Bow Before Homo Superior. note
X-Men (Chris Claremont) consisted of mostly the entire X-Men line beginning in 1975 and ending in 1991. What is astonishing about this it was almost entirely architected and written by one man-Chris Claremont. He took charge of the X-Men when he was 25 and completely revamped from Stan and Jack’s odd bunch to Marvel’s most financially successful franchise and wrote the best-selling comic of all time.
What Claremont did was completely revolutionary - both for the X-Men and comics as a whole. He introduced hundreds of characters and revamped pre-existing ones. Claremont very much made the X-Men a Genre-Busting series- it went from classic superhero stories to Science Fiction to Soap Opera to social commentary and many others usually at the same time.
Its development, creation and circumstances have been chronicled in the 2013 documentary "Chris Claremont's X-Men".
X-Men (Chris Claremont) provides examples of:
- Academy of Adventure:
- Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.
- An Evil Counterpart called the Massachusetts Academy was run by Emma Frost and essentially served as a recruiting tool for the Hellfire Club. Kitty Pryde’s first issue sees Emma offering a (failed) counteroffer to her parents to join her school.
- Action Dress Rip: Jean has to do one of these in issue 98. Dresses designed for formal dinners are not designed for running from killer robots. She proves unable to do it, so Logan does it for her.
- Affably Evil:
- Dracula appears, transforming Storm into a vampire in issue 159. Though he fully intends to make the transformation permanent he changes his mind and allows Storm to regain her humanity when she proves to be such an impressive figure that he can't bring himself to strip her of what makes her unique.
- Part of Magneto’s characterization involves him becoming this, with his tragic past being revealed in issue 150 and all further dealings with the X-Men up until the 90s involving him treating the heroes with utmost respect and eventually making a Heel–Face Turn to join them.
- And I Must Scream: What happens at the end of aforementioned Doom dinner. Doom turns Storm to metal, while she's still conscious. For a severe claustrophobe like Ororo, this is about the worst thing to go through. And her power's still under her control, nearly resulting in planetwide devastation until Doom is convinced to let her go.
- Big Damn Heroes: Another staple of the period: a character is in dire straits, when suddenly their teammates arrive in the nick of time. Some examples:
- In "Uncanny X-Men" #213, Psylocke confronts Sabertooth at the Xavier School. When the girl is in his grasp, Storm launches a baton right into the fiend's nose, allowing Psylocke to break free.
- Body Horror: One of Chris Claremont's favourite tropes. Masque in particular has this as his Mutant power, and he likes using it on everyone he meets.
- Cross Through:
- After moving out of the mansion, Jean Grey becomes roommates with Misty Knight, supporting character of Power Man & Iron Fist, which Claremont had briefly written.
- One issue briefly has Spider-Woman, being written by Claremont at the time, showing up to introduce Theresa Rourke-Cassidy to Sean Cassidy, her dad.
- Discard and Draw: In issue #250, Polaris gets her magnetic powers ripped out of her by Zaladane. She suddenly gets Super-Strength, immunity to bullets, and becomes a one-woman Hate Plague.
- Drowning My Sorrows: After thinking he's accidentally killed Ororo, Havok begins the next issue drinking himself stupid.
- Foreshadowing: Foreshadowing was one of Claremont's most often used narrative techniques, as he frequently set up the next story arc while the X-Men were in the middle of the current arc.
- Early on in Claremont's run, hints are dropped as to Storm's claustrophobia (her fondness for being out in the open sky, rather than indoors), but it's not until the All-New X-Men's trip to Ireland that we get the full story on that.
- During the newly minted Phoenix's battle with Fire-Lord, Jean notes that she is feeling unusually aggressive, even wanting to kill the guy when called away. It is the first hint that her power-up is going to lead to Bad Things. Come issue 110, Jean starts ruminating on her increasing powers, and wonders whether it will eventually corrupt her.
- In a literal use of using a shadow to foreshadow, in an issue before the Dark Phoenix Saga, a man talking to Jean earlier casts a shadow on the wall which is not his own. Attentive viewers might have recognized the shadow as the villain Mastermind.
- In the lead-up to issue 150, Professor X thinks about how the X-Men haven't heard from Magneto since the All-New team's run-in with him in the low 110s, but that recent weather seems like it must be his work.
- UXM #254: After an incident in the Savage Land, Polaris goes to Muir Island for medical examinations, when the Reavers attack the island. On orders of Moira, sorcerous mutant Amanda Sefton tries to change their outfits to X-Men battle suits, but the results look very revealing and fetishistic - hinting at some hidden, obscure influence on the group (the Shadow King).
- A Glass in the Hand: After learning Reed Richards has saved Galactus' life, Lilandra crushes a glass she's holding in fury.
- Hate Plague: It's a clear sign something has gone very wrong when after Lorna Dane gains different powers people tend to break out into vicious brawls around her, often so consumed with hate it overrides any sense of self-preservation.
- Helpful Hallucination: After being strung up by Donald Pierce in the Australian outback for several days, Wolverine starts seeing hallucinations of things he couldn't possibly know about. He then spends several issues followed around by hallucinations of Nick Fury and Carol Danvers, who at one point are somehow able to influence the world around Wolverine.
- Heroic Sacrifice: A staple of the series:
- Thunderbird was the first X-Man to die under Claremont's pen, still in 1975.
- The team, plus Madelyne Pryor, agree to sacrifice themselves to banish evil entity the Adversary during The Fall of the Mutants crossover.
- Rogue sacrifices herself to take the Master Mold/Nimrod gestalt through the Siege Perilous in issue #247.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: Another Claremont favorite. Shadow King likes doing this. Jack Wade in Legion's body also does it when he grabs Polaris.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: The rulers of Genosha don't see Mutants as people, or even living beings. They just see them as tools. Any time anyone tries correcting them on this, they insist on dubbing them "it".
- Keeping Secrets Sucks: After the X-Men are killed and resurrected fighting the Adversary, they decide to keep it a secret from their friends. When this starts biting them in the ass, they admit it was kind of stupid.
- Lemony Narrator: Chris Claremont loved him some narration, but sometimes the narrator could be a total dick.
- Living Ghost: During the 80s, a battle between the X-Men and the Marauders left Kitty Pride trapped in her intangible state for months. During this time, she lamented that she had become a "living ghost", unable to interact with anyone.
- Lured into a Trap: Shadow King, knowing Storm is running around Cairo, Illinois, takes over the home of a wealthy art dealer, knowing Storm will come and try to rob the place, and he'll set his hounds on her. It almost works, save for the unexpected arrival of Gambit.
- Mind Rape: Happens a lot:
- Shadow King, Emma Frost, and Nanny are key contenders in one way or another.
- During the Acts of Vengeance tie-in arc, British Psylocke is subject both to a mind control process and physical alteration by the Hand and Spiral to better serve Mandarin as Lady Mandarin.
- Multinational Team: The X-Men firmly become this under his tenure:
- In the mid- to late-1970s, the team includes Cyclops, Jean Grey and Professor Xavier (Americans), plus Storm (Kenyan), Colossus (Russian/Sovietic), Nightcrawler (German) and Wolverine (Canadian).
- Throughout the 1980s, they are joined by Shadowcat (Jewish-American), Rogue (Southern American), Magneto (Jewish), Psylocke (first as a British woman, then in her Chinese/Asian body), Forge (Native American), Banshee (Irish), Gambit (Cajun) and Jubilee (Chinese-American).
- The first incarnation of the villainous Marauders also falls into this: their members include Scalphunter (Native American), Scrambler (Korean), and Harpoon (Inuit).
- Mystique's version of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, later Freedom Force, includes Avalanche (Greek) and Pyro (Australian).
- Narrating the Obvious: Characters and caption boxes will state things that are patently obvious to anyone.
- No One Could Survive That!: During a fight with Nanny, Havok blows up her ship when Storm is apparently still on it, leading everyone to assume he killed her. Storm does turn out to be alive some issues later, just... looking a little smaller.
- Not Himself: Banshee notices something is very wrong with Moira MacTaggert when shortly after Lorna Dane returns to Muir Island she suddenly discards her normal wardrobe for hanging around the lab in a crop top and panties. He very quickly decides the best idea is to GTFO fast.
- People Puppets: Jacob Reisz, the Shadow King's host leading up to The Muir Island Saga, is dead after the Shadow King possesses him.
- Put on a Bus: Chris' first issue has the original X-Men (save Cyclops) leave. Jean, Havok and Lorna Dane would return pretty quickly in one way or another. Angel would take a few years, and then soon after get right back on that bus. Iceman would take a while longer.
- Running Gag: Kitty and her terrible or just impractical outfits.
- Story Arc:
- Issues #232-234 is another Brood attack, this time against the roster from the Outback Era.
- Issues #235-238 feature Genosha's introduction and the X-Men going there for the first time. Also acts as an Inferno prelude.
- Issues #265-267 introduce Gambit while a de-aged Storm is pulling a heist, they confront the Shadow King, his Hounds and the robotic Nanny.
- Issues #273-277 take the new team (Psylocke, Gambit, Jubilee, Banshee, Storm, Wolverine and Forge) to Shi'ar, where they reunite with Xavier (after his sabbatical following issue #200) and bring him home.
- The Worf Effect: A thing in early Claremont issues involved Colossus getting beaten up by the bad guys. Eventually, even he got sick of being everyone's punching bag.
- World of Ham: Bronze Age Chris Claremont, so yeah. Lots of monologuing and shouting to yourself.
