YMMV / X-Men (Chris Claremont)

• 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.
• 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.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Moira MacTaggert's introduction has an awesome 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.
• 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.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • 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.
• It Was His Sled:
  • Wolverine's name is Logan, his claws are a part of his body, his skeleton is composed as adamantium and he has a mutant healing factor. Early on it was assumed that Wolverine's claws were artificial or at least his mutant ability. 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.
  • Jean Grey dies on the Moon at the end of The Dark Phoenix Saga.
  • 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.
• Most Wonderful Sound:
  • 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: Though Len Wein wrote the first issue and plotted the next two, his successor Chris Claremont is universally considered this not only for Wein's reboot, but the entire X-Men franchise, 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.
• Narm Charm:
  • 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.
• Signature Scene:
  • 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.
• Signature Series Arc: A close call between The Dark Phoenix Saga and Days of Future Past, with both being returned to many times over the years, both for better and for worse.
• 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.

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