work hasn't added anything. The past few years, writers like Joss Whedon and Grant Morrison has brought much needed freshness to a closed, airless room.
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"I'm not smart so much as I am not dumb." - Harlan Ellison
that's the foreword for the original graphic novel "god loves man kills." where x2 got it's plot.
and yup i was still posting this when ya'll replied
here's a list of classics under the man's belt:
1. DARK PHOENIX SAGA
2. DAYS OF FUTURE PAST
3. MUTANT MASSACRE
4. THE INFERNO
5. THE BROOD SAGA
6. X-MEN 1-3
so on and so on...
nobody has done more for the x-franchise. no one. but what i really admire about CC is his love for the characters. in fact in "first flight," a book he wrote after his first run, he dedicated the book to the X-Men cast. It read : "To Jean, Scott, Ororo, Logan.." and so on.
BUT THE REAL REASON I MADE THIS THREAD is because of all the mocking yall punk-ass have been doing lately. yeah you know who im talking too. illadeph especially.
let's look at the man's track record:
-he single-handedly revive (revive not rescue) a failing comic book that's going to be cancelled
-he made uncanny x-men push 500k units every month
-he single-handedly created a database that marvel will feed off up to now
-he created depths and personalities in characters in a time where every book is so fukkin cheezy... remember watchmen and sandman havent come out yet
-he provided 20 years of consistent storytelling... 20 F'n years. wonder up to how long joss whedon (no hate on the guy) can last, since dangerous was a let down.
-he pushed comic book into the mainstream... fuk you if you disagree
-and he made thousands of people love comic books
now i dont wanna sound too ****ing pussy but the way you punks mock the man make it looks like ha hadnt done anything. illadeph im talking to you, you punk. pr you too. acting like he fukked up the x-franchise, there wont even be an x-franchise if for wasnt this man. but the thing i hate the most is these kids posting all kinds of bullshit cuz they think making fun of CC makes them look cool or knowledgable about comics. this hurts the fans who thoroughly enjoys his works.
LOL @ yall hating on a man cuz your buddy tells you he aint cool anymore. bandwagon bitches.
Give John Byrne some credit. A lot of Claremont's early stories with Dave Cockrum looked very cheesy and hokey even ten years after being published; things went up a notch once Byrne came on as artist, and when comics went from 17 pages to 22 pages per month.
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"I'm not smart so much as I am not dumb." - Harlan Ellison
I agree. CC was in his best days a very good comic writer. And together with Byrne... they were a kick ass duo.
And "God loves, man kills" is a masterpiece. Together with The Dark Knight Returns, The Killing Joke, Batman Year One, Watchmen, the Death of Captain Marvel and so on it's one of the best American comics ever.
In his prime, CC was a cut above. I re-read some of the old stuff recently, and it holds up pretty well. From Inferno on he was going downhill, but that's still a hell of a run.
You should find back issues of Sovereign Seven, Chris's first post-Xmen comic work. They should be cheaply had in the dollar bins since noone but me seemed to read them. They had that feel, you know what I mean?
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...You are Number Six. Respect Popeye
My idea exactly. After Inferno ended, and Jean was fully reunited with the other X-Men, is where I believe Claremont began a steady slide downhill, his fourteenth straight(!) year on the mag. That was when he introduced Jubilee.
Coincidence? I think not!
I think I just hurt myself laughing, granted this thread is 2 years + old. There's no doubt that Claremont deserves credit for a significant bunch of good X-lore during his "prime" but even back then there was a lot of trash to wade through so I would hardly call his writing consistent.
At the moment Claremont has been shipped off to a pasteur in a little land far far away from the 616 Universe due to his less then lackluster plots and strange fetishes.
I think it's also partly due to his style of writing, I've reached a stage where I've become too lazy to read through paragraphs describing a characters indominable will and history and how they can smash through mountains with their telekinesis every issue. He also had a thing for arcs involving mind control, and is craptacular at rubber science.
Another big problem with Claremonts recent work(X-treme Run) was that he was listening to ideas from "fans"*cough*fanboys*cough* on the internet. IRRC he actually went and created characters based off users personalities on the "Coredially Chris" part of the X-Fan forums.(I believe these posts are still there and visible for all to see.)
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Last edited by ExodusCloak on Feb 4th, 2008 at 07:34 PM
there's nothing wrong with disliking a writer's more recent trends in their work, particularly when it doesn't keep up with the rising talents in the industry. it's not "bandwagon" to think claremont's more recent ventures have been hogwash, and to develop a dislike for his insistence on holding onto his old ways and his pet characters and whatnot. you can appreciate his past and dislike his present at the same time. most of us do.
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