Angst? What Angst?: Doctor Doom turns Ororo to metal, the sheer claustrophobic terror driving her nearly insane and causing her to nearly wreck the whole damn planet in a rage. And yet, one little talk and she's back to normal, not even angry at Doom for what by any standards would be a hideous violation.
Anvilicious: Matt Fraction's run starts with the X-Men talking incessantly about their sudden need to be environmentally friendly. Admittedly, not a bad point, but they sure go on about it a lot.
Ass Pull: While it is an impressive moment, and part of what is considered one of the seminal X-Men storylines, Jean's transformation into the Phoenix really comes out of nowhere. After all the previous talk about how the cosmic radiation she is going to be exposed to should have killed her, suddenly she bursts out of the water completely alive, and with a massive boost in power. There is no actual explanation for how she survived any of this, or where the new powers actually come from.
Audience-Alienating Era: Arguably the period just before Neal Adams took over the title in 1969. At the very least it was not selling well at all. Writer Arnold Drake in his 1968-1969 run managed to introduce new character Lorna Dane (Polaris), Mesmero, Alex Summers (Havok), and Living Pharaoh, but this failed to improve sales,
Awesome Art: The Dodsons' during Matt Fraction's run, even more so because they were the alternative to Greg Land.
Bizarro Episode: Moira MacTaggert's introduction has a moment where she draws an assault rifle on a demon, which is kind of awesome... except she apparently grabs it from an armory that has never appeared before, and never appears again, with the moment itself never to be spoken of afterwards.
Issues #37-39: Mutant Master, from the planet Siris, wants to conquer Earth. To this end, he builds a robot body that is disguised as a human and claims to be the Mutant Master, a mutant that will lead mutants to conquer humanity. He gathers several minor X-Men villains and convinces them to help him. Mutant Master kidnaps the X-Men and puts them on trial for crimes against mutant-kind. Mutant Master reveals his plan to the X-Men; he plans to have his underlings assassinate top Soviet military officials and take over a US military and launch nuclear weapons at the USSR, in hopes of starting a nuclear war between the US and the USSR, in order to destroy humanity. Though the Mutant Master claims to act in the best interests of mutantkind, he really only serves his own quest for power.
Issues #395-398: Paul Botham, aka Mister Clean, was a particularly sadistic enforcer of the Church of Humanity with a liking for burning his prey alive. Having had his skin treated to the point of Nigh-Invulnerability, Mr. Clean was tasked to attack the mutants living in the sewers beneath New York and approached his task with horribly vile relish, torching a community of over a hundred into a few straggling survivors in a single day. Mr. Clean continued to relentlessly hound the survivors of his massacre through the sewers, with special attention devoted to one of his would-be victims being nothing more than a newborn infant.
Crazy Is Cool: Kieron Gillen's run makes Cyclops this. Case in point, the famous "Plan B" exchange.
Cyclops: That assumes I only have twenty-six plans. (Cue montage of the X-Men throwing literally anything at Juggernaut)
Creator's Pet: Chris Claremontreally liked Sage, as evidenced by bringing her over from X-Treme X-Men when he returned to Uncanny, then taking her over to New Excalibur and then Exiles. The fans... generally weren't so taken with her. His affection for the character was a bit curious. She was created in 1980 (by Claremont), but didn't get the spotlight treatment until 2001.
Ensemble Dark Horse: The Silver Age title was a little read series that was canceled and stuck in reprints for years. Along comes the All-New, All-Different team which brought back one original member, some D-List one-shot villains from earlier issues, a bunch of rookies from around the world and a guy with claws from an issue of the Incredible Hulk. Now it could be argued that the X-Men are tied with Spider-Man and (following the success of the MCU) the Avengers as Marvel's flagship title.
Beast was this within the original team. After quitting the team and gaining his more familiar bestial appearance, he goes on to become a member of the Defenders and the Avengers, serving as a link between the mutant and larger superhero world for decades.
Then there's Wolverine, who was originally slated to be killed off.
Within the All-New, All-Different squad you have got Kitty Pryde, a thirteen-year-old girl who shows up in the middle of the Dark Phoenix Saga and goes on to become one of the biggest characters in the franchise.
Fashion-Victim Villain: Though it has become iconic, Mister Sinister's look is fairly ridiculous, making him look like a vampire in the Rocky Horror Picture Show who got his cape caught in a paper shredder. This was originally supposed to be intentional on Claremont's part, with Sinister eventually being revealed as the psionic projection of a telepathic boy trying to think up a "cool" looking villain.
Growing the Beard: The early days of the X-Men were pretty rocky. The switch to Roy Thomas allowed a bit of stubble to grow out, but it wasn't enough to save the title. Chris Claremont taking over the title in the 70s had the beard start to grow out, and by the time John Byrne had shown up, the beard was definitely there.
Beast's first meeting with the all-new team, including people who would later become some of his closest friends and allies; "Who the hell are these jokers, and where are the real X-Men?!"
"Kitty's Fairy Tale" has the Nightcrawler equivalent be a "Bamf". While it is taken from the sound Kurt makes when he 'ports, there are plenty who'd agree with the more modern definition of the term.
Wolverine's name is Logan, his claws are a part of his body, his skeleton is plated with adamantium and he has a mutant healing factor. None of these things were established in his first few appearances — it took several issues for the rest of the X-Men, and likewise the reader, to learn that Wolverine's claws weren't just a part of his gloves. Claremont took his time in trickling out information regarding Wolverine that's well known today.
"Mutant X" is Kevin MacTaggert, Moira's son and the reality warping supervillain Proteus.
The X-Men stop the Brotherhood from assassinating Senator Kelly, but this doesn't necessarily prevent the dark timeline of Days of Future Past.
The Jean that died on the Moon was actually the Phoenix Force taking her form while the original regenerated at the bottom of Jamaica Bay.
Magneto rips the skeleton out of Wolverine's body at the conclusion of Fatal Attractions and Xavier mind wipes him for it.
Subsequently, Logan's claws aren't artificial, but actually bone claws that were coated in adamanatium along with the rest of his skeleton.
Les Yay: Is Claremont writing a woman? Then (with some exceptions) there will be oodles of this.
Storm and Jean. Storm and Yukio.
Kitty and Rachel. Kitty and Illyana. Not helping is that time the freshly returned Rach finds Kitty with Piotr, and acts like someone who has been dumped.
Misaimed Fandom: It is pretty clear that the X-Men were supposed to exploit the newfound fandom for Fantastic Four type Super-Families and Teenaged superheroes. Then around issue #9 anti-mutant sentiment was introduced and became the main theme of the book (eventually).
Apparently in Chris Claremont's run, Colossus was intended to be the Breakout Character. He is probably one of the least popular of the group (though that is not saying much at all).
Moral Event Horizon: If Vulcan had not crossed it during Deadly Genesis when he killed Banshee, he crosses it in Brubaker's run when he incinerates Corsair. Corsair being Vulcan's father.
A rare comics sound effect version, but there's nothing more satisfying than Logan's signature "SNIKT" when his adamantium claws come out ready to go.
And, of course, Nightcrawler's "BAMF".
My Real Daddy: Chris Claremont is universally considered to be this, turning a bad Fantastic Four rip-off that had been relegated to reprints into Marvel's top-selling title, even allowing it to have spin-off series.
Probably the greatest example of this is Claremont's work on Magneto. Though always considered the X-Men's greatest villain and a true powerhouse the likes of Doctor Doom or Ultron, it wasn't until Claremont's run that the title began to fill in Magneto's backstory as a Holocaust survivor bent on preventing what he saw to be another mass genocide. With few exceptions you will see writers take cues from Claremont's work on the character far more than any previous writer.
"Killed by my eyes! my cursed mutant energy blasting eyes!"
Moira grabbing the nearest assault rifle to attack a demon? Badass. Moira's dialogue as she attacks the demon... not so much, as you get the feeling Claremont's trying a wee bit too hard to show that she is Scottish (and apparently from the Middle Ages).
Moira: Let's see how yon kelpie deals with machine gun fire!
During an early Claremont arc where the all-new team travel to Ireland, some leprechauns appear and rescue Nightcrawler. Without any foreshadowing or anything of their existence. It's hard to take seriously. Did we mention it's via the leprechauns we learn Wolverine's name for the first time?
In an issue where the original team attacks the all-new team, Cyclops laments that the new team is losing because his older team knows how to work as a team, and the narrator says, "case in point!" The problem is that what is shown is Banshee flying at Angel, before being attacked and thinking that he "flew right into Angel's trap!" All Angel did was punch him... That is literally all he did. Worse still, he punches Banshee on the back. So it's less teamwork and cleverness and more Banshee is a gigantic idiot with horrible flight skills.
When Warhawk takes over the Danger Room and traps the X-Men inside, Storm does pretty well... Until her mortal enemy appears - A NET!!! Believe it or not, that was tame in comparison to her reaction, treating the net as if it were Galactus or something.
Storm: Gods of the Earth and Air — A net!
Nimrod is a devastatingly powerful Sentinel and Dark Messiah to machines, named after a bibical reference to a great hunter... which your average person won't know, thanks to years of Loony Tunes using the word as an ironic insult. Most readers will just end up wondering why Nimrod's makers decided to name their ultimate mutant-killing machine "dumbass."
Greg Land's art during Fraction's run caused a lot of this. Thrill as Emma Frost orgasms in midair!
In many issues of Matt Fraction's run, he will give a character a brief introduction during the story, usually in the format of: Name, alias, power, nonchalant joke. It's cute the first few times, but after the first three issues or so, it gets really old and just sounds incredibly try-hardy.
The story introducing Polaris has a lot of this mixed with Fridge Logic
Iceman and Cyclops have a tendency to treat whatever they are saying as the most important and dramatic thing ever said coupled with extreme close ups showing their shouting faces.
Iceman abruptly shows up at the climax and says he has papers proving that Magneto is NOT Polaris's father and that her parents died in a plane crash. Polaris immediately believes him and runs off to attack Magneto (without checking the papers of course). Chuck Austen of all people realized how dumb this was and retconned it.
The Fridge Logic kicks in hard when it's revealed that that particular Magneto was a robot the entire time. So... a robot claimed that Polaris was his daughter?
Polaris attacks Storm at an airport in #97. When Storm flies to evade her, Polaris has an odd reaction.
Polaris: She may be safe from Lorna Dane up there... BUT NOT POLARIS
Keep in mind, she is in costume and has been using her powers the entire fight. Storm does practically the same thing a moment later.
Storm: Now that I've gotten these people to safety. This time she'll not be facing Ororo, BUT STORM!
Chris Claremont is maybe the poster boy for Purple Prose in comics, but his bombastic style and overwhelming pathos in every line of dialog is so exciting to read on every page that you can't help appreciate how Shakespearean everything seems for the X-Men at all times under his pen.
How Scott realizes he may be related to Corsair (not that he is his son, that he is possibly related). After a fight with Magneto leaves them stranded in the Savage Land for some time, Scott grows some five o'clock shadow that he decides to shave off in a river. He shaves off everything except for his mustache, commenting that it makes him look "piratical" and almost identical to Corsair. Though this level of hitting the nail on its head so hard would usually constitute Narm (especially since Jean and Storm had already figured out the truth but promised to keep it a secret from Scott) Scott's boyscout demeanor and overall earnestness makes it too charming to mock. It helps that he keeps the little mustache for the rest of their time in the Savage Land, like a thirteen-year-old boy growing the first vestiges of facial hair and attempting to emulate their father.
There was not an accent Claremont could not twist into the most exaggerated Theme Park Version possible — see the aforementioned Moira for one of the more egregious cases — but the All-New X-Men's status as a multinational and diverse team was so revolutionary at the time that the occasional "Mein Gott!" and "Bozhe Moi!" from the likes of Nightcrawler and Colossus have become beloved staples of the characters, years after international superheroes became commonplace.
Once Original, Now Common: Modern readers can have trouble understanding what it was in the early Bronze Age that made the X-Men under Chris Claremont's pen the most revolutionary comics title to come out since Lee, Kirby and Ditko's heyday of the X-Men due to a number of storylines and tropes being repeated over and over again in the years following his departure and successive writers trying to emulate or outright copy his plots. A team of diverse, international, complicated characters had yet to be written on such a scale in comics before and never for such a long period under a single writer as during Claremont's fifteen year run. This combined with the serialized nature of the story made it stand out among many of its contemporary titles, leading to an oversaturation of X-Men comics in the 90s that burnt out many readers and left several new ones wondering what the initial hype was about anyway. It would take runs from writers such as Grant Morrison and Joss Whedon in the early 2000s to return the team to the levels of revolutionary storytelling it achieved during the All-New, All-Different era.
Jean (really the Phoenix Force) emerging from the waters of Jamaica Bay after guiding the X-Men's space shuttle down successfully and being reborn as the Phoenix.
From The Dark Phoenix Saga, Logan being thrown several floors down through the Hellfire Club into the sewers, emerging with his claws unsheathed and promising "Now it's my turn!!"
Also from The Dark Phoenix Saga, Jean transforming into the Dark Phoenix and flying off to consume the star of D'Bari, killing five billion aliens in the process.
Also from The Dark Phoenix Saga Jean sacrificing herself on the Moon to prevent the Dark Phoenix from returning.
From Days of Future Past, the future Wolverine leaping up at a Sentinel and being burnt to his adamantium skeleton.
Kitty Pryde's declaration that "PROFESSOR XAVIER IS A JERK!"
From The Brood Saga, Wolverine ripping the visor off of Cyclops's face to show that he's already gone full Brood and alerting the X-Men that they're even more screwed than they thought.
From the Fatal Attractions crossover, Magneto ripping the adamantium out of Wolverine's body.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Proving that some things just don't ever change, this was levied against the All-New X-Men when they first appeared.
Values Dissonance: Wolverine's early attitude toward Jean, namely treating her as a thing to be acquired (he literally describes his intentions towards her as "what the Wolverine wants, he gets") when Jean's only prior interaction with him before that was explicitly telling him she despises him, along with keeping an obviously stolen photo of her (which, for good measure, has had Scott removed from it), is a lot more creepy and just outright stalker behaviour in the modern day than it was in the 70s.
Wangst: As mentioned up above, Claremont's got a reputation for Purple Prose and overly dramatic announcements, and sometimes... okay, lots of times, it could get pretty overwrought.
What the Hell, Costuming Department?: Done pretty intentionally with Kitty's infamous "roller skate" outfit. Even if it was meant to be what a thirteen-and-a-half year old American kid would think was cool at the time (big 'if'), it's still a hideous eyesore. Which is, again, the point of it.
