Forbidden tales of the X-Men

Fan-favourite writer Chris Claremont’s return to the X-Men became short-lived, when a change in Editor-In Chief lead to him being removed from the books after only ten months. This resulted in plenty of abandoned storylines.

In 1995 Chris Claremont was asked in Wizard, the Guide to Comics #51 under what circumstances he would consider writing X-Men again, or if he even missed writing the characters. “I have thought about it off and on,” Claremont replied. “You know, if somebody from Marvel called up and dropped like 10 million bucks on my desk and said, “Come back, all is forgiven,” I couldn’t automatically say no.”

In 2000, Claremont did indeed say “yes” to returning as writer of the two core X-Men books. “They made me an offer I couldn’t refuse,” Claremont told Wizard #103. “The opportunity presented itself; the challenge was irresistible.”

"The original plan was I would take Uncanny and Scott Lobdell would write X-Men," Claremont revealed to Near Mint Condition. "And then, suddenly, before we even got started, Scott decided to take another path and Bob Harras came to me and said, 'You have to write both of them.'"

“I wrote the book for 17 years, and (early 20^th-century author) Thomas Wolfe’s dictum about not being able to go home again looms very large over a circumstance like that,” Claremont continued in Wizard #103. “Everybody has an opinion, everybody has expectations, so there’s a lot more attention and pressure on this gig than there was in 1975.”

These words would prove tragically prophetic. Shortly after Claremont’s return to writing the X-Men books in 2000, Marvel got a new Editor-In-Chief, Joe Quesada, and he didn’t appreciate Claremont’s X-Men stories at all. “They were completely unreadable,” Quesada opinionated in Wizard #111. “Right around the time of the movie, the heavy hand of continuity for whatever reason just came crashing down on these books. You just could not pick a single issue from the two core X-titles and start from scratch. None of them had a jumping-on point.”

“It’s unfortunate,” Quesada continued. “Chris sort of jumped into a weird set of circumstances with it, and I know he tried to work his way through it as best as he could, but even he knew that it was a very touchy, almost unworkable situation. (…) Really desperate measures had to be taken.”

Quesada chose to remove Chris Claremont from Uncanny X-Men and X-Men vol.2 after only 10 months back as their writer.

What went wrong

Claremont’s version of what had gone wrong with his crossover-impaired second run on the X-Men books was reported on Cinescape.com in 2001. “In retrospect, I probably tried to do too much, too soon,” Claremont said. “Whatever the cause, it’s evident in retrospect that the creative mix on the books was not synergizing as smoothly or effectively as it needs to in our business. Hence, the changes that were made.”

“In a lot of cases, stories and characters that I had lots of plans for were truncated or dropped altogether,” Claremont continued. “It’s hard to embroider a character when the editor (Mark Powers) doesn’t like it. Them’s the breaks.”

“Some of the elements – the treatment of the villains and the absence of Kitty (Pryde) – came about because of editorial decisions that had direct impacts on the ongoing storyline. For example, the decision to bring the teams together in July, to echo the movie. In fact, if we were going to do that it should have been incorporated into the macro plot structure from the beginning. Instead, because no one realized until late spring that the movie might actually be successful, not to mention good, we had to play serious catch-up at the same time as we were trying to establish the entire structural foundation of the two series.”

 

The Psylocke and Phoenix power switch

When Claremont started writing the series with X-Men vol.2 #100 and Uncanny X-Men #381 in 2000, there was a six months continuity leap from the previous issues. During those six months, Psylocke and Jean Grey (Phoenix) had somehow switched powers so that Psylocke now had Jean Grey’s telekinetic ability and Jean Grey had gotten Psylocke’s telepathic ability. Claremont didn’t get the opportunity to explain the power switch before he was removed from the books.

In 2003, Claremont was asked on his online Cordially Chris forum if he had considered writing stories for X-Men Unlimited, a series which at the time mostly published solo X-Men stories, as a way of telling stories from the six month gap. “Stories for Unlimited are the province of editor C.B. Cebulskie,” Claremont replied. “If he wants any he knows where to find me. I’ve done what I can, which is let him know I’m interested and available. The ball’s now in his court.”

Unfortunately, Cebulskie didn’t ask for any stories dealing with the six month time gap, but in 2001 Claremont explained his motive for having given Psylocke Jean Grey’s telekinetic power on CoolBoard. He said he thought that the readers had started to take Psylocke’s personality and abilities for granted, so he wanted to present her with a challenge – to set her back to a point in her life where it was necessary for her to become a student again in order to emphasize the school aspect of the Xavier Institute. He wanted to establish a contrast between her and Jean, so that instead of being an echo of each other, they could now function independently, both as individuals and as teammates.

“It was, at that time in 1999/2000, intended to be addressed in an “annual” or possibly a subordinate arc or mini-series that would cover what happened between Jean and Betsy during the “six-month-gap” which would explain why their powers switched,” Claremont revealed on his Cordially Chris forum in 2003.

Claremont told CoolBoard that there had always been an explanation and had he found the time in 2000, the story would have been in (Uncanny) X-Men Annual. But that opportunity had passed, and given the current status quo in X-Mythology – the fact that Jean had been set back to her normal status quo as a telepath/telekinetic (by subsequent writer Grant Morrison and also without explanation) – Claremont doubted that the story would ever be told. Why explain a continuity twist that no longer existed?

Claremont added in Back Issue #4: “If I ever get my hands on Jean again, there’s a lot I would like to do with her in terms of character structure to have her come to terms with all that’s happened in her life.”

Aborted romance and dead Neo

In X-Men vol.2 #100, Rogue and Colossus shared a kiss. It wasn’t explained how they could touch without Rogue absorbing Colossus’ powers and personality, rendering him unconscious in the process, as usually happens when Rogue touches someone, but this was intended as the beginning of a new romance. Editor Mark Powers revealed in Wizard #102 that readers shouldn’t be surprised if Rogue wound up in a relationship with another teammate, and warned that Colossus was going to hook up with another X-character.

“I (…) thought it might be fun to introduce some potential romantic complications outside the traditional couples box,” Claremont told Comicon.com. “That’s why the kiss between Colossus and Rogue in X-Men (vol.2) #100, to explore the possibilities of re-introducing a measure of romantic tension to the various relationships. Originally, I thought Neal (Shaara, Thunderbird) might be fun for Jean (Grey, Phoenix).”

“And the Rogue notion got spiked so fast you don’t want to know,” Claremont continued. “Once again, let’s hear it for the Interneteratti, who are all for change so long as it confirms to their prejudices, pro and con.”

“This is a new millennium. A new beginning,” Claremont told Wizard #103. “My goal, at least for the first year, is to primarily introduce new material, new characters, new relationships, new conflicts.”

“The initial storyline in both books will involve them coming up against a new breed, a new offshoot of humanity, sort of like the next generation beyond mutants,” Claremont continued. “Basically, the war that everyone has been afraid of between mutants and humans is sort of about to start, but it’s not the war everyone expected. And it’s not the enemy everyone expected.”

“And, unfortunately, the outcome’s not gonna be as clear cut as everyone expected.”

The new breed Claremont was talking about called itself “the Neo.” However, the promised war between them and the mutants never developed beyond the Neo establishing a beachhead fortress in Brooklyn before Claremont had to leave the books.

“I would have preferred to take more time with the Neo and the (Crimson) Pirates,” Claremont told Cinescape.com. But that was not to be, as those characters were probably among the ones the editor didn’t like. So it was most likely an editorial edict that subsequent writer Scott Lobdell had Magneto kill the Neo in the Brooklyn fortress in X-Men vol.2 #110, effectively ending the threat of war between Neo and mutants just one month after Claremont’s final issue.

Ironically, the idea of "the next generation beyound mutants" was picked up again by writer Mike Carey for his first storyarc when he took over writing X-Men vol. 2 with #188-193 in 2006. His Children of the Vault had been evolved in a time-controlled environment (much like Grant Morrison's World that spawned Fantomex) and he brought them back for a return appearance in X-Men Legacy #238-241 in 2010 before writer Chris Yost created a whole new batch of Neo in X-Men Giant-Size #1 in 2011 with the purpose of killing them off again.

 

 

Shadowcat’s untold destiny

In X-Men vol.2 #100 Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat) was separated from her teammates who subsequently were in no particular hurry to find her again. Claremont explained the circumstances to Cinescape.com in 2001: “What happened was that the original, proposed story arc got shot down after the series was set in motion and the first issue plotted.”

“My idea was to establish Kitty as a subplot that would run through the conclusion of the Neo arc, around (X-Men vol.2) #104-105, and then move center stage,” he continued. “Then, (the X-Men) go after Kitty. When the arc structure got nuked by the editorial decision to reunite the two books and teams in July, to coincide with the movie (…), the Kitty arc was shifted over to a stand-alone mini-series (X-Men: Shadowcat – Captains Courageous) which would cast Kitty and a team of Captains as a kind of pan-temporal S.W.A.T. team, dealing with crises on alternate Earths and serve as the foundation/springboard for a possible new ongoing series.”

The Captains Courageous plot was originally intended as a Nightcrawler story when Claremont wrote Excalibur in 1990, but it wasn’t realized before Claremont left the X-Men universe in 1991. Unfortunately, the plot didn’t become the Shadowcat mini-series either, when Claremont revisited the idea nine years later. “We had plots, we had an artist (Lee Moder) but then the green light turned orange after Labor Day and the whole shebang fell into turnaround Hell,” Claremont revealed to Cinescape.com. “I have further plans for Kitty and assorted other characters, and for the macro-story I set out to tell in her series, but I’m leery of talking about them too far in advance for fear I’ll jinx the concepts.”

When Claremont realized he had to leave the X-Men books without an opportunity to incorporate a decent explanation as to what had become of Shadowcat, he cut the story short in his final issue, X-Men vol.2 #109. In that issue, Viper delivered a message to Wolverine from Shadowcat that she was alive and well. It was anti-climactic, but at the end the only way to wrap up the plot.

“As far as I’m aware, that (Shadowcat mini-series) proposal is dead,” Claremont concluded to Cinescape.com in 2001. “The basic thrust of the concept has been enfolded into X-Treme (X-Men) for the last major story arc of our first publishing year, the “Invasion From Dimension X” (in X-Treme X-Men #10 to 16).”

“The nice thing about comics, though, is that nothing’s lost forever,” Claremont comforted Cinescape.com’s readers. “The story that isn’t used today in X-Men may resurface down the line.”

A story about what happened to Shadowcat between X-Men vol.2 #100 and 109 and how she survived her ordeal with the Neo at the end of X-Men vol.2 #100 still hasn’t surfaced, though. Her appearances in Gambit Annual 2000 and the X-Men: Declassified one-shot that were said to take place after her upcoming return to the X-Men are therefore a bit difficult to place in continuity as she didn’t return to the X-Men.

Nightcrawler and Mystique’s relationship

According to Wizard #102, Claremont was giving more thought to the secrets surrounding Nightcrawler and Mystique’s relationship. “Stick around. It’s in the works,” he promised in Wizard #103. However, he didn’t get around to it before being removed as writer of the X-Men.

One of Claremont’s storylines that was originally intended for Uncanny X-Men and X-Men vol.2 did get realized by the writer himself, though: His spin-off-series X-Treme X-Men’s starting point, that a group of X-Men left on a quest to find Mystique’s dead lover Destiny’s 13 diaries. “It was something we were considering for (the X-Men books in) the Spring of 2001,” Claremont revealed to Cinescape.com.

In the Wizard #103 interview, Claremont also answered the question if Mystique would still be hunting Professor X: “No. She doesn’t have to,” he replied. “She’s been there all along. Wait until you see who the new staff member of the Xavier Institute is… heh, heh, heh.”

The Xavier Institute’s new staff member turned out to be Tessa, formerly affiliated with the Hellfire Club. She joined the X-Treme X-Men team under the new codename Sage and was clearly not one of Mystique’s many secret identities. So whatever Claremont had originally planned for Mystique, it didn’t come to pass, although Mystique did appear in his “Dream’s End” crossover in 2000.

X-Men: Year Zero

In Uncanny X-Men #381, Jean Grey revealed that she had worked alone with Professor Xavier before the formation of the X-Men. Claremont said on his Cordially Chris forum in 2003, that he had proposed Marvel an X-Men: Year Zero limited series, which would have told the story. The limited series was intended to deal with the time-frame between Xavier losing his legs to the opening scene of X-Men #1 (1963).

“It would go into the origins of (Xavier’s) relationship with Sage, and Sebastian Shaw, his recruitment of Jean, their adventures together, back-story concerning Logan, and his gradual decision to form the X-Men,” Claremont revealed. “Marvel chose to pass on the proposal.”

Professor Xavier’s first meeting with Sage was instead incorporated into X-Treme X-Men #44 in 2004.

Two other announced Claremont projects – a Lila Cheney mini-series and a Wolverine ”fantasy” project with artist Rick Leonardi – were both reported as pronounced dead by Cinescape.com in April 2001.

When Claremont took over Uncanny X-Men and X-Men vol. 2 in 2000, the idea was to introduce a new X-Man in each series. The one was Thunderbird in X-Men vol. 2. Claremont told about the other in Wizard #103: “She’s actually an animation artist from Japan. She draws things and they come to life. We call her Reanimator.”

However, when she was introduced in Uncanny X-Men #383, it was under the name Sketch. And then she was never seen again. Claremont commented on it to Cinescape.com in 2001: ”Also lost in the shuffle: More on Sketch.”

Cross-Time X-Men

In Uncanny X-Men #383, Chris Claremont introduced the villain Tullamore Voge, who was of an alien species that Claremont had introduced all the way back in “The Cross-Time Caper” in Excalibur #16 and 17 in 1989 – a story which Claremont drew quite a bit of inspiration from after his return to the X-Men Universe in 2000, for example in X-Treme X-Men #25, 2003, wherein Shadowcat for the first time ever referred to the event in Excalibur #16, where she killed the witch Anjulie to save the life of Princess Kymri.

Claremont used Kymri again in X-Men vol.2 #104, 2000, and established that Tullamore Voge and his slavers had conquered her world, and that Kymri now served Crimson Pirate Killian as his personal Hound. (Hounds are enslaved humans in chains, which Claremont has portrayed at various points of X-Men Mythology. Tullamore Voge and his race used them as personal slaves. The Shadow King also made use of them, for example in Uncanny X-Men #265-267 in 1990. Rachel Summers served Ahab as a Hound in the apocalyptic future she had escaped from.)

Claremont had probably intended that Kymri’s fate should evolve into a story where she and her world would be liberated from slavery if he had continued as writer of the main X-Men books. In X-Treme X-Men #36, 2004, Storm went after Tullamore Voge and he made a cameo appearance in X-Treme X-Men #39 but remained at large, while Kymri’s destiny also remains unresolved, despite Nightcrawler wondering what happened to her in Uncanny X-Men #450, 2004.

In 2004, the letters page in Uncanny X-Men #446 promised that, “as for Tullamore Voge and Princess Kymri… well, just be sure to check out that other X-book Chris (Claremont) is helming, X-Men: The End.”

In the out of continuity X-Men: The End Book One – Dreamers & Demons #3, Nightcrawler had saved Kymri from the Slavers and had married her.

The Summers family reunion

Cable was on Claremont’s Uncanny X-Men team in 2000, and one of the villains Claremont had big plans for was the clone of Cable, Stryfe. “We used Stryfe in the (X-Men) Annual (2000). And the interesting thing is that while there’s a tremendous enthusiasm for the character in-house, fan reaction has been incredibly vehement,” Claremont told Comic Book Resources.com in 2000. “There doesn’t seem to be a lot of affection for Stryfe as a character, which to me is a big red flag in front of a bull. It’s like, “You don’t like him? OK, by the time I’m done…” Nobody liked Rogue when she first showed up, either, so we’ll see.”

Claremont used Stryfe again in X-Men vol.2 #105, where he is the mysterious man in the shadows at the end of the story, whose identity was never revealed in the comics. “Actually, the original idea for that scene spun off of the X-Men 2000 Annual and the team’s confrontation with Stryfe,” Claremont revealed to Cinescape.com in 2001. “He was doing to Psylocke in (X-Men vol.2) #105 what she had done to him in the Annual, only in this case he uses telepathy instead of ninja powers to mask his presence.”

Stryfe’s appearance in X-Men vol.2 #105 was meant to be the beginning of a bigger story. When Comic Book Resources.com in 2000 asked about what stories Claremont had up his sleeve, he replied: “A Summers family reunion.”

Claremont confirmed in an interview with Upstart Comics.com that a Summers family reunion was underway. “After that we’ll deal with the repercussions,” he said, “and in January the X-Men will undergo a fundamental change.”

The latter he expanded on to Comic Book Resources.com: “Assuming all goes well, the X-Men at the end of January 2001 will be a fundamentally different concept than the X-Men right now – in ways, hopefully, that the readers will wonder how the hell we’re going to dig ourselves out of this one. And for the first time in their career as super heroes, they are going to be seriously, seriously on the defensive.”

“They’re going to be up against a set of foes who know them better than they know themselves, and are probably stronger than all of them put together,” he continued. “They are characters you’ve seen before. Certainly within the last five years. Or less. And some of them may surprise you.”

Stryfe’s X-Men

When the Summers family reunion didn’t happen because Claremont was removed from the X-Men books, Claremont revealed on Cinescape.com in 2001 what he had meant with ”a fundamentally different concept” for the X-Men books, and what team of enemies the X-Men should have been up against: “The thrust of that story was for (Stryfe) to build an all-new, all-different team of X-Men based on family, sort of a Summers family reunion, consisting of himself, Cyclops, Jean and Cable, and possibly Nate (Grey, X-Man). They were going to evict Xavier and the others from the mansion and go public, pulling a Thunderbolts riff by branding the fugitive X-Men as criminals and portraying themselves as heroes.”

“The idea was that Stryfe would slip into the Search For Cyclops series and hijack both characters at the end, then gather Cable and in (X-Men vol.2) #110, seize control of X-Men. No more Xavier Institute. In its place: The Summers School.”

“I thought it would be fun, but editorially it didn’t fly.”

Jean Grey and Cable were attacked on the astral plane by an unknown enemy in Uncanny X-Men #384, wherein that same enemy also possessed Cable. The enemy’s identity was never revealed in the comics, but Claremont spilled the beans on his Cordially Chris forum in 2003: “It was meant to be Stryfe, as a precursor to the arc that would close-out 2000, wherein the X-Men and Xavier would be “evicted” by the Summers Clan (Stryfe, Scott, Cable, Alex, Jean and Rachel), who would present the school to the public as the Summers Scool For Mutants. They would control X-Men (vol.2) and the fugitive team (think about it, how would you – COULD you – fight adversaries who comprise four of the most powerful psis in creation, plus two (Cyke & Cable) of the pre-eminent tactical and strategic strategists?) would be on the run in Uncanny (X-Men). And that would be the status quo until (Uncanny X-Men) #400, when things would get really squirrelly.”

“We’re talking conflict here, a civil war/War of the Roses between the Lancasters and the Yorks of the House of Mutants!” Claremont continued. “So much for that idea.”

Claremont had barely left Uncanny X-Men and X-Men vol.2 before subsequent writer Scott Lobdell (presumably on editorial edict) ensured that the Summers family reunion couldn’t happen by killing off Stryfe in the Gambit & Bishop: Sons of the Atom mini series.

Sources:

Kim S. August: Chris Claremont: The X-Treme Interview, Cinescape.com, 1 May 2001

Jennifer M. Contino: Chris Claremont Pt 1, Comicon.com, 28 January 2005

Cordially Chris, Comixfan.com/xfan, 16, 18, 20 and 30 June 2003

CoolBoard, 2001

Christopher Lawrence: What Next?, Wizard #102, March 2000

Christopher Lawrence: The Wizard Q&A – Chris Claremont, Wizard #103, April 2000

Christopher Lawrence: The Wizard Q&A – Joe Quesada, Wizard #111, December 2000

Jim Lee: Dynamic Duo, Wizard #51, November 1995

Eric J. Moreels: Claremont Talks New X-Title, Cinescape.com, 24 January 2001

Eric J. Moreels: Claremont Reflects On Core X-Book Return, Cinescape.com, 26 March 2001

Eric J. Moreels: Claremont Talks X-Treme Down Under, Cinescape.com, 22 April 2001

Near Mint Condition: Chris Claremont Interview! YouTube, 22 September 2020

Josh Roberts: Chris Claremont Interview, Comicbookresources.com, 18 August 2000

Peter Sanderson: Pro 2 Pro – Claremont And Byrne: Wolverine At 30, Back Issue #4, June 2004

Upstart Comics Interviews Chris Claremont, Upstartcomics.com, 2000

Changing X-Men directions

From 1997 to 1999 the X-Men underwent several changes in writers while Chris Claremont waited in the wings, flirting with the characters he had helped make popular.

An X-Men reader poll published in Wizard #90 in 1999 revealed that 30 % of readers wanted Chris Claremont to write the X-Men again, putting him on top of the list with second favourite choice, Kurt Busiek, receiving only 18 % of the votes.

In 1997, the readers who voted on Claremont almost had their wish come true. “Bob Harras had become the Editor-in-Chief and we started talking again,” Claremont revealed in Comic Creators On X-Men.

“I, along with a lot of other creators in the business, have been bitching a lot in the last few years about how “Things aren’t going quite right” and “If I were God Emperor of the Universe, what could I do to make things work?”” Claremont told Wizard #85. “It got to the point where I think Marvel decided to call my bluff.” […] “My coming back was not a spur-of-the-moment decision – it’s something we’ve been talking about for about two-and-a-half years. There was a lot of discussion, negotiation.”

“When I came back to Marvel, the deal was… the expectation was that I would write one of the books,” Claremont said in Wizard #103. “But we could never make the timing work.”

“(Bob Harras) wanted me to come back and take over one of the X-books,” Claremont added in Comics Creators On X-Men. “Scott Lobdell would write the other. Bob figured that would be the best of both worlds. Scott had a certain following and so did I. We could maybe play to our different strengths. But, before I agreed to write X-Men, I had to settle some outstanding royalty stuff with Marvel as far as Toy Biz was concerned. While this was happening, Scott decided to leave X-Men and Bob suddenly had to get writers on both books. By the time I came back, the books had already been handed over to Joe Kelly and Steve Seagle. Since Bob had already made a commitment to these two guys, he felt he couldn’t just dump them. Instead of doing X-Men, I came back as editorial director and ended up taking over Fantastic Four because Scott had also quit that book. I was fine with FF.”

Unresolved plots

With Scott Lobdell leaving in 1997, a couple of his sub-plots remained unresolved. In Uncanny X-Men #339, Jean Grey’s telepathic powers acted up, and in X-Men vol.2 #61, she suddenly found herself momentarily transported to an abandoned version of Manhattan. Later, in X-Men vol.2 #65, she found herself momentarily transported to the Heroes Reborn Universe where she met Iron Man. No explanation was ever given.

In X-Men vol.2 #59 in 1996, Cannonball caught presidential candidate Graydon Creed talking to a person hidden behind a door. It was never revealed who he was talking to, but it might have been the mutant-hating Bastion who supported Creed’s cause as revealed in Uncanny X-Men #334 earlier in 1996.

Graydon Creed was shot in X-Factor #130 in 1997 written by Howard Mackie, and in Uncanny X-Men #353, an insert announced that the fate of the killer of Creed would be revealed in X-Factor #150. Unfortunately, X-Factor was cancelled with issue #149, leaving the mystery of who did it unresolved until X-Men Forever #2 in 2001. There it was revealed that a time-travelling Mystique had shot him while the present-day Mystique's attempt was foiled by X-Factor. The message they received on a computer screen at the end of X-Factor #130 - that Mystique would be next - was a ruse to make X-Factor think someone other than Mystique was the killer. But originally in 1997, it seemed likely Mackie did intend someone else as the assassin because in X-Factor #132, Mystique talked on the phone with the assassin. He had kidnapped Destiny's grandson Trevor Chase and tried to have Mystique and Forge killed by agents with weapons like the one that killed Creed. In X-Factor #134, they found Trevor Chase in the house of their government boss Bowser who denied knowledge before getting swallowed up by Chase's mutant power and in X-Factor #135, it seemed that Chase was controlling government agents against X-Force. Bowser was back without explanation in X-Factor #136 and had Chase kidnapped again in #137. Mystique went undercover as a senator's wife in #138 to 144 in order to get Chase's kidnapper apprehended, but the plot was completely left dangling after that and would never get resolved.

So, who had it out for Creed and Mystique to be revealed in X-Factor #150? Obviously, writer Fabian Nicieza had his own new idea for putting the mystery to rest in X-Men Forever #2 in 2001.

Lobdell up against editorial edicts
In Uncanny X-Men #345 a group of X-Men were returning to Earth after freeing the Shi'Ar empire from a Phalanx invasion. About to head into a Shi'Ar stargate, the X-Men's ship was caught in the wake of giant spaceship also heading to Earth, causing the X-Men's ship to split in three. Bishop and Deathbird remained in space while the X-Men in the other two parts made it to Earth and ended up in Magneto's stronghold in Uncanny X-Men #347. But... What about the giant spaceship overtaking them in the stargate? It was never seen or heard of again. Where did it come from? Who was onboard? What was its business on Earth?

When Scott Lobdell left the X-Men with X-Men vol.2 #69, he had wanted to do a team of all-new, all-different X-Men that included the Israeli mutant, Sabra. “I went through the effort to bring her onto camera and hopefully get her likeable and interesting,” Lobdell told in Wizard #90. “And then I was told, “We don’t want her on the team after all.””

Lobdell also revealed that he re-wrote Uncanny X-Men #325 from 1995 “six times completely from scratch because I couldn’t bring myself to follow through on the (editorial) edict, which was to have Storm kill Marrow. It was only (on) the sixth time that I came up with the version that I was morally okay with, and even to this day I feel badly having written the story.”

Meanwhile in Wolverine

At the same time as Scott Lobdell left X-Men, longtime Wolverine writer Larry Hama also left Wolverine, leaving behind a mystery that subsequent writers didn’t touch. It regarded an artifact in the form of a box that Zoe Culloden, agent of the interdimensional company Landau, Luckman and Lake, sent to Wolverine for safe keeping in Wolverine vol.2 #111. In Wolverine vol.2 #113 and 114, the evil entity Ogun and Lady Deathstrike both coveted the box, which was opened by Storm. She didn’t say what was in the box, only that whoever possess it would have access to resources untold.

Although Chris Claremont didn’t return to the X-Men in 1997, he did write Wolverine vol.2 #125-128 in 1998, returning to the character he had helped make popular. In the story, Claremont defied the wishes of fans for Wolverine to get his adamantium reinforced skeleton back by giving it to Sabretooth instead. “In my mind, I want the villain to be significantly more dangerous and formidable than the hero – otherwise, what’s the point?” Claremont explained in Wizard #85.

“I think it’s great that Wolverine is vulnerable, that his bones can be broken,” Claremont continued. “Bad things can happen to him, and he has to factor his vulnerabilities into the equation. If a bad guy comes to him with a sharp enough sword, maybe the guy can take (Wolverine’s) head off, as opposed to the old days, where it was, “Hey. Cut me. I don’t care.” More importantly, now Sabretooth  - the one guy who truly doesn’t care – can’t be killed. How do you win a fight like that? Well, that’s the challenge. I’d like to give this concept a run for a while.”

However, it didn’t take long after Claremont’s story arc before Sabretooth’s adamantium was given to Wolverine instead by Apocalypse in Wolverine vol.2 #145 in 1999. Claremont commented on it in Wizard #103: “The whole point about Sabretooth and Wolverine is Sabretooth is Wolverine without any moral governing. That is why I wanted to give him the adamantium. Sabretooth should, in every shape, manner and form, be more formidable than Wolverine, so that in any given fight, Wolverine has the odds against him.”

Editorial interference

While Steve Seagle and Joe Kelly were writing the main X-Men books from the end of 1997 to early 1999, “the editorial climate at the time was extremely poor,” according to artist Chris Bachalo in Comics Creators On X-Men. “They kept changing story directions from issue to issue. They’d have the meeting, decide on a direction and change their minds a few months later. I think it was all very frustrating for Steve (Seagle) and Joe Kelly, the writers at the time. They were having their differences with the editorial group and I think they got completely burned out after a year. I don’t know if they were fired or if they left, but it was just a horrible situation. And it made drawing the book really difficult. We’d get working on the storyline, and then it would change and go in another direction. Steve’s last issue was also my last issue. To this day, I don’t know why I was moved.”

Chris Claremont commented on the editorial effect on the X-Men books in Wizard #85: “Eleven X-Men books is probably too much because you’re drawing from the same well of characters and events. And the sheer logic of it: I think there are more mutants in the Marvel Universe than there are other superheroes right now. It’s hard to be the downtrodden minority when you outnumber everyone else two-to-one. And also, it used to be that the X-Men were the province of one writer, one editor. Then it became two writers and two editors. Now it’s four or five editors and a half-dozen or more writers. It’s very hard to maintain a consistent tone of focus.”

“Part of me wants to write them all,” Claremont admitted. “Part of me wants to put the whole canon in my pocket, run out the door and come back each month with stories. But my value to the company is in a different direction than that. And I would rather at this point make (Fantastic Four) more exciting and successful than it is than to go back to the X-Men.”

Abandoned storylines

The change in directions meant that two of Joe Kelly’s subplots were abandoned before reaching closure. The first one concerned the Black King of the Hellfire Club, Sebastian Shaw. In X-Men vol. 2 #71 he was approached by a wraith who gave him a letter with an Egyptian styled seal. It contained an offer, which Sebastian Shaw accepted in X-Men vol. 2 #73. It was never revealed what he agreed to do or what meeting would be called once he’d accepted.

The other abandoned plot concerned new X-Man Marrow. A mysterious figure approached her mentor Callisto, who was recuperating in the Morlock Tunnels, in X-Men vol. 2 #74. In X-Men vol. 2 #79, the mysterious figure was displeased with Callisto’s speedy recovery, but pleased that Marrow had joined the X-Men. It was never revealed, but the mysterious figure was probably the Dark Beast – a character with Morlock ties and whom Editor Mark Powers had revealed in Wizard #79 would be appearing: “You’ll see the Dark Beast doing something really nasty to someone you know and like.”

Steve Seagle also left a loose end. In Uncanny X-Men #352, Cyclops and Phoenix encountered an otherdimensional entity on a plane ride. Department H took custody of it at the end of the issue, but it never showed up in Alpha Flight vol. 2 which Steve Seagle also wrote. Department H was running Alpha Flight, but maybe the entity would have shown up if Alpha Flight vol. 2 hadn't been cancelled after just 20 issues at the same time Seagle left Uncanny X-Men.

In Wizard #79, a big storyline for August 1998 was hinted at. “You will see more X-Men and X-villains gathered in one place – together, united – than you have ever seen before,” Steve Seagle said. “There are times where you have to rely on your enemies to save you and there are times where your friends don’t act at all like your friends. This August will be one of the times.”

“Even your friends can be your villains,” Seagle continued. “It is hard to say who is what. This story is going to lead to the biggest philosophical division that you have ever seen happen among all the X-characters. (…) You’ll see old friends turn against one another over philosophical differences.”

“You’ll see the fantabulous Beast butting heads with other longtime X-Men,” Joe Kelly added, while Mark Powers revealed that “an X-Man will die this year,” and Seagle added that “I’m thinking that it will be sometime around… August.”

However, this August storyline never appeared. Instead, Excalibur characters Nightcrawler, Colossus and Shadowcat rejoined the X-Men in a brand-new direction for the books.

In the Bullpen Bulletins checklist entry for X-Men vol. 2 #78 in Generation X #41, it was announced that, "The Shadow King has taken over the Psionic Plane! This sounds like a perfect time for the return of Professor X!" However, the return of Professor X was saved for the Hunt For Xavier crossover in Uncanny X-Men #362-364 and X-Men vol. 2 #82-84 when the new direction for the books had been established.

Why Kelly and Seagle left

X-Men writer Joe Kelly commented on the change of direction and why he left the book in Wizard #90: “If somebody told me from Day One, “We’re going to work out the story and hand it to you, and you just plot it and dialogue it,” I’d have no problem with that, because it’s very up-front. When that evolves over time, it becomes frustrating.”

“Joe (Kelly) and I, along with (editor) Mark Powers, proceeded to produce two detailed, yearlong plans for the two X-books which were filled with interesting stories, sweeping long-range character arcs, shorter stories, one summer “big event” crossover, and enough marketing spikes to make any retailer happy without irritating the fans,” Uncanny X-Men writer Steve Seagle added in Wizard #90. “I was led to believe this plan had been accepted, and proceeded to start laying in the threads of these stories in the issues I was writing. Then all four tires blew out from under our wagonload of good stuff.”

“You never know what it is, but (Editor-In Chief) Bob (Harras) was answering to other people and this was a chaotic time at Marvel,” Seagle continued. “Certainly the redirected lineup – which neither Joe nor I were too happy about – I don’t think that came directly from editorial. I think that came from outside forces, whatever they may be – marketing or people above Bob, or who knows what.”

“Steve and I had a cool, magic thing going, but it wasn’t the kind of magic they were looking for, so what you get is something that falls in between their vision and our vision,” Joe Kelly added. “One of the things we definitely were going to do was split the books up and give each one a definite agenda. My team was going to include Beast running the school with the younger team members – Cannonball, the new guys, and maybe Kitty Pryde. Steve would take the ‘70s X-Men, which would be more active, with a more focused agenda. Cyclops was going to lead that team, with a very clear dream that was different from Xavier’s.”

Kelly also revealed that “Phoenix had started expanding her powers and there were going to be characters who had been watching since the Phoenix saga to see if the Phoenix force would return.”

“It really started to get troubling when the one character Joe and I both wanted in the book, which was Phoenix, (was something) we really fought for and we were basically told, 'No,'” Seagle added.

Enter Alan Davis

“After Kelly and Seagle left X-Men, Bob (Harras) took me aside and asked who I would choose to write it,” Chris Claremont revealed in Comics Creators On X-Men. “I suggested Alan Davis. I remember we asked him to do both books for about six months. That six-month gig turned into two years.”

“Chris Claremont phoned and asked if I’d like to pencil six issues of the X-Men?” Alan Davis recalled in Modern Masters Volume One. “Within about a week and a half of this, I realized there was something going on at Marvel, something political. I still don’t know the full story. It was between Joe Kelly and Mark Powers, and I think Steven Seagle was involved, but I didn’t really have anything to do with him. Only a few weeks after beginning pencilling, Mark Powers phoned and said Joe Kelly and Steven Seagle had quit and asked if I’d help out by plotting the next issue. I said I would and sent a plot in. Mark phoned and said they really liked the plot, and would I plot Uncanny as well? So, I said okay, and then it was, “Can you plot next month’s as well?” I said there was no way I could manage to do the dialogue, so I just continued pencilling one and plotting both X-Men titles and suddenly 18 months had passed, and I’d pencilled 11 issues and plotted 24 or more. I had sorted out all of the continuity stuff Mark had wanted so all the titles could be integrated – but there were a lot of new writers resisting the new line. More politics!”

“Mark Powers gave me lists of characters and events that had to be introduced or resolved to tie in with other titles,” Alan Davis added. “It was complicated because the other editors and writers didn’t want to play ball. It got very messy. Working on X-Men was my most “professional” writing, in that I was problem-solving rather than coming up with ideas that I would have chosen.”

One of the things Mark Powers wanted solved was the Legacy Virus. "Events such as the return of Stryfe will dictate that by mid-1999, the Legacy Virus will be stopped," it was reported in X-Men Universe: Past, Present and Future. "We're playing with the idea that a possible cure will involve DNA and maybe even Cable having to sacrifice himself," Powers told the magazine. "Of course, Nate Grey also comes into play there, so we'll see what happens." However, nothing happened regarding the Legacy Virus during Alan Davis' run, but when it did happen in Uncanny X-Men #390 written by Scott Lobdell in 2001, it would be Colossus who sacrificed himself with neither Cable or X-Man involved.

Although Alan Davis solved a few old subplots during his run, like who Joseph was and who the Twelve were, he also left a new one himself: In X-Men vol. 2 #87, his new villainous character Astra let Nightcrawler know in German that she knew him when he was a child. The scene was akin to the one in Uncanny X-Men #142 with Mystique telling him to ask Margali Szardos who his mother was. Astra disappeared before Nightcrawler could ask her how she had known him and she never appeared again, so her relation to Nightcrawler remains unrevealed.

X-Men characters in Fantastic Four

Meanwhile, Chris Claremont wrote Fantastic Four vol.3 #4-32 and used some X-Men-related characters like Roma, Saturnyne, Charlotte Jones and Margali Szardoz in the book. Claremont would also have liked to use Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat) in Fantastic Four, since Excalibur was getting cancelled anyway. Her role would have been working as Reed Richards’ laboratory assistant – an idea which probably came from Uncanny X-Men #178, wherein Kitty Pryde broke into the Fantastic Four’s headquarters and thought: “I wonder if Dr. Richards’d like an apprentice?”

“The only problem was (X-Men Editor) Mark Powers and the writers of the X-Men books had other plans for her,” Claremont sighed in Wizard #85. “Their wishes take precedence.”

“The problem with carrying over characters and plot elements from previous titles is that the editors involved – of both the prior and the current titles – may have other ideas, as might the writer(s) who came after,” Claremont told Cinescape.com in 2001. “Folks complained when I used X-Men elements in the (Fantastic Four), complained again when FF elements showed up in the X-Men. Thing is, everyone has their turf and protects it with a vengeance. Sigh!”

Fantastic Four entered the top ten of Preview’s Top 100 list of best-selling comics when Claremont wrote the book, but he was still fired from writing Fantastic Four when he agreed to return to writing both Uncanny X-Men and X-Men vol. 2 in 2000. “I made my decision to return to Marvel, and ultimately to the X-Men for the same reason that I decided to leave in 1991,” Claremont stated to Dynamicforces.com in 2003, “because it felt like the right thing to do.”

Sources:

James Busbee: Danger Room, Wizard #90, February 1999

Tom Defalco: Comics Creators On X-Men, April 2006

Chris Hutchins: Chis Claremont, Wizard #85, September 1998

Richard Johnston: Waiting For Tommy, Dynamicforces.com, 2003

Christopher Lawrence: Chris Claremont, Wizard #103, April 2000

Eric J. Moreels: Claremont Talks New X-Title, Cinescape.com, 24 January 2001

Eric Nolen-Weathington: Modern Masters Volume One – Alan Davis, April 2003
Robert Piotrowski: X-Men Universe: Past, Present and Future, February 1999

Matthew Senreich: Team X-Men, Wizard #79, March 1998

Post-Age of Apocalypse

Was Cable or Stryfe the clone, and who had the cure for the Legacy Virus?

John Romita Jr. made a spectacular return as the artist of Uncanny X-Men starting with issue 300 in 1993. However, his return was fairly short-lived, ending with #311 in 1994. “After I got on the X-Men, then I got screwed off of it again by a guy named Kelly Corvese,” Romita Jr. revealed in Modern Masters vol. 18. “They asked me to do the Punisher/Batman crossover, so I asked for one month off of X-Men to do the Punisher/Batman. They gave it to me, and then they wouldn’t let me back on because (artist) Joe Madureira was discovered.”

“(Editor) Bob Harras was pleasant to me up front, and then didn’t like my work behind my back,” Romita Jr. explained. “He didn’t want to cause trouble at the company, so he let me work without telling me he wasn’t thrilled with my work, and I was kept off of a lot of books, and I was screwed out of doing the X-Men by (assistant editor) Kelly Corvese when Bob Harras should have done the right thing, and he didn’t.”

Abandoned plots

In 1993, the X-Men books were littered with new plot twists and a few of them were abandoned before reaching any resolution. In X-Men vol. 2 #23, writer Fabian Nicieza had the villain Mr. Sinister mention Cyclops’ “brothers” by a slip of the tongue. Cyclops only knew about his brother Havok. Was there another or even more? It was suggested in X-Men vol. 2 #39 that Adam X, the Extreme was the third Summers brother, but that wasn’t confirmed until X-Men Legends #1 and 2 in 2021 when Fabian Nicieza revisited his X-Men run and the Adam X character he created in X-Force Annual #2 in 1993. Meanwhile, another “third Summers brother”, Vulcan, had been created in the 2006 X-Men: Deadly Genesis limited series by writer Ed Brubaker.

In 1993, the Stryfe’s Strike File one-shot introduced another new character named Holocaust: “Hero? Villain? Anarchist? How does one classify a mutant who dares to frustrate the Upstarts at dawn, singlehandedly destroys a Sentinel-processing plant at noon, and attempts to slay the X-Men at dusk?” it was asked. “He does not speak, his thoughts are cloaked (…) and his mutant powers seem to adapt to any given situation.”

However, Holocaust never appeared in the X-Men books, but a different-looking, alternate universe version of him was introduced in the 1995 Age Of Apocalypse crossover. “We know Holocaust had a human form and something happened for him to need the crystal armor,” Uncanny X-Men writer Scott Lobdell told Hero Illustrated in 1995. “Theoretically he could be the janitor at the high school and you wouldn’t know it.”

Another character that never appeared was the new Hellfire Club leader Shinobi Shaw’s mother despite an introductory mention by writer Fabian Nicieza in X-Men vol.2 #22.

Also, in X-Factor Annual #9 in 1994, writer J.M. DeMatteis had the villain Haven resurrect his character Professor Power so he could go after Professor X, but other than DeMatteis, no other writers have ever touched Professor Power, so he never appeared again after DeMatteis stopped writing X-Factor that same year.

In Uncanny X-Men #299 from 1993, writer Scott Lobdell introduced a telepathic mutant in the employ of anti-mutant legislator Senator Robert Kelly, but readers never found out if that was a good or a bad thing. He appeared again in Uncanny X-Men #322 and 323 in 1995, thinking about dark days about to dawn, and then it was revealed in Wolverine vol. 2 #95 written by Larry Hama that he was an agent of the interdimensional trading firm Landau, Luckman and Lake. His name was Noah and in the pages of Wolverine, he had worked with colleague Zoe Culloden on another project, keeping track of Wolverine. But besides a cameo appearance in X-Men vol.2 #51 in 1996 that was the last that was seen of him.

A cure for the Legacy Virus?

In X-Factor #68 from 1991, Scott Summers (Cyclops) had to send his son, Nathan, into the future to save the boy from a techno-organic virus infection. Then, in 1992/1993, the X-Men line of books featured a crossover entitled X-Cutioner’s Song, which featured the villain Stryfe. It was suggested that Stryfe was the adult Nathan come back from the future to torment his parents for deserting him and that Cable was a clone of Stryfe.

“When the Cable character was first created, it was decided that he was to be the clone of the child that got sent to the future; the son of Scott (Summers, Cyclops) and Madelyne Pryor,” Uncanny X-Men writer Scott Lobdell confirmed in Comics Creators On X-Men. “The actual son became Stryfe, who grew up to do horrible, horrible things, and his clone was Cable.”

“I remember calling (editor) Bob (Harras) up and saying, “If Scott sent this kid into the future and this kid becomes a raving mass murderer, that kind of suggests that Scott is partially responsible for turning his son into this horrific creature.” However, if Cable was the real son, the clone then becomes the flawed version that went off and did those horrible things.”

And so it was revealed in Cable #6-8 in 1993/1994 that it was Cable who was actually Nathan and that Stryfe was the clone of Nathan.

The X-Cutioner’s Song crossover ended with Stryfe unleashing the deadly Legacy Virus on mutantkind. Then, in Excalibur #80, plotted by Scott Lobdell in 1994, Stryfe granted his rebellious servant droid, Zero, full awareness, including full access to data that might lead to a cure for the virus. However, Zero was destroyed, but not before downloading the data into the technorganic being, Douglock. In Excalibur #98, written by Warren Ellis in 1996, Douglock was captured by the secret government organization Black Air, and their technicians extracted the information from him, but never did anything with it. Then writer Ben Raab had Douglock believe he still had the information buried inside in Excalibur #120 in 1998, but this wasn't followed up upon before Excalibur got cancelled with #125.

No-show characters

In 1995, the X-Men books featured the Age Of Apocalypse crossover set in an alternate reality. When things returned to the normal Marvel Universe, plans were afoot for a few changes in the books’ character line-ups.

“We’ve dissolved the concept of Blue team and Gold team,” Scott Lobdell told Hero Illustrated. “Uncanny X-Men and X-Men will both be working with the whole cast. While the stories will still be grounded within the individual books, the subplots will be weaving much, much tighter between the two.”

“Northstar may end up joining the X-Men,” Scott Lobdell told Wizard #41. “He’s one of the new candidates.” Asked if he would pick up the issue of Northstar being gay, Lobdell answered: “If he appears in the book, yes. I don’t think it would be fair to introduce him into the book and not explore every facet of the character.”

But Northstar did not join the X-Men at this point and the changes planned for X-Factor didn’t happen either. In The Age Of Apocalypse Universe, the series introduced a pair of twin mutants, Jesse and Terry Bedlam, called The Bedlam Brothers. Editor Kelly Corvese announced in Wizard #41 that the regular Marvel Universe version of one of the twin characters from The Age Of Apocalypse was coming on board. It would be X-Factor’s first non-Caucasian character. The Age Of Apocalypse version of the new character had a twin brother in his universe, but the version in the regular universe would not have a brother.

During The Age Of Apocalypse, one of the twin brothers was supposed to die and then the other twin would come to the regular Marvel Universe, meaning that two of the same character – the Age Of Apocalypse version, who just lost his twin brother, and the version in the Marvel Universe – would be existing at the same time in the same universe. However, none of the Bedlam Brothers died or made it to the regular universe, but the character idea was in used in 1998 in X-Force #82, where the Marvel Universe version of Jesse Aaronson (Bedlam) joined the team.

Writer Fabian Nicieza left the X-universe in 1995, citing differences with editor Bob Harras. “It wasn’t that specific comic book issues,” Nicieza revealed to Near Mint Condition in 2024. “It was just about issues of management and how to handle creative people and how to stick to a plan once you have a plan – all of that stuff. (...) It was a lot of other management related stuff that bothered me and made working on the book difficult. Ultimately, I like and respect Bob a lot, it really boils down to: His editing method is not conducive to my writing method and my writing method was not conducive to his editing preference. That’s all. It just took us three years plus to get to the point where we just said, ‘We’ve tried a long time. Enough is enough. Now is it’” Nicieza’s last issues would be X-Men vol. 2 #45 and X-Force #43.

Thoughts on X-Men popularity

“It’s interesting to note that (The X-Men) weren’t popular at all during the ‘60s,” comic book writer Mark Millar speculated in Comics Creators On X-Men in 2006. “However, Len Wein and Dave Cockrum’s revamp just seemed to capture the zeitgeist and Chris (Claremont) and John (Byrne) took the whole thing to a new level when they did a few years on the book.”

“Creatively, the book was close to perfect and even when it wasn’t, in the ‘90s, the momentum from the ‘80s was so strong that it took five years before people realized they weren’t enjoying it after Claremont left. (…) I don’t know if it’s possible to recapture the excitement of the Claremont era – it might just be unique to Chris.”

“It’s been four years and the book has evolved in a vastly different direction,” Claremont noted in Wizard #51. “Characters have evolved in different directions; they build their own audiences. If I came back, I would either have to tap into storylines, characters and approaches that I am not comfortable with or I would have to set in motion a storyline to take the book to what I was comfortable with, which would mean invalidating huge chunks of continuity.”

“You have a lot of fans out there who enjoy the book as it is now. I would feel wrong coming in and just saying to them, “Well, screw you. This is my stuff. I am imposing my interpretation back on the X-Men. I am going back to the way I thought it was cool.””

“You don’t do something for 18 years of your life, you don’t stay associated with a company for your entire working life, without missing it one way or another,” Claremont admitted in Comics Focus #1. “Of course I miss it.”

Sources:

Comics Focus #1, June 1996

Tom DeFalco: Comics Creators On X-Men, April 2006

Chris Golden: X-Men – A Post-Apocalyptic Future, Hero Illustrated 1995

George Khoury & Eric Nolen-Weathington: John Romita Jr., Modern Masters Vol. 18, July 2008

Clifford Lawrence: After Xavier…, Wizard #41, January 1995

Jim Lee: Dynamic Duo, Wizard #51, November 1995

Near Mint Condition: Fabian Nicieza Interview!, YouTube, 8 January 2024