tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51089287703172340182024-03-15T08:37:22.042-07:00Secrets Behind The X-MenThis blog presents a series of articles that deal with secrets behind the creation of the classic Uncanny X-Men comic book stories, as well as all the unresolved plot-lines from the series.Scififilmnerdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13068646164385257711noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5108928770317234018.post-90929748745527131512012-08-30T08:40:00.001-07:002012-08-30T08:40:44.974-07:00Taking the X-Men to the extreme<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Legendary X-Men writer Chris Claremont continued writing about the X-Men in X-Treme X-Men before wrapping up his long association with the mutants with a third run on Uncanny X-Men and a few spin-off books.<o:p></o:p></span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">When Chris Claremont was removed as writer of Uncanny X-Men and X-Men vol.2 by new Editor-In-Chief of Marvel, Joe Quesada, in 2001, they talked about what Claremont could write instead. “One of Chris’ wishes was to write X-Men that wouldn’t be impaired by the ever-present continuity, or intertwining with all the other adventures of all the X-books,” Quesada told Wizard #111. “We said, “Chris has a good point, and he’s got some good ideas about it – let’s go with that.” We took him out of a situation where he’s having a hard time, and gave him a situation where he’s gonna flourish.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Joe’s original thought was to give (writer) Grant Morrison one X-Men book and me the other,” Claremont revealed in Comics Creators On X-Men. “Then he asked me what would I like to do if I had my choice. I said I’d like to do X-Men under the Marvel Knights imprint, which was more out of continuity, out of the mainstream. That way I could do what I want and not have to worry about playing nice with the other writers. The next thing I knew I was on X-Treme (X-Men). We divied up the characters between the three books and that seemed pretty fair.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“When I started working on X-Treme X-Men the core team was two original cast, two new cast, two second generation cast. Storm, Beast, Sage, Bishop, Rogue and Psylocke,” Claremont told Newsarama.com.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Grant, in his manifesto, specified which characters he wanted,” Claremont continued in Comics Creators On X-Men. “I went up to Matt Hicks, who was my editor, and sat down and blocked out the first year and it was great. My contract specified I did two books a month, but I only had X-Treme so I wrote two issues a month and got really far ahead.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I did a year’s advance worth of stories built around the Beast,” Claremont revealed to Newsarama.com. “Only to discover that Beast had been pulled from my cast and handed over to Grant Morrison’s cast (in New X-Men). That meant rewriting an entire year’s worth of stories, which was a pain in the neck. Some stories had to go in one direction, some stories had to be postponed and others pulled completely. It changed the entire timeline. (…) So even when your plans are totally meticulous, there is always the unexpected to be factored in.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The Beast stayed in our first arc because Salvador Larroca had already drawn it,” Claremont told Comics Creators On X-Men, “but I had to rewrite everything else. So suddenly, the Savage Land arc, which was all about the Beast, became all about Storm.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">No resolutions<o:p></o:p></span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Claremont revealed on his Cordially Chris forum in 2003 that in his original story-arcs for X-Treme X-Men – the ones that included Beast – he also had plans for Forge, Dani (Moonstar), Rahne (Sinclair) and Rachel (Summers), but with the subsequent changes in editors and development of story-arcs, they were dealt out of the cards.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">When Claremont started writing X-Treme X-Men, he didn’t give much hope to readers about seeing the characters he introduced during his short stint on Uncanny X-Men<b> </b>and X-Men vol.2 in 2000 and 2001 in the new series, nor resolutions to the unresolved plots he had to leave behind. “Much as I would prefer otherwise,” he lamented to Cinescape.com.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Partly there’s a parochial desire to keep characters within the Canon were they were created,” he explained. “Partly a perception (in-house and in the marketplace, justified or not) that I have a tendency to strip-mine my own characters and continuity. Partly, a perception in-house that the characters created by me for the FF and the X-Men weren’t that interesting. Hence, the enthusiasm with which the concepts have been bastardised or outright excised from the books.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“But from my own perspective, I wont be using them, at least for the first publishing year, because there isn’t room. Too many characters already, too much to do,” he concluded, but added: “If we last longer than a year, then we’ll see.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Characters introduced during Claremont’s second stint on the main X-Men books began to appear during X-Treme X-Men’s third year, among them the villains Revenant, Manacle, Bludgeon and Cudgel from Uncanny X-Men #383.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzV3xmD3HMh3W4yGuqO4nDbXMFM7wpn79mRXsMhy-1myT93CPI8WfBL4cqsN2t07paBeQJGgZd0nl3sbEx0_y7De6QZy9vjsN_gEqNXKhkOixypfJfnVFoFQ8kCFH6PsPaDKmHrxv9Ledw/s1600/Claremont+11.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fea="true" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzV3xmD3HMh3W4yGuqO4nDbXMFM7wpn79mRXsMhy-1myT93CPI8WfBL4cqsN2t07paBeQJGgZd0nl3sbEx0_y7De6QZy9vjsN_gEqNXKhkOixypfJfnVFoFQ8kCFH6PsPaDKmHrxv9Ledw/s400/Claremont+11.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">No Shi’ar story<o:p></o:p></span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In an interview in the back of X-Treme X-Men #1, 2001, Claremont was asked where the team would be going, and he answered with a question: “Shi’ar space?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Then, in X-Treme X-Men #10, 2002, Sage was looking at a prediction from one of Destiny’s Diaries that had a picture of Storm, Bishop, Thunderbird and Lifeguard facing off against Deathbird alongside a text about Lifeguard: “Earth shall be her home, the stars her destination. Mothered by War, her Father’s her Salvation. The price of Xavier’s Dream shall be the Ancient Aerie’s FALL.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">This plot was developed further in X-Treme X-Men #14, when it was revealed that Lifeguard’s mother was Shi’ar royalty. So her “war(ring)” nature was caused by her Shi’ar genes and her “salvation” was her humanity inherited from her human father. Was it possible that her mother was actually Deathbird who spent many years in exile on Earth prior to her debut appearance in Ms. Marvel #9 in 1977, or was her mother the sister Deathbird claimed to have killed in Ms. Marvel #10?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">But before the answer, and the fall of the “Ancient<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Aerie” (the Shi’ar Empire), came about, Lifeguard and Thunderbird left the X-Men in X-Treme X-Men #19, 2002, to go search for Lifeguard’s brother, Slipstream, and a cameo appearance in Excalibur vol.3 #5 in 2004 aside, they never appeared again, despite Claremont’s assurance to X-mencomics.com that readers of X-Treme X-Men hadn’t seen the last of Thunderbird and Lifeguard. “I have plans to resolve the situation with those characters,” he said.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“For whatever reason - and the writing/writer has to take his own share of responsibility – (Thunderbird) never seemed to gel with the readers (in X-Men vol.2),” Claremont<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>told Comicon.com. “So I tried a second time with Neal (Shaara, Thunderbird) in X-Treme (X-Men), didn’t seem to work there, either. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Delhi Dimwit” was a particularly memorable description of him on-line. With character-designs, it’s always hard to tell - what works in concept may not travel to execution. Sometimes that can be fixed, others you just have to take your lumps and move on.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“A character may crash and burn, as Neal Shaara did, suggesting we not emphasize him, unduly in future,” Claremont concluded to Newsarama.com.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In 2003, Claremont confirmed on his Cordially Chris-forum that he did have plans for the villain Vargas to re-appear, too, but that didn’t happen, either. He explained that any plan he had was dependent on editorial approval, and that had become an increasingly difficult thing to achieve in the last few years. “If (editor) Mike Marts and I decide to pursue the Shi’ar story arc, then we’ll let you guys know when it’s a done deal. Same goes for Hecate.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In 2004, Claremont wrote the out of continuity X-Men: The End Book One – Dreamers & Demons mini-series in which the prediction from Destiny’s Diary was now about another character, Aliyah Bishop, instead. Also in that series, Slipstream had become a villain and Vargas a hero.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6iDCUrlbJhhkTKgEYTQi_lLpvR7QmBBpyEqVya1VWbCN51ubUSWArkA-kGTlQOlhyzQt03osdXa-0GnIVVpx-wxce0HimIFoKlohGBvGaDUyHaKQVy3Ae0zWtcHamYQG2f9Z9p180Y5fz/s1600/Claremont+12.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fea="true" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6iDCUrlbJhhkTKgEYTQi_lLpvR7QmBBpyEqVya1VWbCN51ubUSWArkA-kGTlQOlhyzQt03osdXa-0GnIVVpx-wxce0HimIFoKlohGBvGaDUyHaKQVy3Ae0zWtcHamYQG2f9Z9p180Y5fz/s400/Claremont+12.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">No Mekanix ongoing<o:p></o:p></span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Claremont revealed to Cinescape.com in April 2001 that he had a mini-series starring Storm in the works. When it ended up not happening, the story for the Storm mini-series became the 2004 X-Treme X-Men #36-39 story arc instead.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In 2002, another mini-series entitled Mekanix did appear. It starred Kitty Pryde, Karma and a new character, Shola Inkosi. However, Mekanix was intended as an ongoing series, but Claremont revealed on his Cordially Chris-forum that it didn’t have enough readers to continue. He said that as things looked in 2003, Mekanix would end following its six-issue test-run and that he had plans for Kitty (Pryde), but it hadn’t been decided yet if he would have the opportunity to include the rest of her Mekanix cast. Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat) ended up appearing in X-Treme X-Men and Shola Inkosi re-appeared in the 2004 Excalibur vol.3 series.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Mekanix #6, 2003, the mutant-hating Purity organization member Alice Tremaine began to repair a small mutant-killing Sentinel back to operating capacity and was seen still working on it in X-Treme X-Men #33 that same year, but although Alice Tremaine later appeared in Uncanny X-Men #449, 2004, and in the 2005-2006 X-Men: The End series also written by Claremont, her pet Sentinel was never seen again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJxLM536rNqEbIiNFbY8yTtk4rGNNNWLwuHayqCCuuKlrJxBhQn4hyphenhyphens-RLBTfkJXFIEAXz85fdpPvZ_11lCCreIq2u11-YzJwgGkQrpGn7CoNjgdvzDNHnTKcDhlgJm1kDZ1op7loeMn8K/s1600/Claremont+13.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fea="true" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJxLM536rNqEbIiNFbY8yTtk4rGNNNWLwuHayqCCuuKlrJxBhQn4hyphenhyphens-RLBTfkJXFIEAXz85fdpPvZ_11lCCreIq2u11-YzJwgGkQrpGn7CoNjgdvzDNHnTKcDhlgJm1kDZ1op7loeMn8K/s400/Claremont+13.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Stories in queue for X-Treme X-Men<o:p></o:p></span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In X-Treme X-Men #31, 2003, a female Genoshan mutant from a refugee camp in East Africa killed some soldiers who had murdered people from Doctors Without Frontiers. Apparently this was the beginning of a new storyline, but besides a quick reminder of the Genoshan mutant’s existence in X-Treme X-Men #33, nothing was seen of her again.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVFJV3UXRMWbQiKQnrazggeiVWpATrnTkgLETZOEx1TDxKKvUmurHQ8MxwvSqszTxSTCCTznlwVdfgUZOdKSX8BY-q88D4tZOCiddYvrpNdel0IIkbhuemVC0ZDZKfth1rJIl-j3Ihmr6m/s1600/Claremont+14.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fea="true" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVFJV3UXRMWbQiKQnrazggeiVWpATrnTkgLETZOEx1TDxKKvUmurHQ8MxwvSqszTxSTCCTznlwVdfgUZOdKSX8BY-q88D4tZOCiddYvrpNdel0IIkbhuemVC0ZDZKfth1rJIl-j3Ihmr6m/s400/Claremont+14.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“In certain cases what looks like a dangling plotline may actually be, stuff came in and got in the way,” Claremont said to Newsarama.com. “It had to wait until a queue opened up so to speak.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In 2003, Claremont told X-mencomics.com about two story-arcs in queue for X-Treme X-Men: “Following “Intifada” (in X-Treme X-Men #31-35) was originally meant to be a four-part high adventure, as the X-Treme team visits a country in Central Asia that has been taken over and is now wholly ruled by a quartet of mutants, in their variation of the classic Rudyard Kipling story, “The Man Who Would Be King”. It’s meant to be fun, stealing liberally from the Arabian Knights, the work of H. Rider Haggard and just about every swash & buckle Hollywood epic ever imagined.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“That’s the set-up for what was intended as the keystone arc for this “season”: “Sixteen Million,” Claremont continued. “The premise here is utterly simple. Sixteen million people died when Cassandra Nova’s uber-Sentinel annihilated Genosha. Now, a group of survivors – ordinary citizens of that country, some mutant, some not – have banded together to exact what they consider is appropriate (and Biblical) retribution on the world at large that stood by and allowed their country, their friends, their families to be murdered. In all the time that’s passed since that terrible event, no one has been publicly and legally brought to account for that crime against humanity, and for all these people know it could happen again, anytime, anywhere, to any group of mutants seeking to build a decent life and homeland for themselves. They don’t consider this terrorism – terrorism was what was done to them in the first place, they consider it justice. Eye for eye, life for life.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“It’s never been publicly revealed that Cassandra Nova was responsible,” Claremont continued in Wizard’s X-Men Special 2003. “There’s a growing belief among the mutant community that baseline humans are responsible for Genosha – and they want payback.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The precursor arc to “16 Million” has the title “Kill Charley,”” Claremont revealed on his Cordially Chris forum. “”Kill Charley” is an echo of Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill.””<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgskpJmI5a0Yhys0YkAtUDe-qaqdJB14l4XqMFyaDocEiy0_rZpVnuLaFRNVnl7YPMbUQblw5-_6NFlcwPyAteaU8Db1JNEVDhGSV7Y8rFIFM9YjvVzbhbAUHJgY4VFoLEwtPx8WUEPCq0X/s1600/Claremont+10.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fea="true" height="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgskpJmI5a0Yhys0YkAtUDe-qaqdJB14l4XqMFyaDocEiy0_rZpVnuLaFRNVnl7YPMbUQblw5-_6NFlcwPyAteaU8Db1JNEVDhGSV7Y8rFIFM9YjvVzbhbAUHJgY4VFoLEwtPx8WUEPCq0X/s400/Claremont+10.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The mysteries of Magma and Selene<o:p></o:p></span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Instead of ”Kill Charley” and ”Sixteen Million”, story-arcs entitled “Storm: The Arena” and “Prisoner of Fire” followed “Intifada”, and in X-Treme X-Men #45 Magma was confronted with the first Lord Imperial of the Hellfire Club, Elias Bogan, having a connection to her parents. It was never explained how, because the series was cancelled with #46 in 2004, and Bogan never appeared again in any X-Men book.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">While Chris Claremont wasn’t writing the X-Men from 1991 to 2000, other writers had postulated that Magma was actually a girl named Allison Crestmere, and that her life as Amara Aquilla in Nova Roma had been a lie fabricated by the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club, Selene. Claremont did away with that nonsense when he started using Magma in X-Treme X-Men, and in #46 Magma now knew that her time as Allison Crestmere had been but a cruel dream intended to steal her away from Nova Roma to torment those who loved her. But it was never revealed who was behind this scheme, although it is possible that it was Selene, who confronted Magma in X-Treme X-Men #45 and was waiting to claim her as a slave.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">As for Selene, she was supposed to be trapped inside the New York Hellfire Club, but she revealed in Uncanny X-Men #454, 2005, also written by Claremont, that she had struck an alliance which secured for her a certain freedom of action, but it was never revealed who that alliance was with.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6cYwPNGCjEb3NRIFQZ9mxdfPE-OSOcn0KHbRk-muFzBrPA3mB-qS8vPIFo6HrG3OtEOFUxYu2_yay6cy6t_85B-4ADfW3EieONZT8jRdhrR-vDqqLimHSipQrc8b4la-2CPFfMv7UuuI4/s1600/Claremont+15.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fea="true" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6cYwPNGCjEb3NRIFQZ9mxdfPE-OSOcn0KHbRk-muFzBrPA3mB-qS8vPIFo6HrG3OtEOFUxYu2_yay6cy6t_85B-4ADfW3EieONZT8jRdhrR-vDqqLimHSipQrc8b4la-2CPFfMv7UuuI4/s400/Claremont+15.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Goodbye to X-Treme X-Men</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In an interview with Newsarama.com in 2003, Claremont looked back on his ups and downs writing the X-Men from he left them in 1991 to leaving X-Treme X-Men: “It’s hard to walk away from something, there are memories, scars, regrets and all the rest of them. But there (were) other things I wanted and needed to do back then and I did them. I got a second chance to come back and do the book three years ago and for various reasons pretty much beyond my control it didn’t work out. On the other hand the last two and (a) half years writing X-Treme X-Men has been a real delight. The opportunity of working on 24 issues with (artist) Salvador Larroca has been wonderful. I have yearnings but no complaints.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">X-Treme X-Men was cancelled despite having stayed among the 20 best selling comic books on Previews Top 100 in order to bring the characters back into the main X-Men books. “It’s bittersweet to bring X-Treme (X-Men) to an end, when it feels like the series was only just getting started and we were in the process of building our momentum through a really exciting series of stories,” Claremont told Newsarama.com.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">With the cancellation of X-Treme X-Men, Chris Claremont was hired on as writer of Uncanny X-Men beginning with #444 in 2004. It was his third run on the title. At the same time, he launched a new Excalibur series.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia4YgESjKPcj53_H-_E5SOEcTbIAufe9XLEo3qZYwa7nI5FiOe4szQaTpyqfZHawDhFYYBND6EVQGaOK8YC58o8lR3u3vbgotAbVeU4rVV5Hdq27X8OZOu1DefTTA4yIfXWXziBRkJxCH3/s1600/Claremont+16.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fea="true" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia4YgESjKPcj53_H-_E5SOEcTbIAufe9XLEo3qZYwa7nI5FiOe4szQaTpyqfZHawDhFYYBND6EVQGaOK8YC58o8lR3u3vbgotAbVeU4rVV5Hdq27X8OZOu1DefTTA4yIfXWXziBRkJxCH3/s400/Claremont+16.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj96-Fu14VnNBMSJ5POCCMjkBPMctVtpZ-gs9-NlUHzJt1x4kCaG3uY7ufufcZHecNiyeiIQFR32woeit1VoPqB0KE-iKBYitu_BizCbvo-R03zSHfLqF0P6mhZ4vO2twYSRIti6zt6d_Q/s1600/Claremont+17.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fea="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj96-Fu14VnNBMSJ5POCCMjkBPMctVtpZ-gs9-NlUHzJt1x4kCaG3uY7ufufcZHecNiyeiIQFR32woeit1VoPqB0KE-iKBYitu_BizCbvo-R03zSHfLqF0P6mhZ4vO2twYSRIti6zt6d_Q/s320/Claremont+17.gif" width="297" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The short-lived Excalibur series<o:p></o:p></span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“With the announcement that X-Treme (X-Men) would be cancelled, (artist) Igor (Kordey) and I were kicking around the idea of what to do next,” Claremont told Newsarama.com about the creation of Excalibur vol.3. “I had some thoughts that had been percolating for some time, that I’d been planning for X-Treme (X-Men), that synergized with the news that Charley (Professor Xavier) would be leaving Uncanny (X-Men) after (writer) Grant (Morrison)’s run.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Igor and I began constructing the world we wanted to create on Genosha, the visual feel for the book, the type of characters who’d live there and the stories we’d tell. We were going great guns,” Claremont continued. “Now, due to circumstances wholly beyond his control, (artist) Aaron Lopresti (who replaced Igor Kordey on Excalibur vol.3) has to play six months worth of pre-production catch-up in half as many weeks, which is a challenge I wouldn’t wish on anyone but one he’s embraced enthusiastically. So, despite all the speed-bumps, I think the book will be off to a great start.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Excalibur vol.3, Professor Xavier went to the ruins of the island nation of Genosha and along with Magneto he gathered a new group of mutants. They had adversaries in a group of mutants led by Unus that included the teleporter Hub. In Excalibur vol.3 #2, 2004, it was revealed that Hub was actually an undercover agent in Unus’ gang. She was secretly working with two other mutants, Hack and Purge, and in Excalibur vol.3 #3 they were revealed to be taking orders from a woman named Chimère. In the following issue, Chimère recalled Hub, Hack and Purge from helping out Excalibur because her plan was more important.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Excalibur vol.3 #6, 2004, Chimère once again told Hub, Hack and Purge not to help out Excalibur because the plan was more important and it would be better for them if Professor Xavier was taken out of the equation. Although Hub appeared as an undercover agent in Unus’ gang again in Excalibur vol.3 #8-10 and reluctantly joined Excalibur on a mission in Excalibur vol.3 #11 and 12, her purpose as an undercover agent and Chimère’s plan was never revealed before Excalibur vol.3 got cancelled with #14 in 2005. Chimère never appeared anywhere.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Achmed Al-Khalad, the leader of the modern-day pirates the Weaponeers, was mentioned in Uncanny X-Men #444 and in Excalibur vol.3 #11, but he never appeared anywhere either.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiygvfL120B0eUEXJL7dHPiX_9WsVb3qLgLGWRAXwhD4P87JJlW9ScWkrhr-2cUJhjIfgkJq7cp2tusCL-ESMHHD80dOeV2qmoKj7F-7xDnb-NGWhEtxDB876BmYegKjSRm8K0_Lb2yhbBl/s1600/Claremont+20.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fea="true" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiygvfL120B0eUEXJL7dHPiX_9WsVb3qLgLGWRAXwhD4P87JJlW9ScWkrhr-2cUJhjIfgkJq7cp2tusCL-ESMHHD80dOeV2qmoKj7F-7xDnb-NGWhEtxDB876BmYegKjSRm8K0_Lb2yhbBl/s400/Claremont+20.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGqrzClvqFBhDjiEXldPpH2Mll-DNN_qJS-X5ZA0pYr-9xCToK0RYaSzvEv0Ub-NSWoVyW2oF4Arf_iZkW6sLWPx4gsnwwoKbLuhNTR9uLMTbbefFMWny-u2pzgXm7BVVRAz_cnbsutu9r/s1600/Claremont+18.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fea="true" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGqrzClvqFBhDjiEXldPpH2Mll-DNN_qJS-X5ZA0pYr-9xCToK0RYaSzvEv0Ub-NSWoVyW2oF4Arf_iZkW6sLWPx4gsnwwoKbLuhNTR9uLMTbbefFMWny-u2pzgXm7BVVRAz_cnbsutu9r/s400/Claremont+18.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mysteries involving Fraser’s Bank<o:p></o:p></span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In 2006, Claremont launched the series New Excalibur, and in #4 and 5 Warwolves attacked the team, but it was never revealed who had hired the Warvolves. In seemingly unrelated events, a couple of murders had taken place in New Excalibur #4, and it was never revealed who was behind those, either.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">One of the victims in New Excalibur #4 was an employee of Fraser’s Bank, and in New Excalibur #1 a team of evil X-Men from another dimension called Shadow-X had chased another employee of Fraser’s Bank. The Shadow King controlled Shadow-X, but it was never revealed why they were chasing the employee of Fraser’s Bank.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">But a subplot concerning the head of Fraser’s Bank and White Queen of the Hellfire Club, Courtney Ross, was also building. In New Excalibur #4, all of her credit cards and her cellular account had inexplicably been cancelled and in New Excalibur #17, 2007, she was forced to sever all connections with Fraser’s Bank by a group of businessmen.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">All of these plots involving Fraser’s Bank never went anywhere before New Excalibur got cancelled with #24 in 2007.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrUn57S15nBf01PLQzaZP6LXHQZ-Tb11jTMTocwrsSW9PiSGrGBagWTYlFE1IY8CNu6419K5eP3hALHq5A9dHhNoF1b9G3qn_9S7LhUeh68vCJNdz7cGFRRg7Aer9DRcgveexgIcIv9l0G/s1600/Claremont+19.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fea="true" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrUn57S15nBf01PLQzaZP6LXHQZ-Tb11jTMTocwrsSW9PiSGrGBagWTYlFE1IY8CNu6419K5eP3hALHq5A9dHhNoF1b9G3qn_9S7LhUeh68vCJNdz7cGFRRg7Aer9DRcgveexgIcIv9l0G/s400/Claremont+19.gif" width="183" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq5_ENoDaOQvM84NhPtUFWwTvwm16S-pIbK025AQsQko9YtqN1n7p3nHC8207TRtGlNRycs_NiG9pNwL0_cA17J_Zg7aePcIvBpamMQmDhCGLhsMNEHUzq8hkMBVTHc8N-tknZqKlANNFm/s1600/Claremont+21.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fea="true" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq5_ENoDaOQvM84NhPtUFWwTvwm16S-pIbK025AQsQko9YtqN1n7p3nHC8207TRtGlNRycs_NiG9pNwL0_cA17J_Zg7aePcIvBpamMQmDhCGLhsMNEHUzq8hkMBVTHc8N-tknZqKlANNFm/s400/Claremont+21.gif" width="293" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Goodbye to the X-Men<o:p></o:p></span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Meanwhile, Claremont had been let go as writer of the X-Men. “I was recently informed that my run will end with Uncanny (X-Men) #474 (in 2006),” Claremont told Comics Creators On X-Men. “Seems Marvel wants to bring on some new writers and change direction. Again.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Claremont left readers with an unresolved plot in the 2008 GeNext mini-series set in the future. Shadow-X kidnapped team-member No-Name because she had information that they needed to prevent the world from being destroyed and dimensions from being destabilized. When No-Name was saved, it was never revealed what the information was Shadow-X wanted, or how the world and dimensions would then be saved, because No-Name wanted to leave it as something she walked away from a long time ago.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“One of the reasons all the stories in the second (GeNext) arc were set in India was because I wanted to see if it was possible to reach out and perhaps appeal to the sub-continental audience,” Claremont admitted to Comicbookresources.com. “If we’d gone to a third series, that would have been set in China; an intentionally global concept if it went forward as an ongoing.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Think about it,” Claremont continued. “You have a whole host of X-Men locked up in North America; enough already, let’s see if we can entice a more international clientele. In a way, this kind of thinking goes back to where we started: Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Dave Cockrum, Len Wein in 1975’s Giant-Size X-Men – with the intentionally international team. It worked then, and it could work now.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“But I have a certain vision for certain characters, and Marvel, for example, is taking their books in a direction that is not simpatico with that vision, so for me it’s easier to focus on other things that are definitely more enjoyable,” Claremont stated.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">So from 2009 to 2011, Claremont wrote the out of continuity X-Men Forever series, which took place in Dimension 161. However, the series was cancelled because of poor sales before a storyline about Mr. Sinister kidnapping Cyclop’s son could be wrapped up, and shortly thereafter Claremont stopped working for Marvel, leaving readers with no hope for resolutions to his many unresolved X-Men plots.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I’ve always liked the characters,” Claremont reminisced on Comicon.com, ”and always, to this day, felt there were stories left to tell. Sometimes I feel like I’ve hardly scratched the surface.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">All the more the pity that Claremont’s long association with the X-Men has now come to an end.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgon5BAnC8eHApFsH78lFDzTKOAMGI3T0rj7EEo6mv-2lcxHZBKZrI-wXKft-svAMoZ4B-En88A-8mmiP1_vynT4I7CsTnqYxnQA9U0Vp4q4aAcHuAvzN8IBToObfV_NwdFW9UVlpjvbQl-/s1600/Claremont+22.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fea="true" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgon5BAnC8eHApFsH78lFDzTKOAMGI3T0rj7EEo6mv-2lcxHZBKZrI-wXKft-svAMoZ4B-En88A-8mmiP1_vynT4I7CsTnqYxnQA9U0Vp4q4aAcHuAvzN8IBToObfV_NwdFW9UVlpjvbQl-/s400/Claremont+22.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbE9fcbWUu1PN-ZoQa1wWK4g-TAGIxOhuYJauiSzaWvxrmMIWRiCwyOnLxwV6c8sUBHwXTpvGf5h8r9Fj0pyMM11Nhj662i6Cm6TRNGi-_ASCW7b1G-J5KwILtxfxIcg2-D6KBuLfh7n94/s1600/Claremont+23.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fea="true" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbE9fcbWUu1PN-ZoQa1wWK4g-TAGIxOhuYJauiSzaWvxrmMIWRiCwyOnLxwV6c8sUBHwXTpvGf5h8r9Fj0pyMM11Nhj662i6Cm6TRNGi-_ASCW7b1G-J5KwILtxfxIcg2-D6KBuLfh7n94/s400/Claremont+23.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><strong>Sources:<o:p></o:p></strong></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Chris Arrant: Chris Claremont Talks About The Future, Comicbookresources.com, 2 January 2012<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Jennifer M. Contino: Claremont To The X-Treme, Comicon.com, 27 December 2002<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Jennifer M. Contino: Chris Claremont Pt 1, Comicon.com, 28 January 2005<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Cordially Chris, Comixfan.com/xfan, 12 August 2003, 27 March 2004 and 4 April 2004<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tom DeFalco: Comics Creators On X-Men, April 2006<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Daniel Robert Epstein: Claremont_X2, Newsarama.com, 2003<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Richard Ho: X-tra X-tra!, Wizard’s X-Men Special, 2003<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Benjamin Ong Pang Kean: Back In The Saddle Again, Newsarama.com, 2004<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Christopher Lawrence: The Wizard Q&A – Joe Quesada, Wizard #111, December 2000<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Eric J. Moreels: Claremont Talks X-Treme Down Under, Cinescape.com, 22 April 2001<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Eric J. Moreels: Claremont Talks X-Treme “Schism”, X-mencomics.com/xfan, 21 December 2002<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Eric J. Moreels: Claremont’s “X-Treme” Plans, X-mencomics.com/xfan, 2003<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Your Man @ Marvel: Claremont Gets X-Treme!, X-Treme X-Men #1, July 2001<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
Scififilmnerdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13068646164385257711noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5108928770317234018.post-80573821791143772892012-08-02T08:35:00.000-07:002012-08-02T09:54:25.569-07:00Forbidden tales of the X-Men<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-zev06ZvlvefSpqE8jMZAH7LH2mRhT0GqPBLNYSjrI3zjyBoQqUGIks7T5BCoc9T52heYrPqZBS-6fpilemhegVSf_0hLyrJNtOnuUqs6Kqa2BqvI0DmhZA13X7rM-Jbag9hkLCyQTbRd/s1600/Claremont+1.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" eda="true" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-zev06ZvlvefSpqE8jMZAH7LH2mRhT0GqPBLNYSjrI3zjyBoQqUGIks7T5BCoc9T52heYrPqZBS-6fpilemhegVSf_0hLyrJNtOnuUqs6Kqa2BqvI0DmhZA13X7rM-Jbag9hkLCyQTbRd/s640/Claremont+1.gif" width="412" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I wrote the book for 17 years, and (early 20<sup>th</sup>-century author) Thomas Wolfe’s dictum about not being able to go home again looms very large over a circumstance like that,” Claremont continued. “Everybody has an opinion, everybody has expectations, so there’s a lot more attention and pressure on this gig than there was in 1975.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Quesada chose to remove Chris Claremont from Uncanny X-Men and X-Men vol.2 after only 10 months back as their writer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;">What went wrong</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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. </span>Hence, the changes that were made.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></h3>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Psylocke and Phoenix power switch<o:p></o:p></span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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. </span>The ball’s now in his court.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“If I ever get my hands on Jean again, ” Claremont added in Back Issue #4, “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.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrv8TKoz_RtJeSQczxGHcttbxmtvQPQa5DrvSEBn0oyX4OXPhyvPlueBiw7_uKnjYWLkuFBOjt-8n__E-1Ki6IYPJX85XuM94p3Cv_YudcKN547cSY5kYmkdi6g7p_4HfiKP0BOUjEG6yG/s1600/Claremont+0.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" eda="true" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrv8TKoz_RtJeSQczxGHcttbxmtvQPQa5DrvSEBn0oyX4OXPhyvPlueBiw7_uKnjYWLkuFBOjt-8n__E-1Ki6IYPJX85XuM94p3Cv_YudcKN547cSY5kYmkdi6g7p_4HfiKP0BOUjEG6yG/s400/Claremont+0.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Aborted romance and dead Neo<o:p></o:p></span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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).”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“And, unfortunately, the outcome’s not gonna be as clear cut as everyone expected.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"></span> </h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieAU2VZaMCQtAaR1vkaUYj-31pDnOY6QQ66jaYVRgKpGHObv10LhANTonLw2R2pRo3peNapIiIQEvjwo7P1Cx-NKr9xpFXciPBzv_mHybuLiiOv6NcpiPSWjONxqqV9fF8RH1wZwjgNW9L/s1600/Claremont+4.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" eda="true" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieAU2VZaMCQtAaR1vkaUYj-31pDnOY6QQ66jaYVRgKpGHObv10LhANTonLw2R2pRo3peNapIiIQEvjwo7P1Cx-NKr9xpFXciPBzv_mHybuLiiOv6NcpiPSWjONxqqV9fF8RH1wZwjgNW9L/s640/Claremont+4.gif" width="490" /></a></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span> </h3>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Shadowcat’s untold destiny<o:p></o:p></span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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).”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiItU9DdZEoHvQGgODxk_yjL94BW07ivq-Uqj0_3HZSR3Lz0mypQgsGnX4_w-RiBGcrRXekHWb784QDjbEgBqZiHHXT-TUWwOrCgU7U-5-i3JqSasm_Jkrh52tDhCkx9Xov7gPtGdPV0Lbq/s1600/Claremont+5.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" eda="true" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiItU9DdZEoHvQGgODxk_yjL94BW07ivq-Uqj0_3HZSR3Lz0mypQgsGnX4_w-RiBGcrRXekHWb784QDjbEgBqZiHHXT-TUWwOrCgU7U-5-i3JqSasm_Jkrh52tDhCkx9Xov7gPtGdPV0Lbq/s400/Claremont+5.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nightcrawler and Mystique’s relationship<o:p></o:p></span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8so2i495b3h44o1_x5NNIfzAjLHPOOnxCom-KYZXpSnk6P5fIvbpn9RkWjP_mn3iIVotecEXP0IN5-qV-R7-5ZyKnB8icYCO0gEXDE3rPVK6JE5TsZYfoanJz7MTNhLTw-6L7E-J16jwa/s1600/Claremont+9.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" eda="true" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8so2i495b3h44o1_x5NNIfzAjLHPOOnxCom-KYZXpSnk6P5fIvbpn9RkWjP_mn3iIVotecEXP0IN5-qV-R7-5ZyKnB8icYCO0gEXDE3rPVK6JE5TsZYfoanJz7MTNhLTw-6L7E-J16jwa/s400/Claremont+9.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">X-Men: Year Zero<o:p></o:p></span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoBodyText3" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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).</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText3" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText3" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText3" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Professor Xavier’s first meeting with Sage was instead incorporated into X-Treme X-Men #44 in 2004.</span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirzQBsP2xv37j45D24f8PKoqU8sTCQPWn31_Bueq6yylwMWT7dtd22VJL75l80l5KA8kfl5QcJggPXD8eHMFeTPMGuXRfdYUDgowya8Cei2-eStQKDH6FMijsQecToqoMC-hIt-M9MGFPD/s1600/Claremont+3.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" eda="true" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirzQBsP2xv37j45D24f8PKoqU8sTCQPWn31_Bueq6yylwMWT7dtd22VJL75l80l5KA8kfl5QcJggPXD8eHMFeTPMGuXRfdYUDgowya8Cei2-eStQKDH6FMijsQecToqoMC-hIt-M9MGFPD/s400/Claremont+3.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cross-Time X-Men<o:p></o:p></span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhm290D13Xp848a1lyv2UqXm6MvM5d1_wMn-EKUdT_waVxaijtrv8xR3GQYdPO7L1GrglOlMl8Mu_85RT5XSI7R3Wtf87blAEYXTIaMEirfbKbbHonsSZz8CJBhQ6UAVYbcdhpoGMjH4QR/s1600/Claremont+8.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" eda="true" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhm290D13Xp848a1lyv2UqXm6MvM5d1_wMn-EKUdT_waVxaijtrv8xR3GQYdPO7L1GrglOlMl8Mu_85RT5XSI7R3Wtf87blAEYXTIaMEirfbKbbHonsSZz8CJBhQ6UAVYbcdhpoGMjH4QR/s400/Claremont+8.gif" width="382" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Summers family reunion<o:p></o:p></span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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. </span>Or less. <span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">And some of them may surprise you.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDqXhBIGFGfdpeNyKRk-1ZiiTV1bbBMttcCpadMmuq5200QCE3WkcN7wSwi5yys5xcUOwPsOEFy9T5dKbR_94dzHGYK4-qgrgjhVHUkfQgi2dHMsTAztvIFSK2dYIUfYcuHIx0rEELm8l_/s1600/Claremont+6.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" eda="true" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDqXhBIGFGfdpeNyKRk-1ZiiTV1bbBMttcCpadMmuq5200QCE3WkcN7wSwi5yys5xcUOwPsOEFy9T5dKbR_94dzHGYK4-qgrgjhVHUkfQgi2dHMsTAztvIFSK2dYIUfYcuHIx0rEELm8l_/s400/Claremont+6.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Stryfe’s X-Men</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I thought it would be fun, but editorially it didn’t fly.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrHSgnD9FxQin20hdhXlMfUQdLMpHY4IDKauioIEOYS87It77R4932ksxhJ9kizRqfcCJw02hrymD8BZWCYXa3Y9mUOssxZyNYZ1bHcg-R2N5zO0R3Bfjgu55m9v8dgpFAHC1SEyL7vYBr/s1600/Claremont+7.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" eda="true" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrHSgnD9FxQin20hdhXlMfUQdLMpHY4IDKauioIEOYS87It77R4932ksxhJ9kizRqfcCJw02hrymD8BZWCYXa3Y9mUOssxZyNYZ1bHcg-R2N5zO0R3Bfjgu55m9v8dgpFAHC1SEyL7vYBr/s640/Claremont+7.gif" width="324" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><strong>Sources:<o:p></o:p></strong></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Kim S. August: Chris Claremont: The X-Treme Interview, Cinescape.com, 1 May 2001<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Jennifer M. Contino: Chris Claremont Pt 1, Comicon.com, 28 January 2005<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Cordially Chris, Comixfan.com/xfan, 16, 18, 20 and 30 June 2003<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">CoolBoard, 2001<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Christopher Lawrence: What Next?, Wizard #102, March 2000<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Christopher Lawrence: The Wizard Q&A – Chris Claremont, Wizard #103, April 2000<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Christopher Lawrence: The Wizard Q&A – Joe Quesada, Wizard #111, December 2000<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Jim Lee: Dynamic Duo, Wizard #51, November 1995<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Eric J. Moreels: Claremont Talks New X-Title, Cinescape.com, 24 January 2001<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Eric J. Moreels: Claremont Reflects On Core X-Book Return, Cinescape.com, 26 March 2001<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Eric J. Moreels: Claremont Talks X-Treme Down Under, Cinescape.com, 22 April 2001<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Josh Roberts: Chris Claremont Interview, Comicbookresources.com, 18 August 2000<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: Pro 2 Pro – Claremont And Byrne: Wolverine At 30, Back Issue #4, June 2004<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Upstart Comics Interviews Chris Claremont, Upstartcomics.com, 2000<o:p></o:p></span></div>Scififilmnerdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13068646164385257711noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5108928770317234018.post-64385778441467920832012-06-29T07:29:00.000-07:002012-06-29T07:50:09.031-07:00Changing X-Men directions<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB">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.</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“(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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij8tZ9BgleUrBYCEr5n8M90tbywr75RXkYkXmfP-qPVqitHUDwUzVvvag1MfliC_GUQZsa319LdCu2bYeWXLmaPdiWl1WWV2hQvT001i3hQ4Bpocdj9HJRBTsRlnSsIoxoYKYicAFuysIf/s1600/Scan0033.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij8tZ9BgleUrBYCEr5n8M90tbywr75RXkYkXmfP-qPVqitHUDwUzVvvag1MfliC_GUQZsa319LdCu2bYeWXLmaPdiWl1WWV2hQvT001i3hQ4Bpocdj9HJRBTsRlnSsIoxoYKYicAFuysIf/s400/Scan0033.gif" vca="true" width="210" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxciQXUVgBRkY7x9RtrCHcqd2p-VUZ67LNM7__n1myDvmg_rdj7iuvXi-do1RaWRsFxW9SlKVsPPSE1wBUVmd7zWt4kr65mCyFDWIwlP7kHkLnnKAhaMU9JIFjGoo9RXvTKy50-ixAQC2G/s1600/Scan0034.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxciQXUVgBRkY7x9RtrCHcqd2p-VUZ67LNM7__n1myDvmg_rdj7iuvXi-do1RaWRsFxW9SlKVsPPSE1wBUVmd7zWt4kr65mCyFDWIwlP7kHkLnnKAhaMU9JIFjGoo9RXvTKy50-ixAQC2G/s640/Scan0034.gif" vca="true" width="408" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f"><stroke joinstyle="miter"></stroke><formulas><f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"></f><f eqn="sum @0 1 0"></f><f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"></f><f eqn="prod @2 1 2"></f><f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"></f><f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"></f><f eqn="sum @0 0 1"></f><f eqn="prod @6 1 2"></f><f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"></f><f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"></f><f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"></f><f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"></f></formulas><path gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect" o:extrusionok="f"></path><lock aspectratio="t" v:ext="edit"></lock></shapetype></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Unresolved plots</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsOAlrHkRyYbKDDpjuCw5rkv-d_bJ7B2fb8S9mehdSuUmSWFF2atDQCFHbjayR3aWGp0OkaIss-ZYtOG_5MPsMz1u1W7JGh80seymqwvX-DdCwSKm0J66HKYEKqhDCz3VG5q1OsAkUIYoL/s1600/Scan0035.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsOAlrHkRyYbKDDpjuCw5rkv-d_bJ7B2fb8S9mehdSuUmSWFF2atDQCFHbjayR3aWGp0OkaIss-ZYtOG_5MPsMz1u1W7JGh80seymqwvX-DdCwSKm0J66HKYEKqhDCz3VG5q1OsAkUIYoL/s320/Scan0035.gif" vca="true" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In X-Men vol.2 #59, 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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyypeqlozvKHV1O6-1m_TSpIFoOIlcZsBd-m_C2isGDjS4zUdJSmQuDB7rBqJZMIUkjSW-Y94Ktamd-QE5O03m1yCbB-psxAeim5gS5lG_qmRRu1zspYkfk6ZYZYIhDW5w6KQhVmrJ9rZk/s1600/Scan0036.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyypeqlozvKHV1O6-1m_TSpIFoOIlcZsBd-m_C2isGDjS4zUdJSmQuDB7rBqJZMIUkjSW-Y94Ktamd-QE5O03m1yCbB-psxAeim5gS5lG_qmRRu1zspYkfk6ZYZYIhDW5w6KQhVmrJ9rZk/s320/Scan0036.gif" vca="true" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Graydon Creed was shot in X-Factor #130 in 1997, and in Uncanny X-Men #353, an insert announced that the killer of Creed’s fate would be revealed in X-Factor #150. Unfortunately, X-Factor was cancelled with issue #149, leaving the mystery unresolved until X-Men Forever #2 in 2001, where it was revealed that Mystique had shot him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyTW1XJ58QMgSBdBDgR3YiRwSJVN0LObV_K4OTNKAx7MbDSwcV3BI5F-3mgaM7CJLyJ5q9KzCt_1H8HEQJZWOsWvzwDfpdqAI1eCjf8BfmSz9LiRA_cc0KN8nqM6FgwRBArAnS6o0XQV0L/s1600/Scan0037.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyTW1XJ58QMgSBdBDgR3YiRwSJVN0LObV_K4OTNKAx7MbDSwcV3BI5F-3mgaM7CJLyJ5q9KzCt_1H8HEQJZWOsWvzwDfpdqAI1eCjf8BfmSz9LiRA_cc0KN8nqM6FgwRBArAnS6o0XQV0L/s320/Scan0037.gif" vca="true" width="238" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Meanwhile in Wolverine</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSj6ZBtB4sT8yFEq6C4FhFoP5-4azc2fkAH_ZaCgLdTzSZw_h9CXp5kNJO7TU0mgi-L81qJ3iW_YsC_Ju0MVBbFgFg348_7gmptXc17zOVRfXfzg3kQK8wSaU0bPCfd832x8PkzmoAakh4/s1600/Scan0038.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSj6ZBtB4sT8yFEq6C4FhFoP5-4azc2fkAH_ZaCgLdTzSZw_h9CXp5kNJO7TU0mgi-L81qJ3iW_YsC_Ju0MVBbFgFg348_7gmptXc17zOVRfXfzg3kQK8wSaU0bPCfd832x8PkzmoAakh4/s320/Scan0038.gif" vca="true" width="261" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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. </span>Cut me. I don’t care.” <span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">More importantly, now Sabretooth<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- 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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Editorial interference</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">While Steve Seagle and Joe Kelly were writing the main X-Men books, “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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlFl1CyKX3BbSk5jQmdO3Fs-Ny_rKWwEOnCWuWWLMuFUK1DvP_c9vGGzrwUBDsPWKTisoYHdTqPuOBFbPonMaopgsD-lGNPU-4zk0wvAwYypTV6SJEs73Rmou-PoR4ti_SpbvDIqnfTFo9/s1600/Scan0039.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="325" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlFl1CyKX3BbSk5jQmdO3Fs-Ny_rKWwEOnCWuWWLMuFUK1DvP_c9vGGzrwUBDsPWKTisoYHdTqPuOBFbPonMaopgsD-lGNPU-4zk0wvAwYypTV6SJEs73Rmou-PoR4ti_SpbvDIqnfTFo9/s400/Scan0039.gif" vca="true" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Abandoned storylines</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh92Ua2BBI2KeuyohuuXMVbaz06DwIRoe-kfNFKTOSa2VlhbkCqdlTtX8r0skwlrqaSYImZMWc-_Z8u8cOIDJRi0wJIwDzJqal5QsYGDyKzCd43Qf-8jco59fTyk7LFw4bXOfuLoqLLwko_/s1600/Scan0040.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh92Ua2BBI2KeuyohuuXMVbaz06DwIRoe-kfNFKTOSa2VlhbkCqdlTtX8r0skwlrqaSYImZMWc-_Z8u8cOIDJRi0wJIwDzJqal5QsYGDyKzCd43Qf-8jco59fTyk7LFw4bXOfuLoqLLwko_/s400/Scan0040.gif" vca="true" width="123" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1wBf82mo-D2w31WnanX-fowq5Pj55OqH_HKWC01xV0Hho7oEdGVPJqZq6EJHDyMaPSqgL-Tv_apat_7jVjNNK2i0F46_Eby0_y-omR1oS079G87mjcK4i3jLbEZJ7nF9q_PUn9lPziFBa/s1600/Scan0041.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1wBf82mo-D2w31WnanX-fowq5Pj55OqH_HKWC01xV0Hho7oEdGVPJqZq6EJHDyMaPSqgL-Tv_apat_7jVjNNK2i0F46_Eby0_y-omR1oS079G87mjcK4i3jLbEZJ7nF9q_PUn9lPziFBa/s320/Scan0041.gif" vca="true" width="194" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiywy4374ifRTWd59CB0cLs0HC5VjenZ7Ii3W_37yMg55qhylQcG8V1mX8n9AUBaW-jWcdJN9251VRerx4Lxzo3c0QWm9rRHuRgdTR1aK0r3MXBlGjXZP4o2Dzr8uInSALdwpoOHZnFTk2g/s1600/Scan0042.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiywy4374ifRTWd59CB0cLs0HC5VjenZ7Ii3W_37yMg55qhylQcG8V1mX8n9AUBaW-jWcdJN9251VRerx4Lxzo3c0QWm9rRHuRgdTR1aK0r3MXBlGjXZP4o2Dzr8uInSALdwpoOHZnFTk2g/s400/Scan0042.gif" vca="true" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Wizard #79, a storyline for August 1998 was also 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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Why Kelly and Seagle left</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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 revealed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Phoenix had started expanding her powers,” Kelly added, “and there were going to be characters who had been watching since the Phoenix saga to see if the Phoenix force would return.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Enter Alan Davis</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">X-Men characters in Fantastic Four</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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. </span>Sigh!”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Sources:</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">James Busbee: Danger Room, Wizard #90, February 1999</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tom Defalco: Comics Creators On X-Men, April 2006</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Chris Hutchins: Chis Claremont, Wizard #85, September 1998</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Richard Johnston: Waiting For Tommy, Dynamicforces.com, 2003</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Christopher Lawrence: Chris Claremont, Wizard #103, April 2000</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Eric J. Moreels: Claremont Talks New X-Title, Cinescape.com, 24 January 2001</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Eric Nolen-Weathington: Modern Masters Volume One – Alan Davis, April 2003</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Matthew Senreich: Team X-Men, Wizard #79, March 1998</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>Scififilmnerdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13068646164385257711noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5108928770317234018.post-22589990352212951582012-06-15T07:43:00.000-07:002012-06-15T07:43:15.252-07:00Post-Apocalypse<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB">Was Cable or Stryfe the clone, and who had the cure for the Legacy Virus?</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“(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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNX-DBshv1gmk-8dbo_DEJ4NhoqeBDt2WBOSRYpA_tQJCOCJeGoj3fLHPQeJwDrPHdA1V0FL1sWxgAHhb8zehLti4D4o7fDhDor05oT10eY6wT5zdUToF0R-yYszrg2Isu1fZdqNTwj1oS/s1600/Scan0010.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" pca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNX-DBshv1gmk-8dbo_DEJ4NhoqeBDt2WBOSRYpA_tQJCOCJeGoj3fLHPQeJwDrPHdA1V0FL1sWxgAHhb8zehLti4D4o7fDhDor05oT10eY6wT5zdUToF0R-yYszrg2Isu1fZdqNTwj1oS/s640/Scan0010.gif" width="475" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Abandoned plots</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In 1993, the X-Men books were littered with new plot twists and a few of them were abandoned before reaching any resolution. In the Stryfe’s Strike File one-shot, a new character named Holocaust was introduced: “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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8i2x1DcXuNyRvjMUVF1HNUZMyewjsbe5_JYpijQqVNjgIOE_KMlmRxeCyDznq8dhacyRwULP_-sMgHb0coU4YD8FbAeZClphtZWp8vuOdW76b8YVq3Jmkwa-XBptN7jbZjbuYi-X1UzdK/s1600/Scan0024.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="281" pca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8i2x1DcXuNyRvjMUVF1HNUZMyewjsbe5_JYpijQqVNjgIOE_KMlmRxeCyDznq8dhacyRwULP_-sMgHb0coU4YD8FbAeZClphtZWp8vuOdW76b8YVq3Jmkwa-XBptN7jbZjbuYi-X1UzdK/s320/Scan0024.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Uncanny X-Men #299, writer Scott Lobdell introduced a telepathic mutant in the employ of anti-mutant legislator Senator 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, but besides a cameo appearance in X-Men vol.2 #51 in 1996 that was the last that was seen of him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZZDg5dtgKiRAEc1AmoOXsgJ8VT3hPMWLtQWwaR0HckD5993cMeNqLCoQn31qmjFz3jJm7IKUC_-Zi7MFj8Az8QJDxjpRW38tg52schyphenhyphenYGx9ThmlI_VMdo3AHviPN7vuqiBd8qRIIwNQgE/s1600/Scan0022.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" pca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZZDg5dtgKiRAEc1AmoOXsgJ8VT3hPMWLtQWwaR0HckD5993cMeNqLCoQn31qmjFz3jJm7IKUC_-Zi7MFj8Az8QJDxjpRW38tg52schyphenhyphenYGx9ThmlI_VMdo3AHviPN7vuqiBd8qRIIwNQgE/s400/Scan0022.gif" width="337" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVAtlNC-9JDUMm5o4T6Mu4TdwG2LPlIdoKmNazN0vIJvY8sWFyYUoIFYZKknUXmUrf8pR9wI2D7HTTTuOvM1pUiXuYq-_YFQwkN-jjKC-pbIdJ48-uC7VofSdsg2VkTg01pCikDrwhdx4G/s1600/Scan0032.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="95" pca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVAtlNC-9JDUMm5o4T6Mu4TdwG2LPlIdoKmNazN0vIJvY8sWFyYUoIFYZKknUXmUrf8pR9wI2D7HTTTuOvM1pUiXuYq-_YFQwkN-jjKC-pbIdJ48-uC7VofSdsg2VkTg01pCikDrwhdx4G/s400/Scan0032.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">A cure for the Legacy Virus?</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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. But Douglock never realized that Zero had given him the means to find a cure for the dreaded virus. 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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDAOmRfqWmnt46TOoMoNgFXjgptEBnz6s4nCmnGqAa6m1VwEX0XuZfNbPhGpydCVNdKG5qd12t4hRgSVhiK1cIuQXAECgkQCXmYreIAHnYAasxn4PCJymLXQ1QhC68nQkMpwTlyCqxWY-S/s1600/Scan0030.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" pca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDAOmRfqWmnt46TOoMoNgFXjgptEBnz6s4nCmnGqAa6m1VwEX0XuZfNbPhGpydCVNdKG5qd12t4hRgSVhiK1cIuQXAECgkQCXmYreIAHnYAasxn4PCJymLXQ1QhC68nQkMpwTlyCqxWY-S/s640/Scan0030.gif" width="418" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">No-show characters</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Thoughts on X-Men popularity</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“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.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Sources:</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Comics Focus #1, June 1996</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tom DeFalco: Comics Creators On X-Men, April 2006</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Chris Golden: X-Men – A Post-Apocalyptic Future, Hero Illustrated 1995</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">George Khoury & Eric Nolen-Weathington: John Romita Jr., Modern Masters Vol. 18, July 2008</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Clifford Lawrence: After Xavier…, Wizard #41, January 1995</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Jim Lee: Dynamic Duo, Wizard #51, November 1995</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>Scififilmnerdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13068646164385257711noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5108928770317234018.post-18063686601256301072012-06-01T08:05:00.000-07:002012-06-01T08:05:53.052-07:00Upstarts, High-Lords and Armageddon<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The artists and the editor took control of the X-Men’s destiny.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimGKOmwxCwmtYg4Sl2K4UGb9coYZ0slUbg50A5wm-j1PsigTHxibf3YN-GYmTLKhk9xmdz69qXb-GzpwgAPPMlQiZG8tVNCR8dIqgfYHDHwAsK9tX_-WU17SOiMiowB_8BXtnPTRlEW0z8/s1600/outtake+38a.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="207" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimGKOmwxCwmtYg4Sl2K4UGb9coYZ0slUbg50A5wm-j1PsigTHxibf3YN-GYmTLKhk9xmdz69qXb-GzpwgAPPMlQiZG8tVNCR8dIqgfYHDHwAsK9tX_-WU17SOiMiowB_8BXtnPTRlEW0z8/s320/outtake+38a.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwhzs9hKtgDUeK0pY3uRGvlxTFY-JCBUTpVwd3g3MZRWXw1wP7zQ26QmUWRpTKwqCc3gg44IGQbi8JgTF1ThHsN88HjOgvYtn4ZCSKJmCnZhyphenhyphenSIrNxkFzpF9IiUeM9wrE3MroWXuiY-Rou/s1600/outtake+38b.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="208" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwhzs9hKtgDUeK0pY3uRGvlxTFY-JCBUTpVwd3g3MZRWXw1wP7zQ26QmUWRpTKwqCc3gg44IGQbi8JgTF1ThHsN88HjOgvYtn4ZCSKJmCnZhyphenhyphenSIrNxkFzpF9IiUeM9wrE3MroWXuiY-Rou/s320/outtake+38b.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">With legendary X-Men writer Chris Claremont gone, the artists got their way with the X-Men in 1991 and 1992. Having already plotted X-Factor #65-68, Jim Lee plotted X-Men vol.2 #4-11 and Uncanny X-Men #287, and Whilce Portacio plotted Uncanny X-Men #281-286 and 288 with occasional help from Jim Lee. Legendary X-Men artist John Byrne, who had since taken up writing, was brought in to script their drawn pages.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“It was very early in the run of a new book that we’d promoted a lot, so I had to figure out how I could give it a sense of continuity,” editor Bob Harras told Comics Creators On X-Men. “What name other than Chris Claremont is most connected with X-Men books? John Byrne, of course. So I called John and we went with him.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I wasn’t coming up with the stories,” Byrne stated in Arena Magazine #11. “I was just the hired typist, basically, to come up with the words.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGNriU4rJirncW41Sa-aN4uR_AZZcHn7W72__WYcJp-WxINzsrrZIw3lNu4jKapKqc3MCu0GXrzcfG8N7PC74Tt6C1UKltKbvgX_9LdBvKpYTHZ_7laiFhqIbbchlbqUbxYQIuUKFW4HMf/s1600/Scan0043.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGNriU4rJirncW41Sa-aN4uR_AZZcHn7W72__WYcJp-WxINzsrrZIw3lNu4jKapKqc3MCu0GXrzcfG8N7PC74Tt6C1UKltKbvgX_9LdBvKpYTHZ_7laiFhqIbbchlbqUbxYQIuUKFW4HMf/s320/Scan0043.gif" width="186" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho8xlvBg8H8iPyzkhue3IdYpalM2lNkyYAJKvSvQfiAFJoq6jiIYD1asLcgxRpZlU5_sHxJCJ7TBFm2rCyL3iNmof9aTPnx9KnX4saGz8UpbCvx8rXPFrtMWOwEZU_s2d-ukTEJFA9OwzL/s1600/Scan0012.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho8xlvBg8H8iPyzkhue3IdYpalM2lNkyYAJKvSvQfiAFJoq6jiIYD1asLcgxRpZlU5_sHxJCJ7TBFm2rCyL3iNmof9aTPnx9KnX4saGz8UpbCvx8rXPFrtMWOwEZU_s2d-ukTEJFA9OwzL/s640/Scan0012.gif" width="363" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Uncanny X-Men #281, Shinobi Shaw was leader of the Upstarts and self-appointed new king of the Hellfire Club. Upstart Trevor Fitzroy wished to wrest both titles from him. It was learned in Uncanny X-Men #283 that the Upstart competition was presided over by the Gamesmaster, who in turn was ruled by Selene of the old Hellfire Club. In X-Men vol.2 #5, Fenris and Matsuo Tsurayaba believed that the prize they competed for was immortality, but in Uncanny X-Men #283 Selene told Gamesmaster that the Upstarts didn’t know the true nature of the game or the actual prize for which they strove so mightily. It was never revealed what devious prize Selene had in mind for the winner, and the subsequent writers, Scott Lobdell and Fabian Nicieza, never seemed able to settle on what prize the Upstarts thought they were competing for. In Uncanny X-Men #299 from 1993, the group was told by the Gamesmaster that the winner of the competition would inherit the resources and servitude of his fellow Upstarts. In Uncanny X-Men Annual #17, 1993, Trevor Fitzroy told new recruit Siena Blaze that the prize was omnipotence, and in New Warriors #45 from 1994, Shinobi Shaw thought that he would gain all of the players’ combined powers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaya5uheF1KgkLDLNEYccUxX7Y9WfGmIiJrt9AZY_3pbago8h90nJ2I8hAnnxAeSvISntnEnoztRNNBsLi446lFDtR4cH27KfoouXL8VtBJHBz3xMJKUaZiDl-4-jc25k41mApfbpHKB8n/s1600/Scan0014.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="166" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaya5uheF1KgkLDLNEYccUxX7Y9WfGmIiJrt9AZY_3pbago8h90nJ2I8hAnnxAeSvISntnEnoztRNNBsLi446lFDtR4cH27KfoouXL8VtBJHBz3xMJKUaZiDl-4-jc25k41mApfbpHKB8n/s400/Scan0014.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlEMQ7vp1zPaektFsg8deveh85eLwJ5PQysVdXY0Dizk8I0xpxvxFJypn2HBlABqcpt5_lFDvQeNNHfO1mH3gIRNA1TOjPQp_QjuYhiLqICnjYYOTn83wgLTcDGOyXLBNzJc8OJ1qkOwRu/s1600/Scan0028.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlEMQ7vp1zPaektFsg8deveh85eLwJ5PQysVdXY0Dizk8I0xpxvxFJypn2HBlABqcpt5_lFDvQeNNHfO1mH3gIRNA1TOjPQp_QjuYhiLqICnjYYOTn83wgLTcDGOyXLBNzJc8OJ1qkOwRu/s320/Scan0028.gif" width="227" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Trevor Fitzroy then turned on the group’s founder, Selene, in Uncanny X-Men #301 in 1993 before getting killed in X-Force #33 in 1994. Fabian Cortez was killed off in Avengers #369 in 1993, written by Bob Harras, and Shinobi Shaw decided to concentrate on his Hellfire Club endeavors instead in X-Force #33, leaving just Siena Blaze, Graydon Creed and Fenris in the competition. The storyline ended anti-climactically in New Warriors #46 with Gamesmaster abandoning the competition without any winner being declared or any kind of prize being claimed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDBix6TpiQVzfhDxwm5hlMuIIdQumsNHukLSsqHwTaGXa9Foc-zZGfMKwz4ln_93PiUZwLGBrxkuIbNJHjxuFBMZl7nKE8KTns8dhyphenhyphenGM1LEOdt4jZ4sDbIzUCMBjXJp-h_2OdQHQO6TBeZ/s1600/Scan0008.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDBix6TpiQVzfhDxwm5hlMuIIdQumsNHukLSsqHwTaGXa9Foc-zZGfMKwz4ln_93PiUZwLGBrxkuIbNJHjxuFBMZl7nKE8KTns8dhyphenhyphenGM1LEOdt4jZ4sDbIzUCMBjXJp-h_2OdQHQO6TBeZ/s640/Scan0008.gif" width="489" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGCS_aBQZeGu2P_Q8o7PNkd0PfsU7GfvlCeAHGOs2HVtU1QUMfNvDcWjY391w1BT0Rtm2BxNFhVYXD5mCo9Lnt7CaHMNPd-gyFz1nBORkYQKbAvpFE7Zjdo2VXcbrcvlh5k_2MIHYe3RxB/s1600/Scan0013.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGCS_aBQZeGu2P_Q8o7PNkd0PfsU7GfvlCeAHGOs2HVtU1QUMfNvDcWjY391w1BT0Rtm2BxNFhVYXD5mCo9Lnt7CaHMNPd-gyFz1nBORkYQKbAvpFE7Zjdo2VXcbrcvlh5k_2MIHYe3RxB/s320/Scan0013.gif" width="262" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">How John Byrne got replaced</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">John Byrne ended up only scripting X-Men vol.2 #4-5 and Uncanny X-Men #281-285 and some of #288. “Between X-Men and Uncanny X-Men, I think I only scripted six issues,” John Byrne recalled in Comics Creators On X-Men. “The problem was the books were terminally late when I was asked to script them. Jim (Lee) and Whilce Portacio would both send me the plots and then they’d send me three pages of pencils. I’d script those because they had to be scripted right away and fax the scripts directly to Tom Orzechowski, who was lettering the book.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Then I’d get one more and the one page didn’t match the first three pages because they’d taken off on a tangent, and they were both doing this. So I was constantly writing and re-writing, and re-writing and writing and re-writing, and re-writing and writing. It was just a nightmare. I was working weekends, which I never used to do in those days.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“It was not the best situation,” Bob Harras admitted to Comics Creators On X-Men. “John wasn’t given much time at all to script those issues, and I could see that the pressure was unfair to him, and we probably weren’t getting his best work.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I finally threw the closest I get to a hissy-fit and I called up Bob and said, “This is nuts. The writer normally gets a month to do his job, I would like to have at least two weeks,”” Byrne told Arena Magazine #11.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">““Something’s gotta be done about this. This is insane,”” Byrne continued in Comics Creators On X-Men. “And Bob said, “We’ll take care of it.” Years later I was told, you should always be careful when Bob says, “We’ll take care of it.” What ultimately happened was about two weeks later, Terry Austin called me and said, “Hey, I hear Scott Lobdell is writing X-Men,” and I said, “Huh?” And he says, “Yeah, at a barbeque at Berni Wrightson’s place, some friend of Scott’s was there and said he’s just picked up the X-Men assignment.” That’s how I found out I wasn’t writing X-Men. That’s how they’d “taken care” of it.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The ascension of the High-Lords</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Scott Lobdell had previously written some fill-in issues of Excalibur and a Nightcrawler/Wolverine team-up in Marvel Comics Presents #101-108 when he was offered the job of scripting Jim Lee and Whilce Portacio’s X-Men starting with X-Men vol.2 #6 and Uncanny X-Men #286 in 1992.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Scott (Lobdell) was a guy who hung around the X-office a lot,” Bob Harras recalled in Comics Creators On X-Men. “When John (Byrne) decided to leave, I needed someone to script an issue fairly quickly. Scott just showed up at my office door one day, so I handed him the pages and said, “Okay, here’s your shot.” To Scott’s credit, he turned the script in very quickly, and it wasn’t bad.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">When Whilce Portacio left Uncanny X-Men in 1992, Scott Lobdell stayed on and became the writer of the book. “He really “got” the characters,” Bob Harras explained in Comics Creators On X-Men. “He also saw the core concept of the book more along the lines that I did. We were kind of simpatico. We didn’t agree all the time, but the common vision was pretty much consistent.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6P0-SE7MTp_AFyx3UdReMEqtgaahrKvAIJLtxDj_JO0x6jcPEm6efCpD15D_wB7xbNjYaV2WizwBCee5fmud6hSadjYrUfcsvfqI0WRxAIk4haCriFhrDLirMWOpZrEVvreTKSOkP-JXH/s1600/Scan0016.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="116" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6P0-SE7MTp_AFyx3UdReMEqtgaahrKvAIJLtxDj_JO0x6jcPEm6efCpD15D_wB7xbNjYaV2WizwBCee5fmud6hSadjYrUfcsvfqI0WRxAIk4haCriFhrDLirMWOpZrEVvreTKSOkP-JXH/s400/Scan0016.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Meanwhile, artist Rob Liefeld was plotting New Mutants and revamped the title into X-Force with Fabian Nicieza as the scripter. In X-Force #8, 1992, it was revealed that Cannonball was a High-Lord that would live well into the 24<sup>th</sup> century and that Cable had travelled from the future to Cannonball’s present in order to protect him and ensure his ascension. While it was implied that Cannonball ascended by dying in X-Force #7 and coming back to life as an immortal High-Lord in X-Force #9, it was revealed in X-Force #10 that a group of mutant High-Lords existed, calling themselves Externals, and in X-Force #12, an “ascension of the Externals” was hinted at.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJVrN5auw_xvGhDwc5XaV-kpXC011MdoCc3iL3U3YRuSnP5lSwWFQaG35iJ3qXuAlHwFXYmT4WKw_g9QAYMKl9ZJAd_iZvna1QjoZzDqH30IQe67BO6RPa5YzDR10HAOAS8p5Vr26Vy5Nv/s1600/Scan0017.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJVrN5auw_xvGhDwc5XaV-kpXC011MdoCc3iL3U3YRuSnP5lSwWFQaG35iJ3qXuAlHwFXYmT4WKw_g9QAYMKl9ZJAd_iZvna1QjoZzDqH30IQe67BO6RPa5YzDR10HAOAS8p5Vr26Vy5Nv/s400/Scan0017.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdDaIO8LhiqQPfxHG1JY2_IR112Qt3oG6hN_KAektTsU-7zZmm8ke-sI4dNUNzQ64sN9oM3Ifog-L4hXsx6JLg1CBfT-yQVcoES-i7Y3S8LfW1sWZ8n_dr2AjcWIoTyO6ibzL4HjsgEHsz/s1600/Scan0018.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdDaIO8LhiqQPfxHG1JY2_IR112Qt3oG6hN_KAektTsU-7zZmm8ke-sI4dNUNzQ64sN9oM3Ifog-L4hXsx6JLg1CBfT-yQVcoES-i7Y3S8LfW1sWZ8n_dr2AjcWIoTyO6ibzL4HjsgEHsz/s400/Scan0018.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">When Rob Liefeld left X-Force and Jim Lee left X-Men vol.2 in 1992, Fabian Nicieza became the writer of both titles, as well as of the new Cable series. In X-Men vol.2 #23 from 1993 the Dark Riders’ Hardrive told Cyclops that the battle for ascension of the High Lord would commence with Cyclops at the forefront of the killing fields in the “king of the world” contest.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSrmIma0gOQutGeUoqwQUInbsJjXYBXqqEywj9nF7zpAzE3-xoIrVRPQLNJOeSdJPA0lW8B7G6U93Tor8G3uWsoEETwcuBGNumy62oWvGkwLOEVTf4SwbMReyrNEb878ejEgvvhcESW21G/s1600/Scan0025.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSrmIma0gOQutGeUoqwQUInbsJjXYBXqqEywj9nF7zpAzE3-xoIrVRPQLNJOeSdJPA0lW8B7G6U93Tor8G3uWsoEETwcuBGNumy62oWvGkwLOEVTf4SwbMReyrNEb878ejEgvvhcESW21G/s400/Scan0025.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpVUJ1JjtuSH2fWHRuF4VFjUPy-am6b-0Pvem0p9jLamHPtmBrNcTPz7Fi38ij7C3g2kc2uruEjWkKKgm-sm70KcQo0LZ7tarJUorp6EQUwM_EzPu4Cib_U4ggxcWyIFFzUAirtE3tXUa8/s1600/Scan0026.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpVUJ1JjtuSH2fWHRuF4VFjUPy-am6b-0Pvem0p9jLamHPtmBrNcTPz7Fi38ij7C3g2kc2uruEjWkKKgm-sm70KcQo0LZ7tarJUorp6EQUwM_EzPu4Cib_U4ggxcWyIFFzUAirtE3tXUa8/s640/Scan0026.gif" width="264" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwahQC29YUB8YX-l_FT_D0odlW_qypYfO_DTKn_cYcufGKX0kIb6_cvai4qRl3wjxi9yMvOdOfcUfqAmVzU3elOxAMe4Nk6DNuqZaSmw2EeE7tViyNHoubhyc3uHV3Hc2i8rj01kEyi__2/s1600/Scan0027.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwahQC29YUB8YX-l_FT_D0odlW_qypYfO_DTKn_cYcufGKX0kIb6_cvai4qRl3wjxi9yMvOdOfcUfqAmVzU3elOxAMe4Nk6DNuqZaSmw2EeE7tViyNHoubhyc3uHV3Hc2i8rj01kEyi__2/s640/Scan0027.gif" width="244" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Cable #1-3 and X-Force #25, 1993, it was revealed that in the future that spawned Cable, Apocalypse (En-Sabah Nur) and his Canaanites had won a hundred-year war against mutant clan families of which Cable belonged to the Askani Clan Chosen. The Canaanites sent Sinsear back in time to prevent the time-travelling Cable from threatening their control over the multitude of High-Lord ascensions and to ensure the cross-timeline ascension of External High-Lord Apocalypse.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRpHaMWZO4zSAu1rJLDHKeHxmDgu0BVzlHmsKLfG2zqLkYQXBEc8R6zU8xHoBPBRsYli5ChQabSV6yeVMslZwnGvoUGzJlZUUWbfGliYPZSaEDPm3-X0AdmSbufuPYPBwSSpGufOURc0VB/s1600/Scan0019.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="166" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRpHaMWZO4zSAu1rJLDHKeHxmDgu0BVzlHmsKLfG2zqLkYQXBEc8R6zU8xHoBPBRsYli5ChQabSV6yeVMslZwnGvoUGzJlZUUWbfGliYPZSaEDPm3-X0AdmSbufuPYPBwSSpGufOURc0VB/s400/Scan0019.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">It was Cable’s hope that Cannonball could be developed into a High-Lord that might someday in the future become mankind and mutantkind’s saviour (by ascending instead of Apocalypse).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWHsEOoD0_coXGnLVpuM1KRPs98h6_q07LxBKQ2b9hTMJCG_pAjaPtJjQelyMTPoJlNZvdYBF9c5ntOiv-x1FTxvdmJWI0GH3yctDpkQ9DHdig-CCL697GXsbKvw14EjqpH83wVKEiSYKN/s1600/Scan0021.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWHsEOoD0_coXGnLVpuM1KRPs98h6_q07LxBKQ2b9hTMJCG_pAjaPtJjQelyMTPoJlNZvdYBF9c5ntOiv-x1FTxvdmJWI0GH3yctDpkQ9DHdig-CCL697GXsbKvw14EjqpH83wVKEiSYKN/s640/Scan0021.gif" width="536" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">However, the battle for ascension of the High Lord never commenced, and in X-Force #54, 1996, written by Jeph Loeb, Selene killed off her fellow Externals save one whose identity was never revealed. But it might have been Candra, who was still around.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Selene also called Cannonball’s High Lord immortality into question, saying that he wasn’t an External, and that X-Force should ask Cable about Cannonball’s supposed death and resurrection in X-Force 7 and 9, which they never did.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The coming of Armageddon</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The only X-book written by an actual writer at the time was The All-New, All-Different X-Factor, with Peter David of Hulk-fame launching the new group with X-Factor #71 in 1991. In X-Factor #88 from 1993, X-Factor went to Genosha, the island nation built on mutate slavery. “The Genosha storyline will (…) introduce a major new villain called Armageddon, who is going to be pulling together a lot of story threads, and helping give the entire book more of an underpinning and a feeling of its own backstory,” Peter David announced in Marvel Age #122. “I will also be introducing a new character who will be joining and should be shaking up the mix a good deal – very mysterious extradimensional-type character.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“There will be things about (this new character) that I think will cause a good deal of debate among the readers. I want to try to add some mystery to the book, but a mystery that can be solved, instead of people just speculating wild theories. (…) I am trying to strike the balance of introducing this mysterious new character – about whom people can actually take some educated guesses – while making the book as fun as possible.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">However, Armageddon and the extradimensional type character never appeared in X-Factor, although it was announced in Marvel Age #124 that X-Factor #91 would feature X-Factor versus Armageddon. Peter David left X-Factor with #89 in 1993 being his final issue.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“When Peter David left X-Factor, he had built up this plot over several issues that introduced this character called Armageddon,” Scott Lobdell told Seriejournalen.dk. “He left, and I wasn’t going to take over, but they asked me if I could come in and do a few issues until they found a writer. I called Peter up and said, “Peter, it looks like you’ve really put a lot of thought into this character. I’d rather you take the character and do what you want with it. I’ll call him something else and I’ll just come up with his motivation based on what I’ve seen.” My understanding is that that character has since shown up in the Hulk, and he has been using him in that way.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Whomever Scott Lobdell thought of to replace Armageddon with never appeared, leaving readers hanging with an unresolved subplot from X-Factor #89 that featured the first and last appearance of a shadowed and unnamed Armageddon vowing to new Genoshan Director of Genetics, Sasha Ryan: “I swear the day will come that our country will once again be free of the genetic dregs known as mutants!”</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzubHG0_zoeuU3Ozx3Go8IEzFVgcJ0NkcHXN2J_LGvFTmyRGkx_1DOVfpE-nin1SdHJiJBaxhbYGQ5Vv8gqyElkdE0eOxE6p5yuOU_WtZM2DimXZG5c20GRk7iQ911hkDYHGn5wNRkAVSe/s1600/Scan0023.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" rba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzubHG0_zoeuU3Ozx3Go8IEzFVgcJ0NkcHXN2J_LGvFTmyRGkx_1DOVfpE-nin1SdHJiJBaxhbYGQ5Vv8gqyElkdE0eOxE6p5yuOU_WtZM2DimXZG5c20GRk7iQ911hkDYHGn5wNRkAVSe/s640/Scan0023.gif" width="422" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">How the X-Men were written</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“We have meetings among all the writers, and we discuss things and hammer things out,” Bob Harras told Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty. “People have individual desires and plans and we have to make everyone as happy as possible in the long run. The final decision is mine – and I have to disappoint one person and make somebody else happy. We all want these meetings because you have to coordinate. We have lunches with Scott (Lobdell) and Fabian (Nicieza) a lot, and we have big meetings about twice a year now. Usually we talk about characters, which I think is the most important thing.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I think the X-Men in general are very editorial driven,” Bob Harras admitted to Seriejournalen.dk. “But I think because we work with people like Scott (Lobdell), it becomes a merging of what the writer wants and what the editor wants. I’d say very clearly that if what a writer wants doesn’t fit the big picture of what the X-Men are about or where the general storylines are going, we do nix those stories.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“It’s difficult because if you’re writer, say, on Cable, and you’re writing Cable and you have this great plan for Cable, but it doesn’t fit with what we’re planning to do in X-Force, or it doesn’t fit with what’s gonna affect Jean (Grey) and Scott (Summers) over in Uncanny, we gotta say, “You cant do that.” That’s where the editorial direction comes in. I’ll say, “You can’t do this and you can’t do this because of this reason and because of that reason – how about if you do this? And then that’ll have impact over there.” So it’s stressful being a writer on the X-Men and the books in general.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The most difficult thing is that this is a shared universe,” Bob Harras continued in Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty. “That is extremely difficult to write, because nothing you write exists in a vacuum. Whatever you come up with will have an impact on the other books. That can be the fun part as well, because it’s very exciting. Another writer might say, “Oh, I can do this with that character,” and that can generate excitement. It can be tough, because it might force things in a direction the writer wasn’t thinking of. Everyone wants to have their own baby, but when you have to share the kids, that’s tough.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Why Peter David left X-Factor</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“When you’re doing comics in that kind of an environment, where everything is being coordinated and there’s a great deal of gang mentality – “This must be done in this book, this must be done in this book” – and you start to reach a point where you realize, “I’m just too old for this crap,” it can go a long way toward killing the spontaneity,” Peter David told Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty. “To my mind, it was no longer an environment I could work in consistently. Certainly other people can. Fabian Nicieza and Scott Lobdell have no trouble with it. God bless ‘em. I wish them the best of luck. Marc DeMatteis is going to be dialoguing X-Factor – great. It’s not something that everybody can do. It’s a question of what you are individually capable of handling, and I just couldn’t handle this anymore.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“If I had continued writing X-Factor, the story would have lacked – I think – whatever that ineffable quality called enthusiasm might be. I would have been doing it purely for the money. Writing something purely for the money and only for the money makes me a hack – and that’s not fair to the editor, not fair to the fans and, ultimately, it’s not fair to me. That, in a nutshell, is why I left the series.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The minute you begin to integrate all the various books, the writer becomes less and less of a factor and the editor becomes more and more pre-eminent,” ex-X-Men writer Chris Claremont opinionated in Wizard #22. “The editor is the person, presumably, who knows all the directions, who is aware of what everybody is doing, who can say “no” when people step on other people’s toes. It’s a very short step from that to saying, “Okay, you go here, you go there, you go there. This book goes that direction; I want this to happen in this book.” Suddenly, as a natural evolution, the writer is the person who does what the editor tells him to write the book.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“You may goose in some stuff around the edges, you may throw in a line or a character that speaks to you, but these are grace notes on a symphony that’s being written, fundamentally, by someone else. Why should I – or anybody worth the name – waste their talent executing someone else’s vision, especially when you get into the moral question of why the person whose vision you’re executing doesn’t go write his or her own stuff?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">A parody of the X-Men</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“What you have now are editors, in a lot of cases, who do not view themselves as facilitators but who view themselves as active participants in the production process,” Claremont continued in Wizard #22. “They say, “I am going to tell you what the story is. I am going to decide the direction of the book. You will help enable us to get there” – rather than the writer coming in and saying, “This is where I want to go” and the editor saying, “Okay,” or not. If you want to hire a writer to write the book, let him write it. If you want to write the book yourself, do that.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The perception may be that, in a time when you cannot guarantee the quality of the writers, when you have to hold together a vastly expanding, convoluted, Gordian knot, cats cradle of continuity – maybe this is the only way they figure they can do it. I think it’s wrong. I think you end up with a lot of second-rate work. By the same token, none of the people involved – save perhaps the editorial staff – have any long-term vested interest in what they’re doing. It doesn’t really matter what the work is – it could just as easily be making cars. You’re producing stuff, you’re not creating anything. It’s the illusion of creation.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I grant you that that’s at odds with a lot of the audience. You go to conventions and signings and kids are saying, “Whoa! Did you see this? I love what’s happening in Wolverine.” Fine. But for me a lot of the books aren’t what they were, and I’m left with the attitude, “Why bother?””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Some people can view it as just pure pride in their work. I know Peter David takes tremendous pride in the work he does at the moment he does it, but once he leaves a series he doesn’t care what happens next because there is not an ongoing relationship. There are times I wish I could divorce myself that completely, especially from the X-Men. I look at that and I think, this is my entire working life, up until two years ago, and it’s taken them 18 months to gut it like a fish, to trash the characters, to kill off a tremendous amount of the context and cast, and to turn it into, to me, a parody of what it was.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Sources:</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tom DeFalco: Comics Creators On X-Men, April 2006</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Marvel Age #124, May 1993</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Patrick Daniel O’Neill: Claremont Returns With The Write Stuff, Wizard #22, June 1993</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Patrick Daniel O’Neill: The Future Is Now, Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty, August 1993</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Evan Skolnick: Mutant Mouthpieces, Marvel Age #122, March 1993</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Jerry Smith: John Byrne - Headed For The Future, Arena Magazine #11, July 1993</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tue Sørensen and Ulrik Kristiansen: Interview With Bob Harras, seriejournalen.dk, 1995</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tue Sørensen and Ulrik Kristiansen: Interview With Scott Lobdell, seriejournalen.dk, 1995</span></div>Scififilmnerdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13068646164385257711noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5108928770317234018.post-9805072984986313102012-05-23T07:41:00.000-07:002012-05-23T07:41:33.196-07:00X-Men and X-Factor united<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">With Wolverine as the villain, Gambit as the betrayer, and Professor Xavier’s final battle with the Shadow King had writer Chris Claremont stayed on the books.</span></h2>
<div align="center" class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f"><stroke joinstyle="miter"></stroke><formulas><f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"></f><f eqn="sum @0 1 0"></f><f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"></f><f eqn="prod @2 1 2"></f><f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"></f><f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"></f><f eqn="sum @0 0 1"></f><f eqn="prod @6 1 2"></f><f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"></f><f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"></f><f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"></f><f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"></f></formulas><path gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect" o:extrusionok="f"></path><lock aspectratio="t" v:ext="edit"></lock></shapetype></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVPGpaXjr5pLk8lHKImKs-_AKmvz9JAEgYJeKVQYcQElkBCAIR35I_2WBO91HUDc8HC5y8L6humNtWfM7Qw1w33wEw-qRlBTzWVi3-V1QLsvKm_NXV3k4YXD3Y6C-6sa35taUOnIVtetBW/s1600/1991+-+X-Men+1+b.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" qba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVPGpaXjr5pLk8lHKImKs-_AKmvz9JAEgYJeKVQYcQElkBCAIR35I_2WBO91HUDc8HC5y8L6humNtWfM7Qw1w33wEw-qRlBTzWVi3-V1QLsvKm_NXV3k4YXD3Y6C-6sa35taUOnIVtetBW/s640/1991+-+X-Men+1+b.gif" width="426" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Writer Chris Claremont explained the reason for the X-Men and X-Factor merger in X-Men vol.2 #1 in 1991 to Amazing Heroes #192: “It was felt: Rather than perpetuate the confusion that has existed for so long with the original X-Men being in a book under a different title, acting like the X-Men, and the X-Men being in their own title acting like the X-Men, it would be better to combine the two teams into one team, which is what they should’ve been – and have been – from the start.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I think having the original X-Men come back was a good idea,” artist Jim Lee told Marvel Age #104. “It didn’t really make any sense for me why X-Factor existed. Especially with Xavier back now, it seems more strange that there would be these two separate teams, when they all know each other very well, and they all share the same mission or dream in life.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“(Editor-In-Chief) Tom DeFalco’s vision of the new X-Men book was to have two books done by two different artists with the same five characters in each – essentially making the book a bi-weekly,” Claremont revealed in Comics Interview #98. “I opposed that and Bob Harras agreed with me – basically (…) it was a waste of resources. We had a dozen or more really superb characters: To have to cull them down to a half dozen – first of all, you’d be casting six characters into comic-book limbo, who would immediately be picked up for some other series, which would perpetuate the X-Factor mess.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“It’s very hard, to the point of impossible, to adequately fit a dozen or more main characters in a monthly title,” Claremont admitted in Amazing Heroes #192, “(so) there are two different teams, two different artists, two different (books).”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIx6-xwY5HAEFmTzeUZZiEOP_aKRc1p1zbTw3tFDZmRC_gFDDAQ1U2sVOnFLkEPVaP329BAV2WwNN_MM_ix_kF8ojIuYsu9xjHwYCDa2kkMqYnjtw3awJW3wIiDo2MTSYae_qHXNhY5LAX/s1600/1991+-+X-Men+1+c.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" qba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIx6-xwY5HAEFmTzeUZZiEOP_aKRc1p1zbTw3tFDZmRC_gFDDAQ1U2sVOnFLkEPVaP329BAV2WwNN_MM_ix_kF8ojIuYsu9xjHwYCDa2kkMqYnjtw3awJW3wIiDo2MTSYae_qHXNhY5LAX/s400/1991+-+X-Men+1+c.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Picking the teams</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The plan was for Chris Claremont to write both books with X-Men vol.2 being pencilled by Jim Lee, and the Uncanny X-Men being pencilled by Whilce Portacio beginning with issue #281 in 1991.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">According to Amazing Heroes #188, early plans consisted of Cyclops, Rogue, Psylocke and Iceman starring in Uncanny X-Men, and Marvel Girl, Storm, Beast, Wolverine and Gambit starring in X-Men vol.2. Professor X would lead both teams with assistance from Forge.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“(Editor) Bob Harras basically thought that (Jubilee) was not a viable contribution to the team mix,” Claremont revealed in Comics Interview #98. “His feeling was that by focussing a lot of attention and energy on a new kid character, it functioned to take a step or two away from the established characters. He wanted to restore the focus more tightly on them, so he decided to shunt Jubilee into the background for a while. The same sort of thing is probably going to happen to Forge and Banshee. They’ll be there, but they’ll be background characters like Jarvis in The Avengers.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The X-Men team currently, I believe, is Cyclops, Wolverine, Rogue, Psylocke, Beast, and Gambit,” Claremont told Amazing Heroes #192. “The Uncanny team is Storm, Jean Grey, Archangel, Iceman, Colossus, and a sixth character that we’re in the process of designing.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“We’re talking about introducing a brand new sixth character to the team,” Claremont confirmed in Comics Interview #98, “but at this point, nothing’s been defined about him.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">This sixth character eventually became Bishop, who debuted in Uncanny X-Men #282 after Claremont’s departure from writing that series.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“People’s assumptions were, “Scott (Summers, Cyclops) and Jean (Grey) will be together; Storm and Wolverine will be together; X-Factor will be together,” Claremont told Comics Interview #98. “We wanted to attack that head-on. (…) Some of the X-Factor characters went to one book, some went to another; Scott’s in one, Jean’s in the other; Storm’s in one, Wolverine’s in the other. We tried to create a mix that would leave each book with strengths all its own (…) Definitely new synergies.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYMPL2YMAk71l5qkyJprZjtslc_2O_lmzHoP0vOrlH5fBXqEnmzpr6AuZgqgcKX0tDDpeLgqtlsPVSklKWGF3YfWY3BSKPLuamK1M5MPbg8siBNO7YkSLssaWN017viGkjJVj0_AYfj2HF/s1600/1991+-+X-Men+1+a.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" qba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYMPL2YMAk71l5qkyJprZjtslc_2O_lmzHoP0vOrlH5fBXqEnmzpr6AuZgqgcKX0tDDpeLgqtlsPVSklKWGF3YfWY3BSKPLuamK1M5MPbg8siBNO7YkSLssaWN017viGkjJVj0_AYfj2HF/s640/1991+-+X-Men+1+a.gif" width="446" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">X-Men #0</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The first issue of X-Men, X-Men 1, my original idea was to do a double-sized sort of entry level book,” Claremont revealed in an Internet interview. ““What do we do with 53 X-Men?” I had this great sequence worked out where – we sort of hinted at it in what was X-Men 1 – I wanted to do this five page scene where Storm and Scott are in the danger room. Scott’s up in the booth, Storm’s down on the floor. You have this incredible fight going on, Brotherhood of Evil versus the X-Men, bodies flying everywhere. Storm just wanders through the middle of it, fights going on around her. She’s taking notes. They freeze it. Displays appear, assessing everybody’s performance. And what Scott and Storm are doing is running scenarios, mixing various members of the teams. “A twelve man team is unwieldy, you need to have six people teams, who’s the best mix? Does Jean go with Storm or with Scott? Where does Wolverine go? If Wolverine goes somewhere, where does Jubilee go? Should Jubilee go anywhere, or are we doing Kitty all over again?” Show them actually working this out, actively figuring out, “Where do we go from here? How do we protect the mansion?” Here’s Xavier trying to deal with what I’m doing with Moira.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“In the middle of this Magneto shows up. There’s the obligatory confrontation. There might even be a fight. The gist of it is that Magneto and Xavier have come to a parting of the waves. They can’t see each other’s point of view any longer. Magneto is certain that humanity will betray them. Xavier is just as certain that humanity will not. The statesman versus the terrorist, who knows which is right? They go their separate ways. The X-Men realize that there is a nasty world out there and they have to be ready. They divvy up the teams.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The first issue was a sort of, “Hi, if you’ve never read the X-Men before, this is what we’re all about. This is the mansion, these are the characters, this is why the characters exist, this is the world they live in.””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The whole story would be selfcontained in X-Men #1,” Claremont told Seriejournalen.dk. “The only function that issue had was basically as a primer to introduce new readers to the X-Men. What was the core of the team? What was the genesis of it? What was its reason for being? What was its major opposition? It was basically to restate the theme. (…) It was primarily to bring new readers in. If you wanted to give someone who had never read the X-Men before, but wanted to know what it was all about – give them X-Men #1. And then the end of it would be the springboard for the launch of the issues, which would begin with Uncanny X-Men #281 and X-Men #2. Ideally, X-Men #1 should’ve been X-Men #0.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Wolverine as a villain</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">According to Amazing Heroes #188, the books would then start off with three-issue storylines. The X-Men vol.2 team would go up against the Hand and Omega Red. The Uncanny X-Men team would go up against the Wild Boys – a group of sadisctic, young mutants who wanted to thin out the fearsome Hellfire Club for not being ruthless enough. One of the Wild Boys was Shinobi Shaw who had been introduced in X-Factor #67 in 1991. Despite Claremont’s departure from the book, the Wild Boys did make their scheduled debut in Uncanny X-Men #281, but as the Upstarts.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I had a whole arc built up (before leaving) leading up to Uncanny X-Men #300,” Claremont revealed in Wizard #85.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“(It would take) Wolverine through moderate degrees of hell along the way, making him a more natural character just because this is one of the things that always bugged everybody. Myself included,” Claremont told Wizard #51.“If he was going to have claws and all these abilities, why not make them natural, if for no other reason than it would save us a ton of explanation every three or four issues - then you get letters saying, “How could he do that?””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The way it was supposed to build, in my head, was that Wolverine would die and be resurrected somewhere in the late #280s,” Claremont revealed in Wizard’s X-Men Special. “And Wolverine would be a villain for the better part of a year-and-a-half, culminating in issue #294 where they get him back.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I was planning (Wolverine’s death) for X-Men #3,” Claremont told Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty. “(Editor) Bob (Harras)’ objection was, “What do we do with (the) Wolverine (series)?” My solution was easy for me to say, probably not easy for (Wolverine writer) Larry (Hama) to execute. “We do a book for two years where he is the villain, and the stories are how you deal with it because he is the villain in his own book.””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">““You have situations where you can bring in the Avengers – they could fight Wolverine and they could win,”” Claremont added in an Internet interview. “Of course, the hero would then lose in his own book. Or the hero can win in his own book, but that means the bad guys win - lots of possibilities. And I would have thought it would be a lot of fun.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">““You go into the relationships - why Charlie always felt he was integral to the X-Men, why he was the first one contacted, what is his past, his present, his future” – all sorts of ideas,” Claremont continued in Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty. “Basically, it floundered on the fact that it was too disruptive to the ongoing continuity stories involving Wolverine crossovers, Marvel Comics Presents Wolverine, the whole nine yards. That struck me as sort of absurd.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I write the X-Men, (Larry Hama) writes Wolverine, which is the senior book?” Claremont asked in the Internet interview. “Bob would come and shake his head and act as if he couldn’t deal with this person anymore.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw437jcpGDWDy2VOgff2CWmTm6AzIRIzerifZy9N7gRNauejx0YBUuv04RsDEvykKX-gM26N4fQpOywUl8lU_kqfXUOU7xXcTzxPrODnq3zVDNsyjafeXF1nkTNoJlA3mB84p2avmQoItu/s1600/Chris+100.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" qba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw437jcpGDWDy2VOgff2CWmTm6AzIRIzerifZy9N7gRNauejx0YBUuv04RsDEvykKX-gM26N4fQpOywUl8lU_kqfXUOU7xXcTzxPrODnq3zVDNsyjafeXF1nkTNoJlA3mB84p2avmQoItu/s320/Chris+100.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The death and resurrection of Wolverine</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“(X-Men) issue 2 I was going to kill Wolverine,” Claremont revealed in the Internet interview. “He would have a fight with Lady Deathstrike and she would rip out his heart. She’d die, he’d die, except he wouldn’t die because he has a healing factor, and he has his followers, so the Hand grab the body. They resurrect him. He comes back as the master assassin of the Hand. For two years, leading up to Uncanny X-Men 294 (in 1992), he would be the X-Men’s greatest foe. The story would range from Uncanny to X-Men and back again.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Along the way, an interesting thing was going to happen. Wolverine’s healing factor went into ultra high gear when he was “killed.” It was essentially rebuilding his heart. What would have happened if he had been left alone, his arms and legs would probably – this is really disgusting, but his arms and legs would have rotted, as his heart healed. His conscious mind would have been in total suspended animation. Everything about him would have been geared towards keeping his sentiency intact and repairing his heart – everything else would have been left to go. So assuming no scavengers came in and started to eat him, you would find this partially decomposed body with a fully healed torso, at which point the decomposed bits would begin to heal. It would take a long time and be disgusting beyond words, but ultimately he would have survived.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“One of the side effects of this, the healing factor is purging all non-organic matter, which means the adamantium. So what was going to happen was, it would start to leech out of his skin. There would be a time where Wolverine would look like the Silver Surfer with hair. He’d be this blinding, shining creature with killer claws. Ultimately, the adamantium would just be part of his hair – he’d look like a silver porcupine.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Wolverine’s heroic victory</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Scott and company are figuring, “Wolverine’s gone bad, we gotta put him down,”” Claremont continued in the Internet interview. “Xavier is unmoveably adamant about the need to save him, the need to salvage him, to bring him back to the light.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Jean would go in and try to rescue him and end up becoming his evil babe, though not really – she would be faking it this time. She is trying to tap into the Wolverine, which is buried beneath all of the Hand’s spell.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“At some point in the storyline, Colussus and he would have a major fight, and it would have this great cover: It would be a black background with a spotlight of light and in the centre of the spotlight are two sets of claws with the housings, just as if they had been ripped out of his arms, and one of the claws would be broken. What was going to happen in that issue was that Colossus was just going to pull the claws off from their roots.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“So, of course, the Hand would then give him artificial claws. They would work or not work as the case may be, but again, as part and parcel of the healing process, gradually he would realise that he was growing something new. That there is a natural element in his body that gives him claws. And over a span of six issues, you would see them grow. They would be growing faster than normal because of the accelerated healing.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“So, when all is said and done, it would come down to a major league fight between the X-Men and Wolverine. A major component of the fight would be Wolverine’s battle with himself - with the goodness of his soul, the warrior of his soul, fighting this demon he has become, and he would win. The adamantium would flake off and eventually he would stand himself, reborn as a totally natural being. His bones and claws would be virtually unbreakable. They could be broken, but they would also heal. But because of the incredible stress he has been under for the past two years, his healing factor is like, “I’m tired. Don’t do this again… Not for a while, okay?””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“When all this is said and done, Wolverine is not only more vulnerable – he’s not going to butt his head through walls, because, “It hurts and why do I wanna hurt myself? Why don’t I just use the key? Or get Colossus to do it?” It is like Wolverine has come face to face with his own mortality and his own limitations, and it’s like, “I’m too old for this shit. We’ll find a better way.””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOQwwP84mZ2dlJFc5kyf-2cTVEuIA592YC_mCUWGaAnhb6e5FZ8SuDLlkxki0SXC75vXqT_37grxuRchPvuTfmADh2OPiNmNcXBIyKVl7Iw-8U-CIFLALHrPbO20EV89UUsDQpr60nMXMt/s1600/Scan0006.tif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" qba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOQwwP84mZ2dlJFc5kyf-2cTVEuIA592YC_mCUWGaAnhb6e5FZ8SuDLlkxki0SXC75vXqT_37grxuRchPvuTfmADh2OPiNmNcXBIyKVl7Iw-8U-CIFLALHrPbO20EV89UUsDQpr60nMXMt/s400/Scan0006.tif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The love triangle</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“(The storyline) would create a bond between (Wolverine) and Jean like nothing that’s gone before,” Claremont continued in the Internet interview. “So that even if she was still in love with Scott, there would be a level of communication between her and Wolverine that Scott could only dream about - or have nightmares about, it depends on your point of view.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“It was going to involve Jean Grey being forced to choose between Cyclops and Wolverine,” Claremont added in Wizard #85.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The triangle between (Wolverine) and Jean and Scott would come to an end, hopefully not how people expect,” Claremont revealed in Wizard’s X-Men Special 2003.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I think it would have been nice to set up a rivalry,” Claremont told Back Issue #4. “I think it would have been fun to add some romantic tension to this book. I think it was something that evolved in concert with Dark Phoenix. So a lot of possible romantic consequences of what we set up ended up dying with Jean. End of story, move on. And we did. That’s when the Mariko stuff was really blowing into the forefront, because Jean was out of the picture, completely. Then she came back and things got complicated again.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The thing with Jean is it’s just pure chemistry. They walk into a room together and sparks fly and they have no idea where this is coming from.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“He sees Jean, Jean sees him, hormones kick in, the rational brain checks into the Happy Hour hotel, and everyone else runs for cover.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYWBU_-oPHkrOZik-mbHcgJy1Q3h9OYb6iex9BBBbldG3lp7EmP7EBUnEAk3rvYUOyvTy13szY8TeHp06Az3gRirC36J4ILazsmBCl2xxsEVOZd8Cj4FbkIOYyScaUWzNDoY72rrv2IUe_/s1600/Scan0011.tif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="342" qba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYWBU_-oPHkrOZik-mbHcgJy1Q3h9OYb6iex9BBBbldG3lp7EmP7EBUnEAk3rvYUOyvTy13szY8TeHp06Az3gRirC36J4ILazsmBCl2xxsEVOZd8Cj4FbkIOYyScaUWzNDoY72rrv2IUe_/s400/Scan0011.tif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Gambit: An evil traitor</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Although Claremont’s storyline about Wolverine’s death and resurrection was rejected by editor Bob Harras, and Claremont left the X-Men, Wolverine did end up getting the adamantium sucked out of him by Magneto in X-Men vol.2 #25 in 1993 written by Fabian Nicieza, resulting in him becoming the more natural character Claremont had envisioned. “A lot of my stories were rejected and has suddenly come up in the last three years as X-Men stories,” Claremont commented to Seriejournalen.dk.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Years later, in 2004-2005, Claremont’s idea for Wolverine to get killed and revived by the Hand as their master assassin ended up happening in Wolverine vol.3 #20-25 written by Mark Millar. That storyline only lasted for six months, though.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Claremont’s plan for Gambit was also used – although moderately – by subsequent writers, when new X-Man Bishop arrived from the future and accused Gambit of being a traitor to the team in X-Men vol.2 #8 in 1992. Gambit’s character and loyalties were also called into question by Yukio in Uncanny X-Men #312 in 1994 and by Sabretooth in X-Men vol.2 #33 the same year. Claremont revealed his original idea in his online Cordially Chris forum: “Gambit was created to – among other things – be an X-Men adversary who worked to undermine and destroy them from within. The connection to (Mr.) Sinister was part of his creation from the beginning – but that connection related exclusively to my idea of Sinister and the plans I had for him and the team following X-Men vol.2 #3.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">After Claremont had left the X-Men, Gambit became so popular a character that the subsequent writers backed out of the idea of him being a traitor or reconsidered it because it was what readers expected him to be. But in Uncanny X-Men #350 from 1997, written by Steve Seagle, it was revealed that Gambit was responsible for gathering Mr. Sinister’s Marauders and providing them access to the Morlock tunnels prior to the Mutant Massacre story in Uncanny X-Men #210-213 from 1986-1987. In the end, the X-Men forgave him for that past transgression and Gambit remained a hero.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">When Claremont returned to Marvel and the X-Men, he revealed in X-Men: The End – Book Two: Heroes & Martyrs #5 from 2005, that Gambit himself was one of Mr. Sinister’s clones. He was cloned from both Scott Summers’s and Mr. Sinister’s own DNA.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD5r_DhHxS-YAA8bugu2VSmOOepQ7Y0RBbBdUpG_rg-Io2g-yqcp4ZSU2L5dtGlQVC5BSS1lDo4Nm0K1ZefkrSqUN4d1VmEcj6ouViwLpy0RsFsOuPPkxnnjnsyEXuNYRls3-SdyMBSWEr/s1600/Chris+96.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="203" qba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD5r_DhHxS-YAA8bugu2VSmOOepQ7Y0RBbBdUpG_rg-Io2g-yqcp4ZSU2L5dtGlQVC5BSS1lDo4Nm0K1ZefkrSqUN4d1VmEcj6ouViwLpy0RsFsOuPPkxnnjnsyEXuNYRls3-SdyMBSWEr/s320/Chris+96.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mutant weapons</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“My overarching goal was heading towards Uncanny #300 (in 1993) and taking the world up to the brink of the war between humans and mutants with the Shadow King at the heart of it,” Claremont revealed in Wizard #51.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“What I was building to was the final conflict with the Shadow King, which was the X-Men basically heading off what the Shadow King was trying to ignite – a war between humans and mutants, homo sapiens and homo superior,” Claremont told Seriejournalen.dk. “And where I was going to go from there I wasn’t sure, but that was issue 300 or so.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I was trying to build up a whole network of people who were using the concept of mutants, evolving the threat to the X-Men from pure prejudice to the realization on the part of the world at large that mutants are exploitable commodities – that to have a telepath working for you is a good thing. And that the danger now is going to come from governments, corporations and organisations trying to get – you know – the Earth’s governments worrying about a mutant (being used as a weapon), which is what the Shadow King was all about, and what the Hand with (Matsuo) Tsurayaba was all about, and what (Mr.) Sinister was all about.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In X-Men vol.2 #2 from 1991, a Russian general sold a weapon to Matsuo Tsurayaba. That weapon was the mutant Omega Red, but Claremont’s idea of mutants being used as weapons was never really used after he left the title, although it was later considered as a theme for Excalibur when Richard Ashford started writing that series with #72 in 1993.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Excalibur will be sent on rescue missions for various mutants,” Excalibur editor Suzanne Gaffney told Marvel Age #131. “They will realize that a lot of mutants are being used as pawns internationally. For example, countries will horde mutants like they are nuclear weapons to use against each other or to keep mutants from being used against them. Some of these mutants will be joining the team. Some of them will be staying for a couple of issues. There will be new members coming in and going out with a solid core of the three of them (Shadowcat, Nightcrawler and Phoenix).”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">However, Ashford’s tenure as Excalibur writer became shortlived. He only wrote three issues of the series before Scott Lobdell took over and moved the storyline in other directions. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk1YTxNDsN9xKDKCpPITvn9f5M-1IwhMXhFlBdMPmjWBvJf24EoF7FAjnZ6FM9x61Q9NZzKoY_sYPrmTK3weS8OzRTyZ8EcVdeMqDaq6jOgfeIiaO6EFVt0q4adJhUw_ZsDIR4X0p2YCPd/s1600/Chris+97.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" qba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk1YTxNDsN9xKDKCpPITvn9f5M-1IwhMXhFlBdMPmjWBvJf24EoF7FAjnZ6FM9x61Q9NZzKoY_sYPrmTK3weS8OzRTyZ8EcVdeMqDaq6jOgfeIiaO6EFVt0q4adJhUw_ZsDIR4X0p2YCPd/s320/Chris+97.gif" width="258" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The death of Xavier</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Then it leads us to the final confrontation with the Shadow King, which would culminate with Charlie’s death in the 300’s and the official passing of the torch to Magneto,” Claremont revealed in Wizard’s X-Men Special 2003. “That was actually the whole goal of the Uncanny X-Men arc from #200 (in 1985) to #300 (in 1993). The whole point was that (Professor) Charles (Xavier) dies in a fight with the Shadow King, and Magneto would end up running the school.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“And that would have closed the circle,” Claremont added in Uncanny X Cast Episode 77. “It would’ve been a moment where in the final confrontation, Charlie would’ve sacrificed his life to save the world. It would’ve been the kind of thing where I structured it out so that you had tease after tease, so you’d say, “Oh, no! This is it! Oh, no! This is it! Oh, no! This is it!” And he gets away with it each time because he’s just wonderful, and then – right at the end – out of nowhere there was gonna come a moment where someone had the drop on Magneto and the two of them come together and it’s a toss-up – they’re both trying to save the other, determined, “I’m not gonna let you die.” “I’m not gonna let YOU die!” And the gun fires, and Charlie’s just pulling every way of cheating that he can, and Magneto’s blocking the bullets.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Both of them can’t survive. One of them has to die. And Charlie is the one who dies, ‘cause he’s dying anyway for other reasons. He sacrifices himself to save his friend. The argument, the rationale is that Charlie’s fate is he knows where he stands. The whole point of the excersise is for Magneto to redeem himself and the only way to prove that is to actually put his back to the wall and say, “You’ve got to choose now. No more fucking around.””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I really had no effective plans beyond the idea that I wanted Xavier once and for all to die in the 300<sup>th</sup> issue,” Claremont told Seriejournalen.dk.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlngwUFtWIRIu8Tn0l3nqCbQBKc4ASWJhcXr7JPBy41gc8cpctJr4kevz0LAruq9MtkIXncYU4OvjNHt8uSFHcswD-4pFNu1a_gTgo2jTnxbWdzQ4T-9qSeu435TPWQ8O5HFf_s792s-Wg/s1600/Chris+102.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="332" qba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlngwUFtWIRIu8Tn0l3nqCbQBKc4ASWJhcXr7JPBy41gc8cpctJr4kevz0LAruq9MtkIXncYU4OvjNHt8uSFHcswD-4pFNu1a_gTgo2jTnxbWdzQ4T-9qSeu435TPWQ8O5HFf_s792s-Wg/s400/Chris+102.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Goodbye, X-Men</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">With Claremont resigning from the X-Men, none of his plans for the merged X-Men and X-Factor teams reached fruition. Instead, he wrapped up his run with a story of the new X-Men teams versus Magneto. “Magneto, he has the power to turn the world on end, yet the very nature and degree of the forces he manipulates have quite probably, in my structure of the character, driven him mad, and will continue to do so,” Claremont told Back Issue #4.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“(X-Men vol.2 #) 1, 2 and 3 were basically my wrapping up as many loose ends as were available,” Claremont added to Seriejournalen.dk. “It was not a happy time – they’re not very good issues, I think. And that’s the way of it. But that book at that point was in the process of being defined by the editor and the new writers and artists – the way they wanted it – and has been so ever since.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Claremont left readers with a final couple of unresolved plots. At the start of X-Men vol.2 #1 from 1991, Major Harry Delgado chased a team of criminal mutants on their way to Magneto’s Asteroid M. At the end of the issue, he was fighting alongside the same mutants, who had now become Magneto’s Acolytes. Beast and Wolverine wondered how that came about, but the mystery was never solved. Subsequent writers decided to introduce all-new Acolytes, rather than using the ones Claremont had created.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Also, in X-Men vol.2 #1, Wolverine recognized the new villain, the Upstart Fabian Cortez, but it was never revealed how Wolverine knew him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioe2lcRWeC9lU9fZDhN4Kw9lHzTGOm8ukYWHIr5hSIN2APMaOA2VCvB0dYOllzOfRBBRYeCJhjVGQD4NmBqgXfYvkwaERO0Bw7O6UUwzdGMBAC3QVqjxrL5nog9ETeUyKhXmA9tRcTalYb/s1600/Chris+103.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" qba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioe2lcRWeC9lU9fZDhN4Kw9lHzTGOm8ukYWHIr5hSIN2APMaOA2VCvB0dYOllzOfRBBRYeCJhjVGQD4NmBqgXfYvkwaERO0Bw7O6UUwzdGMBAC3QVqjxrL5nog9ETeUyKhXmA9tRcTalYb/s320/Chris+103.gif" width="171" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><strong>Sources:</strong></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">?: Chris Claremont, Internet interview, 1994</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Amazing Heroes #188, March 1991</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Chris Hutchins: Chris Claremont, Wizard #85, September 1998</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Cordially Chris, comixfan.com/xfan/, 2003</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Jim Lee: Dynamic Duo, Wizard #51, November 1995</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Anya Martin: Excalibur Reborn!, Marvel Age #131, December 1993</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Darwin McPherson: An Exact Man, Amazing Heroes #192, July 1991</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Patrick Daniel O’Neill: Chris Claremont, Comics Interview #98, 1991</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: Jim Lee Interview, Marvel Age #104, September 1991</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: Pro 2 Pro – Claremont And Byrne: Wolverine At 30, Back Issue #4, June 2004</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tue Sørensen and Ulrik Kristiansen: Chris Claremont Interview, seriejournalen.dk, 1995</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Uncanny X Cast Episode 77, pod-cast, 2009</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
Wizard’s X-Men Special, 2003</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>Scififilmnerdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13068646164385257711noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5108928770317234018.post-31357715004625595912012-05-10T08:10:00.000-07:002012-05-10T08:10:05.774-07:00The final days of the X-Men<div class="Section1">
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The destruction and revamping of the team leading up to the Mutant Wars and Chris Claremont’s departure from writing the series.</span></h2>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7aU8CIK6MGyj6bXsg1IIt7yPuImdMMFyAkXn6XnPODbo4fLMEs0DGItGO1qp4-KhFrxFdxRBsw3yJ_mOM2hsQ9jQk5V8S2mr-Ie15iACOfAYJDrokfsm0GPVXoFKJpEGiXeASej3AzxmJ/s1600/Chris+83.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dba="true" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7aU8CIK6MGyj6bXsg1IIt7yPuImdMMFyAkXn6XnPODbo4fLMEs0DGItGO1qp4-KhFrxFdxRBsw3yJ_mOM2hsQ9jQk5V8S2mr-Ie15iACOfAYJDrokfsm0GPVXoFKJpEGiXeASej3AzxmJ/s400/Chris+83.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Following Uncanny X-Men #250 in 1989, the book headed in a new direction featuring “the destruction and revamping of the team,” as phrased by writer Chris Claremont in Marvel Age #85. “As for this new team, we’ve already introduced one new member – Jubilee. Other characters may be developed until they can be considered new people, and in some cases, new characters WILL be introduced.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The first character to get developed in a new direction was Lorna Dane (formerly Polaris). When her sister Zaladane stole her magnetic powers in Uncanny X-Men #250 in 1989, Lorna Dane mysteriously grew in size and developed extra physical strength and invulnerability instead. In Uncanny X-Men #254 from the same year, Dr. Moira MacTaggert reached the conclusion that Lorna was absorbing energy, but she never got around to perform further tests to determine what energy and from what source. In Marvel Age #85, it said: “No longer Polaris; (Lorna Dane) may soon take on a new super hero name to go along with her new powers.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu9peKbGmeq9RAh3GUyFTBU20WRASFBHUmpvQO0QdMotSpAhK1BYBFNshV5RhaQ1NQKZZch4MpG3WFbq5DOglHG8Hw5ONWj8bTCREt_a0v9QRXfHySeMl07JoxM98lFdnpTUEkcUfV61sw/s1600/Chris+84.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dba="true" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu9peKbGmeq9RAh3GUyFTBU20WRASFBHUmpvQO0QdMotSpAhK1BYBFNshV5RhaQ1NQKZZch4MpG3WFbq5DOglHG8Hw5ONWj8bTCREt_a0v9QRXfHySeMl07JoxM98lFdnpTUEkcUfV61sw/s400/Chris+84.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Lorna Dane also seemed to have gained the power to catalyse negative emotions. In Uncanny X-Men #257 in 1990, she noticed that she brought forth the worst sides of the people around her, including Legion’s. He had multiple personalities of which the worst was Jack Wayne. He killed Destiny in Uncanny X-Men #255 in 1989 and captured Lorna in #257, intending to take control of everyone on Muir Island through Legion’s telepathic ability. However, in Uncanny X-Men #259 in 1990, the Shadow King possessed Legion and usurped Jack Wayne’s plan.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipg_PLZzYKYEw-PtTwruaSMb0eMXqNcTkkVj4rW1WfeFYdndzanCjmPSH7lmDv2znQ2XskTsUhM8XT4QG6T4yS1Szr_viXvUeEeGSWCh3luXE6vuc7fEPBfrCxG4GDUuNec_wLvCVS2ooX/s1600/Chris+85.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dba="true" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipg_PLZzYKYEw-PtTwruaSMb0eMXqNcTkkVj4rW1WfeFYdndzanCjmPSH7lmDv2znQ2XskTsUhM8XT4QG6T4yS1Szr_viXvUeEeGSWCh3luXE6vuc7fEPBfrCxG4GDUuNec_wLvCVS2ooX/s400/Chris+85.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5zBdB8JAioY-9xBQcH8y5gAlnxIiq2xYAkjVo_4BTZmZgvnkp3kARjTIoEA1-fvB-mDT_3y8jJBwq_zBaJrU5SIGqhp6ljy5kWaqMkH8J2ASErhpb7Oqnq5MojMLOJL2_B9eGNaL5dLil/s1600/Chris+86.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dba="true" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5zBdB8JAioY-9xBQcH8y5gAlnxIiq2xYAkjVo_4BTZmZgvnkp3kARjTIoEA1-fvB-mDT_3y8jJBwq_zBaJrU5SIGqhp6ljy5kWaqMkH8J2ASErhpb7Oqnq5MojMLOJL2_B9eGNaL5dLil/s400/Chris+86.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Uncanny X-Men #269 from 1990, it was revealed that the Shadow King was now in control of Legion and through him everyone else on Muir Island. Obviously, Lorna Dane’s new powers came along before the Shadow King, but when Chris Claremont left the book, subsequent writer Fabian Nicieza attributed the powers to the Shadow King’s influence, so that when Muir Island was freed from his influence in Uncanny X-Men #280 in 1991, Lorna lost her new powers and shrank to normal size.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In X-Factor #70 from 1991, written by Peter David, Lorna Dane was back to being Polaris, complete with magnetic powers and completely without explanation, ignoring Claremont’s character development.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVQHcNwJEnx6dcUJ3XI6iTqXhxRCQr2Us6SVew72MmaoyY5OYD3uiVtMuwWWvB1XamPbZtA1lAk7-AkpYHKL6pz6yeDvcCc8x6f6Q49Vx_fBrY9F6Bx_8kgvu8kCbq-i3p33QYg8IxI1op/s1600/Chris+72.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dba="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVQHcNwJEnx6dcUJ3XI6iTqXhxRCQr2Us6SVew72MmaoyY5OYD3uiVtMuwWWvB1XamPbZtA1lAk7-AkpYHKL6pz6yeDvcCc8x6f6Q49Vx_fBrY9F6Bx_8kgvu8kCbq-i3p33QYg8IxI1op/s320/Chris+72.gif" width="272" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">A brand new Psylocke</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br />Another X-Man who was taken in a new direction was Psylocke. In Uncanny X-Men #255 from 1989, the Hand sent her to Spiral’s Body Shoppe, where Mojo and Spiral transformed her body into that of an Asian woman, so she could better serve as The Hand’s assassin in Hong Kong.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuQVLlPOLDEBwiKFYOu4wrewSnraEKqLkAFPZHyR0K2iLxluArt9kZsL45N1vJT1syhhPmYZFqXLIa1-uMdaIpSzYDddDQxfJNqZIffs9d2tJLf1gd1WOxhHtXbAYpBxIjBxtha3tS3Ezl/s1600/Chris+73.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dba="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuQVLlPOLDEBwiKFYOu4wrewSnraEKqLkAFPZHyR0K2iLxluArt9kZsL45N1vJT1syhhPmYZFqXLIa1-uMdaIpSzYDddDQxfJNqZIffs9d2tJLf1gd1WOxhHtXbAYpBxIjBxtha3tS3Ezl/s320/Chris+73.gif" width="189" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Although Psylocke had simply been through Spiral’s Body Shoppe like Lady Deathstrike in Uncanny X-Men #205 in 1986, that didn’t stop subsequent writer Fabian Nicieza from writing a complicated story in X-Men vol.2 #21-23 in 1993, where Psylocke had instead switched minds with an Asian woman, Kwannon (Revanche). In X-Men vol.2 #31-32 from 1994 he did add that Spiral had been involved with the body switching, though.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhve6mlPN5-5j5cnXcxH7pn8JfLRf7pvkddF0iGGIWdnAODk0qhyphenhyphenJ3QMxxVyy3JYPolTk8s8_4FyTeu4I06gFHZgS9n7W1zF-nBLhVgERtdL8l44UiiIXnHCcd0puTRfQYFzRgT8ZM_-4At/s1600/Chris+70.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dba="true" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhve6mlPN5-5j5cnXcxH7pn8JfLRf7pvkddF0iGGIWdnAODk0qhyphenhyphenJ3QMxxVyy3JYPolTk8s8_4FyTeu4I06gFHZgS9n7W1zF-nBLhVgERtdL8l44UiiIXnHCcd0puTRfQYFzRgT8ZM_-4At/s400/Chris+70.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Uncanny X-Men #254 from 1989, the precognitive Destiny had a vision wherein everything was made of the purest crystal. In Uncanny X-Men #255 from the same year, she told Forge that some future elements were obscured in her visions; while others could be perceived so clearly it was as though all eternity had been cast from cut crystal. The crystal in her vision must then have been but a metaphor for a crystal clear future, where the glory that existed in place of all stars and beings - and which finally enveloped her self – was death. A small part of her wanted to deny and fight this destiny, but it was too late to save her self. Throughout the vision she had an hourglass on her forehead with time running out, predicting her own death in Uncanny X-Men #255.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7BvoKDGb9zx9KvoEKARfO-O15s4xBL47KhXpiRHvZ2Ijf5hggkyK2f3xurJyYEft1VDttkuV4X1hsLlsiuWIBeZLifhLn4i5dHOTqADklIH8krY35kvSxQM35E55WqPDPg6Eb4tFD5n3G/s1600/Chris+71.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dba="true" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7BvoKDGb9zx9KvoEKARfO-O15s4xBL47KhXpiRHvZ2Ijf5hggkyK2f3xurJyYEft1VDttkuV4X1hsLlsiuWIBeZLifhLn4i5dHOTqADklIH8krY35kvSxQM35E55WqPDPg6Eb4tFD5n3G/s320/Chris+71.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">It is possible that the vision was a warning of the danger posed by the Shadow King, because in Uncanny X-Men #279 from 1991 he planned to claim the stars, but Claremont left the series before the vision came true. Subsequent writers took the crystal in the vision literally and used it as inspiration for two connected crossovers between the X-Men line of books in 1995, “Legion Quest” and “The Age Of Apocalypse.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9ZdibnybCBQdp3CcfnPtZhT8dEhJhYNbM4jOoEPRdC803bqoUmXnTZyuAzJND65RpsUcuJWWm-RQ8U4xYLfM-ERtvloaexIEkvh8B9rKUCcbG4zkT9fjWySfYeVCOKg4iZ4f9BeQF__2v/s1600/Chris+88.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dba="true" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9ZdibnybCBQdp3CcfnPtZhT8dEhJhYNbM4jOoEPRdC803bqoUmXnTZyuAzJND65RpsUcuJWWm-RQ8U4xYLfM-ERtvloaexIEkvh8B9rKUCcbG4zkT9fjWySfYeVCOKg4iZ4f9BeQF__2v/s400/Chris+88.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cyborg madness</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Uncanny X-Men #260 from 1990, pilot Cylla Markham, a friend of Banshee’s, was badly hurt and in Uncanny X-Men #261 that same year, she accepted an offer from Donald Pierce to become one of his cyborg Reavers. In Uncanny X-Men #269, also from 1990, he made her into his new Shullbuster, replacing the one who had died in Uncanny X-Men #255 in 1989. Claremont didn’t get to introduce the finished result before leaving the series, but in Wolverine vol.2 #55-57 from 1992, writer Larry Hama introduced a cyborg created by Donald Pierce that went by the name Cylla. This cyborg bore no resemblance to the new Skullbuster and was killed off in Wolverine vol.2 #78 in 1994. Then, the original Skullbuster reappeared without explanation in the 1997 Domino mini-series written by Ben Raab.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgix9afoIjoK-gOveddPX9ZTZPVI2rlXmuBryVFZ-Ej_SJMwbFT4BRpSz9MUTzihhb4Nk_n2Jj7CjGfJ_b1YtWTgFiFTdRsE8wkKJ0Cx9ZIBX5ravU9lvNXEsxF7Ed87nKz9v7z0m_vpn27/s1600/Chris+89.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dba="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgix9afoIjoK-gOveddPX9ZTZPVI2rlXmuBryVFZ-Ej_SJMwbFT4BRpSz9MUTzihhb4Nk_n2Jj7CjGfJ_b1YtWTgFiFTdRsE8wkKJ0Cx9ZIBX5ravU9lvNXEsxF7Ed87nKz9v7z0m_vpn27/s320/Chris+89.gif" width="276" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">When Claremont returned to Marvel, Cylla Markham finally debuted as the new Skullbuster in X-Treme X-Men Annual 2001, ignoring what had happened in between his stints as X-Men writer.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha5OM-wq6X9T1G0vK_eIIgHKukr0QY8p8xV7jJkiOXGl4gCYqqsxvNizEwMFEhPq7zpH7g68rVjRIklNst_CN-e7WZjxxJreuvuLPMcMq54gBdfAuv7uEYfjQsj2vjV39bIeGrE1fj_8YS/s1600/Chris+90.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dba="true" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha5OM-wq6X9T1G0vK_eIIgHKukr0QY8p8xV7jJkiOXGl4gCYqqsxvNizEwMFEhPq7zpH7g68rVjRIklNst_CN-e7WZjxxJreuvuLPMcMq54gBdfAuv7uEYfjQsj2vjV39bIeGrE1fj_8YS/s400/Chris+90.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Uncanny X-Men #262 in 1990, Donald Pierce sent his Reavers after his former Hellfire Club colleague Emma Frost, but they never caught up with her. Claremont was building up to a final confrontation between the Reavers and the X-Men, which never happened, because subsequent writer John Byrne had the Upstart Trevor Fitzroy’s Sentinels kill off all the Reavers, except Lady Deathstrike and Cylla Markham, in Uncanny X-Men #281 in 1991. All of them were revived for the X-Treme X-Men 2001 annual, though.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaH-aWaOilmEsifylfXXY82HSdoxtvVkC52w1u7I2X5k7yNZk2T-5alL5nEHl1prbi16iTqq_pFGipodCyf7tWVSmShCmXEyZ4awbs-zS3I_eevS4IuTZbBM3NtPgoF3VyEvsb5hyHtiRO/s1600/Chris+87.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dba="true" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaH-aWaOilmEsifylfXXY82HSdoxtvVkC52w1u7I2X5k7yNZk2T-5alL5nEHl1prbi16iTqq_pFGipodCyf7tWVSmShCmXEyZ4awbs-zS3I_eevS4IuTZbBM3NtPgoF3VyEvsb5hyHtiRO/s400/Chris+87.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">“The Mutant Wars – The First Salvo”</span></span></h3>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">In New Mutants #75 from 1989, writer Louise Simonson dropped the first hint to the coming Mutant Wars crossover in the X-Men family of books. Hellfire Club members Sebastian Shaw and Magneto debated the future of mutantkind, with Shaw mentioning various mutant factions and Magneto predicting a war between those factions.</span></span></h3>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span> </h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBG9jG_mE4GKkD99zh8-rF8_pWRxKSkJeIS3Sy8LCj9Up2DPPe6aGZYEcCTW9VKeSjs7bqP3EzTsMK_TRschJyQUYp9GpgGgdkVMh9c0FSw7VTfVxVIKnrulNS9DmnC1HR3liWWqkG2sxn/s1600/Chris+74.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dba="true" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBG9jG_mE4GKkD99zh8-rF8_pWRxKSkJeIS3Sy8LCj9Up2DPPe6aGZYEcCTW9VKeSjs7bqP3EzTsMK_TRschJyQUYp9GpgGgdkVMh9c0FSw7VTfVxVIKnrulNS9DmnC1HR3liWWqkG2sxn/s400/Chris+74.gif" width="393" /></a></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span> </h3>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Four 1990 annuals (Fantastic Four Annual #23, New Mutants Annual #6, X-Factor Annual #5 and X-Men Annual #14) featured a “Days Of Future Present” crossover that set the stage for the “Mutant Wars” crossover that would appear in the regular titles that fall. “X-Factor will play a pivotal role in this fall’s “Mutant Wars,” as the first salvo is fired leading to “Days Of Future Past,”” Marvel Age Preview #1 advertised. “Mutant against mutant, faction against faction, each trying to be the strongest – the survivors. As seen in “Days Of Future Past” (Uncanny X-Men #141-142 in 1981), the future is bleak. The lines have already been drawn, and the mutants in the Marvel Universe have formed their allegiances: The Hellfire Club, Apocalypse’s forces, Sebastian Shaw’s renegade faction of The Hellfire Club, the re-formed X-Men, X-Factor, The Marauders, The New Mutants (led by their mysterious new leader, Cable), Legion (controlled by Farouk (Shadow King), in turn controlling Moira MacTaggert).”</span></span></h3>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span> </h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The first salvo in the Mutant Wars will cross from X-Men to New Mutants to Excalibur to X-Factor for three months this fall. The action will run in a tight continuity from each issue to the next. Only the four mutant titles will be directly involved. The heroes will try to stop the other mutants from splitting into warring factions. But for most, survival is the issue, even if it means sacrificing fellow mutants.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Before we reach “The Mutant Wars,” we have to answer some key questions and resolve some major storylines. The new X-Men team will have to be established, and the world will have to learn that they are still alive. Once begun, “The Mutant Wars” will continue to affect the lives of every mutant in the Marvel Universe for years to come. It will be the most important event in the mutant milieu since the death of Phoenix.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The issues: X-Men #267-269, New Mutants #95-97, Excalibur #28-30, X-Factor #60-62.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjnfRCKflpipO4bI83ELeDclRS6_PxMPzVqlZwEsEUTnteFWylXPRP1RMO5H86OaTZZCHKUsDXQKdj83-rWpyiQyKdJ_sApdCdfKq2WrIXzTkU_hGhDIWQ2osYNwpovmb9F51_xwaSRhZ6/s1600/X-Men-JimLee-Poster-Tribute01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dba="true" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjnfRCKflpipO4bI83ELeDclRS6_PxMPzVqlZwEsEUTnteFWylXPRP1RMO5H86OaTZZCHKUsDXQKdj83-rWpyiQyKdJ_sApdCdfKq2WrIXzTkU_hGhDIWQ2osYNwpovmb9F51_xwaSRhZ6/s400/X-Men-JimLee-Poster-Tribute01.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">A big mystery</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The X-Men will come back together to re-form the team – just in time for the first salvo in the Mutant Wars,” Marvel Age Preview #1 announced. “Dazzler, Forge and Banshee are searching for the others, trying to learn who survived the confrontation with (the Reavers in Uncanny X-Men #251, 1989). Their investigations take them beneath the ruins of the X-Mansion, where they face the vengeance of the Morlock called Masque. They are joined by Marvel Girl.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The Masque story took place in Uncanny X-Men #262-263 in 1990, but without Dazzler. Forge and Banshee learned that she was alive in Uncanny X-Men #260 that same year, but they never searched her out, and she was suffering from amnesia and didn’t remember the X-Men.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Wolverine, Jubilee and Psylocke also seek their surviving teammates,” Marvel Age Preview #1 stated.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“(Wolverine) sort of cold-bloodedly took Jubilee along with him when he set out to find the other X-Men,” Claremont told Comics Interview #98. “He knew they were alive. He had to find them and bring the team back together, one way or another. In the conception at the time - the storyline I was running - Wolverine was dying and he saw this as his farewell to arms. He was tying up all the loose ends of his life. He was restoring the balance, paying debts. His way of doing that was bringing the X-Men back together whether they wanted it or not.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Storm is on the run, trying to escape the clutches of Farouk (Shadow King),” Marvel Age Preview #1 continued. “The evil telepath controls Legion, and through him Muir Island. There, he is creating a dark version of Xavier’s school.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Excalibur must liberate Muir Island from Legion in time to prepare for “The Mutant Wars.””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Colossus is in New York’s Soho, stripped of his memories. In a crossover with X-Factor, he investigates when Ship crashes near his new home.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Colossus did meet X-Factor in X-Factor #54 in 1990, but in a different story.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The whereabouts of Havok and Rogue remain to be seen,” Marvel Age Preview #1 stated. “As the heroes draw closer together, events taking place in this summer’s “Days Of Future Present” (in X-Men Annual #14, 1990) make it obvious that the Mutant Wars are about to begin.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">However, when Uncanny X-Men #267 finally appeared, there were no Mutant Wars! But selected Marvel comics cover dated May 1990 (like Sensational She-Hulk #15) featured a Bullpen Bulletins page announcing: “The start of the Mutant Wars in X-Men #271.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">But Uncanny X-Men #271 featured a “The X-Tinction Agenda” crossover instead. What happened to “The Mutant Wars” is a big mystery.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7XLa50kZALC6a2E-xZl9TMP23uqjMnFcn0zYP9CD0BSYKMgVr19G4LtloG9UhSVggugJOLSeGA__RPgV4d7nDXAeC6yZgrV3N_E86gNAk1S9I5wxAerWIztjhc9LPLN6q_AuEZ8L4QzpI/s1600/Chris+98.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dba="true" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7XLa50kZALC6a2E-xZl9TMP23uqjMnFcn0zYP9CD0BSYKMgVr19G4LtloG9UhSVggugJOLSeGA__RPgV4d7nDXAeC6yZgrV3N_E86gNAk1S9I5wxAerWIztjhc9LPLN6q_AuEZ8L4QzpI/s400/Chris+98.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Magneto vs. Shadow King</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Uncanny X-Men #275 from 1991, Magneto recalled an untold confrontation between him and the Shadow King. He felt sick shame at the awful cost of his survival. The circumstances of the confrontation and the shameful cost of Magneto’s survival were never revealed, and when a fan asked about it years later, in 2003, on the online Codially Chris forum, Claremont replied: “I hate to say this but my presumption is that anything dating from the previous millennium, and certainly my first tenure on “X-Men” (as opposed to my second, slightly 21<sup>st</sup> century tenure) is considered in-house to be ancient history and not worth relating to. Since the likelihood of seeing the Shadow King again is as small as seeing my own incarnation of Magneto, I don’t see the point of revisiting old storylines, and thereby re-opening old wounds. </span>Sorry.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxIvzR4_ZNme0GOZxT8IBsp-WB9q9KTOnDUoY845z3sSbR7LqAU_TeeyNp9CQ6GzKBajbGjO9j6-jHQQvks9m1eGKWveRo8M0aMR7KT3rJgNpENAqI_JAcJzSOv9w2MVOpBnJP2WpdGTcL/s1600/Chris+99.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dba="true" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxIvzR4_ZNme0GOZxT8IBsp-WB9q9KTOnDUoY845z3sSbR7LqAU_TeeyNp9CQ6GzKBajbGjO9j6-jHQQvks9m1eGKWveRo8M0aMR7KT3rJgNpENAqI_JAcJzSOv9w2MVOpBnJP2WpdGTcL/s400/Chris+99.gif" width="180" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Uncanny X-Men #275, Magneto also implied that the Shadow King was part of the Hellfire Club. This revelation corresponded with Excalibur #22 from 1990, where the Shadow King was revealed as the true ruler of the Hellfire Club in the “Days Of Future Past” future of Rachel Summers. “Shadow King didn’t found the Club,” Claremont stated in his Cordially Chris forum, “he simply exploited it for his own purposes.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4IlWfiSqJcaXZ-sbsJefVnSrLOzhgLDmYQiVJwnOtX7Avz4s4u9nd2pZ_dZ7_pEyRDsPtEr2W4a5LfeYGIdDMBZzsSLrYqaxRyYjtCtWeWuCV_2ndX7tUM3eSff1SpWiwbMInfkrCxZCd/s1600/Chris+95.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dba="true" height="117" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4IlWfiSqJcaXZ-sbsJefVnSrLOzhgLDmYQiVJwnOtX7Avz4s4u9nd2pZ_dZ7_pEyRDsPtEr2W4a5LfeYGIdDMBZzsSLrYqaxRyYjtCtWeWuCV_2ndX7tUM3eSff1SpWiwbMInfkrCxZCd/s400/Chris+95.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Uncanny X-Men #279 from 1991, Shadow King was in need of a new host body and had several candidates in mind. Who Claremont had intended for him to possess until the final battle with Professor Xavier in Uncanny X-Men #300 in 1993 remains unknown. Claremont left the X-Men with Uncanny X-Men #279, right in the middle of the Muir Island Saga, which featured Shadow King. All of Claremont’s story-elements were dropped between page 12 and 13 of that issue, and new writer, Fabian Nicieza, cut the Shadow King storyline short by having Professor X defeat him in the very next issue.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“My Muir Island story was much different from the one that appeared,” Claremont stated in a 1994 Internet interview.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnDZB_LWocXo8939-T-wYRmeLuSvX1mGmgvKi3geeqBChzxVOYzAsFXUcsPtUgegMYsm0PiskVNjJUYJ-WYc5fncDC3Br_VvI6kmNwDHM7J1tMyIvoO6Y-YzXg7bgWWokBXlzz5rdxJ6lD/s1600/Chris+104.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dba="true" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnDZB_LWocXo8939-T-wYRmeLuSvX1mGmgvKi3geeqBChzxVOYzAsFXUcsPtUgegMYsm0PiskVNjJUYJ-WYc5fncDC3Br_VvI6kmNwDHM7J1tMyIvoO6Y-YzXg7bgWWokBXlzz5rdxJ6lD/s400/Chris+104.gif" width="305" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-style: normal;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b><span style="font-style: normal;">Why Claremont quit</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“What happened was that the editor of the book and I had for a long period of time leading up to that point increasingly disagreed on the direction the book should go in – how the book should be handled,” Claremont told Seriejournalen.dk.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“My feeling is that I was in a position where I was the defining force on X-Men for longer than any of the editorial staff had been in professionel comics, much less working for Marvel,” Claremont explained in Wizard #22. “Yet a change in editor (to Bob Harras) created a situation where all of that credibility, history, and track record meant absolutely nothing. He was in charge. His decision was policy. My responsibility as an employee was to follow that policy or get the hell out of the way.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The problem was that (artist) Jim (Lee) was just as strong-willed as I was,” Claremont revealed in Comics Creators On X-Men. “Jim wanted to do stuff that reminded him of the things that made him get into comics in the first place. He wanted to bring back Magneto and do the Sentinels and all that sort of stuff. My problem was I’d already done those things… at least twice. I wanted to try and find some new stuff to do. New stuff for the new millennium, you know! We couldn’t find any sort of common ground that would allow us to compromise. Rob Liefeld had just forced Louise Simonson off New Mutants and that left a lot of frustration and negative resonance. Bob Harras was editing X-Men in those days and he was a lot more simpatico to Jim than he was to me. (…) Bob and Jim wanted to do what they wanted to do and the feeling was I could not or would not go along, and they were going to do it anyway.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The editor (Bob Harras) at that point made the decision that I should no longer plot the book,” Claremont told Seriejournalen.dk. “And when he made that decision I made my decision, which was that I wasn’t going to stay on it if I wasn’t plotting it – and left. The transition occurred on page 12 of Uncanny X-Men #279 (in 1991). That’s the last page I wrote.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The circumstances of my departure were such that there was no opportunity to tie up those loose ends,” Claremont said in Comics Focus #1, regarding all the unresolved subplots. “There was no practical way of doing it.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Wish I’d done differently?” Claremont asked himself 18 years later on Xmennation.com. “Gotten along better with Jim (Lee) and Bob (Harras) back in the day. Who knows what might have happened to sales back then had we stuck together?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> </span></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The editor’s point-of-view</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“When Jim (Lee) came aboard, he had a lot of ideas about what he wanted to do with the book and where he wanted to take the characters, and I liked those ideas,” editor Bob Harras admitted in Comics Creators On X-Men. “They were more in keeping with what I thought the book should be. With X-Men, there are some things you can’t get away from for too long: The school dynamics, Xavier, the fact that they’re essentially students learning how to use their powers and trying to teach other mutants to use their powers – that sort of thing.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“But the book was becoming more like Avengers. The X-Men now had aliens and magically-powered characters on the team. I felt like we had to go back to what X-Men was all about, and to me X-Men was Xavier and Scott and Jean and all the other classic characters. But Chris didn’t want to do that kind of stuff any more. He felt that he had done it already. My point was, “Sure, but THAT’s the X-Men!” It was getting so we were speaking the same language, but we couldn’t understand each other.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The other thing was, as the books were coming out during all this tension, they were getting better and better. There was more excitement in them. So I thought, “Okay, if we can get through this, Chris will see that we’re having a great ride here.” Not that it was pleasant, but the tension was being transformed into really dynamic comics that people were reacting to. I thought, “If we can just ride this out a little longer, everything’s going to settle down.” But that didn’t happen.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I had read Chris’ X-books for years, so his leaving was huge. I really wanted to work it out. I wanted Chris and Jim to be a team. When Chris opted out, there was this definite feeling of, “Holy shit!” But another part was, “Okay, we can still do this.” Because I DID believe in the characters, the concept, and that we could keep going.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipkRbnGpyRd549YXU_p7OtKpChp36CH0zeV5Qdj-XQVgghrLS8jAlA5R7XwD6yKRltGF6LRMCpCIDJiJbLQ-PUyTBJ1vUUeX0WaWuriXx_RA5iCzTXEX0vYild4RAM1riDLYDYdwq_HZCZ/s1600/Scan0009.tif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dba="true" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipkRbnGpyRd549YXU_p7OtKpChp36CH0zeV5Qdj-XQVgghrLS8jAlA5R7XwD6yKRltGF6LRMCpCIDJiJbLQ-PUyTBJ1vUUeX0WaWuriXx_RA5iCzTXEX0vYild4RAM1riDLYDYdwq_HZCZ/s400/Scan0009.tif" width="371" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">That year, in 1991, Fabian Nicieza wrote the “Kings Of Pain” crossover in New Mutants Annual #7, New Warriors Annual #1, Uncanny X-Men Annual #15 and X-Factor Annual #6 featuring the new villain Harness (Erika Benson) and her son Piecemeal (Gilbert). Harness was working for the A.I.M. organization and it was revealed that she also had a seven years old daughter who was in the care of A.I.M. However, Harness never appeared again, and her daughter never appeared anywhere at all.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><strong>Sources:</strong></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">?: Chris Claremont, Internet interview, 1994</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Comics Focus #1, June 1996</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Cordially Chris, comixfan.com/xfan/, 16 June 2003</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tom DeFalco: Comic Creaters On X-Men, April 2006</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Jordan Lurie: Creating Claremont, xmennation.com, 3 June 2009</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Marvel Age #85, February 1990</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Marvel Age Preview #1, 1990</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Patrick Daniel O’Neill: Chris Claremont, Comics Interview #98, 1991</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Patrick Daniel O’Neill: Claremont Returns With The Write Stuff, Wizard #22, June 1993</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tue Sørensen and Ulrik Kristiansen: Chris Claremont Interview, seriejournalen.dk, 1995</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>Scififilmnerdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13068646164385257711noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5108928770317234018.post-18512277894505488452012-04-26T07:13:00.000-07:002012-04-26T07:13:33.356-07:00Strip-mining Wolverine<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">How he got the adamantium bones and the false memory-implants.</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixb7_X1W1JF1O4Y6raT0P3H0Z6SUPtNIy7eFWIhHnb_0U0WCAcalU-VK_E86UJrZlGcGZOJKgvWkhN0MZz7twiVm5PRsOYKgL7n44ksKVc8U941U5cWil0THNd3zsVsjbYJkmAe3B_OiYs/s1600/1988+-+Wolverine.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixb7_X1W1JF1O4Y6raT0P3H0Z6SUPtNIy7eFWIhHnb_0U0WCAcalU-VK_E86UJrZlGcGZOJKgvWkhN0MZz7twiVm5PRsOYKgL7n44ksKVc8U941U5cWil0THNd3zsVsjbYJkmAe3B_OiYs/s640/1988+-+Wolverine.gif" width="416" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In 1988, Wolverine received his own ongoing series while still appearing in Uncanny X-Men. “I’m not surprised (Wolverine) became so popular because he is a really cool guy,” former X-Men artist John Byrne told Back Issue #4. “I wish he hadn’t gotten his own series. I think he’s kind of like a lot of Marvel characters – I always think of the Vision, who’s another really cool character, but who’s mostly cool because he’s in a group of people who aren’t like him. And Wolverine is the same – he’s in a group of people who aren’t like him, and therefore he’s really cool. But if you take him out of that environment, then there’s no checks, no balances, nothing for him to bounce off. Then you just have a homicidal maniac running around killing people.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“If I’d had my way, there would have been no ongoing series at all, but instead an annual mini-series with a defined beginning, middle and end,” X-Men writer Chris Claremont agreed to Berserkher.com. “The problem with an ongoing title is that you must provide perpetual grist for the mill. With a solo character, it’s only a matter of time before the temptation becomes irresistible to strip-mine those aspects of his history and character which make him so interesting and mysterious in the first place.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“A retailer recently told me, “If the audience wants 25 Wolverine series, give them 25 Wolverine series. Stuff the product down their throat like a goose, until they pop,”” Claremont recalled in Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty. “This doesn’t work because to me – I wanted to keep the work vital, I wanted to keep the creators interested and I wanted to keep the audience interested, but also I wanted to keep as much of the structural integrity of the canon as possible. This isn’t possible when you have Wolverine appearing regularly in X-Men, his own series and Marvel Comics Presents, plus guest-starring in Secret Defenders, whatever. I mean, for a guy who is fundamentally a loner, he gets around.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY64nUrKelOyMOgpksBkQhFFFaVzlIOtfmF2Y1YHqd5pW78KYkxOo-8QxDcBe9u_ZJDkf4Gc98zABJlXXzid8HBasbFRjyKR4qz5ntiJ5I3fpD2OB6M-rOjJ-W3612PU22Lw5a_vRSh21n/s1600/Chris+39.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="302" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY64nUrKelOyMOgpksBkQhFFFaVzlIOtfmF2Y1YHqd5pW78KYkxOo-8QxDcBe9u_ZJDkf4Gc98zABJlXXzid8HBasbFRjyKR4qz5ntiJ5I3fpD2OB6M-rOjJ-W3612PU22Lw5a_vRSh21n/s320/Chris+39.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Landau, Luckman & Lake</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Claremont introduced the villains Roughouse and Bloodscream in Wolverine vol.2 #4 in 1989. By their speech patterns, it was obvious that they were from Asgard, yet subsequent writer Archie Goodwin established Roughouse as a human in Wolverine vol.2 #17-23 from 1989-1990, and in Wolverine vol.2 #78 from 1994 Larry Hama established Bloodscream as a vampire from the Medieval Age. Years later, in the 2008 Iron Man: Director Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Annual #1 written by Christos N. Gage, they were back to being Asgardians.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZwIwlVgwBhj7dMFCR7tSiMDIUuZM0fP_Ub9SZee3-EHKNXFao6TriHymGZq7jSc_8mqkSOA2bCNfwSHIthVsKht7y51PkUL2PzbS8EXRVYgDMEE99X8NTPQt4jm8ia1S9evuQXEK69lqB/s1600/Chris+40.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="202" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZwIwlVgwBhj7dMFCR7tSiMDIUuZM0fP_Ub9SZee3-EHKNXFao6TriHymGZq7jSc_8mqkSOA2bCNfwSHIthVsKht7y51PkUL2PzbS8EXRVYgDMEE99X8NTPQt4jm8ia1S9evuQXEK69lqB/s400/Chris+40.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Claremont then introduced the company Landau, Luckman & Lake in Wolverine vol.2 #5 in 1989. The local expediter, Chang, had a picture of Wolverine and himself from the 19<sup>th</sup> century hanging on the wall in the Madripoor office.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKPoLhdOnsFOyMy29yVOVBFueNyjf6O7q2gG8yEoBuqOjn_vWjy6PvGNdJ_ZPCIDFlI9OeJtC9Pd_lJmCc9CVmDC4DVecyB7RuVFMU-LN_1jJ8mnRmlTVht8y9pBhDlVkeyeTdEUrFXZUz/s1600/Chris+41.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKPoLhdOnsFOyMy29yVOVBFueNyjf6O7q2gG8yEoBuqOjn_vWjy6PvGNdJ_ZPCIDFlI9OeJtC9Pd_lJmCc9CVmDC4DVecyB7RuVFMU-LN_1jJ8mnRmlTVht8y9pBhDlVkeyeTdEUrFXZUz/s320/Chris+41.gif" width="226" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Wolverine and Jubilee visited Landau, Luckman & Lake’s Hong Kong office in Uncanny X-Men #257 in 1990 where the local expediter, Rose Wu, also had a picture of Wolverine and herself on the wall, but this one was apparently taken in the future.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTHoYcIKz9tbvwOjJDdhQx1SDGckFM0-7TklbhNJ4cq6HqlNQ_ScX-ZoydWro1xPqRH-ZTDV4WdO8BP621v6hHqvWXqdYoBAJROorNVCZ5mR1yz0LytH1ccYHyf8flyQQvCSxEoUAeFkMv/s1600/Chris+44.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTHoYcIKz9tbvwOjJDdhQx1SDGckFM0-7TklbhNJ4cq6HqlNQ_ScX-ZoydWro1xPqRH-ZTDV4WdO8BP621v6hHqvWXqdYoBAJROorNVCZ5mR1yz0LytH1ccYHyf8flyQQvCSxEoUAeFkMv/s400/Chris+44.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Wolverine vol.2 #97 in 1996, subsequent writer Larry Hama interpreted the pictures as Landau, Luckman & Lake being an interdimensional company with doorways to other dimensions in each office. In Wolverine vol.2 #97, he also suggested that Rose Wu was a shapeshifer. Writer Howard Mackie filled in the story behind the pictures in the 1996 Logan: Path Of The Warlord one-shot.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhZz6Gmwq4dnubdPRJ5naOnBK9Fm1x-QRXYUM6-bzIWIqcqPvc3CDhocygDY3YqbAiJu2_JoGWE3fc-hJfEmSUqB97waxVV5d3Ky2MQFeD4M5gF-g-2AoKuQm5ODEJEfrGIpT9C2h5r1BU/s1600/Chris+42.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhZz6Gmwq4dnubdPRJ5naOnBK9Fm1x-QRXYUM6-bzIWIqcqPvc3CDhocygDY3YqbAiJu2_JoGWE3fc-hJfEmSUqB97waxVV5d3Ky2MQFeD4M5gF-g-2AoKuQm5ODEJEfrGIpT9C2h5r1BU/s320/Chris+42.gif" width="240" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Wolverine vol.2 #5, Wolverine had ordered a costume from Chang for “a colleague,” who turned out to be Psylocke, who started wearing the costume in Uncanny X-Men #232 in 1988. It was revealed that the costume wasn’t of earthly origins when it was used to defeat Bloodscream. The origin of the costume remains unrevealed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhETm2AUMJqwysaQ8lf4ib0SZIKyhtihUi0jheWW0G-Po2BmF2qabbuolIcV7aQy0AbMxwCs0xIRcirsz1evPM6tolIMxJ8De4AXKWDefeuKP5rO1hptKIeGSt_xUb54edxd9OKWzEYpkp2/s1600/Chris+43.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhETm2AUMJqwysaQ8lf4ib0SZIKyhtihUi0jheWW0G-Po2BmF2qabbuolIcV7aQy0AbMxwCs0xIRcirsz1evPM6tolIMxJ8De4AXKWDefeuKP5rO1hptKIeGSt_xUb54edxd9OKWzEYpkp2/s400/Chris+43.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“As it stands now there are plans to bring Jean Grey in for an issue to do a “Casablanca”-type story,” editor Bob Harras revealed in Marvel Age #78. “We also have plans for Archangel to battle Wolverine. It’s, basically, anyone we can get to Madripoor.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Those stories never appeared, however, as Chris Claremont left the series in 1989 with issue #10.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span> </h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilMwdevToxIFgyOyZvxMrhH4tHp-b_tdr2dkoncFFxiq56NNd0pWzC92fAwq4L1gLhqTmobZWeBXtz9S7TOJdos_dgMo9PvRQrSLt7MRVhOAHGvo-7xu-HX41wh-guoN8m8iLREhTUZomD/s1600/Chris+55.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="313" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilMwdevToxIFgyOyZvxMrhH4tHp-b_tdr2dkoncFFxiq56NNd0pWzC92fAwq4L1gLhqTmobZWeBXtz9S7TOJdos_dgMo9PvRQrSLt7MRVhOAHGvo-7xu-HX41wh-guoN8m8iLREhTUZomD/s320/Chris+55.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></h3>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Weapon X</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">When the X-Men met X-Factor during the 1989 Inferno crossover, the former X-Man Angel had been transformed into Archangel by the villain Apocalypse. In Uncanny X-Men #242, Wolverine subconsciously recognized Apocalypse’s scent on Archangel, which brought forth memories of pain in Wolverine.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In 1991 Barry Windsor-Smith wrote and drew a Weapon X serial in Marvel Comics Presents #72-84. “Wolverine’s adamantium heritage had never been explored, so I aimed at that device,” Windsor-Smith told Wizard Tribute To Wolverine. “After I created several Weapon X stories, I had a conversation with Chris Claremont in which he told me that he had always intended for Apocalypse to be the villain behind the adamantium experiment. For no reason other than courtesy to Chris, I devised the situation where the professor in the story was taking his orders from a higher-up. Despite this hindrance to my plot, I felt it best to give Chris the chance to eventually fulfill his wish to have Apocalypse be the real villain behind the adamantium experiment. Chris never got the chance to do his ultimate origin for Wolverine, but know that whenever the professor is being belittled by the guy at the other end of the phone in Weapon X, it’s Apocalypse.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsNEjC0yfSU3nBAqi9LRUJh_1UbX4P1FiWpNj9h4w_axo9Mg3URdr_1CGHOliGmSZ6beFLeeGzmL2PNTC2cPZ6s6SC3W9oAZhB-3e7SL5s75Uaf2pSvjCEdAAYJRdUgMwZog1ywjmpn5Ur/s1600/Chris+56.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsNEjC0yfSU3nBAqi9LRUJh_1UbX4P1FiWpNj9h4w_axo9Mg3URdr_1CGHOliGmSZ6beFLeeGzmL2PNTC2cPZ6s6SC3W9oAZhB-3e7SL5s75Uaf2pSvjCEdAAYJRdUgMwZog1ywjmpn5Ur/s320/Chris+56.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In the 1990 Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure one-shot written by Walter Simonson, Wolverine found an old adamantium skull in one of Apocalypse’s old lairs, but subsequently other writers have ignored the hints to Apocalypse’s involvement in the Weapon X project.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOc586SBLl9DJ5n8Rh2FBBMANvlJbhVH5oNqEVcdEwWFQVF4ozepnWhsIIHAY0wpUMOsPeTFexiDzQb3cAb3MATFq4KgZbl4urZGloLtWqtT5D0rGa66j1cDnSUjZsnRuC1aTsUdeq8G02/s1600/Scan0031.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOc586SBLl9DJ5n8Rh2FBBMANvlJbhVH5oNqEVcdEwWFQVF4ozepnWhsIIHAY0wpUMOsPeTFexiDzQb3cAb3MATFq4KgZbl4urZGloLtWqtT5D0rGa66j1cDnSUjZsnRuC1aTsUdeq8G02/s320/Scan0031.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“To me, Wolverine should have no official origin,” Claremont told Berserkher.com. “Pieces of his life should forever remain a closed book. As for the rest, every writer has their take on the character, and their stories reflect that. What I did with Wolverine was what saw print. What I would have done remains in storage for another day, should I get the chance to write him long-term again.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></h3>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Wolverine and Shadowcat</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Chris Claremont told Back Issue #4 about his thoughts concerning Wolverine’s mentoring role with Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat): “The Kitty role is part of a larger, panoramic tapestry that had X-Men: True Friends #1-3 (1999) come out when it was supposed to, in the late ‘80s or the very early ‘90s. It would have put all this into a lot more of a context. The whole relationship between Kitty and Logan (Wolverine) is more complicated and far-reaching than had been suspected up until that point.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Kitty was someone that Logan took under his wing because he knows things about her that she doesn’t know. Even then I was playing with the idea that there is a linkage between them that goes back well before she was born. If you accept as part of the canon the timeline structured out by True Friends, Logan’s thought about Kitty since the 1930s. Then you have to ask yourself, “Is the fact that the X-Men went to Deerfield in X-Men #129 (1980) an accident? Whose idea was it to go seek her out? Was it Charley, using Cerebro, or did Wolverine whisper something in his ear? If she’s part of the team because he set it up, what’s going on? Where is this going to lead?””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Then if you factor in the whole Days of Future Past myth, all sorts of interesting implications come popping up. Again, that’s me doing my grand design with a specific character.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">When X-Men: True Friends, which is set before Weapon X, finally came out in the late ‘90s, it had Wolverine using his claws, but in 1993 Wolverine writer Larry Hama established in Wolverine vol.2 #75 that Wolverine didn’t know that he had natural claws prior to the Weapon X project.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The characters moved off in different directions, they got acquired by different writers and different books, and the things that I had intended got shuffled away in the mist,” Claremont told Back Issue #4.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQd9k5QWrRpMd6FICUDXtbBBmEuhk3wvKH53UG6z3qlTGg5dVt6LDvqth_IvAhfXTUXlcZ6uXLaj9W51wKw5s5CN6ceyXk8u3zrihigrmFV7m4B0x2gFqRlgtzPRG1qMhI8fDNkOuvdVnG/s1600/Chris+21.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQd9k5QWrRpMd6FICUDXtbBBmEuhk3wvKH53UG6z3qlTGg5dVt6LDvqth_IvAhfXTUXlcZ6uXLaj9W51wKw5s5CN6ceyXk8u3zrihigrmFV7m4B0x2gFqRlgtzPRG1qMhI8fDNkOuvdVnG/s320/Chris+21.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEhRXI5S8f0qcMmr7JZX9Ugg5arMVFwu-1Y6mn16MVBkouUjfdv-ZOyd29N0pvtzVRWrVC6hYsioxIXBAqXToc4G3iqdPpn0EsqGRdsvsK3DqzLsuLFy_n_cxIeu3IcoznG60W6bKbJAiH/s1600/Chris+22.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEhRXI5S8f0qcMmr7JZX9Ugg5arMVFwu-1Y6mn16MVBkouUjfdv-ZOyd29N0pvtzVRWrVC6hYsioxIXBAqXToc4G3iqdPpn0EsqGRdsvsK3DqzLsuLFy_n_cxIeu3IcoznG60W6bKbJAiH/s320/Chris+22.gif" width="257" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">False memories</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Wolverine vol.2 #50 from 1992, written by Larry Hama, Wolverine learned that many of his memories were implants given to him during the Weapon X project. “Well, that’s one of the fortunate things about Wolverine,” Byrne opinionated in Back Issue #4. “It’s like the Doctor Doom robots that I set up so any stupid Doctor Doom story immediately becomes about a robot. Any stupid Wolverine flashback immediately becomes an implanted memory.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Byrne had not liked Claremont’s handling of Doctor Doom in Uncanny X-Men #145-147 in 1981, so in Fantastic Four #258 in 1983 he invalidated the story by establishing that the X-Men had only dealt with a Doombot, rather than the real Doctor Doom.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“(I like) Larry Hama’s take on Wolverine,” Claremont revealed in Back Issue #4. “It wasn’t what I would have done, but I liked reading it a lot. Larry Hama and Marc Silvestri (in Wolverine vol.2 #31-43, 45, 46, 48-53 and 55-57 from 1990-1992).”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“And, of course, the beauty is what they have done is to basically say everything you know about his past is a lie,” Claremont added in Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty. “Therefore, most of the stories you have been reading for the past 20 years are a lie. But, of course, the stories we are telling you now could be a lie.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">However, the memory implants were burned out of Wolverine’s brain in Wolverine vol.2 #68 in 1993, so only the flashbacks to his past printed before that issue could be called into question.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I decided that (Wolverine’s origin) was a story that should never be told,” Claremont continued in Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty. “I feel that the drive to explain every split second of every character’s existence is absurd. Where’s the mystery? Where’s the fun if you nail it all down?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“To me, it was like he should be a man of mystery whose past you infer. There will be all sorts of little clues that you could perhaps list in order to build a comprehensive overview of what his past is. If someone wanted to go write a scholarly paper on who is Wolverine and where did he come from, you could take all these benchmarks and deduce from this that he is A, B, C and D.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzQHFRsDFcOPZuobt5l0zQ4Gi8i5aqIaEcsXXveTHzlu5tLZIAIJxSIhVMq7K-1n6BPShwy8YgSA4M8h4JdEYT9BwxN88QEulfZNgt1LpGiYgIGASXphOBvCO7iJazmZfrCO4GTn_XmdIP/s1600/Scan0015.tif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzQHFRsDFcOPZuobt5l0zQ4Gi8i5aqIaEcsXXveTHzlu5tLZIAIJxSIhVMq7K-1n6BPShwy8YgSA4M8h4JdEYT9BwxN88QEulfZNgt1LpGiYgIGASXphOBvCO7iJazmZfrCO4GTn_XmdIP/s400/Scan0015.tif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Stories yet to be told</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Wolverine vol.2 #62 from 1992, Larry Hama unveiled a list of “the original Weapon X Project team” that included the codename Wildcat. However, that character never appeared anywhere.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Then, in Wolverine #80 from 1994, Larry Hama introduced molecular biologist Dr. Jaime Munoz who believed that it was possible to develop a bonding process for Adamantium based on a tissue sample from Wolverine. He asked for former Weapon X subjects to step forward to facilitate a breakthrough in Osteopedics. He also warned Wolverine that he had identified an unstable chain of Nucleoproteins in the tissue sample. It was a defect in Wolverine’s DNA that might cause him problems in the future. However, Wolverine never approached Dr. Munoz and the subject of the DNA defect was never touched upon again.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6uP5tQl9t0acu9vZ2IwwLWj0HXqDJq6Wnkzl8WoTRdEIENHNYZzGlrh0wqkMBy4iWWcrDB3lX3Lm30t3spPWZxofU4FIrlrfAks6jZAT7HkK_otO0-k3bYAP_JTHb9d0lHc4gtAt22XV9/s1600/Scan0029.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="383" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6uP5tQl9t0acu9vZ2IwwLWj0HXqDJq6Wnkzl8WoTRdEIENHNYZzGlrh0wqkMBy4iWWcrDB3lX3Lm30t3spPWZxofU4FIrlrfAks6jZAT7HkK_otO0-k3bYAP_JTHb9d0lHc4gtAt22XV9/s400/Scan0029.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The problem I have with Logan is I don’t see very much that’s new,” Claremont stated in Back Issue #4. “I see a lot of people running over the track over and over again. I don’t see much of an evolution of the character. I don’t see much that tells me something new in terms of insights or perceptions or what have you that we didn’t have years ago. That would be my hope if I ever got to write him on a consistent basis again, to try and play with the shadings and gradations of the character to see if I could come up with some insights, some perceptions, some revelations which are small but integral, which change how you look at him.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“In terms of the X-Men, nothing in the mix of characters really suggested themselves as being gay,” Claremont told Seriejournalen.dk. “I had a story with Wolverine where that could be explored. I never got around to writing it.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Asked on his online Cordially Chris forum if he had any story ideas for Logan’s mother, Claremont answered, “As a matter of fact, yes.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><strong>Sources:</strong></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Kim A.: Chris Claremont On Wolverine, Berserkher.com, 2001</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">William Christensen and Mark Seifert: From Gofer To Comic Great, Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty, July 1993</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Cordially Chris, comixfan.com/xfan/, 28 October 2008</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Eric Fein: Bob Harras Interview, Marvel Age #78, September 1989</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: Pro 2 Pro – Claremont And Byrne: Wolverine At 30, Back Issue #4, June 2004</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tue Sørensen and Ulrik Kristiansen: Chris Claremont Interview, seriejournalen.dk, 1995</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Wizard Tribute To Wolverine, 1996</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>Scififilmnerdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13068646164385257711noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5108928770317234018.post-87701572274900813672012-04-12T07:24:00.000-07:002012-04-12T07:24:17.663-07:00Cosmic comedy with Excalibur<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">But the Phoenix mini-series didn’t make it to print, Colossus didn’t make the team, and Nightcrawler’s Captains Courageous team wasn’t assembled.</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC_VOqmTcqZuU9HDFbYDUwY88usE2o4NJDJgp37BLqdTcchN7zOfP-jqJxqIVhI6pBg90M4-Xj2tixjNWu6qu8b8CZRQK7JB47mFouQ9LO8t591ebdIPuVn8QkhdsaZJ1I23QOAZytX6C3/s1600/1988+-+Excalibur.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" qda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC_VOqmTcqZuU9HDFbYDUwY88usE2o4NJDJgp37BLqdTcchN7zOfP-jqJxqIVhI6pBg90M4-Xj2tixjNWu6qu8b8CZRQK7JB47mFouQ9LO8t591ebdIPuVn8QkhdsaZJ1I23QOAZytX6C3/s640/1988+-+Excalibur.gif" width="411" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">On the letters page in Uncanny X-Men #208 in 1986 it was announced: “Rachel (Summers)’ going to need all the friendship and support and affection she can get, not simply in the X-Men but also in the upcoming Phoenix Limited Series we have planned for later this year, which Chris Claremont will be writing and Rick Leonardi pencilling. </span>We think it’ll be something as different and special as the lady herself.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">However, the Phoenix mini-series never appeared, although it remained in the works until Chris Claremont left Marvel in 1991. “In (Uncanny) X-Men #209 (1986), she was spirited away by Spiral to Mojo’s world and something awful happened, which is going to be explained in a Special Format mini-series,” artist Alan Davis told Amazing Heroes #193. “I don’t know if Chris has finished writing it yet.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“(The Mutant Massacre crossover) was supposed to lead into a mini-series which would tell the story of what happened between Rachel’s disappearance from the X-Men in issue #209 and her reappearance in the Excalibur special edition (in 1988),” Claremont told Comics Focus #1. “This was supposed to tie into Longshot’s presence in the X-Men and his departure from that book to star in his own ongoing series. Except, for various reasons, the mini-series never got finished and the Longshot series never got launched, so suddenly you’re left with dangles that weren’t intentional but are there nonetheless.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Plots come and go for all sorts of reasons. Threads dangle for all sorts of reasons. The writer assumes that there will always be time to tie them up in neat little knots – things that are meant to come to fruition fifty issues down the line will happen. I always assumed I’d be around to do it: Unfortunately, I wasn’t.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In the Excalibur Special Edition, Phoenix returned from Mojo’s world without the capacity to tell her true memories from the false memories she had gotten in his world of entertainment. It wasn’t a big mystery what had happened to her, though, as it was mentioned - and repeated in Excalibur #1 and X-Men Annual #12 in 1988 - that Mojo had made her a star in his world, and that she had escaped from being kept as his slave.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZygeIBxypvip0DrocouoXUcQKFmGOr3r_0BX6-dhaAOOV2fZ3nsWo_hEmij6enxXcWUlR0cVWVYb4GDD9S87XqVW0vyIJjn1kT2fsrjOJAEshGCUH-c00BwJzmMePbvclwzD6ohxeXdmQ/s1600/Chris+28.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="295" qda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZygeIBxypvip0DrocouoXUcQKFmGOr3r_0BX6-dhaAOOV2fZ3nsWo_hEmij6enxXcWUlR0cVWVYb4GDD9S87XqVW0vyIJjn1kT2fsrjOJAEshGCUH-c00BwJzmMePbvclwzD6ohxeXdmQ/s320/Chris+28.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9k1AOSuARFI8__c6Da0xTN14Z3gZh0AMPOkcDrvi9YGjVZsaF8kFGh10xNRUWYot5P_pMVaonvOR7pXA9oqbpS0XMwzqJ_-iNLVWVlBX4FcgJxSnpw7bgzuGrusGb19HKfhqDl3OCzOB9/s1600/Chris+29.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="255" qda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9k1AOSuARFI8__c6Da0xTN14Z3gZh0AMPOkcDrvi9YGjVZsaF8kFGh10xNRUWYot5P_pMVaonvOR7pXA9oqbpS0XMwzqJ_-iNLVWVlBX4FcgJxSnpw7bgzuGrusGb19HKfhqDl3OCzOB9/s320/Chris+29.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Hello, Excalibur</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“It’s no secret that I’ve been wanting to work with Alan Davis for some considerable time,” Claremont told Amazing Heroes #134. “Basically, in the past what I wanted him for is to draw the X-Men.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I like working with Chris (Claremont) very much,” Alan Davis stated in Amazing Heroes #193. “But the difficulty is, if you go on to a book like X-Men, you’re just another new artist on the X-Men, and unless you somehow make a tremendous splash you’re selling yourself into a slavery of working on something where you can’t really do too much because the formula is tested and so successful.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The first I knew of Excalibur was when Chris phoned and instead of asking, did I want to draw the X-Men, said Marvel is doing another X-book and it’s going to be set in England and Captain Britain is in it,” Davis recalled in Modern Masters Volume One. “Now Chris was one of the creators of Captain Britain so he obviously had an interest in him. So I don’t know whether Captain Britain was included in the group to encourage me.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Usually, when you move on to an existing book, you’re following a regime, and by starting on Excalibur with issue #1, I was able to put a lot of myself into it,” Davis explained in Comics Scene #30. “I liked the characters, and it was nice to be in on something since its inception.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I began figuring what could I do with the X-Men who weren’t going to be in the (1988) Fall Of The Mutants (crossover), like Kitty (Pryde) and Nightcrawler,” Claremont told Amazing Heroes #134, “because I knew if I didn’t do anything with them, other people would leap forward like rabid wolves to heist them. Alan (Davis) and I had been talking over the idea of doing something together – a graphic novel, a series, or some such. And then basically the concept of Excalibur evolved, and we decided on a team, which would be Shadowcat (Kitty Pryde), Nightcrawler, Captain Britain, his girlfriend Meggan, Phoenix, and someone new whom we’d invent (Widget).”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">”Originally, Colossus was also intended to be a member of Excalibur. However, Colossus ended up rejoining the X-Men for the basic reason that the X-Men didn’t have a big, muscular strongman, and as the Excalibur concept grew along, and Captain Britain came into it, we already had a strongman in Excalibur – we didn’t need two. And the X-Men needed one, so we tossed Colossus back.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Goodbye, Excalibur</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“When we originally started, (editor) Ann Nocenti christened Excalibur “a cosmic comedy,”” Alan Davis told Comics Scene #30. “That was something that really surprised me, because what I had originally agreed to do was basically the X-Men in Europe, and suddenly it was a cosmic comedy. I was told it was because my artwork was so comedic, and while it wasn’t my decision, there was a definite intention to put more humor into Excalibur. There’s always a punchline on the cover, or a humorous incident.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Alan Davis decided to leave Excalibur with issue #17 in 1989, “Mainly because we were working right up against the deadline all the time and there was no way of getting out of that situation. That was affecting the quality and the look of the book,” Davis explained in Amazing Heroes #193. “I had a great time working with Chris (Claremont) and working on Excalibur was heaven-sent, making it a really difficult decision to give it up. (…) I agreed to do the two fill-ins on Excalibur (#23-24 in 1990).”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Ten issues later, Chris Claremont also gave up Excalibur. “Part of the reason I dropped Excalibur was that X-Men (vol.2) was on the horizon and we wanted to start the new book in somewhat less than the extreme deadline situation we always seemed to find ourselves in on Uncanny X-Men,” Claremont explained in Comics Interview #98. “Also, at the time, I felt Excalibur wasn’t any fun anymore. It had gotten to the point where there was no postive synergistic mix between myself and the people I was working with as pencillers. Rather than perpetuating a book that wasn’t zinging, it was easier to just remove myself from the situation and focus my energies on X-Men.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">With Claremont’s departure, the story announced for 1991 in Marvel Age Preview #1 ended up not happening: “Excalibur goes bi-weekly for the summer, and Nightcrawler forms the Captains Courageous, gathering the Captain Britains from across the multiverse.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Girls’ School from Hell</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Claremont’s final Excalibur story was “Girls’ School from Hell” in Excalibur #32-34 from 1990-1991 – a story that was originally scheduled for Excalibur #7 in 1989 according to Marvel Age #72, and which was to preceed the Excalibur: Mojo Mayhem special edition: “Even in England, Kitty’s education can’t be neglected, so the Excalibur team sends her off to a private girls’ school. But Kitty’s in for a shock when the school turns out not to be what she expected! Written by Chris Claremont and illustrated by Alan Davis.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">““The Girls’ School from Hell” would have worked really well with Alan (Davis),” Claremont told Comics Interview #98. “I thought, when we set out to do it, that it would work as well with Ron Wagner, based on the work I saw on Nth Man – it just didn’t work. What I was looking for, what (editor) Terry Kavanagh and I were hoping for, didn’t gel. It’s no fault of Ron’s, it’s no fault of ours; it’s just one of those things.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The two Excalibur Special Editions promised in Excalibur #22 in 1990 became the 1999 X-Men: True Friends mini-series instead.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Of Claremont’s abandoned Excalibur plots, one remained unresolved. In Excalibur #21 in 1990, Jamie Braddock turned the head of London’s criminal underworld, Vixen, into a fox and she was last seen as such in Excalibur #27 in 1990. Presumably, she is still a fox.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhArhyphenhyphenLgzEDsX5NhRGitLN3nuZoofu4DWdCo5u7-QgWFcbY_LiWT3BpGx835XeyY7OV-SAX8Gw82hBKUp8D4w8yonv6WPjZB1FSaAGMX9tOoscZGKqyaAzerr2NEVjjCp9J6FyF7Pf9srKC/s1600/Chris+78.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="193" qda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhArhyphenhyphenLgzEDsX5NhRGitLN3nuZoofu4DWdCo5u7-QgWFcbY_LiWT3BpGx835XeyY7OV-SAX8Gw82hBKUp8D4w8yonv6WPjZB1FSaAGMX9tOoscZGKqyaAzerr2NEVjjCp9J6FyF7Pf9srKC/s400/Chris+78.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Excalibur #32 in 1990, Sat-yr-9’s henchman Nigel Frobisher had become the new Vixen, but whatever plans he had remained unfulfilled, because the subsequent writer, Alan Davis, killed him off in Excalibur #56 in 1992.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivrermEr3TGGCwZZ1P_Hn0X-HkLpd7_8Q1hTwZACMrXEwS6R5xJvE21EXoLtA30XxyYLcmV6JObY_4cIG6UWd2EBAHsJQi15dllJBsc3hQoNDch1d6S2T7naOkPiqgAqFKOTqm4_hED13D/s1600/Chris+80.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" qda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivrermEr3TGGCwZZ1P_Hn0X-HkLpd7_8Q1hTwZACMrXEwS6R5xJvE21EXoLtA30XxyYLcmV6JObY_4cIG6UWd2EBAHsJQi15dllJBsc3hQoNDch1d6S2T7naOkPiqgAqFKOTqm4_hED13D/s320/Chris+80.gif" width="156" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Shadowcat: The new Saturnyne?</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I phoned Chris Claremont and asked him if he would have any problems with my going back to the book, because almost immediately after he left, they offered it to me,” Alan Davis told Comics Scene #30. “I didn’t want it to look like there was foul play. That’s not what actually happened, and I didn’t want it to appear that way.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“When I took over on Excalibur, there was a definite brief that there were too many loose ends hanging and (editor) Terry (Kavanagh) wanted them tied up,” Davis admitted in Modern Masters Volume One. “Fortunately I was able to manage to tie the loose ends up so that many people thought that was the way Chris (Claremont) had planned it all along.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">There was one plotline that Davis initially left for Claremont himself to resolve. “From issue #5 (1989) of Excalibur we’d been building up a subplot where we had Sat-yr-9, Doc Croc, the Vixen, and Jamie Braddock coming together for a climactic battle, which still hasn’t happened, although Chris Claremont is planning on doing that in a special series at some point in the future,” Davis revealed in Marvel Age #100. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">When Claremont left Marvel before doing the series, Davis used Sat-yr-9, Vixen and Jamie Braddock anyway. In Excalibur #55-56 in 1992, the heroes learned that Sat-yr-9 had killed Captain Britain’s old girldfriend, Courtney Ross, and had posed as her since Excalibur #5. However, Davis didn’t reveal why Sat-yr-9 had taken a special interest in Kitty Pryde, whom she had befriended in Excalibur #21 in 1990 and had spoiled with an amazing birthday celebration in Excalibur #24 the same year.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“From what I gather in terms of the current X-Men, it’s not part of the mix,” Claremont told Seriejournalen.dk. “The key to (the X-Men) was always to deal with (the characters) in terms of how they interacted with the real world – that they were a part of the real world, that they lived in the real world, that they had a future in the real world. That at some point Storm might well marry Forge and go on living happily ever after – or not. That Nightcrawler and Amanda (Sefton) had a future. That Kitty would or would not become the new Saturnyne. All these elements were there.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><strong>Sources:</strong></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Les Chester: Alan Davis, Amazing Heroes #193, August 1991</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Comics Focus #1, June 1996</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tom DeFalco: Comics Creators On X-Men, April 2006</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Marvel Age #72, March 1989</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Marvel Age Preview #1, 1990</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Joe Nazzaro: Punchlines, Comics Scene vol.2 #30, December 1992</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Eric Nolen-Weathington: Modern Masters Volume One: Alan Davis, April 2003</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Patrick Daniel O’Neill: Chris Claremont, Comics Interview #98, 1991</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: Alan Davis On Excalibur, Marvel Age #100, May 1991</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: High Caliber, Amazing Heroes #134, February 1988</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tue Sørensen and Ulrik Kristiansen: Chris Claremont Interview, seriejournalen.dk, 1995</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>Scififilmnerdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13068646164385257711noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5108928770317234018.post-19898534757445702572012-03-29T06:52:00.000-07:002012-03-29T06:52:23.196-07:00The all-different X-Men went to Australia<div class="Section1">
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">And encountered some unresolved mysteries, as well as some unpublished adventures of Longshot.</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdV3oAmBjfISUHRPzsxQEWalYYwRo6nk_7ierss9HgqMG8GpZVJC2va_yfOsm2645ycFkr6Sb3XFJ0pzHoN4m5mSj5GPzYtBlqHSYBFdBxN4-JHj8oLG68eS8GcgmI2vZDtCP42dhQJFdd/s1600/Scan0003.tif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dea="true" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdV3oAmBjfISUHRPzsxQEWalYYwRo6nk_7ierss9HgqMG8GpZVJC2va_yfOsm2645ycFkr6Sb3XFJ0pzHoN4m5mSj5GPzYtBlqHSYBFdBxN4-JHj8oLG68eS8GcgmI2vZDtCP42dhQJFdd/s320/Scan0003.tif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">When asked in Comics Interview #11 in 1984 if there were any new characters coming up in X-Men, artist John Romita, Jr. replied: “There’s a character called Vanity whose powers are connected with a mirror and other dimensions.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Such a character never appeared in the X-Men, though.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Uncanny X-Men # 184, the inventor Forge used a scanner that could tell mutants and aliens from humans, but it mysteriously failed to register Mystique as a mutant. An explanation was never given.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The X-Men show up around page 5 of issue 200 (1985), and Cyclops joins Xavier a few pages later with the line, “Professor, we’ve had an adventure you will not believe, and Paris is not likely to forget anytime soon,”” writer Chris Claremont told Marvel Age #32. “What adventure is that, True Believers? Well, you’ll just have to stay tuned for future announcements from Marvel.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Claremont was hoping to do a one-shot or a limited series about what happened to the X-Men in Paris in the space of those few pages, but that adventure never appeared either.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Following the 1986-1987 Mutant Massacre story in Uncanny X-Men #210-213, the X-Men’s roster was changed to: Storm (Ororo Munroe), Wolverine (Logan), Rogue (real name unknown), Psylocke (Elisabeth Braddock), Dazzler (Alison Blaire), Havok (Alex Summers) and Longshot.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“When Havok went back into the X-Men, that sort of took care of the Havok And Polaris series we’d planned,” X-Factor artist Walter Simonson told Marvel Age #68. “Some of the ideas for that will in fact be turning up in the Avengers (which I’m writing).”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUBJd4oiTHf_r-5pgLvE60omlTTu5j9CQz1nbL8lJYWrpY656FdN7L-YuQNNlqu4U0iDvFdPPCSwWCC51s-3S3T68QbY5b5WZq7UnEDwzait6qxqwZX6f36Y1fZgFuSmBFtA_CM0httsLs/s1600/Chris+30.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dea="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUBJd4oiTHf_r-5pgLvE60omlTTu5j9CQz1nbL8lJYWrpY656FdN7L-YuQNNlqu4U0iDvFdPPCSwWCC51s-3S3T68QbY5b5WZq7UnEDwzait6qxqwZX6f36Y1fZgFuSmBFtA_CM0httsLs/s320/Chris+30.gif" width="299" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Longshot graphic novel</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In the 1985-1986 Longshot mini-series written by Ann Nocenti, Longshot was a genetically created human with the specific purpose of being Mojo’s slave-star in the entertaiment business. Before escaping from Mojo’s dimension to Earth, Longshot had supposedly had a relationship with another of Mojo’s slave-stars, Spiral, who now hated him. The mini-series ended with Longshot going back to Mojo’s dimension along with stuntwoman Ricochet Rita and Quark to rebel against Mojo’s slavery.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Marvel Age Annual #3, 1987, a Longshot graphic novel by Ann Nocenti and Art Adams was announced: “Longshot will return to his home world where he will start a rebellion to free his people. All his nemeses from his Limited Series, including Mojo and Spiral, will counter-attack. Longshot will discover just how brutal a rebellion can be – and how merciless the forces bent on the rebellion’s destruction truly are.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">However, the graphic novel never appeared. “Chris (Claremont) kept running in, saying, “Can Athur do this?” Adams revealed in Back Issue #29. “Chris basically stole him from me and made sure I could never see him again,” Nocenti added.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Claremont stole both Art Adams and Longshot for X-Men Annual #10, 1987, where the rebellion on Mojo World had failed, and Mojo sent Longshot to the X-Men on Earth as part of a plan to enslave them, too. The plan didn’t succeed, but Mojo decided to leave Longshot with the X-Men to annoy Spiral. However, Longshot suffered from amnesia during his entire time with the X-Men and didn’t even recognize Ricochet Rita when he saw one of her movies in Uncanny X-Men #224 in 1987.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In X-Men Annual #12, 1988, it was revealed that Rita had become one of Mojo’s slaves, and she was last seen as guardian for Mojo’s X-Babies in the 1989 Excalibur: Mojo Mayhem special edition.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In X-Factor Annual #7, 1992, writer Fabian Nicieza revealed that Spiral was actually Ricochet Rita who had been transformed and sent back in time by Mojo.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB25UcEP2pIhwkvBdpdA107_LhELd17_mZcUnEJ38IW_2V1RxTpMKdj2HjQN8QYMV13sj5S9Z_WcPSj-QsysGOKYhc2_q6RrFUmND8GnApS1gabMLthHppewphAJ2Sb9qRaDIVFsxofsd6/s1600/Chris+33.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dea="true" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB25UcEP2pIhwkvBdpdA107_LhELd17_mZcUnEJ38IW_2V1RxTpMKdj2HjQN8QYMV13sj5S9Z_WcPSj-QsysGOKYhc2_q6RrFUmND8GnApS1gabMLthHppewphAJ2Sb9qRaDIVFsxofsd6/s400/Chris+33.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dead to the world</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Following a televised battle against evil forces in Uncanny X-Men #227 from 1988, the world assumed that the X-Men had died – an assumption which the X-Men wanted to use for their own benefit for a while. In Uncanny X-Men #229, also from 1988, the wizard Merlin’s daughter, Roma, ensured that the X-Men would only be visible to the naked eye and to the computer at their new headquarters in the Australian outback to help them keep their being alive a secret from the world.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">However, at some point in 1991,between Uncanny X-Men #279, page 12, and X-Men vol.2 #1, the X-Men became visible to all scanners once again. X-Men vol.2 #1 started with the X-Men being scanned by computers at the Xavier Institute. It is possible that if Chris Claremont hadn’t resigned as X-Men writer and had written the stories in between those issues, there would have been an explanation of how the X-Men became visible again, but the subsequent writers either ignored or forgot about the X-Men having been “invisible” at all. In Excalibur #41 from 1991, writer Scott Lobdell referred to television footage of the X-Men from as far back as the 1990-1991 X-Tinction Agenda crossover in Uncanny X-Men #270-272, creating quite the unexplained conundrum.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Apparently, Roma’s spell simply ceased working and none of the characters felt the need to comment on the loss.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The mysterious mutant Gateway, who had the convenient ability to transport people from place to place, came along with the X-Men’s new Australian headquarters. He had served the villainous Reavers under threat of desecration of his people’s holy place, so they’d never know peace, wandering the dreamlands as slaves to outsign spirits forever.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWOv3cWPCQuR8EbVrPnT5E1cj2U2kOrE-CFWzpod191TJgbe0UTVZPPsNBrVrWIv0JbHDZ6oyH5Efak20G11gEtKgHWkAPZts-TJGK9MGgjUEiQ1ooho3fKrfgMODwQrzZuw6gD8vLrTmV/s1600/Chris+34.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dea="true" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWOv3cWPCQuR8EbVrPnT5E1cj2U2kOrE-CFWzpod191TJgbe0UTVZPPsNBrVrWIv0JbHDZ6oyH5Efak20G11gEtKgHWkAPZts-TJGK9MGgjUEiQ1ooho3fKrfgMODwQrzZuw6gD8vLrTmV/s400/Chris+34.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Uncanny X-Men #269 from 1990, Rogue absorbed Gateway’s ability and memories and learned that he had a debt and a task binding him to both the place and to the Reavers’ service. The nature of Gateway’s debt and the secret of his task remain unrevealed, as does the fate of his people.</span></div>
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm7rM-vgFz12TdT5ODdryvFmZJBVuID4MktLNLyx3SMGocCbljq0KuIu7t0thGdxS21FoD4Ks2S8d7waMjDt0yS1UZNjwsjCpoqtZt7XeWNIEfE8ix-7fyXjzAfOSQVL9-FPbTzfl07vjw/s1600/Chris+35.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dea="true" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm7rM-vgFz12TdT5ODdryvFmZJBVuID4MktLNLyx3SMGocCbljq0KuIu7t0thGdxS21FoD4Ks2S8d7waMjDt0yS1UZNjwsjCpoqtZt7XeWNIEfE8ix-7fyXjzAfOSQVL9-FPbTzfl07vjw/s640/Chris+35.gif" width="352" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: DA;"> </span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dazzler: Death’s handmaiden</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Uncanny X-Men #246 from 1989, Dazzler looked into the Siege Perilous and saw that all her possible life choices led to her death. By denying her fate, Death took her on her word and said, “The life thou hast chosen hath made thee my beloved handmaiden” – a destiny which was sealed in blood. Dazzler was reminded of the “deal” in Uncanny X-Men #247, but Chris Claremont didn’t touch on the subject again before Dazzler made her last X-Men appearance in Uncanny X-Men #260 in 1990, and subsequent writers didn’t touch the subject either.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOur0dJ6id9OmhIBMHVHwY1qcGUNBoJTOYVU2A06bSvImsBXRi6Ckw5ivkVX0KNlEsvL2_lqK1RnJS33e3KSDNYQnJrejysJcWy2pcz89DPWeY-5S4GhRpSOFz4oUAS6zXKA7byBMTqtc-/s1600/Chris+58.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dea="true" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOur0dJ6id9OmhIBMHVHwY1qcGUNBoJTOYVU2A06bSvImsBXRi6Ckw5ivkVX0KNlEsvL2_lqK1RnJS33e3KSDNYQnJrejysJcWy2pcz89DPWeY-5S4GhRpSOFz4oUAS6zXKA7byBMTqtc-/s320/Chris+58.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6_COPaZjch81WWG4qze261iLro0y5MMdnv8GYj7xCUPAQivWWe5K53WPAdI5e4-lNiN5UdYd21MACCAHZiaIVnb1HaQQZ70Mv39vn7l0GLkmPiUWhgBXOBrx8zVW-_jcFY0sQdPT-z4QU/s1600/Chris+59.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dea="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6_COPaZjch81WWG4qze261iLro0y5MMdnv8GYj7xCUPAQivWWe5K53WPAdI5e4-lNiN5UdYd21MACCAHZiaIVnb1HaQQZ70Mv39vn7l0GLkmPiUWhgBXOBrx8zVW-_jcFY0sQdPT-z4QU/s320/Chris+59.gif" width="254" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtl7AVVxbyYWebZVLQj2zeVAJV3fB2nXWMtvo4Ld58FUBf-1vbTDU2LZ6AV3nLYThyphenhyphenmaWc2zG_oPLVnLJ_S9Zi3nHzu_68GqBt5WPjpMBrlx3cO1T8WnGrCHsAsba3k-JZ1e2UKSqWZR9s/s1600/Chris+60.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dea="true" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtl7AVVxbyYWebZVLQj2zeVAJV3fB2nXWMtvo4Ld58FUBf-1vbTDU2LZ6AV3nLYThyphenhyphenmaWc2zG_oPLVnLJ_S9Zi3nHzu_68GqBt5WPjpMBrlx3cO1T8WnGrCHsAsba3k-JZ1e2UKSqWZR9s/s320/Chris+60.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6GdFt6iHCsiw0PHpBKngDqUo_xnjP7Pc3FZNgpLjzZVCMmk7pBL_qOenGkO7qWOOQORAF47MVsygwIJqkTkxEFXO_1Ec_sPe355atLdqzaZBAVj_9vwPyIfBM4oLBNnwlQ5uKMItSoeY-/s1600/Chris+61.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dea="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6GdFt6iHCsiw0PHpBKngDqUo_xnjP7Pc3FZNgpLjzZVCMmk7pBL_qOenGkO7qWOOQORAF47MVsygwIJqkTkxEFXO_1Ec_sPe355atLdqzaZBAVj_9vwPyIfBM4oLBNnwlQ5uKMItSoeY-/s320/Chris+61.gif" width="315" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqvVgpkQn2YJLSCOzfGPo04OkzUbKo37KDwZWD_qfBK9qXzsHnzynMYjovGn12unk9mTOOnz6GWg7mI0136bIMdd5zOIJCOjETm0HkfgyF1v0C3u7nPl4Aofub9u9VUA2MoI1lb_nj3GND/s1600/Chris+62.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dea="true" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqvVgpkQn2YJLSCOzfGPo04OkzUbKo37KDwZWD_qfBK9qXzsHnzynMYjovGn12unk9mTOOnz6GWg7mI0136bIMdd5zOIJCOjETm0HkfgyF1v0C3u7nPl4Aofub9u9VUA2MoI1lb_nj3GND/s320/Chris+62.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Then, many years later, in 2006, Chris Claremont returned to the character in the pages of New Excalibur, and in issue #1 Dazzler died, but mysteriously returned to life. The Marvel Previews solicitation for New Excalibur #8 said: “Dazzler died. But for some reason, it didn’t stick? How is this possible? Dazzler and the New Excalibur team attempt to find out what has happened to her. The answer will shock you! “So Why Is It I’m Not Dead?” Part 1 (of 2)!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The story title was instead used in New Excalibur #6 in 2006, where Dazzler died again. She came back to life in New Excalibur #7, but New Excalibur #8 offered no explanation. Instead it featured a set-up for Psylocke’s appearance in Exiles. Then Chris Claremont took a break from writing the series while recuperating from a stroke. When he returned, Dazzler died and came back to life again in New Excalibur #16 in 2007, but no reason for her inability to die was given before the series got cancelled with issue #24 the same year.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In X-Men: Die By The Sword #2 from 2007, also written by Chris Claremont, Dazzler stated, “Whatever way I manage to get myself killed, I always seem to get better,” and once again she got killed in X-Men: Die By The Sword #4 in 2008, and miraculously returned to life in #5. Since then, Dazzler has rejoined the X-Men, but nothing has developed further on her inability to die. The mystery remains unresolved.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3inWW0J9DSCp0CXsp9wyfoVz6Bewdd82QBIiYQKNbPRVMNOnKfztiv9lFgobpP2y7pFQSxKMku5Eb6YjS5rsiUGUEMYAzfW1RtlWiGSzGNJof-4GHNPMVGz_STWL4cSmfsGs1HqxHkxy2/s1600/Scan0004.tif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dea="true" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3inWW0J9DSCp0CXsp9wyfoVz6Bewdd82QBIiYQKNbPRVMNOnKfztiv9lFgobpP2y7pFQSxKMku5Eb6YjS5rsiUGUEMYAzfW1RtlWiGSzGNJof-4GHNPMVGz_STWL4cSmfsGs1HqxHkxy2/s400/Scan0004.tif" width="376" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvkdhLGDvTk74vHb7CaxSrArVzue7S6B-9_9ioyEpiy-N7Y8mq4NEf3Pd77DAmoBX-GKtlspkCokWo9nqQaTH-rpaMiCSuKCRqKk_XoqY7pjFXShZzCkeMTGthzk2NwI5izqi_i8MiJazk/s1600/Scan0005.tif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dea="true" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvkdhLGDvTk74vHb7CaxSrArVzue7S6B-9_9ioyEpiy-N7Y8mq4NEf3Pd77DAmoBX-GKtlspkCokWo9nqQaTH-rpaMiCSuKCRqKk_XoqY7pjFXShZzCkeMTGthzk2NwI5izqi_i8MiJazk/s400/Scan0005.tif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The Longshot series</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Longshot left the X-Men in Uncanny X-Men #248 in 1989 to go on a search for his identity in an ongoing series of his own written by Ann Nocenti and pencilled by Art Adams. “Originally Ann had written a plot for Longshot Graphic Novel,” Adams explained in Marvel Age #71. “But Ann decided she’d just as soon not do the graphic novel, and just go ahead and do something else. I think, since she had written the graphic novel plot, and she had gotten better as a writer, she looked at it and didn’t feel very good about it.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I think all we’ve decided so far is that Longshot’s going to travel around and have adventures,” Adams continued. “We’ve talked a little bit about it, mostly about various characters we’d both like to have something to do with, so we’ll probably be guest-starring lots and lots of Marvel characters. I think we have plans so far for the Hulk and Thor.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I think when we get to the series I’m going to have Mojo in some sort of exoskeleton, that we really don’t see but that’ll be under clothes or something, so he can walk around. (…) I’m hoping that in some issue of Longshot I can bring back one of those old Kirby monsters. (…) I expect there’ll be quite a supporting cast. Ann’s already mentioned that in the first issue Longshot’s supposed to meet some kind of zombie guy who’s a humorous zombie. I figure he’s going to stay around for a few issues.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Marvel Age #67, it was announced: “We’ve got definite plans for a new series guest-starring Mephisto. It’ll be called Longshot, and if you think that means it’s going to pit the master of evil against everybody’s favorite incredibly lucky X-Man, well, give yourself a gold star! And just for good measure, we’re throwing in lots of other familiar faces from around the Marvel Universe too! Stay tuned to future issues of Marvel Age Magazine for more details.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">However, for reasons unknown the Longshot series never appeared.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiovT982EYprygaprTMZJD_6kV76_sHJC5zSjd_dD5s-K6z0hawKY6Dvw5KCGGikm_YCyPBUwAKG0qzTMfe2vThLOB74vdul7Qe2V1J5jp4rf-mnrHXacFQb4kvL53mNajgunTzi_Pio3m1/s1600/Chris+108.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dea="true" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiovT982EYprygaprTMZJD_6kV76_sHJC5zSjd_dD5s-K6z0hawKY6Dvw5KCGGikm_YCyPBUwAKG0qzTMfe2vThLOB74vdul7Qe2V1J5jp4rf-mnrHXacFQb4kvL53mNajgunTzi_Pio3m1/s640/Chris+108.gif" width="337" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The Dane sisters</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Uncanny X-Men #249 from 1989, the villain Zaladane surprised Lorna Dane (Polaris) by calling her sister. It appeared as if their family relation would never be explained following the death of Zaladane in Uncanny X-Men #275 in 1991, but it is possible that Chris Claremont had intended to revive Zaladane and resolve the issue. Certainly, Amazing Heroes #192 featured a design sketch by Jim Lee of Zaladane along with some for Omega Red, who at the time was set to debut in X-Men vol.2 #3 in 1991. With Claremont’s departure, the resurrection of Zaladane just ended up not happening.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Ten years later, in 2001, when Claremont left Uncanny X-Men for the second time to write X-Treme X-Men, Zaladane’s resurrection ended up not happening again: “Also lost in the shuffle: (…) a story in the Savage Land reintroducing Zaladane as a vengeful earth-oriented character, who manipulates tectonic plates the way her sister, Lorna, does magnetism, and her desire to avenge herself against Magneto (who “killed” her in Uncanny X-Men #275) by destroying Genosha (an island nation which Magneto ruled at the time),” Claremont revealed to Cinescape.com.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">At the time, Marvel instituted an editorial policy against resurrecting dead characters, which may explain why Zaladane’s resurrection didn’t happen in the 2001-2002 X-Treme X-Men: Savage Land mini-series either, but Genosha did end up getting destroyed, although by Sentinels, in New X-Men #115 in 2001, written by Grant Morrison.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAMi6VfJQMRsdziNa9wARLdjpFEgK9CrtjPnl0WLmH0-MNrn0fvxAIqe6S-FKXrXu5-p5Q01XpLb1_XoiHgvD-dy4OBH_9u6uVHUMayn5MJLZGXmPSN58_B_B4mo-YW9dNTn6-Mzmg0jck/s1600/Chris+65.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dea="true" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAMi6VfJQMRsdziNa9wARLdjpFEgK9CrtjPnl0WLmH0-MNrn0fvxAIqe6S-FKXrXu5-p5Q01XpLb1_XoiHgvD-dy4OBH_9u6uVHUMayn5MJLZGXmPSN58_B_B4mo-YW9dNTn6-Mzmg0jck/s400/Chris+65.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The computer and the sword</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Meanwhile, a mystery was building surrounding the computer at the X-Men’s Australian headquarters. In Uncanny X-Men #249 from 1989, it seemed capable of self-repair, and when the Reavers reclaimed the compound, the computer surprised and amazed even them. In Uncanny X-Men #252 from the same year, Bonebreaker noticed that the computer was evolving – almost as if it was growing like a living organism. Neither Claremont, nor any other writer, ever followed up on this development.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpTNp2KaDM_D_-pkzhRICFX0jxhnAQLqTuBzqaH0hPRqoadtRM1NqSzvxqRmAWNG5EpDfSJS35BfeCxf-R1sTkcTwjKFxRi5ZXjk00uS5_xlBKiQkX_igcKq91OkIirnGp1nyFy_vM1F0a/s1600/Chris+66.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dea="true" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpTNp2KaDM_D_-pkzhRICFX0jxhnAQLqTuBzqaH0hPRqoadtRM1NqSzvxqRmAWNG5EpDfSJS35BfeCxf-R1sTkcTwjKFxRi5ZXjk00uS5_xlBKiQkX_igcKq91OkIirnGp1nyFy_vM1F0a/s320/Chris+66.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In the 1982 Wolverine Limited Series, Wolverine’s girlfriend Mariko had become head of the Yashida clan, and she gave the clan’s honor sword to Wolverine in issue #4. In Uncanny X-Men #252 in 1989, where the Reavers had reclaimed the X-Men’s Australian headquarters, Lady Deathstrike left the sword there to be reclaimed by the winner of the final battle between her and Wolverine. However, that battle didn’t take place before Chris Claremont left the series, and the whereabouts of the sword was forgotten about by Wolverine writer Larry Hama, who showed it back in Mariko’s possession without explanation in Wolverine vol.2 #57, 1992.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Then, following Mariko’s death, the sword was back in Wolverine’s possession without explanation in Wolverine vol.2 #75 in 1993, also written by Larry Hama, and in Wolverine vol.2 #82 from 1994, he passed it on to the Silver Samurai.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWvfnGkqBrrjd8a7cq8ogC1tbmK0dLhfi7To9SuAvhxcSPXN34Yxwp8J0wv9E1PLG-rDY7WtuQYOt1J6ANm5KEWMjNThjZz0dhz_4tglODvxa8mLdJhONGUcjGrcw86CYUnoly6L-5_pQY/s1600/Chris+67.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dea="true" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWvfnGkqBrrjd8a7cq8ogC1tbmK0dLhfi7To9SuAvhxcSPXN34Yxwp8J0wv9E1PLG-rDY7WtuQYOt1J6ANm5KEWMjNThjZz0dhz_4tglODvxa8mLdJhONGUcjGrcw86CYUnoly6L-5_pQY/s400/Chris+67.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><strong>Sources:</strong></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Amazing Heroes #192, July 1991</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Roger Ash: Ann Nocenti And Arthur Adams Bet On A Longshot, Back Issue #29, August 2008</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Marvel Age #67, October 1988</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Marvel Age Annual #3, 1987</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Eric J. Moreels: Claremont Reflects On Core X-Book Return, Cinescape.com, 26 March 2001</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: 200 Issues Of Mutants!, Marvel Age #32, November 1985</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: Art Adams Interview, Marvel Age #71, February 1989</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown 1, Marvel Age #68, November 1988</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Brian Talley: John Romita, Jr, Comics Interview #11, 1984</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>Scififilmnerdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13068646164385257711noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5108928770317234018.post-90541570727769950672012-03-22T08:47:00.002-07:002023-07-26T07:23:23.148-07:00Jean Grey’s return in X-Factor<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Resulting in the destruction of Cyclops’ character, the death of Madelyne Pryor and… a premature wedding?</span> </h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK3k26Khda0bLgy1JT7BfOPCTeCIborbyq617T_J9qj4j2HXdLCj4zs2X33cvo5ljusG2fs5CJ99LvdRzYwO6V8GzwwxbMJApZ71S_VpxUz8MDbSXe9GSd_f7RUeM9mMdy_x-DuQJTVpba/s1600/1986+-+X-Factor.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img aea="true" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK3k26Khda0bLgy1JT7BfOPCTeCIborbyq617T_J9qj4j2HXdLCj4zs2X33cvo5ljusG2fs5CJ99LvdRzYwO6V8GzwwxbMJApZ71S_VpxUz8MDbSXe9GSd_f7RUeM9mMdy_x-DuQJTVpba/s640/1986+-+X-Factor.gif" width="427" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Well, X-Factor really came about in a kind of a strange fashion,” artist Jackson Guice recalled in Comics Interview #28. “It was an idea that Bob Layton and I pitched to (Editor-In-Chief) Jim Shooter (in 1985) about putting together a title, but neither one of us was really volunteering to work on it. It was just an idea that sparked in our heads.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“We were staying at Jim’s place in New York one weekend and we were looking through the make-readies of that month’s issues from Marvel - Jim was away – and we were discussing the various titles and everything. Defenders and X-Men were two of the titles. We looked at them and got to talking about here were these great old X-Men characters, the original X-Men, and – not to belittle the work anyone was doing on Defenders – but we really felt like they should be in a title of their own. We both had an extreme fondness for the original X-Men.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“And Jim came back and we said, “Jim, THIS is what you ought to do…” Telling the Editor-In-Chief what to do. “You take these original X-Men and you put them together in a new book; and you go back to the original premise of the first run of X-Men – which was when Professor X said that the purpose of the team and the school and everything was to seek out and find mutants and help them cope, to eliminate mutant threats, to basically be the bridge between mutantkind and humanity.” And we said, “These guys are like the oldest mutants walking around, as far as trained mutants, in the Marvel Universe. They’ve got the most experience. They’ve been dealing with this kind of thing for years in comparison to most of the other mutants. Take this experience and have ‘em put it to good use.””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“We weren’t really thinking about the fact that we were pitching this book for ourselves. We were just thinking, “Here’s an idea,” you know? “Do with it as you wish.” And Jim looked at us and said, “Well, when do you want to start?” And we sort of looked at each other and it was the first time it really dawned on us that, you know, we could do this. And the more we talked about it the more excited we got about it, and it went from there.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“We talked to Mike Carlin (…) and he agreed to be editor for X-Factor. As a matter of fact he came up with the name. He went to lunch and came back and said, “We’ll call it X-Factor.””<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></span></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The resurrection of Jean Grey</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“When X-Factor was created, the original premise was that it would be the four surviving members of the original X-Men: Cyclops, Beast, Angel, and Iceman, plus a fifth female to be named later,” X-Men writer Chris Claremont recalled in Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty. “It was then proposed to Jim (Shooter) that if you are going to create the original four, bring Jean back from the dead. A way was given to him that plausibly explained her resurrection. Jim thought it would be a spectacular marketing ploy for the book, and decided that the benefit to the new series outweighed any potential damage done to the old series.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The idea to resurrect Jean came from a disenchanted fan, Kurt Busiek, who had a letter printed in Uncanny X-Men #143 in 1981, which stated that following the Dark Phoenix story, he had decided to quit reading the X-Men.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“It spun off of an idea that Marvel Age Assistant Editor Kurt Busiek mentioned to me about two or three years ago,” Roger Stern told Marvel Age #33. “I later mentioned this to John Byrne and we kicked it around a few times. Then when we heard that Bob Layton was doing X-Factor, John told the idea to Bob and everything started to move.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Kurt Busiek suggested that the Phoenix force was a separate entity,” John Byrne revealed in Comics Creators On X-Men. “Kurt had this idea that it had actually duplicated Jean and left her in a pod on the bottom of Jamaica Bay. I loved that, and we ultimately did it in Avengers, which led into the first issue of X-Factor.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“That was not in the original idea when Bob (Layton) and I presented the series,” Jackson Guice stated in Comics Interview #28. “That was brought to us and it was put in simply because it worked as such a good story.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“We had had the fist five or six stories worked out already, verbally plotted, when John (Byrne) and Roger Stern approached Jim (Shooter) with this idea and then we were called in because suddenly it was like if there was anyplace they were going to have this event it was gonna be in X-Factor. But other than it was presented to us and worked into the storyline, we really had no part of bringing that character back.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Originally Bob and I thought about doing that in the 10<sup>th</sup> or 12<sup>th</sup> issue,” Guice told Marvel Age #33. “But the decision soon evolved into opening the series with that bombshell.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">According
to Back Issue #29, Bob Layton and Jackson Guice had intended for Dazzler to be
the fifth X-Factor member. They were going to revamp her powers and call her
Strobe, Layton told fans during a lecture in Copenhagen on 29 June 2023.</span></p></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Chris Claremont’s reaction</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
“Oh, God! <span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Barry Windsor-Smith and I were coming into the office to plot X-Men #198 (in 1985),” Claremont recalled in Comics Creators On X-Men. “It was a Friday night and (editor) Ann (Nocenti) took us out to dinner and didn’t tell us about X-Factor until it was, like, 6:30-7:00 at night and the office switchboard was already closed. I wanted to call Shooter, but I couldn’t remember his direct line. Ann knew his number, but she wouldn’t tell me. She told me to just sit down, have another drink and relax. I mean, she played me beautifully. Since it was Friday, I had the whole weekend to go berserk.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I spent the weekend coming up with a whole new set of characters that they could use for X-Factor. I came in Monday morning and pitched the idea of using Jean’s sister Sara and making her a living Cerebro. She not only senses mutants, but has the power to work out what they’ll become. Shooter sat there and said, “That’s a great concept. I think it’s wonderful. If you want to go with it, go with it, but we’re bringing back Jean Grey.””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The fact is, Ann did a smart thing. If I had actually gone in to see Shooter on Friday night, I would have quit. I was so pissed off. I couldn’t believe what they did to Cyclops (Scott Summers). He was supposed to be a hero and they had him walking out on his wife and newborn child and not even thinking twice about it.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">According to Back Issue #29, Chris Claremont and Jackson Guice made some uncredited changes to John Byrne’s Fantastic Four #286 in 1986, in which Jean Grey returned in a prelude to X-Factor. In Byrne’s original version, the Phoenix entity was malevolent and it was Jean’s humanity that triumphed. In the reworked story, Phoenix was essentially a benign entity that got tainted by Jean’s human fallibility.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPeVsn1ZQRdOMcwCGN1U3r8dSF42dZAlB6NdvlqKLrmrKCSTS4G8q1dAEJxu-vj5YTp6R7f4pbi0dtfZxdphX7WcnEd7ZpEv0TIR_jp6aw7jDboe6XMR5jg4eKEoYpVxG6APuPxe-a3-Bx/s1600/1988+-+Inferno+d.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img aea="true" border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPeVsn1ZQRdOMcwCGN1U3r8dSF42dZAlB6NdvlqKLrmrKCSTS4G8q1dAEJxu-vj5YTp6R7f4pbi0dtfZxdphX7WcnEd7ZpEv0TIR_jp6aw7jDboe6XMR5jg4eKEoYpVxG6APuPxe-a3-Bx/s400/1988+-+Inferno+d.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The fate of Cyclops’ wife</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The original Madelyne (Pryor) storyline was that – at its simplest level – she was that one-in-a-million that just happened to look like Jean (Grey),” Claremont told Seriejournalen.dk. “And the relationship (between her and Scott Summers) was summed up by the moment (in Uncanny X-Men #174, 1983) when Scott says, “Are you Jean?” and she punches him! Because her whole desire was to be loved for herself – not to be loved as the evocation of her boyfriend’s dead sweetheart. (…) But it all got invalidated by the resurrection of Jean Grey in X-Factor #1 (1986).”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The original plotline was that Scott marries Madelyne - they have their child, they go off to Alaska. He goes to work for his grandparents. He retires from the X-Men. He’s a reserve member. He’s available for emergencies. He comes back on special occasions – for special fights, but he has a life. He has grown up. (…) Scott was going to move on. Jean was dead, “Get on with your life.” And it was close to being a happy ending. They lived happily ever after – and it was to create the impression that maybe if you come back in ten years other X-Men would have grown up, too. Would Kitty (Pryde) stay with the team forever? </span>Would Nightcrawler? Would any of them? <span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Because that way we could evolve them into new directions - we could bring in new characters. There would be an ongoing sense of renewal and growth and change – in a positive sense.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Then, unfortunately, Jean was resurrected, Scott dumps his wife and kid and goes back to the old girlfriend, so it not only destroys Scott’s character as a hero and as a decent human being – it creates an untenable structural situation: What do we do with Madelyne and the kid?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“So ultimately the resolution was: Turn her into the Goblin Queen and kill her off.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">This happened in the 1989 Inferno crossover, which was originally titled Hell On Earth, in X-Factor #36-38 and Uncanny X-Men #240-242.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Years later, in 2005, Claremont got the opportunity to redeem Scott’s character a little in X-Men: The End - Book Two: Heroes & Martyrs #4 by having him confess to feeling guilty about how he treated Madelyne Pryor.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Apocalypse for Doppelganger, the Owl and Madrox</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Marvel Age #39, upcoming storylines for X-Factor were announced: ”A coming of age story is in the works for Iceman that will explore his relationship with Darkstar. His Russian teammate from his days with the now defunct Champions will involve him in an adventure that will introduce a villain who just may become X-Factor’s major adversary. His name is Doppelganger and he is incredibly evil!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“We will also be introduced to the new Owl. This high flying bad guy will be more evil than the original Owl, and will also have a new look.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The new Owl was supposed to be introduced in X-Factor #6 in 1986, about which Marvel Age #39 said: “Who is the mastermind behind the Evil Mutants? Find out the shocking answer as he tries to x-out X-Factor! “The Magic Machine” is written by Bob Layton, pencilled by Jackson Guice and inked by Joe Rubinstein.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">But when X-Factor #6 appeared, it was written by Louise Simonson and featured the debut of Apocalypse instead of the new Owl. “Layton decided to leave the book and I honestly do not know why,” Louise Simonson told Comics Creators On X-Men. “I don’t know if it was his, Shooter’s, or (new editor Bob) Harras’ choice. Bob (Harras) asked me to take over the book and I think it was partly because (…) Chris (Claremont) was my friend. I think someone finally realised that splitting up the X-Men and fostering a hostile relationship between the creators was a really bad idea. I believe I was brought on, at least in part, because everyone knew that I could and WOULD work with Chris.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“When (X-Factor) first came out I couldn’t read it, I couldn’t stand it,” Claremont told Comics Interview #56. “It was like, “Ooo, who are these people masquerading as the original X-Men?””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“It wasn’t until Louise and Walter Simonson were on the book that we actually managed to massage the characters back to the way they should have been,” Claremont added in Comics Creators On X-Men.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“My feeling was that the Owl didn’t have the stature to be a major foe for a major team,” Louise Simonson reasoned in Comics Creators On X-Men. “There was a set-up panel at the end of X-Factor #5 (1986) and we needed to show a villain in it. I tried to think really fast – what kind of character would be an appropriate foe? (…) I wanted a character who would try to force mutants and humanity to the next level. I thought Apocalypse was a good name for a character. Jackson Guice designed him and he did a really good job. It was just a throwaway thing for him because I think he had also been planning on getting off the book, if I remember right.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The only thing I even vaguely remember,” Guice revealed in Back Issue #29, “are the bare bones of a story Bob (Layton) and I intended to do involving (Jamie) Madrox (the Multiple Man) being hunted by his own multiple clones on some remote island off the coast of Ireland – the gist of the thing being all that splitting had ultimately fractured Jamie’s personality to the point he could no longer exert control over his duplicates and now they were running amok killing each other – each convinced he was the original Madrox.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_BTEdavGtMi6W7vZdeosfPSVbeqyUqzvjBLCJk3YxGvAfTxyVYz1bWqpxgjiFlDtQ4ei37Gv4UFVcDto63wIXHyxVExi_ZvLCM1JteUXo0sqyEm1llZwbsnwzTZTtRhb0ok32_nJKI-x6/s1600/Chris+63.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img aea="true" border="0" height="361" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_BTEdavGtMi6W7vZdeosfPSVbeqyUqzvjBLCJk3YxGvAfTxyVYz1bWqpxgjiFlDtQ4ei37Gv4UFVcDto63wIXHyxVExi_ZvLCM1JteUXo0sqyEm1llZwbsnwzTZTtRhb0ok32_nJKI-x6/s400/Chris+63.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The twelve strong mutants</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Following his defeat in X-Men #100 in 1976, it was revealed in Hulk Annual #7, 1978, that the mutant-hating Steven Lang had uploaded his consciousness into the mutant-hunting Sentinel robot, Master Mold. Lang’s braindead body ended up in a nursing home, as revealed in Uncanny X-Men #291 in 1992, and was later absorbed by the techno-organic alien race, the Phalanx.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In X-Factor #14 from 1987, written by Louise Simonson, it was revealed that Lang had discovered the twelve mutants who would lead – around whom others would gather. Also referred to as the Strong, the Twelve were shown to include Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Franklin Richards and Apocalypse, and Master Mold intended to destroy them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Cyclops managed to defeat the Master Mold Sentinel, but it reappeared in Power Pack #36 written by Jon Bogdanove in 1988, where the Twelve were shown to also include Professor X, Psylocke, Cannonball and Danielle Moonstar.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Uncanny X-Men #246 in 1989, written by Chris Claremont, the Master Mold Sentinel merged with Nimrod, a mutant-killer robot from the future of Rachel Summers. Once again, The Twelve were mentioned before the Nimrod/Master Mold amalgam was defeated. In Machine Man & Bastion Annual 1998, written by Mike Higgins and Karl Bollers, it was revealed that it went through the magical Siege Perilous and became the mutant-hating Bastion, who first appeared in X-Men vol.2 #52 in 1996, written by Mark Waid. However, neither Bastion nor the Phalanx-version of Steven Lang ever made any mention of the Twelve.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In X-Factor #68, 1991, written by Chris Claremont, Apocalypse mentioned “the fabled Twelve,” a dozen key mutants, who would prove instrumental to the survival of mutants, and in Uncanny X-Men #-1 in 1997, writer Scott Lobdell revealed how the Master Mold came to know about the Twelve, whom a character from the future was disappointed in after having waited so long for them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Finally, in 2000, artist Alan Davis plotted a crossover between the X-Men books entitled Apocalypse: The Twelve (Uncanny X-Men #376-377 and X-Men vol.2 #96-97) in which Apocalypse captured twelve powerful alpha-level mutants in order to recreate the world in his image by using their combined power. Although that was supposed to wrap up the Twelve subplot, Apocalypse’s Twelve weren’t all strong leaders others would gather around. Leaving out himself and Franklin Richards, Apocalypse captured Cyclops, Jean Grey and Storm, as well as Professor X, Cable, Magneto, Polaris, Iceman, Sunfire, Bishop, Mikhail Rasputin and the Living Monolith.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCVQw6Lesh9bLmTIHKO5k2oCRibFegIbFlaLBFw3iBpDK6O13lL5daETQHHQtWt_khusVQJmg1z-GRKlWr75KEQ-7BfCiNbx-AD_it4i6WklB0naaiVIZxE9D6OrVahTuHYAUpay0G-XI8/s1600/Chris+48.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img aea="true" border="0" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCVQw6Lesh9bLmTIHKO5k2oCRibFegIbFlaLBFw3iBpDK6O13lL5daETQHHQtWt_khusVQJmg1z-GRKlWr75KEQ-7BfCiNbx-AD_it4i6WklB0naaiVIZxE9D6OrVahTuHYAUpay0G-XI8/s400/Chris+48.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The secret of Mr. Sinister</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Classic X-Men #41-42 from 1989, written by Chris Claremont, Scott Summers’ childhood friend, Nathan, seemed to be more than just another boy at the orphanage where Scott grew up. Orphanage-employee Dr. Robyn Hanover suspected that something was wrong with Nathan and her suspicions got her brainwashed by Mr. Sinister.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Sinister was Scott’s boyhood friend (Nathan) in the orphanage,” Claremont revealed to Seriejournalen.dk. “He’s an eight-year old kid – he’s always been an eight-year old kid. He ages one year for every 10 of everybody else. So, he’s a 50-year old guy in a 10-year old’s body – and boy, is he pissed! That’s why he works with clones. It’s the only way he can deal with the adult world – because he is not gonna be an adult for another 50 years, at the earliest! And that’s why he takes a long view of things because he’s going to be around for a 1000 years – give or take a few – at least!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9SpKMWQI4AMCGkeq1yiYsWlEb9ntoBnOjv6GX5w3y3Nx70Q_kZAi-CtFKCz3PQtgZNwffJbyPCnOx8k5GrNTEKvvTj1qJ9mh1NCJ6Irwz-3n3ZbNRkOF4I8SdP68ETaV-H6gzxREGouJN/s1600/Chris+49.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img aea="true" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9SpKMWQI4AMCGkeq1yiYsWlEb9ntoBnOjv6GX5w3y3Nx70Q_kZAi-CtFKCz3PQtgZNwffJbyPCnOx8k5GrNTEKvvTj1qJ9mh1NCJ6Irwz-3n3ZbNRkOF4I8SdP68ETaV-H6gzxREGouJN/s320/Chris+49.gif" width="194" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Louise Simonson maintained Claremont’s idea in X-Factor #35 from 1988, where Scott Summers visited the orphanage, discovered Mr. Sinister’s laboratory underneath it and recalled his fights with Nathan, as well as in X-Factor #37 in 1989, where poor Madelyne Pryor, who ended up being nothing but a clone of Jean Grey created by Mr. Sinister, insisted on calling her and Scott’s son Nathan. (Scott called the boy Christopher.) In X-Factor #39 from 1989, Scott’s fight with Mr. Sinister subconsciously reminded him about his fights with Nathan.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3e_S03fkCrhESTIMt32oSSrUucro4AAm6wt0Yep_f-KFl2VV8ND3pQcQvNhpWLh_fbG-0KbTuEF6bkEHEnhSlqj9SnUyHgezwn5zRFp-Ss9Ij-4TjoIxwlxO87My9or3vSFHDhTE4Nk6w/s1600/Chris+50.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img aea="true" border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3e_S03fkCrhESTIMt32oSSrUucro4AAm6wt0Yep_f-KFl2VV8ND3pQcQvNhpWLh_fbG-0KbTuEF6bkEHEnhSlqj9SnUyHgezwn5zRFp-Ss9Ij-4TjoIxwlxO87My9or3vSFHDhTE4Nk6w/s400/Chris+50.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Subsequent writers either hadn’t picked up on the hints about Mr. Sinister being Nathan, or simply chose to ignore them. In the 1996 Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix mini-series, writer Peter Milligan instead had Mr. Sinister be a mad scientist from the 1800s who had powers bestowed upon him by Apocalypse. When Chris Claremont returned to Marvel, he merged his and Milligan’s ideas in X-Men: The End - Book Two: Heroes & Martyrs #5 in 2005, by establishing that Mr. Sinister wasn’t immortal, but had lived through the centuries by cloning himself and transferring his consciousness from clone to clone. Instead of being a 50-year old in a 10-year old body, Nathan was instead suggested as being a clone of Mr. Sinister in the process of growing up, while Mr. Sinister stayed in the laboratory underneath the orphanage.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-nwdDh9J2-_YrtwHgrMyzbPTxwWwI1UJuI8zv_09YwvdtlD0d6RPr7KUdyjyRdqMKxk29JIbNh3O1RXcuJbL6t5TG0BB1d_ZTDcuybW4UZ4zuiujy-w7zgD3ZzYhXVFDjns72SfjIq9UP/s1600/Chris+81.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img aea="true" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-nwdDh9J2-_YrtwHgrMyzbPTxwWwI1UJuI8zv_09YwvdtlD0d6RPr7KUdyjyRdqMKxk29JIbNh3O1RXcuJbL6t5TG0BB1d_ZTDcuybW4UZ4zuiujy-w7zgD3ZzYhXVFDjns72SfjIq9UP/s640/Chris+81.gif" width="408" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The postponed wedding</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">According to an article in Marvel Vision, Scott Summers and Jean Grey were supposed to get married in X-Factor #66 in 1991, and artist Whilce Portacio drew a cover depicting the event, including Apocalypse crashing the wedding and using X-Factor’s sentient ship against them. However, Marvel’s new Editor-In Chief, Tom DeFalco, felt that a wedding of that magnitude was an event better suited for the pages of Uncanny X-Men.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">While the wedding got postponed, the attack by Apocalypse did not. Before Ship got destroyed, it managed to suggest that Archangel’s girlfriend, police detective Charlotte Jones, was actually a mutant by letting her pass through a barrier that kept normal humans from entering the ship. However, this surprising development in X-Factor #66, scripted by Chris Claremont, was never followed up on, although Claremont used Charlotte Jones frequently upon returning to Marvel years later.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheZi_SpgtVZRMQwrYMjdCsAPbHx5uO51n03_xKgtEXNm5Guba2SjiQwlVNrxOuqOQhGwFlIG73tPnoJa9LRYh9V1z3Uzy-e7aUo7u7aG1cXpyezC5Jp4h6Y6-YnVD5VMkovH5CIuar_9Jc/s1600/Chris+82.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img aea="true" border="0" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheZi_SpgtVZRMQwrYMjdCsAPbHx5uO51n03_xKgtEXNm5Guba2SjiQwlVNrxOuqOQhGwFlIG73tPnoJa9LRYh9V1z3Uzy-e7aUo7u7aG1cXpyezC5Jp4h6Y6-YnVD5VMkovH5CIuar_9Jc/s400/Chris+82.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The wedding between Scott and Jean ended up taking place in X-Men vol.2 #30 in 1994, and was written by Fabian Nicieza. “Having just gotten married myself,” editor Bob Harras told Marvel Age #133, “I’d been trying to get them married for a couple of years, and after that, Tom (DeFalco) relented.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The current issue of the X-Men is where Scott and Jean get married,” Claremont commented in an Internet interview. “I gotta tell you, if I had stayed on the book – not a chance. Because everyone would be sitting around waiting for it. Everyone was waiting around for Wolverine to marry Mariko, but it’s like, “No.” You screw it up, but you screw it up in a way that is consistent to the character and leaves the reader going, “What happens next? Where is this going to go?””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Back to Cyclops being a cad</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Jean is marrying Scott, so what’s Scott’s track record to date?” Claremont asked in the Internet interview. “Well, he had a wife. He got married in the mansion, everybody was there, he said, “Till death do you part,” they had a kid, and he walked out on them without a second thought and went to X-Factor. And then for various stupid – and I confess, I had my part in this as well as anyone else – plot reasons didn’t deal with it for a long time. The reason he didn’t deal with it was because he didn’t have a clue what to do with it. I mean, the guy was a cad and a bounder, no ifs, no ands, no buts.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“In one fell swoop, he was destroyed as a character, as a heroic. He made a commitment to people and then walked out on them. And for various reasons, not Weezie (Louise Simonson), not me, we never dealt with that. We seem to take what seemed at the time to be the only sensible way out, which was we made Madelyne into the bad – you know, we set up a situation where rather than have Scott face the consequences of his actions, we’d just sort of like kill them all. And everyone forgave Scott, because Madelyne was a bitch anyway. And then they gave the kid away. “Don’t deal with the fact that you have a child, Scott, we’ll just send him away to the future” and - shit happens.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“All of this should be an element in the mix. Mistakes or otherwise, this is Scott’s character, this is Jean’s character. (…) There must be a moment where the two of them sit down and address this. “Jean, marry me.” “Why?” “I love you.” “You loved Madelyne.” Pause. “Yeah, well…” “You walked out on her, Scott. You going to walk out on me? Suppose we discover in a year that Madelyne isn’t dead? Suppose I’m Madelyne. Suppose I’m Phoenix. How are you going to deal with that? How am I to trust you? You made a commitment. You did not fulfil it. You abandoned a child.””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The onus is not on Jean to prove herself to Scott. She was dead. She got better. He made a commitment to someone. He had to prove that he could make a commitment to her. You can’t just say, “None of this existed, none of this happened, it all goes away.” You have to think, “How does this character deal with it? How does the story deal with it?” Because, by answering those questions, you might find the story going off in a totally different direction that may bring vitality and richness of concept that you never even dreamed of was coming in the door.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><strong>Sources:</strong></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">?: Chris Claremont, Internet interview, 1994</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Timothy Callahan: The Owl That Could Have Been, Back Issue #29, August 2008</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">William Christensen and Mark Seifert: From Gofer To Comic Great, Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty, August 1993</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tom DeFalco: Comics Creators On X-Men, April 2006</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Allan Harvey: The Birth Of X-Factor, Back Issue #29, August 2008</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Marvel Age #39, June 1986</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Patrick Daniel O’Neill: Chris Claremont, Comics Interview #56, 1988</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tom Russo: Dearly Beloved…, Marvel Age #133, February 1994</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: High Caliber, Amazing Heroes #134, February 1988</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tue Sørensen and Ulrik Kristiansen: Chris Claremont Interview, Seriejournalen.dk, 1995</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Dwight Jon Zimmerman: X-Factor, Comics Interview #28, 1985</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Dwight Jon Zimmerman: X-Factor, Marvel Age #33, December 1985</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>Scififilmnerdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13068646164385257711noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5108928770317234018.post-27934454663218953832012-03-15T08:11:00.000-07:002012-08-16T08:30:25.321-07:00The New Mutants averted X-Men West<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">But ushered in the nullification of the redeemed Magneto and quite a few unresolved plots.</span></h2>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjniG8CbXAyDkCIScxrqM71xe5hwQJNII5ebB501FhmLunRW5UIOwA0KE6tGrEAlvM2JtEhYTQShAC1uIjBDfD255H3E6FRITF8aVWuntS4EJfrs3mv-viNkA53YWcnyeJswmcTzEcFmqYF/s1600/1983+-+New+Mutants.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img aea="true" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjniG8CbXAyDkCIScxrqM71xe5hwQJNII5ebB501FhmLunRW5UIOwA0KE6tGrEAlvM2JtEhYTQShAC1uIjBDfD255H3E6FRITF8aVWuntS4EJfrs3mv-viNkA53YWcnyeJswmcTzEcFmqYF/s640/1983+-+New+Mutants.gif" width="427" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Since the spring of ’81 Weezie (X-Men Editor Louise Jones) and I have on various occasions kicked around the idea of doing a second (X-Men) book,” writer Chris Claremont revealed in The X-Men Companion. “We decided to wait until we found someone (to draw the book) and then think seriously about putting it together.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“We were afraid that we would go to (Marvel) and say, “Hey, let’s do an X-Men book,” and they would say, “Yes, but the only person available is…” somebody that we wouldn’t be interested in using,” Louise Jones added. “So we were going to keep our mouths shut until the spring. We were going to pick our people and then we were going to say, “Hey, we’ve got a book for you.””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Right. With three issues in the drawer,” Claremont continued. “And what happened was that while we were pretty much solidifying the concept or at least getting it as much into focus as we felt we needed, Mark Gruenwald went into (Editor-In-Chief) Jim (Shooter)’s office with a proposal for an alternative X-Men book involving the “loose” members of the original team – Angel, Iceman, Beast, Havok, Polaris – and I suppose any other extraneous mutants that happened to be around, and setting them up on the West Coast as a kind of a…”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“X-Men West,” Louise Jones cut in.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“And regardless of the individual merits of the concept, it was way different from what we had in mind,” Claremont continued. “Jim quite properly went to Weezie and said that this proposal had been made to him, and asked if we had any problems with it… or suggestions, or comments. Weezie pointed out, well, we had our own concept in the works, and we’d had it for quite some time. And Jim said, “Oh, okay, well, let’s hear it.” So then we had to put up or shut up.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“And luckily at about the same time (artist) Bob McLeod had just surfaced (…) and the pieces all meshed together.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgokL3PO-rArgs1_f0ldz7xlQnb43pckBRyw4g7tlVUTJy-w6KFbKoqUBByx1XY_4-zSNk7ICrqTnZzBnQkhH3XiNomu5K54je4vJEsoEADZkEnuS0lrz9Wb6fHaEqv0zpW5_wletBI5kG2/s1600/Chris+23.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img aea="true" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgokL3PO-rArgs1_f0ldz7xlQnb43pckBRyw4g7tlVUTJy-w6KFbKoqUBByx1XY_4-zSNk7ICrqTnZzBnQkhH3XiNomu5K54je4vJEsoEADZkEnuS0lrz9Wb6fHaEqv0zpW5_wletBI5kG2/s400/Chris+23.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The fate of Sara Grey and her children</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“There are lots of characters on tap,” Claremont revealed in The X-Men Companion. “We’ve got Jean (Grey)’s sister’s children to think of. (…) She knows about the X-Men and she knows that the kids may be mutants.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“We’re sure that they’ll be showing up,” Louise Jones added. “We think maybe they’re twins, but we’re not sure.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Maybe a girl and a boy,” Claremont continued. “Tentatively we’re dealing with one as a projecting and one as a receiving empath.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Bizarre Adventures #27 from 1981, Jean Grey’s sister, Sara Grey, was wondering if her 11-year old son, Tommy, would become a mutant. However, Tommy never appeared in the New Mutants or anywhere else, but the twins, Gailyn and Joey, ended up appearing in the pages of X-Factor instead. In Uncanny X-Men #215 from 1987, Wolverine and Storm visited the ruins of Sara’s home, which had been blown up by mutant haters in X-Factor #12 the same year. Sara and her children had disappeared before the explosion, however. The twins appeared in X-Factor #35 in 1988, written by Louise Simonson (formerly Louise Jones), as part of the villain Nanny’s group of orphaned mutants. They were liberated from Nanny in X-Factor #40 in 1989. Sara’s fate remained unresolved, so the twins were placed in the care of their grand parents.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“What about Jean Grey’s sister?” subsequent editor Bob Harras asked in X-Men Anniversary Magazine 1993. “Peter David was originally going to do a bookshelf which would have handled that question, but he never got around to it.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In X-Men vol.2 #36 from 1994, written by Fabian Nicieza, the villain Stephen Lang revealed that Sara had been absorbed by the techno-organic Phalanx race. In X-Man #30 from 1997, written by Terry Kavanagh, Sara had been declared dead. The father of the twins, whose name was revealed to be Paul in Bizarre Adventures #27, 1981, only appeared once in X-Men #138 in 1980, and in X-Man #30 in 1997 the last name of the twins was revealed to be Bailey, although they were still living with the Greys.</span><br />
<br /></div>
</span></div>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: DA;">Then, in Uncanny X-Men #466-468, 2006, written by Claremont, the entire Grey family, including the twins, were killed off.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMwxTW-q6ALhm8f7N2E4jwd24zM-VyDJWvhL7yuZEe9umd5tHOfpaSnxmZFT-T-EGINzPVgnvEpcJT0fRGfEVNJlYegAKLPOjUYDKmvNibLBKB9wVIaY8s-fAz8OA-XxPtJJwg_NRbqWwK/s1600/Chris+31.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img aea="true" border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMwxTW-q6ALhm8f7N2E4jwd24zM-VyDJWvhL7yuZEe9umd5tHOfpaSnxmZFT-T-EGINzPVgnvEpcJT0fRGfEVNJlYegAKLPOjUYDKmvNibLBKB9wVIaY8s-fAz8OA-XxPtJJwg_NRbqWwK/s400/Chris+31.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">A.I.M.’s mysterious Matrix project</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Hopefully, the second book will allow us to better utilize a number of supporting characters who are more noticeable in The X-Men by their absence, such as Moira (MacTaggert),” Claremont told The X-Men Companion. “Karl Lykos gets reformed in Marvel Fanfare #4 (1982). Once he’s cured, he’ll come into the series as the in-house physician.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">However, Karl Lykos never appeared in the New Mutants. Instead, the part of in-house physician went to a new character, Sharon Friedlander.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">According to The X-Men Companion, Wolfsbane was originally intended to be a fundamentalist Moslem from Iran. However, there was already a darkhaired female, Psyche, in the group, and rather than remove or change her, it was decided to change Wolfsbane’s nationality and appearance into the redhaired Scott and fundamentalist Christian, Rahne Sinclair.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Amazing Heroes #16, Claremont related an untold tale from Psyche’s past: “She was in school. A teacher came over whom she respected and liked. Without meaning to do so, she reached into his head and pulled out a subconscious image of him hacking her to pieces with an axe. And of course, it later turned out that the man was a notorious axe murderer who had killed two or three kids in that part of the state. And that revelation so rattled him that he came after her, and tried to hack her up, and that’s how they caught him.”</span><br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In New Mutants #5-6 from 1983, the villain Viper forced the motorcycle riding heroes Team America to break into the A.I.M. organization’s Matrix project to steal a crystal for her. It was never revealed what she wanted the crystal for or what the Matrix project was about.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">When the Matrix project blew up, Professor Xavier was overwhelmed by the birth of a powerful new mutant. It is possible that it was actually the rebirth of the villain Shadow King following his demise in X-Men #117 in 1979, as he possessed Karma at the story’s climax. However, this has never been confirmed. Claremont never wrapped up the loose ends and subsequent writers didn’t follow up on the story, either.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7m76NfONXEIDqXNbEaq9QpnMaJE7rbLuGikt3VutbrFK56mZDFf900cCB6a66YBk5obczANpbFhFll82iBCPozOEbPGQMg8Kdur4tl1fIBgfbuR2AtMy6ObYjbhSwa73BEvvlvpR4I0sh/s1600/Chris+24.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img aea="true" border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7m76NfONXEIDqXNbEaq9QpnMaJE7rbLuGikt3VutbrFK56mZDFf900cCB6a66YBk5obczANpbFhFll82iBCPozOEbPGQMg8Kdur4tl1fIBgfbuR2AtMy6ObYjbhSwa73BEvvlvpR4I0sh/s400/Chris+24.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Karma’s missing siblings</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In New Mutants #46 from 1986, Karma’s two smaller siblings, Leong and Nga Coy Manh, disappeared in the same manner as Sara Grey and her children had, suggesting a connection. Karma left the New Mutants in #54 in 1987 to find Leong and Nga and reappeared in Wolverine vol.2 #4 in 1989, where she served her uncle, General Nguyen Ngoc Coy, hoping to use his contacts in the criminal underworld to find the children. Unfortunately, Claremont only wrote nine issues of Wolverine, and of the subsequent writers only Jo Duffy used Karma, in Wolverine vol.2 #27-30 in 1990, wherein Karma left her uncle’s employ.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">It would be years until the storyline was touched upon again. Leong and Nga didn’t reappear until X-Force #62 in 1997, written by John Dokes. They were being held prisoners by an unnamed organisation that was using them in experiments to remove the mutant gene. Before X-Force were able to free them, the children were given to the villain Spiral, but in the 1997 Beast mini-series, written by Keith Giffen and Terry Kavanagh, Karma was finally reunited with them, although Spiral had made them into mature and fully developed mutants.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In X-Force #75, 1998, Karma had found a doctor who thought he could undo the damage Spiral inflicted upon Leong and Nga, and when Claremont returned to Marvel, he wrote the 2002-2003 Mekanix mini-series in which Leong and Nga had become children again.</span><br />
<br /></div>
</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQG1l69BmWXAI0t7JR-cu-CGqnp58ME_UNAJt_JhBF2XOHp5YYg2pW3_e65AQxNSWSN91G8r0HI387hyphenhyphenqCXnQU_hrnim3nH_oChOi0U09At4gA_79zlTUOd1jydrLoCzmLpnzfZ5DlXxbk/s1600/Chris+32a.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img aea="true" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQG1l69BmWXAI0t7JR-cu-CGqnp58ME_UNAJt_JhBF2XOHp5YYg2pW3_e65AQxNSWSN91G8r0HI387hyphenhyphenqCXnQU_hrnim3nH_oChOi0U09At4gA_79zlTUOd1jydrLoCzmLpnzfZ5DlXxbk/s400/Chris+32a.gif" width="180" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_YOMA7Ew3xfQLKi_qc8jB9prvlddG6OjKK3i3P5EMOTBtAqo_phWhxkotK6LtQOXaayH5yYjmi3hUgEVMbnD8NEfON9IM0doULggf6wqQv6lRW40NFomUceNnABpd7ZB8V-UkFsmFStnD/s1600/Chris+32b.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img aea="true" border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_YOMA7Ew3xfQLKi_qc8jB9prvlddG6OjKK3i3P5EMOTBtAqo_phWhxkotK6LtQOXaayH5yYjmi3hUgEVMbnD8NEfON9IM0doULggf6wqQv6lRW40NFomUceNnABpd7ZB8V-UkFsmFStnD/s400/Chris+32b.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Magneto development nullified</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In New Mutants #35 from 1986, the X-Men’s former archenemy, Magneto, became the new Headmaster at Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters. In Marvel Age #33, it said: “The young students get a new teacher… and not one they like or trust. In fact, one of the New Mutants is going to quit and join the Hellions.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">But as it turned out, nobody ended up quitting and joining the Hellions at this point.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In New Mutants # 54 from 1987, it was announced that Chris Claremont would take a six-month break from writing the title. “It was originally only going to be for six months until we got Excalibur out of the way,” Claremont told Comics Interview #56. “Then once Excalibur got out of the way suddenly we had like four or five more titles on the horizon, and (fill-in writer) Weezie (Louise Simonson) was having so much fun with (New Mutants) and was doing such a good job that it seemed pointless to take it back.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Unfortunately for fans of the New Mutants and their teacher Magneto, the change in writer meant an immediate change in character portrayal. For instance, Claremont had spent a handful of years developing Magneto from a simple, powerhungry lunatic into the noble Headmaster of Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters, but it only took Louise Simonsen about two years to reduce him to once again being a powerhungry villain. In New Mutants #75 from 1989, she wrote that Magneto had just been playing the X-Men and the New Mutants for fools in a bid to gain power over all mutants.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1eUpV28WjMD0Zgfe69LHdNRW3nSbBydYwz1xAMWs8FuLmLHn_PngAXQlG3bLOZNm_jgq-SlO9ayLX0rPtmXSMAAybHyZCH2Lg4ph8rOwfvHTLgEK0UosW41IRbAEswq2BIXK4DQGN4vuF/s1600/Chris+36.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img aea="true" border="0" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1eUpV28WjMD0Zgfe69LHdNRW3nSbBydYwz1xAMWs8FuLmLHn_PngAXQlG3bLOZNm_jgq-SlO9ayLX0rPtmXSMAAybHyZCH2Lg4ph8rOwfvHTLgEK0UosW41IRbAEswq2BIXK4DQGN4vuF/s400/Chris+36.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The reason I brought Magneto in as Headmaster was that I wanted to change the dynamics of the school, and I wanted to change the dynamic of Magneto,” Claremont told Seriejournalen.dk. “I wanted to redeem him and I wanted a new brand of villains for the ‘80s and ‘90s. That ran into a lot of opposition and was ultimately nullified.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“A lot of people didn’t like - and don’t like - what I did with Magneto from the perspective that they felt it emasculated what they thought was a great villain,” Claremont added in Back Issue #4.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">”I planned to keep him at the school, as Headmaster of The New Mutants, at least through (Uncanny X-Men) #300 (in 1993) when I thought to confront him with consequences of his former life as a super-villain and force him to make a choice on which side of the line he stood,” Claremont wrote in his Cordially Chris online forum.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXTrJtqWh7ITAKE4ow5WFVSPPhyvjYPfAiaZbh7y4DwFQZ12kNL5ao84FwjanWJ1bg9616jZ5PkxMkYe3OhwlPT8oqtl0IGvgGGdmbIHKtpvIWX3GjQio9i8Gu19n7ITB5ASpuoFuv_Azi/s1600/Chris+37.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img aea="true" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXTrJtqWh7ITAKE4ow5WFVSPPhyvjYPfAiaZbh7y4DwFQZ12kNL5ao84FwjanWJ1bg9616jZ5PkxMkYe3OhwlPT8oqtl0IGvgGGdmbIHKtpvIWX3GjQio9i8Gu19n7ITB5ASpuoFuv_Azi/s320/Chris+37.gif" width="265" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjty23pJmXpavwSxhhEQR90_0ZIqCvWXG6QtGDU2W0o0J2gMKQH1GDB24maN8NA1gwOlCQhTfcmIYfN2_bDLfIowchcriA5OkcaSWhbfi-jNBE7YpiVYdHdf-9LbSoBYz4Om0LExbYkaXJp/s1600/Chris+38.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img aea="true" border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjty23pJmXpavwSxhhEQR90_0ZIqCvWXG6QtGDU2W0o0J2gMKQH1GDB24maN8NA1gwOlCQhTfcmIYfN2_bDLfIowchcriA5OkcaSWhbfi-jNBE7YpiVYdHdf-9LbSoBYz4Om0LExbYkaXJp/s400/Chris+38.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Mysterious plans for Nova Roma</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In New Mutants Annual #4 from 1988 and in New Mutants #75 from 1989, both written by Louise Simonson, Magneto and the White Queen of the Hellfire Club harbored mysterious plans involving New Mutant Magma (Amara Aquilla), the city of Nova Roma and their colleague in the Hellfire Club, the Black Queen (Selene).</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“There will be a story in the New Mutants involving Amara’s country, Nova Roma, and the Hellfire Club will be involved with that,” X-Men Editor Bob Harras revealed in Marvel Age #78, but such a story never appeared and Magneto and the White Queen’s plans were never revealed. </span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The problem was that for me putting an ancient Roman city (Nova Roma) in the jungle was Edgar Rice Burroughs meets Arthur Conan Doyle,” Claremont told Seriejournalen.dk. “This is fun!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Actually it was a Roman Incan city, so you had mixed elements. That didn’t sit well with the new writers on the book, so they blew it up.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Nova Roma was nullified in New Warriors #31 in 1993, written by Fabian Nicieza. When Claremont returned years later, he brought Nova Roma back without explanation in X-Treme X-Men #34 in 2004.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Marvel Age #79 from 1989 had a mention of New Mutants #81 that promised: “What if the prince of your dreams turned out to be a nightmare? For Amara, that’s exactly what she faces – for the prince she’s being forced to marry is a vampire! Will the New Mutants be able to rescue her from an undead fate worse than death? Written by Louise Simonson, pencilled by Bret Blevins, and inked by Al Williamson.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Marvel Age #80, it said about New Mutants #82: “Is Amara falling in love with the vampire she’s being forced to marry? Her change of heart makes matters worse for everyone! In fact, the New Mutants may not survive the latest challenge to the wedding! Written by Louise Simonson and pencilled by Rob Liefeld.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">However, that storyline never appeared either. Instead, New Mutants #81 featured a story by guest-writer Chris Claremont, and New Mutants #82 continued the New Mutants in Asgard storyline from New Mutants #80 drawn by Bret Blevins. Rob Liefeld didn’t start drawing New Mutants until #86 in 1990.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Marvel Age #78</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><em> </em></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Bob Harras also talked about a second Fallen Angels Limited Series written by Jo Duffy, pencilled by Colleen Doran, and inked by Terry Austin, but that never appeared. The first Fallen Angels series from 1987 had originally been advertised as Misfits in New Mutants #36 in 1986 before it was changed to Fallen Angels.</span></div>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF0dpXXDOVAKlUTsOhjWGmB9-eFrptZSnhzFR-1ZVogV_sma76Kljc2Qg0ZrErybGSp0T6Zvc9kX9CYCQNxmV4qG7n6e8OINbSclhEWHT4lbpkYuKxLDk7kqeH4YOJSt3fBjUKssck6f_N/s1600/X-Men+13+-+image+9+a.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" mda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF0dpXXDOVAKlUTsOhjWGmB9-eFrptZSnhzFR-1ZVogV_sma76Kljc2Qg0ZrErybGSp0T6Zvc9kX9CYCQNxmV4qG7n6e8OINbSclhEWHT4lbpkYuKxLDk7kqeH4YOJSt3fBjUKssck6f_N/s400/X-Men+13+-+image+9+a.gif" width="260" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The 13 Inferno babies, Cougar and Cable</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Following the 1989 Inferno crossover, Freedom Force, Mystique’s team of government sanctioned mutants, got the task of returning 13 stolen babies to their parents, and in X-Factor #40 from 1989, written by Louise Simonson, they also got tasked with returning home some of the child mutants which X-Factor had liberated from the villain Nanny.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPWcaTEvJjhszA0GKVnBtza-LbtiNoYwFoMko5bj0AsJL3OBx34hcvTQHplhUVjR8jfMF1HFbkPJeu2BFYGoRUvUMkHIfrSoSoXIIu2orYPmOt3T5C2TMM6E9lWZ2zrGRJuGJyX6AdA-eY/s1600/X-Men+13+-+image+10.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" mda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPWcaTEvJjhszA0GKVnBtza-LbtiNoYwFoMko5bj0AsJL3OBx34hcvTQHplhUVjR8jfMF1HFbkPJeu2BFYGoRUvUMkHIfrSoSoXIIu2orYPmOt3T5C2TMM6E9lWZ2zrGRJuGJyX6AdA-eY/s400/X-Men+13+-+image+10.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In New Mutants #78 from 1989, also written by Louise Simonson, Blob of Freedom Force said that the government had big plans for the babies and the mutant children. Freedom Force stopped two of the New Mutants, Rusty Collins and Skids, from telling the story to the media in New Mutants #86 in 1990, but since New Mutants #87, where Rusty and Skids joined the Mutant Liberation Front, nothing further was mentioned about the fates of the babies and the mutant children.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Then, 20 years later in 2010, New Mutants vol.3 #16 written by Zeb Wells revealed that the military had aquired the babies and experimented on them until they were ready to be used as “mutant weapons.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Meanwhile, New Mutants #87 from 1990 heralded the first appearance of a new character, Cable. “(Editor) Bob (Harras) wanted the New Mutants to have an adult leader, because Professor X was gone,” Louise Simonson recalled in Comics Creators On X-Men. “I had thought that the New Mutants would be perfectly fine without an adult around, but Bob wanted one.”</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Marvel Age Preview #1 for 1991, it said about the New Mutants: “Romance continues to bloom for Wolfsbane and Rictor, but the Mutants’ new member, Cougar, adds confusion to the budding relationship.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">However, Cougar never appeared in the New Mutants, although a cover for New Mutants #87 featuring Cougar was made. Instead New Mutants #87 from 1990 came to feature the first appearance of Cable. “(Editor) Bob (Harras) wanted the New Mutants to have an adult leader, because Professor X was gone,” Louise Simonson recalled in Comics Creators On X-Men. “I had thought that the New Mutants would be perfectly fine without an adult around, but Bob wanted one.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I came up with the character and what his motivation was. (Artist) Rob (Liefeld) came up with the character design. Actually, his original character design was supposed to be for Stryfe, but Bob and I thought it would be better for Cable. I thought about calling him Commander X at one point, but Rob wanted to call the guy Cable and I said, “You know what? Sure, Cable is a fine name.” Anything to get Rob interested in the stories.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“It took me about six months to figure out that Rob really wasn’t interested in the stories at all. He just wanted to do what he wanted to do, which was cool drawings of people posing in their costumes that would then sell for lots of money.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiYYQoPfvPI_rT16VWS6kJm7dnDq08xXDQJMwAnpB6nO1m5XbO8J2dJZfPPzDe1lmdQ9lAe4kmbe9EDfqiBa52NVuc7ygpo02cPnL2lgkEW4d9lzad40WwHL04gqlZ2fSXvEc8NyKLjvQM/s1600/X-Men+13+-+image+10+a.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" mda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiYYQoPfvPI_rT16VWS6kJm7dnDq08xXDQJMwAnpB6nO1m5XbO8J2dJZfPPzDe1lmdQ9lAe4kmbe9EDfqiBa52NVuc7ygpo02cPnL2lgkEW4d9lzad40WwHL04gqlZ2fSXvEc8NyKLjvQM/s400/X-Men+13+-+image+10+a.gif" width="257" /></a></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Cable became Ahab</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Uncanny X-Men Annual #14, 1990, written by Chris Claremont, it was implied that Ahab, the mutant hunter from the future of Rachel Summers, was that timeline’s version of Cable. Rictor also noticed Cable’s likeness to Ahab in New Mutants Annual #6, 1990, written by Louise Simonson. However, subsequent writer, Scott Lobdell, made a new character, Rory Campbell, into the person with the potential to become Ahab in Excalibur #75 in 1994.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV-vlmsd7AzVrRCC18OzR3pJLSAzBfhejOaCe7Rg4Z9gGdBQZ8Mnvjj4M-akTQkegD50dfpINMBYaOFA26jrOBcQS_3X3zaBMh2i3cJraVxNLi_iLD15OL9Ytee8Hcs-HLkqOy-_84H4Ns/s1600/X-Men+13+-+image+11.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" mda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV-vlmsd7AzVrRCC18OzR3pJLSAzBfhejOaCe7Rg4Z9gGdBQZ8Mnvjj4M-akTQkegD50dfpINMBYaOFA26jrOBcQS_3X3zaBMh2i3cJraVxNLi_iLD15OL9Ytee8Hcs-HLkqOy-_84H4Ns/s400/X-Men+13+-+image+11.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjING8z3sWncerxPxmmT1qQjFuQOLs7MmhZ0ikLDcFzcqYHyFaCzFEb14O_v6-bpt1irrDKzFqm640ljsqZW95prL6LubzImKuhf7LzvtdQo9pH7WbLG05J71og4GlHnEhIJSf4pWzBQHLD/s1600/X-Men+13+-+image+12.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" mda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjING8z3sWncerxPxmmT1qQjFuQOLs7MmhZ0ikLDcFzcqYHyFaCzFEb14O_v6-bpt1irrDKzFqm640ljsqZW95prL6LubzImKuhf7LzvtdQo9pH7WbLG05J71og4GlHnEhIJSf4pWzBQHLD/s400/X-Men+13+-+image+12.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">With New Mutants #98 in 1991 writer Louise Simonson was replaced with Fabian Nicieza and shortly thereafter the New Mutants became X-Force.</span><br />
<br /></div>
</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Rob (Liefeld) was unhappy with the way the stories were going and wanted someone else to write them,” Louise Simonson recalled in Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty. “I think that at that point anyone who looked like they could produce lots of instant cash for Marvel was likened to a god, and Rob Liefeld looked like he could do just that.”</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Services no longer required</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Although I wasn’t fired, I think I was being shoved out the door with both hands by (editor) Bob Harras,” Louise Simonson recalled in Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty. “Bob was only doing what he had to do, I expect, which was make Rob Liefeld happy. (…) My problems were not so much with Liefeld, because all freelancers are greedy and like to grab what they can, and that’s fine. I was an editor for a long time, and I know how that works.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“My problems were really with the editor, who was not handling things well at all. It’s up to an editor to choose the people who will work on any given project, and to let them know when their services are no longer needed. I think that Bob was not willing to make those decisions. What he did to me, to Chris Claremont, to Peter David, and to Jo Duffy, was to nickel-and-dime us to death. He would change plots and blame it on the artists. He would change dialogue, and then say, “I’m sorry, but I tried to call you and you weren’t home” or “I’ll be sure and tell you the next time.” He would change some of the dialogue, but not other parts, so the things people said wouldn’t make sense. It was his way of letting you know he was wishing you’d go away. Maybe it was time to say good-bye to mutants anyway.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I had and have a very fundamental vision of who (Dani Moonstar) is and where I wanted to go with her and what I wanted to do with her,” Chris Claremont recalled in Uncanny X Cast Episode 77. “I’d like to think if I’d stuck around it would’ve come to pass. We were setting all this stuff up how she was relating to Asgard and to the Valkyries and especially the relationship between her and Ororo (Storm) and Loki. I had ideas and plans galore for that and I wasn’t done with that at all, but that’s the nature of the biz.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><strong>Sources:</strong></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Back Issue #4, June 2004</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Cordially Chris, comixfan.com/xfan/, 16 June 2003</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tom DeFalco: Comics Creators On X-Men, April 2006<br />Eric Fein: Bob Harras Interview, Marvel Age #78, September 1989</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Paul J. Grant: Poor Dead Doug, And Other Mutant Memories, Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty, August 1993</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Marvel Age #33, December 1985</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Marvel Age #79, October 1989</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Marvel Age #80, November 1989</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Marvel Age Preview #1, 1990</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Patrick Daniel O’Neill: Chris Claremont, Comics Interview #56, 1988</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: The X-Men Companion II, September 1982</span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: DA;">Peter Sanderson: The New Mutants - Professor Xavier’s New Freshman Class, Amazing Heroes #16, October 1982</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tue Sørensen and Ulrik Kristiansen: Chris Claremont Interview, seriejournalen.dk, 1995</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Uncanny X Cast Episode 77, pod-cast, 2009</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">X-Men Anniversary Magazine, September 1993</span></div>
Scififilmnerdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13068646164385257711noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5108928770317234018.post-6762816548377708092012-03-07T08:01:00.000-08:002012-08-09T09:38:11.946-07:00Kitty Pryde and the substitute X-Men<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Caliban and Willie Evans, Jr. never made it into the X-Men, but Ariel/Sprite did and became one of their most popular members.</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNbDUcd8mvg0LnAkxIS_ZNpLVjNZVuABFBh27fr_xZWzZ4hTf2SjehRTy5p53F9G_9O1kDt-SpgIcJ0UblJwtM1NazxG0V5699NKYhICOSoJlHBSGVpvJdAMT-ZkvvUKgyhoKSNMwhpDJD/s1600/Chris+106.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNbDUcd8mvg0LnAkxIS_ZNpLVjNZVuABFBh27fr_xZWzZ4hTf2SjehRTy5p53F9G_9O1kDt-SpgIcJ0UblJwtM1NazxG0V5699NKYhICOSoJlHBSGVpvJdAMT-ZkvvUKgyhoKSNMwhpDJD/s640/Chris+106.gif" width="520" yda="true" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In X-Men #129, 1980, the X-Men found the young mutant Kitty Pryde, who ended up joining the team in X-Men #138 later that year. “Kitty Pryde started with that cover that I did for The Comic Reader (#167 in 1979) with all the new X-Men wearing the old X-Men costumes, and I thought it would be neat to have somebody in the old costume,” artist John Byrne recalled in The X-Men Companion. “I always liked the old costume.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“And I remembered somebody at a con or somewhere saying that he thought it would be nice if there was a constant change of cast in the X-Men and that the new kids wore the old costumes until they graduated when they got individualized costumes. So you would have four or five Kittys running around wearing the old costumes, who would be like the second team. And then, when I started to figure what I wanted the first one to be, I instinctively thought of a little girl. She started about 18, and as I drew her she got younger and younger.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“A young Sigourney Weaver was how the face started to evolve when I started looking for the face. A couple of them started to look that way and I said, “Okay, that’s fine. She can grow up to be Sigourney Weaver. That’s a nice image.””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“At one point (writer) Chris Claremont said we should call her Thunderbird, and I didn’t like that at all but it put the “bird” name into my head and I started writing down bird names, trying to think of a name for her, and one of the ones I wrote for her was Kitty Hawk. And then I remembered a girl I knew in college whose name was Kitty Pryde, and I always felt that was a neat name, so as soon as I wrote “Kitty Hawk” I thought, “No, Kitty Pryde – that will be her real name.” And then I came up with Sprite, and then we got all these Fresca jokes so we changed it to Ariel and just before going to press I said, “No, Sprite,” the original name. Because Ariel doesn’t tell you anything about her, but you can pick her out of the group on the basis of the name Sprite. I think I also saw The Tempest on PBS and realized that Ariel was a male.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Byrne’s loss of Sprite</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“What I told Chris she did was that she cancels the valences between atoms so it’s not her who becomes intangible, it’s what she’s walking through,” Byrne told The X-Men Companion. “In other words, the wall becomes intangible, not her. She’s still solid. You can hit her when she’s doing this trick. You can knock her out. You can shoot her, because she’s doing it to a specific thing. She’s not intangible.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I gave Chris all the things I had figured out and he took off in his own directions which were very different from mine. And of course the character that’s in the book is the character. Whatever I had in mind for her is simply what I had in mind for her; it’s not the character who’s in the book, so it’s not the character.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I had hoped when we created Kitty Pryde that she was going to be more realistic. I hoped she was going to be more what a real 13 ½-year-old girl would be like.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I think she succeeds, but not as much as I would have liked to. I was very pissed off at Chris when he made her a genius. I did not approve of that at all and it was too late for it to be changed when I found out about it. I felt as if I’d lost the character at that point. She wasn’t the girl I thought she was.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I made her the genius of the team because we didn’t have one,” Claremont explained in the X-Men Companion. “I felt the team needed somebody with a brain, somebody who could whip up gadgets in an instant, who could explain things, understand things – a Beast-character, a Reed Richards, a Tony Stark. Every team needs one. The X-Men didn’t have one.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiT22xru3JNPXZmtC8D4-Nsh669QV882p9PacXq8oH4nZmOhB_-0JWpkNG1MVjtxxdd5TLNUADJhZ0fDfxPckZhtrSd4zr5k2xXcVqKM0D1f43auuAOssgmVK19ceV9nAgrX5Vvb86OI4B/s1600/Caliban+by+John+Byrne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" eda="true" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiT22xru3JNPXZmtC8D4-Nsh669QV882p9PacXq8oH4nZmOhB_-0JWpkNG1MVjtxxdd5TLNUADJhZ0fDfxPckZhtrSd4zr5k2xXcVqKM0D1f43auuAOssgmVK19ceV9nAgrX5Vvb86OI4B/s640/Caliban+by+John+Byrne.jpg" width="508" /></a></div>
</div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ariel and Caliban</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I was in a comics shop at one point and I said “Ariel” and somebody said “Caliban” and it was like, “Of course, if we’re going to have an Ariel, we must have a Caliban,” Byrne remembered in The X-Men Companion. “He was going to be an incredibly ugly Living Cerebro kind of character, whom we would never see entirely. We would only see bits and pieces of him. And he would live in this dark room in the back of the mansion because he’s so ugly. Because the other X-Men don’t like to look at him and he doesn’t like to look at himself.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“(He was going to be) this sort of totally non-human thing that lived inside a roughly human-shaped suit, and we would never really know what it really looked like,” Byrne told Comics Creators On X-Men. “I had done a drawing so that I knew what Caliban really looked like, but the readers would never find out what he really looked like inside his suit.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Kitty would be able to relate to him for some reason,” Byrne continued in The X-Men Companion. “Chris defined the situation as being that she can’t stand Nightcrawler because he is “wrong” somehow, he is a human done sideways, but Caliban was so hideous and so deformed that he was a broken thing, like a bird with a broken wing, and she could relate to him on that level. And it was going to be a very trying thing for Nightcrawler, the fact that Kitty could relate to Caliban but not to him.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The X-Men were going to discover the tap that the Hellfire Club had put on Cerebro (as revealed in X-Men #129 in 1980), or at least figure out that there was something amiss, and Caliban was going to fulfil the function of Cerebro for the X-Men.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">As it turned out, the X-Men never discovered the Hellfire Club’s bug in Cerebro, but it was assumably destroyed along with Cerebro in Uncanny X-Men #213 in 1987. Cerebro was declared unusable junk in Uncanny X-Men #214.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmubBcTQnSSIECWzbqh6w4FBl-zc7Z9OcbV9zL_KLmwOcIxSCeasW04iY0GjnUHCv2bKoHoM9HtSWVaUWe-pDajovYAsnnaXA3At1yMky_AVqInFJDFCZ5poKIbBMzA0tUxeWxoVEd_ypp/s1600/Chris+20.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmubBcTQnSSIECWzbqh6w4FBl-zc7Z9OcbV9zL_KLmwOcIxSCeasW04iY0GjnUHCv2bKoHoM9HtSWVaUWe-pDajovYAsnnaXA3At1yMky_AVqInFJDFCZ5poKIbBMzA0tUxeWxoVEd_ypp/s400/Chris+20.gif" width="400" yda="true" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span> <span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> </span></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Legion of Substitute X-Men</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“(Editor-in-Chief) Jim Shooter killed the concept of a second team of X-Men, the X-Men in training, because he said it sounded too much like the Legion of Substitute X-Men, so it died right there and Kitty became the only one who ever made it into the book,” Byrne revealed in The X-Men Companion. “Kitty, Caliban, and Willie Evans, Jr., that little black kid who was in Fantastic Four #203 (1979), who made the monstrous version of the FF, were the only ones we were sure were going to be in it.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">A Caliban designed by Dave Cockrum was introduced in Uncanny X-Men #148 in 1981, but he never joined the X-Men, deciding to live with the Morlocks in the sewers underneath New York instead, though many years later he did join X-Force using his powers to help track other mutants.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The 9-year-old mutant Willie Evans, Jr., reappeared some years later in Iron Man Annual #8, 1986, in which he died.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT4l6bGi1IcY3Y4b7sYYAOWIQWvmWjpCSkPqEE-Zx0BVkXFg2wt_0ZgymHtraS_-TaHkLaWPAdup16yM-TP3A_yWIteWzVBeuHPNRS9qznH0hWywvKdKtpwc-eF6a5J8oCjCdbTZdyA75R/s1600/Chris+107.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT4l6bGi1IcY3Y4b7sYYAOWIQWvmWjpCSkPqEE-Zx0BVkXFg2wt_0ZgymHtraS_-TaHkLaWPAdup16yM-TP3A_yWIteWzVBeuHPNRS9qznH0hWywvKdKtpwc-eF6a5J8oCjCdbTZdyA75R/s400/Chris+107.gif" width="400" yda="true" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><strong>Sources:</strong></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tom DeFalco: Comics Creators On X-Men, 2006</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: The X-Men Companion II, September 1982</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>Scififilmnerdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13068646164385257711noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5108928770317234018.post-88213471606754907652012-02-27T06:55:00.000-08:002012-08-04T08:11:16.896-07:00The unrevealed mysteries of Mystique<div class="Section1">
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">And the unpublished debut of Destiny, Rogue and the Hellfire Club.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: DA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: DA;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: auto;" /></span></h2>
</div>
<div class="Section2">
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSYjV95FY39njS-UbFPtQh8mI1fkvgmAXV-7bVYRrVbeG5VVpgWFKAzQbozMz8J3IG6JWoprFRvzStHB7uqOTyw3xc78hF8NS05GQcD8GwQDKBpMHWmryZRD0UhByH1SlRzdpwiplq_Jyx/s1600/Chris+11.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" lda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSYjV95FY39njS-UbFPtQh8mI1fkvgmAXV-7bVYRrVbeG5VVpgWFKAzQbozMz8J3IG6JWoprFRvzStHB7uqOTyw3xc78hF8NS05GQcD8GwQDKBpMHWmryZRD0UhByH1SlRzdpwiplq_Jyx/s400/Chris+11.gif" width="382" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The shapechanging Mystique, who would become an important figure in the X-Men mythology, was originally introduced in Ms. Marvel, written by Chris Claremont. In Ms. Marvel #18 from 1978, it was established that Mystique was working for a Lord who remained unidentified, but it was probably a Lord of the Hellfire Club – an organization of rich and powerhungry mutants.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">However, Ms. Marvel got cancelled in 1979 because of poor sales before it was confirmed if Mystique was working for the Hellfire Club, so their "plan" was never revealed. But the Hellfire Club, as well as Mystique’s partner Destiny and their adopted daughter Rogue, would also have been introduced in Ms. Marvel if the series had continued. When the characters showed up in X-Men instead, Claremont used their unreleased Ms. Marvel appearances as backstory, the reason being that those stories were supposed to see print in Marvel Fanfare.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">When it was decided to cancel Ms. Marvel with issue #23, Ms. Marvel #24 had been ready to go to the printer. The plan was to print that issue in Marvel Fanfare instead, and to conclude the story started therein over several issues of Marvel Fanfare. So in Uncanny X-Men #158 from 1982, there was a reference to see future issues of Marvel Fanfare for the reason behind Mystique’s hatred of Carol Danvers (Ms. Marvel).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The stories never appeared in Marvel Fanfare, however, and Claremont considered doing them as back-up stories for Classic X-Men instead, but that ended up not happening, either.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdxkrph5GhngKVOZCh7xYI4WmandUUq7_IBGChDwcZTiwfjRZ_1kLvqJPyy4aoXol8hItOS3qNzF3LjuG_JX4fWkV0ke8PC3iEdcWDD71VtVYautfJHJp8rcdhY7x4Rm7BFa7vyssMcoh0/s1600/X-Men+11+-+image+3.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" eda="true" height="98" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdxkrph5GhngKVOZCh7xYI4WmandUUq7_IBGChDwcZTiwfjRZ_1kLvqJPyy4aoXol8hItOS3qNzF3LjuG_JX4fWkV0ke8PC3iEdcWDD71VtVYautfJHJp8rcdhY7x4Rm7BFa7vyssMcoh0/s400/X-Men+11+-+image+3.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
</div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Revenge for untold events</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><div class="Section1">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Finally, in 1992, Ms. Marvel #24 turned up in Marvel Super-Heroes vol.2 #10, and the first part of the continuation intended for Marvel Fanfare turned up in Marvel Super-Heroes vol.2 #11 with a 10-page epilogue written by Simon Furman that wrapped up Claremont’s unfinished story in which Mystique’s hatred of Carol Danvers was explained with the precognitive mutant Destiny having predicted Rogue’s death at the hands of Ms. Marvel.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">However, Simon Furman had no idea of what Claremont had planned and made an error in including Destiny in his epilogue. Destiny would have ended up in prison in Claremont’s unpublished continuation of his Ms. Marvel story, because when Rogue made her official debut in Avengers Annual #10 in 1981, she attacked Ms. Marvel and permanently absorbed her powers and mind in order to help Mystique bust Destiny and the other Brotherhood members out of prison.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Rogue’s attack on Ms. Marvel wasn’t shown until Uncanny X-Men #203 in 1986, and in Uncanny X-Men #182, 1984, Rogue explained her reason for the attack: “Hatred. Vengeance. We’d fought a few months earlier. Ah’d almost been killed. Ah wanted to get even.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The fight Rogue mentioned must have happened in the storyline that was begun in Marvel Super-Heroes vol.2 #11. Unfortunately, that storyline was never finished.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">When Sebastian Shaw of the Hellfire Club mentioned a previous encounter with Rogue in X-Men Annual #7 from 1984, it was probably also a reference to an event in the untold Ms. Marvel story. Rogue also referenced the fight in Uncanny X-Men #209, 1986: “When we first tussled long before ah joined the X-Men – Shaw near punched my ticket.”<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: DA;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: always;" /></span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Chris Claremont confirmed in his online Cordially Chris forum that when Mastermind of the Hellfire Club exacted revenge on Mystique in Uncanny X-Men #170 in 1983, by troubling her with nightmares and causing Rogue to leave her, it was for something that had happened in the unpublished Ms. Marvel stories. Mastermind also assaulted Emma Frost of the Hellfire Club in Uncanny X-Men #169, 1983. His hatred for Frost was also left unexplained, but before she was attacked, Frost feared for Shaw’s safety.</span></span></div>
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Whatever the story in Ms. Marvel #25 onwards was about, it obviously involved a conflict between Mastermind and the Hellfire Club (Shaw and Frost), and Mastermind had his plans thwarted by Mystique in some way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEits_yOzPkJRiy6btHVs3MoZz-qbyWJzujjzTHIBpktn81XO4K6bgpxmKrx0fa14hdA4av7XS2XsR-17phNnvHPxB_jl9I7fgUH9UTCWXwgcFsZX0Ziugpdx6Tyf7KpHhIMO3qIaxAzM3J2/s1600/Chris+12.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="207" lda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEits_yOzPkJRiy6btHVs3MoZz-qbyWJzujjzTHIBpktn81XO4K6bgpxmKrx0fa14hdA4av7XS2XsR-17phNnvHPxB_jl9I7fgUH9UTCWXwgcFsZX0Ziugpdx6Tyf7KpHhIMO3qIaxAzM3J2/s400/Chris+12.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><strong>Sources:</strong></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Cordially Chris, comixfan.com/xfan/, 3 February 2003</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>Scififilmnerdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13068646164385257711noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5108928770317234018.post-42555380504439228792012-02-20T07:51:00.000-08:002012-08-09T13:10:11.641-07:00Interrupted romance<div class="Section1">
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Cyclops dated Colleen Wing, but never really responded to her advances. Was there some secret reason readers didn't know about?</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCKgOgIJS6TGSE0BbEbl9wK_mRS8AtqLOwpdbKQeZ_Y_pfGid-TrM2xu25zRMb7uKT5RNTuVFRJYd4IuZXg9QcIhypgCUEvCf8ak-RX0lPPDF47gC29FpCP89IjtgXRwB2TjpWPDAkG_k0/s1600/Chris+9.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCKgOgIJS6TGSE0BbEbl9wK_mRS8AtqLOwpdbKQeZ_Y_pfGid-TrM2xu25zRMb7uKT5RNTuVFRJYd4IuZXg9QcIhypgCUEvCf8ak-RX0lPPDF47gC29FpCP89IjtgXRwB2TjpWPDAkG_k0/s320/Chris+9.gif" width="320" yda="true" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In X-Men #114 to 125 from 1978 and1979, Scott Summers (Cyclops) thought that his girlfriend Jean Grey (Phoenix) was dead. There was a controversial scene in X-Men #114 where Scott told Storm that he felt no sorrow for the loss of Jean because she was no longer the girl he had loved after becoming Phoenix in X-Men #101, 1976. (Years later, in 1986, Phoenix was retroactively changed to not have been Jean Grey at all, making Scott more right than anyone knew at the time.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The intention was always there that Scott should feel nothing on Jean’s death,” writer Chris Claremont told The Comics Journal #50. “I mean, the reason being that Scott is a person who has been so hurt in his life that at that point he couldn’t afford to be hurt anymore.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“But many people saw it as my abandonment of the character rather than my establishing something that will be resolved – that I was setting something up. Rather than make this major shift in his character, I wanted to build it; I wanted to broaden his horizons a little. That’s why I brought in Colleeen Wing (in X-Men #118, 1979), to give him an alternative.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Someone like Scott would internalize the grief, would shut it away, would ignore it, and by ignoring it would ignore his own feelings toward Jean,” Claremont added in The X-Men Companion. “What I wanted to do with the Colleen Wing relationship was to show him growing up, show him getting in touch with his emotions, his feelings, his needs, his fears, his loves, his hates, his griefs, his joys, so that when he finally found Jean again they could experience their love in the fullest measure.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgydfbBekBSAFMXn6jsQZ4XYrv-lownnApVBgLmB_4lCyei5Dwajmn6aCZvwsJU6Z4E9FmhMuMgEOpCAwYKT_4EA3gR0a9XxA-l8EMdwwWaZy0eC2nB31K_qnUeZkxAOwICBMIpLx4Fwcu1/s1600/Chris+9a.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgydfbBekBSAFMXn6jsQZ4XYrv-lownnApVBgLmB_4lCyei5Dwajmn6aCZvwsJU6Z4E9FmhMuMgEOpCAwYKT_4EA3gR0a9XxA-l8EMdwwWaZy0eC2nB31K_qnUeZkxAOwICBMIpLx4Fwcu1/s320/Chris+9a.gif" width="320" yda="true" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">No sex for Colleen</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“As near as I can tell from reading the books, Jean was the first normal love of Scott’s life,” Claremont continued in The Comics Journal #50. “The guy was an incredible loner, an incredibly introverted personality. I couldn’t see him being easy with people. Anybody. And I wanted to make him more easy with the team, and with people in general. And at the time, Colleen was a convenient peg on which to hang this.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“But again, Misty Knight and Colleen’s appearances in the X-Men were for reasons that had nothing to do with the X-Men,” Claremont admitted in The X-Men Companion. “I was bounced off Power Man and Iron Fist. (Writer) Ed Hannigan didn’t want either of the women in the book, and I said, “Fine, can I take them to X-Men?” and he said, “Sure.” You see, I pretty much created them and I wanted to keep control of them.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I brought these characters with me when I left Power Man and Iron Fist – so much for that idea,” Claremont sighed in The Comics Journal #50. “The intention was always just to broaden his horizons. They were never going to fall in love. Everyone says, “How dare Scott throw over Jean for Colleen,” but if you read those issues, the only person who refers to a possibility of a relationship is Colleen. Scott never picks up on it. He was going to, but events forestalled it. In retrospect, I’m glad they did. It works out better this way.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“If you look at it the way it evolved, at no point does Scott make a move,” Claremont added in The X-Men Companion. “Colleen is the one who takes the initiative. They talk a lot, they enjoy each other’s company, but at no point does he give her any kind of sexual response or emotional response. Again, I was trying for things that got terminated for reasons that had nothing to do with the X-Men.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7T_9EjQNJ-zvy2OFXUObJit2G9sHsKrh_AI1DMeo9Zh9O-AmY2Rdep0KMU1GonDPgkBl_H60L5aWNxuz4lSNvNl9Q2FgsNhqKZq3KfB0ARfcZeWjAw_Tq5DQSIomcK03N79JjM0fLQMhyphenhyphen/s1600/Chris+105.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="340" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7T_9EjQNJ-zvy2OFXUObJit2G9sHsKrh_AI1DMeo9Zh9O-AmY2Rdep0KMU1GonDPgkBl_H60L5aWNxuz4lSNvNl9Q2FgsNhqKZq3KfB0ARfcZeWjAw_Tq5DQSIomcK03N79JjM0fLQMhyphenhyphen/s400/Chris+105.gif" width="400" yda="true" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">No Sabretooth, either</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The end result was that nothing happened between Scott and Colleen because Scott learned that Jean was still alive and rushed to be with her without giving Colleen another thought. “Again, it’s too abrupt,” Claremont admitted in The Comics Jounal #50, “but that’s because (writer) Jo Duffy felt we were co-opting her characters that rightfully belonged to Power Man and Iron Fist.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Jo – quite rightly – demanded them back,” Claremont revealed in The X-Men Companion.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Colleen was introduced for a very specific purpose: To create the conflict that never really came about when Jean came back,” artist John Byrne summarized in The X-Men Companion. ““Here’s Jean back and here’s Colleen, and oh jeez, I jumped into Colleen so fast and I did not care about Jean,” and all that kind of stuff, which didn’t happen because Mary Jo Duffy quite rightly demanded Colleen back to do stuff with her. Chris has an unfortunate tendency to think that once he’s written a character it’s his character, and I try to think that once I leave the book I leave the characters behind.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: DA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: DA;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: auto;" /></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Jo Duffy also laid claim to Sabretooth, who had debuted in Iron Fist, for use in Power Man and Iron Fist. “(Wolverine’s father) was supposed to be Sabretooth,” Byrne revealed in The X-Men Companion. “Now I don’t know. I understand that Mary Jo is planning on doing a Sabretooth story. Whether or not she’ll do anything with that I don’t know. It’s entirely up to her now. It’s her character, because she has Iron Fist.”</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Mary Jo Duffy never did anything interesting with Sabretooth, and when Power Man and Iron Fist was cancelled in 1986, Sabretooth – or at least a clone of him – finally started appearing in Uncanny X-Men.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><strong>Sources:</strong></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Gary Groth: Chris Claremont, The Comics Journal #50, October 1979</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: The X-Men Companion I, March 1982</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: The X-Men Companion II, September 1982</span></div>Scififilmnerdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13068646164385257711noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5108928770317234018.post-24110976781426905052012-02-13T07:35:00.000-08:002012-02-13T07:35:41.656-08:00Why Phoenix had to die!<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">And how the all-time greatest X-Men story ever was born.</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7HB4r5OLgWyPcVoCsJo58FsDsXa2I3-6Y3lb57nD2yucIOAC5FidMUxYy4PEYwkkVjAgGbhrWg79f9gspHM-q1HRQTJGUCxGlP783iejcMFIbas79_zSSOwBwjX5x6iWfnznok2BPspNf/s1600/1978+-+X-Men+b.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" sda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7HB4r5OLgWyPcVoCsJo58FsDsXa2I3-6Y3lb57nD2yucIOAC5FidMUxYy4PEYwkkVjAgGbhrWg79f9gspHM-q1HRQTJGUCxGlP783iejcMFIbas79_zSSOwBwjX5x6iWfnznok2BPspNf/s640/1978+-+X-Men+b.gif" width="425" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Scott Summers (Cyclop)’s girlfriend, Jean Grey (Marvel Girl), left the X-Men in issue #94 in 1975, but returned in X-Men #97 in 1976. “Basically, we missed her and wanted her back,” artist Dave Cockrum recalled in Comics Creators On X-Men. “Archie Goodwin was the X-Men editor by then and I had started badgering him to let me do something with Jean Grey. I hated her costume. We felt that Marvel Girl was a dumb name, too.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“We never intended her to come back and just be plain old wimpy Marvel Girl,” Cockrum told The X-Men Companion. “We made her a bit more flamboyant than she was.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Dave and I deliberately set out to make her more independent and attractive before we made her into Phoenix,” Claremont told The X-Men Companion. “I saw no reason why a young, intelligent, attractive, courageous, heroic woman should look like a Republican frump. I told Dave, “Let’s jazz her up,” - visually jazz her up, changing her hairstyle, giving her slightly flashier clothes – and when he became more attracted to her, he liked drawing her and we liked using her again. I told Dave to jazz up the visuals on her power, because dotted lines do not an interesting visual make. And, partly because there was all this talk about Ms. Marvel, we felt some pressure to get rid of the Marvel Girl name.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“At some point we thought, well, we’re giving her an official rebirth and Phoenix refers to rebirth so, okay, we’ll call her Phoenix,” Cockrum revealed in Comics Creators On X-Men. “I started drawing costumes and my first Phoenix costume was a lot like the current one, except that it was white and gold and had an off-the-shoulder cape like the Fawcett Captain Marvel. I loved it, personally, but Archie wouldn’t okay a white costume because he said you’d be able to read the copy through the page on the old newsprint we were printing on in those days. So I changed her colors to green and gold, and he okayed it.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The first female cosmic hero</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">While trying to save the X-Men from death, Jean Grey was exposed to cosmic rays in X-Men #100, 1976. “(Writer Chris Claremont) told me to play off the origin of the Fantastic Four with the cosmic rays and that whole “TAGATAGATAGA” sound effect,” Cockrum recalled.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Then X-Men #101 started with Jean Grey having become Phoenix. The closer circumstances surrounding the rebirth were revealed in X-Men #125 in 1979: “Her body was consumed by the intense radiation. But her mind refused to die. Driven by her love for Scott Summers, she achived her full potential as a psi – becoming, briefly, an entity of pure thought before finally reforming as Phoenix.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“We agonized over what the hell she did,” Cockrum revealed in The X-Men Companion. “It took us a long time to figure out exactly what she did, so we left her in the hospital for several issues, while we thought about it. It started out being an enormous upgrading of what she already did. So powerful that nobody could cope with it.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Phoenix is actually Marvel Girl at her ultimate extent,” Chris Claremont explained to The Comics Journal. “Phoenix in X-Men #108 (1977), when she saved the universe, was Jean Grey achieving her fullest potential as an entity.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Our intent was to create an X-Men analog, if you will, to Thor – someone who was essentially the first female cosmic hero,” Claremont revealed in Phoenix: The Untold Story. “We thought at the time that we could integrate her into the book as well as Thor had been integrated into the Avengers. The problem with that is that it grew out of the synthesis between Dave and me. The fact that we had, in a sense, created her gave me a degree of involvement that (artist John Byrne) didn’t have, coming in seven issues later.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Editorial resistance to Phoenix</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“When we first introduced Phoenix, we wanted her to fight Thor or the Silver Surfer, but (new Editor-In-Chief) Jim Shooter wouldn’t allow it,” Cockrum told Comic Creators On X-Men. “He said no female is going to beat Thor or the Silver Surfer. We kind of sneaked around him by sending her up against Firelord, who had once fought Thor to a standstill. We established her power levels that way.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Dave and I kind of liked the idea that we had a female character who was cosmic. No one else did,” Claremont revealed in The Comics Journal. “Len Wein objected strenuously to our using Firelord if Phoenix beat him. We couldn’t have a lady character who’s cosmic, because – well, his argument was that it made the rest of the X-Men superfluous. We got around it by having the fight be a draw.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“One of the storylines that Dave and I discussed was the possibility of turning her into a power junkie,” Claremont told The X-Men Companion. “The idea was that the more power she used, the more she wanted; the more she wanted, the more she got; the more she got, the more out of control it got. And she was scared, because she didn’t think she was ready for it, so she would deliberately not use her power, and then we’d deliberately put the X-Men in situations where they had to use her power. I wanted to give Jean an internal conflict, through which she could constantly demonstrate her heroic nature by overcoming it.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Actually, when we introduced Phoenix I don’t think we intended for her to keep super cosmic powers, because the rest of the group becomes superfluous then,” Cockrum told The X-Men Companion. “Chris had said something about using the power to save the universe in X-Men #108 (in 1977), but that wiped it to such a degree that it reduced her powers. And after that, theoretically, she was not supposed to be that super-cosmic person.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Inventing rationale</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“So anyway, we were told, Dave and I, that Phoenix could not be cosmic,” Claremont said in The Comics Journal. “And when the editor passes down an edict, you’re stuck with it. We had to cut her back. So we decided to cut her down to roughly where Storm is, which is fine. Now I had to think of a rationale.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The potential to become Phoenix is still within Jean. But without the necessary increase in her awareness, in her perception. If her consciousness, her soul, whatever, is not enlightened – if her consciousness is not cosmic, then she can’t handle the power. It’s like Doctor Strange could not become the Sorcerer Supreme until he had achieved a certain psychic and emotional balance, or awareness. Neither can Jean. She’ll burn herself out, she’ll be warped, twisted, turned into an evil person. Ergo, what happened was her mind shut her down, as a safety mechanism. To prevent her from hurting herself, it just dropped a wall down.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Claremont’s rationale for the cutback of Jean Grey’s powers was used in X-Men #125 in 1979. Professor Xavier’s colleague, Dr. Moira MacTaggert examined Jean Grey and reached the conclusion that if Jean Grey was once again to reach her full potential, as she did in X-Men #108 while saving the universe, and gain access to the powers that still existed inside her, she could become something akin to a god.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The decision to turn Phoenix bad</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Phoenix officially rejoined the X-Men in issue #110 in 1978, but John Byrne, who had taken over as X-Men artist from Dave Cockrum with X-Men #108, didn’t share Cockrum and Claremont’s enthusiasm for the Phoenix character. “I agitated to get her out of the book as quickly as possible – which is what we did,” he admitted in Phoenix: The Untold Story. “I didn’t like Phoenix since the word go. Because she instantly made the rest of the X-Men fifth wheels, you know? And she wasn’t even an X-Man.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">”Much as I would prefer to have it different – and this is why Phoenix isn’t on the cover or in the title logo – is that in the opinion of (X-Men editor) Roger Stern and John Byrne, she isn’t an X-Man,” Claremont revealed in The Comics Journal.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“John liked Jean, he did not like Phoenix,” Claremont added in The X-Men Companion. “John’s antipathy toward Phoenix as a character was one of the primary motivations behind the entire decision to begin a Dark Phoenix storyline and get rid of her, or at least change her in such a way that she could not remain on the team as Phoenix.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Chris, new X-Men editor Jim Salicrup, and I went to lunch to discuss a crazy story that Chris had in mind wherein Phoenix was going to slowly, over the course of many issues, be corrupted by her power and become a great threat,” Jim Shooter recalled in Phoenix: The Untold Story.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Freewheeling, I pointed out that while Marvel had many heroes who started out as villains – the Black Widow, Hawkeye, several others – we’d never had a hero who went bad,” Shooter added in Back Issue #29. “I suggested that Chris evolve Phoenix into a villain, permanently and irrevocably, the new “Doctor Doom” for the X-Men. Salicrup and Chris liked the idea and Chris began work on what eventually became the “Dark Phoenix” saga.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“As far as I was concerned, Phoenix was always a part of the X-Men,” Claremont summarized in The X-Men Companion. “Jean was an integral part of the team. John disagreed, and from that disagreement – as he put it, he was getting disenchanted with the book in the mid-120s. Then when we decided to turn Jean evil, or to make her a villain, he got intrigued and stuck around.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The original ideas for the fate of Phoenix</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The original intent to turn her into a bad villain got lost for me about two-thirds of the way into the story when I suddenly started thinking, “We’re doing this to Jean Grey with whom I’ve always been deeply involved,”” John Byrne confessed in Phoenix: The Untold Story. “My whole thought was, “Make Phoenix evil and then suck Phoenix out of Jean.””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I wanted to depower her totally,” Byrne continued. “Chris had said that she manifested her power when she was about ten, so I had said that the ideal thing would be to have had Xavier turn her brain back, basically, till she was nine years old. Then, in the scenario that I had envisioned, the Phoenix, still an evil force, would have been kind of like this Bogey-Man that would pop out every once in a while.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“This is a scene that I pictured in my mind: Jean, now essentially retarded and living with her parents is taken by her parents into town to see, just to date ourselves, “The Cat From Outer Space” was the movie I kept thinking of. Two or three punks see her wandering by herself while her parents are buying the tickets and escort her into an alleyway. There’s a brief scuffle and from the alley comes this horrendous flash which is the Phoenix out loose again. And we have to depower her again. So Phoenix would pop out as a sort of “Jekyll and Hyde” thing.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“What Chris had suggested was that Phoenix would apparently be destroyed in the battle on the moon and that three or four issues later, she would turn up as Jean back at her old apartment, saying, “Here I am, I’m back, leave me alone, I don’t want to talk about it, I don’t want to hear about it, I’m just going to live my life.” We sort of synthesized those ideas, which bubbled down into that we were going to depower her, but she was essentially going to be Jean and was going to live her life and wasn’t going to be nine years old.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkpHIxLMxy4b6omyUgVKRdlzyA8WsOtABsnjDdtrGN_nEtMxSOKTTMmDZJM-tXXbuBN5WDFKYVsfXZK39nWjbN838uw7gyyUNALS8Tqf-rNjzQj827YeLZ8nWf5WUUzbL10MV6TInuzv8F/s1600/Chris+15.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" sda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkpHIxLMxy4b6omyUgVKRdlzyA8WsOtABsnjDdtrGN_nEtMxSOKTTMmDZJM-tXXbuBN5WDFKYVsfXZK39nWjbN838uw7gyyUNALS8Tqf-rNjzQj827YeLZ8nWf5WUUzbL10MV6TInuzv8F/s400/Chris+15.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The original ending of the “Dark Phoenix” saga</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The ending that John and I had planned for X-Men #137 (1980) was that on page 28 or 29, we have that pullback from the moon, the “Butch Cassidy” act, and it’s obvious that Jean and Scott have been trashed,” Claremont told The X-Men Companion. “And then we have a five-page sequence in which Jean essentially has her psionic abilities removed down to a molecular level, the reason being, Lilandra says, that they don’t want to destroy Jean, partly because they don’t know what releationship she has to the M’Krann crystal. They believe they can safely strip her power; they don’t know if they should kill her, so they won’t. And she doesn’t deserve to be killed. So her power is removed molecule by molecule. The galaxy’s greatest telepaths sit there and they literally take Jean apart molecule by molecule, take out all of the molecules that relate to her psionic ability and put her back together again, leaving her a normal human being.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“John wanted to have her essentially lobotomised, reduced to the level of a 12-year-old child, for whom the mere presence of Scott would cause psychic angst and grief, so we’d have your basic impossible love affair. I didn’t go for that. I was willing to accept a few issues of her being, essentially, in shock.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">X-Men #138, 1980, was originally going to conclude with Scott Summers and Jean Grey leaving the X-Men. “The first issue she was pretty much going to be, basically, in shock,” Claremont added in Phoenix: The Untold Story. ““I know something awful happened on the moon, and I did something, but I can’t remember it so I’m just going to go on.””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“What I wanted to do then was spend about the next eight issues or so having Jean come to terms with the fact that she can no longer move things by thought, that she is locked inside of her head for the first time in her adult life. At the same time she has the memory that she had godlike powers, and more importantly, what she did with them.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6WM-DEw3L9oECjFfiqQdUr7vEOt0SNUSPpG-Kv_Zth14eth5Fph6xsyEmQP0bvIp_pjnIArXcA9V2aTNQ6w3Sg_Yyc83YdaMnUVtj_yx7oLZr01V27c4DBs4UctLM0wU3mC1oks-MPrLT/s1600/Chris+16.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" sda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6WM-DEw3L9oECjFfiqQdUr7vEOt0SNUSPpG-Kv_Zth14eth5Fph6xsyEmQP0bvIp_pjnIArXcA9V2aTNQ6w3Sg_Yyc83YdaMnUVtj_yx7oLZr01V27c4DBs4UctLM0wU3mC1oks-MPrLT/s640/Chris+16.gif" width="433" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Tempted by Phoenix</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I had a rough idea of where I wanted to take it, which was over the next year having her deal with what happened, with what she did,” Claremont revealed in Phoenix: The Untold Story. “From my point of view, I saw it as coming to terms with the fact that she killed five billion people – that she committed a crime for which she can never atone, and yet she’s still alive. The easy way out would be just to jump off a cliff, but she can’t. She has to somehow put things right with herself, within herself.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The ultimate end of it, leading up to issue #150 (in 1981), would be that Magneto, having found out about this, would come in, kidnapping her, and offering her the power again on the false assumption that he could control her. And the X-Men would come to her rescue. They’d be battling Magneto on one section of the Asteroid M, and she’d be in a room all by herself with Phoenix, the effect, the power, coming back, forced to make the choice (of a lifetime).”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Does she accept this power that she wants with every fibre of her being, knowing that if she takes it she will probably lose control again, because she’s not evolved enough, and go on a rampage and kill and maim and destroy?” Claremont asked in The X-Men Companion.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">““Could I become a god again with all the power of a god, aware that in the process I may destroy living beings and planets, planetary systems, whatever, in order to survive?”” Claremont asked in Phoenix: The Untold Story. ““Or do I deny it and remain this kind of,” what is for her, “shadow of a being?” And the idea was then that we’d end on a triumphant note as Jean proved her own heroism.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRMMY_cw8nyp-9Qw2yZIdHSlT901Hf0f4RgJ-wUqce5DhBkA0tFHwdKVlPMjFKdRFlCQAKOal3JjPApreA1IvW16T99Gj4ho2MLdHNHH62WYin0pfb4L2N_l2qsefhiXDWwA49iuSaWANK/s1600/Chris+17.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" sda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRMMY_cw8nyp-9Qw2yZIdHSlT901Hf0f4RgJ-wUqce5DhBkA0tFHwdKVlPMjFKdRFlCQAKOal3JjPApreA1IvW16T99Gj4ho2MLdHNHH62WYin0pfb4L2N_l2qsefhiXDWwA49iuSaWANK/s320/Chris+17.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The infinite human capacity for good</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“She denies it,” Claremont answered in The X-Men Companion. “She says “No! Get thee from me, Phoenix!” And the idea is, it is better to be human than it is to be a wrathful goddess.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“In X-Men #137 (1980) Jean is the victim. She is not a protagonist; she is acted upon; she does not act in her own behalf. In X-Men #150 (1981) she is the hero. She single-handedly all by herself, and no one knows it, saves the universe again. It’s the greatest sacrifice that has ever been made. It would be like Lucifer deciding not to rebel against God. It is that seminal an event. And with that act, she thereby proves humanity’s worth as a creature in the cosmos - not that they have this capacity, but that they have the capacity to deny it, to deny ultimate power for the benefit of all. Essentially all the stuff the Watcher said at the end of (the published version of) X-Men #137 would have been said at the end of X-Men #150 but not because she killed herself, but because she denied this infinite power.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“In a sense it would have been (like Magneto’s) confrontation with Kitty Pryde (which took place in X-Men #150 instead), but on a much stronger note,” Claremont added in Phoenix: The Untold Story.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">This plot idea ended up being made into a story by another writer in What If… vol.2 #32, 1991, which asked: “What if Phoenix had not died?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Az1hj6zZ6itzljXcDlZBoJ9VAGfXi0qOpeJ2sggU4pneK2FXxBdIlVC6hYeUQ_TDVNFIPWY0fDikU8nBPlJcVXAezRZy5cKRbtt535tLckLpqaty69JT142hlIVr3Z3Y7EzCzdheR8XE/s1600/Chris+18.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="292" sda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Az1hj6zZ6itzljXcDlZBoJ9VAGfXi0qOpeJ2sggU4pneK2FXxBdIlVC6hYeUQ_TDVNFIPWY0fDikU8nBPlJcVXAezRZy5cKRbtt535tLckLpqaty69JT142hlIVr3Z3Y7EzCzdheR8XE/s320/Chris+18.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The timeline of Rachel Summers</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“My grand plan was that Scott and Jean would get married in the 1981 X-Men Annual #5 and for the 20<sup>th</sup> anniversary issue in ’83 (X-Men #175), they would have a child,” Claremont revealed in The X-Men Companion. “And Scott would have to deal with the fact that his job is to lead the X-Men and he wants to raise the kid, and Jean would be dealing with the fact that she loves this child but she loves working, fighting by Scott’s side. So Mariko, perhaps, ends up taking care of the child, or Kitty. And Kitty would get pissed, because she doesn’t want to be a babysitter all her life. I wanted to show the evolution, the ages of man, so to speak.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The grand plan ended up becoming an alternate timeline wherein the baby grew up to become Rachel Summers, who made her debut appearence in Uncanny X-Men #141-142 in 1981. She inherited the Phoenix power in Uncanny X-Men #199 in 1985, and was able to control it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“We had a situation in which John and I knew we were both treading on thin ice with the ”Dark Phoenix” storyline,” Claremont admitted in The X-Men Companion. “We were stretching things as far as we thought we could go in terms of what we could persuade Marvel to accept. And we both felt this was a storyline that had to be cleared at every step of the way.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Well, (X-Men editor) Roger Stern at that point had gone off staff in the middle of the storyline. Jim Salicrup had come in and taken over, so here I am giving plots to Salicrup, saying, “If there’s any question, ask me; if there’s any problem, would you please show these to Jim Shooter and check with him. We are dealing with some heavy concepts here. Jean is killing an entire planet.” And Jim never showed them to Shooter. Shooter told Jim he trusted his judgment. Well, as it turns out, Salicrup approved everything.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Jim Shooter popped a cork</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“When I read X-Men #135 (1980) that included the scene in which Phoenix destroyed a Shi’ar starship, killing hundreds, and an inhabited planet, killing billions, curious, I asked Jim Salicrup to show me whatever else was done on the storyline,” Shooter recalled in Back Issue #29. “I discovered that Chris and John had backed down from the idea of Phoenix becoming the X-Men’s “Doctor Doom.” The plot indicated that Phoenix would somehow be mind-wiped and let go. Back to living at the Mansion, hanging around with Storm and company, sitting at the same table for lunch, etcetera. Did I have a moral issue with that? Yes. More than that, it was a character issue. Would Storm sit comfortably at a dinner table with someone who had killed billions as if nothing had ever happened? </span>Nah.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“He popped a cork. And that was exactly what we’d been afraid of all along,” Claremont told The X-Men Companion. “What I was trying to write in the Phoenix story is a story about forgiveness, about mercy, about how the greatest mass-murderer in the history of the cosmos can and, in certain circumstances, should be forgiven. And the difference between Lilandra’s race – this incredibly old, incredibly mature race that rules a galaxy – and ours is that hers had that capacity to look at Phoenix or Jean, to judge the situation impartially and to choose the side of forgiveness.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“And that’s why I very specifically said all through every speech Lilandra made relating to Phoenix, “Phoenix must die, Phoenix must be neutralized, Phoenix must be dealt with.” Because she understood that there were two separate beings, that one could view Phoenix without viewing Jean, that they were bound but not inseperable. It was not that Phoenix was evil, it was just that Jean suddenly found herself coming out of a situation where she had been sucked up into this Black Queen personality, this somewhat cruel, decadent trip. She went directly from that to a situation where her slightest wish, her slightest thought could be manifested as reality.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“In her case, both conscious and subconscious could draw on, literally, this infinite power she possessed,” Claremont concluded. “The idea was that it was a tidal wave sweeping up the shore and then back down again, and when it swept down again was when she reasserted her control. The point is that she was not ready for it.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“When she consumed D’bari, it was the equivalent of a human being destroying an ant hill. (…) The same goes for the starship. </span>And, again, in her defense, they shot first.”</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Let the punishment fit the crime</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I remember getting together with Chris and asking him to change the story,” Shooter said in Phoenix: The Untold Story. “We talked about various possible changes that could be made, because I felt that there had to be some consequences for the actions. I felt that the way the story was originally designed to end, it did not have enough consequences for what happened – it wasn’t an ending. I found that the story was kind of… in a way, it wimped out. It ended with her being back with the X-Men, seemingly without much concern on their part about what she had done, which struck me as being out of character for them. Also, it didn’t fulfill that original discussion that we’d had.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“He felt that the punishment did not fit the crime,” Claremont told Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty. “And our claims that Jean was not responsible were, in effect, getting her off on a technicality. He did not buy it.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Not that she had to die, but she had to be punished. We were saying, “She was insane, we removed the insanity, she sort of got better, therefore all was forgiven.” He said, “No, you don’t go killing five billion people and then get better. There has to be a moral equivalence.””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“He did not want Jean getting away scot free,” Claremont recalled in The X-Men Companion. “The essential given was that he thought Jean had committed four billion four hundred and thirty acts of homicide, first degree murder, and she was getting away for it with a slap on the wrist. He would not be dissuaded from this view. (…) Shooter wanted Jean punished. He wanted her to suffer. His idea was she go to prison, that she be tortured horribly, that she be drawn and quartered, whipped, chained… I mean, drawn and quartered at morning and put back together at night. He wanted the tortures of Prometheus chained to a rock with the eagles ripping her guts out every day, or a reasonable facsimile thereof.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Hurt feelings</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“John Byrne and I were both thinking in terms of going to Jim’s office and saying “Listen, you have someone write X-Men #137 and #138, we’ll abide by whatever you do, we wash our hands of it,”” Claremont confessed in The X-Men Companion. “Because at this point we were not at fault. I had cleared every plot. Every plot had been cleared by Salicrup. Every script had been cleared by Salicrup and, I assumed, by Shooter. I was sitting in Shooter’s office saying, “I told you this!” But he didn’t remember. “Didn’t Jim show you the plots?” “No.” “Didn’t Jim show you the scripts?” “No.” And Shooter’s saying, well, he understands that it’s not our fault, that we did everything that we were supposed to do, but he feels that it is his responsibility as Editor-In-Chief of Marvel Comics to see that nothing goes out of the office that reflects a moral position that he does not think Marvel should take, and that he felt that this story made a moral statement that Marvel should not stand behind. And he did not feel that we had sufficient foundation for the forgiveness aspect that I was talking about.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“By this time Louise Jones has already been appointed editor of the book, effective with X-Men #138 (1980). Louise and I then sat down and we started putting together X-Men #137, because Salicrup didn’t want any part of it, and I was real pissed off at this point and I didn’t want to work with him on it anyway.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The only reason Jean was in this trouble was because we went ahead with a storyline that we felt was clear from top to bottom,” Claremont complained in Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty. “If we had known when we started that this was going to be the end, we probably would not have done the story in that way.”’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I finally just decided – and John and Louise agreed – that firstly, putting her in jail was unworkable and it was unfair. She was being nailed on a bum rap.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">A new and open ending</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The problem was that the following issue had already been drawn,” Claremont recalled in The X-Men Companion. “Also my thought processes at the time were that I would not have Jean taken to prison, because I could not then viably see any way that the X-Men would leave her there. So that meant that we’d have a situation where the X-Men are continually trying to rescue her, and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. It made no sense.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“There’s a limit to how much John can do in terms of repencilling, because he’s got Captain America on his desk, he’s got the next X-Men on his desk, we’re both pissed, so it eventually comes down to the fact that if anything’s going to happen, it’s going to happen in the last five pages, period. So I’m tossing a number of ideas around in my head. I try a couple out on Louise. She says they sound fine. I go to Jim Shooter. I try them on him. He says, “Sounds good to me,” but evidently the only one he heard, or the only one that stayed in his mind, is that Jean dies.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“So what happened was, I wrote a plot which was essentially this: We end the last shot in page 28 or 29 with people on the ship going, “Majestrix, something’s happening on the planet.””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Page 29 was supposed to be: Shot of the moon, ship in the foreground, Phoenix effect around the moon, the bird, claws out, wings extended, bolt of energy just plowing up from the moon through the ship – boom! – panic on the ship, Xavier going, “Oh, God, wake up, my X-Men,” X-Men responding, attacking Jean, she and Scott end up getting knocked into the Watcher’s house, which we’ve previously established as having weaponry and devices that are beyond the ken of mortal men.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Jean and Scott have their scene. The Watcher is standing there in the background somewhere observing. Jean picks his brain unbeknownst to him, finds the right weapon, uses it to destroy herself, or to manifest herself on some other plane of existence, Scott is upset, Watcher has a big moment, story ends.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">How Phoenix ended up dying</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Her corporeal form would have faded away, but it would have been some esoteric device of the Watcher’s that would have done the trick,” Claremont revealed in The X-Men Companion. “As far as Scott’s concerned, it would have been a death.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Now, John evidently went down to Miami with Jim Shooter and gave him a somewhat different breakdown of the last six pages, the critical fact being that John felt the Watcher should not be involved, the Watcher’s house should not be involved. Louise and I weren’t told of this until we got the pencils. Fait accompli. There was nothing we could do about it. It was too late to get them repencilled. Louise was upset that Jim had approved a plot change without telling her. Jim was very apologetic; he thought John had discussed it with her; John thought Jim had. I was wondering what the fuck was going on.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“And again, the splash page, that shot of the ship being blown away, is not what I’d plotted, and more fundamentally, by replacing the Watcher’s house with a Kree blaster, then you have to accept, given the history of the Blue Area of the Moon as outlined by Steve Englehart, that a device constructed by the Kree at the very beginnings of their mechanistic civilizations, when they were essentially being given everything by the Skrulls, is capable of destroying Dark Phoenix. To me, anyway, that stretched the bonds of credibility.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“And again, the structure of the story as pencilled was such that there was no opportunity prior to Jean’s death to explain the logic behind it, which is why you’ve got Scott going, “Oh, weep, weep, weep,” and then you’ve got those five balloons sitting on his head explaining why Jean did what she did.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">A much more powerful ending</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“At that point I was – someone once described it as “a fit of pique” – “How dare I destroy such a character in a fit of pique?” – and yet that entered into it,” Claremont admitted in The X-Men Companion. “If we’d had two weeks, if Jim had said, “Well, restructure it in this and that way,” we could have sat back and done things properly.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“And at the end of it, there simply wasn’t time, given the fact that we only had six pages, given the fact that the next issue was pencilled and we couldn’t bump it, given the fact that the story had to come to an end, given the fact that we were all furious and all hurt.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Well, it was awkward because as soon as Jim heard, “Oh, she’s going to die,” Jim spoke to John, John liked it, John thought that was fine, so I was really kind of left out on the edge of the limb. I could quit. The only option I had was not to finish the story and quit, and I wasn’t willing to do that. So we made the best of it.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I insisted on the solution,” Shooter recalled in Back Issue #29. “It was done brilliantly, if reluctantly, by Chris and John. And that was the issue that propelled the X-Men to the top for, what, two decades?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Chris has never been able to let it go, but I actually think that what we ultimately did was better than what we had planned,” Byrne told Comics Creators On X-Men. “I think the death of Phoenix made it a much more powerful story. I don’t think it would be the comics icon that everybody still references today if we had done what we had originally planned to do.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The right solution</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Whatever we felt about Jim’s decision, it was his right and responsibility to make it. It upset me because I liked Jean a lot as a character,” Claremont admitted in Comic Book Profiles. “But, looking back on the impact it had, it quickly became apparent that Jim’s decision was the right call. You have to take responsibility for your actions, especially if you’re a hero.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“We had stumbled over the absolutely right solution to the story,” Claremont added in Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty. “It was right for the character, right for the book, right for the series, and our decision was that we wanted the story to have an ending. Putting her in prison was not an ending, it was leaving us a giant loose end that we would spend the next two years frantically trying to resolve. Sort of like, “whatever happened to Madelyne Pryor?” Therefore we decided if she is going to be punished, then she should go out with class and she should die in such a way that reaffirms the heroic nature of herself and the X-Men.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“But we also determined that if she did die, it would be for real. No imaginary story, no back from the dead, no convenient last-minute gimmick. She would die. The characters would have to deal with the loss. The readers would have to deal with the loss. We figured – we hoped – that they would never look at the book the same way again. Every time we would then have a major or minor hero-villain conflict, the reader would be sitting there wondering if it is going to be the end. It happened to Jean. And it worked. It gave the book a credibility, and a degree of tension that up to that time no mainstream superhero series had.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“You should never assume that just because, for example, Jean Grey was half of the second oldest romantic relationship in the Marvel universe, because she was Phoenix, the most powerful female character in comics, that at the end of the climactic battle, she would survive and she and Scott would somehow live happily ever after, because that’s not always the way it happens,” Claremont instructed in Amazing Heroes #75.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The first “event”</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“What was transcendent about the death of Phoenix was that a great many readers viewed it as the death of a real person,” Claremont continued in Amazing Heroes #75. “That Jean Grey died, that we did something. And it was an event that in the end I, as a writer, have tried to remain true to since then. (…) We have remained true to that one fact that Jean is dead, because that was an event that had meaning to the reader. And we wanted it to remain so.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“We tried to write the succeeding issues and years and, in my case, decades to deal with that as a fundamental parcel of the series,” Claremont recalled in Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty. “In certain respects some of the characters never got over Jean’s death. It affected the way that Wolverine dealt with people – Wolverine’s relationship with Kitty, Scott’s relationship with everybody, Charlie’s relationships. It was a powerful aspect and color in the book’s spectrum. I think the benefits to the book as a whole far outweigh the active loss of that character. That allowed us to go in directions that normally we couldn’t. We are saying that not every relationship lasts, and we then have the option of throwing in surprises.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“After we killed Phoenix, we got about 3-4 (death threats). Frank (Miller) got his set after (the death of) Elektra (in Daredevil). The sad thing was we didn’t take it seriously until John Lennon got killed, at which point we decided we would open up a file and make copies, and if anything happened, we would forward the information to the FBI. I suppose that is about as far as we would take it.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“It was something that had never been done before,” Byrne commented in Comics Creators On X-Men. “Marvel had had lots of bad guys go good, but had never had a good guy go bad. She made this noble sacrifice and then Chris kept referring to it every chance he got for the next ten years, so people were unable to forget how “important” it was. So, yeah, I think that’s the point at which X-Men really started to rise. That particular issue sold 175.000 copies, which were pretty phenomenal sales back then. I think that particular issue also helped destroy the industry because it was the first “event,” and people have been trying to do events ever since. The thing about the “Death of Phoenix” storyline was that it wasn’t planned as an event. It was a story that grew organically from what we were doing. At no point did we sit down and say, “We’re going to do this huge mother of a story that will sell billions of copies.” We just did the story. Ever since then, everybody’s been trying to do their own “Death of Phoenix.” And because they’re trying to do it, they can’t.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Sources:</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">William Christensen and Mark Seifert: From Gofer To Comic Great, Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty, July 1993</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Comic Book Profiles #8, Fall 1999</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tom DeFalco: Comic Creators On X-Men, April 2006</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Margaret O’Connell: Chris Claremont, The Comics Journal #50, October 1979</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Al Nickerson: Jim Shooter Remembers The Death Of Phoenix Storyline, Back Issue #29, August 2008</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Phoenix: The Untold Story #1, April 1984</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: The X-Men Companion I, March 1982</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: The X-Men Companion II, September 1982</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Kim Thompson: Interview With Chris Claremont, Amazing Heroes #75, July 1985</span></div>Scififilmnerdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13068646164385257711noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5108928770317234018.post-14966571096704168742012-02-03T07:20:00.000-08:002012-06-27T08:59:31.320-07:00Homesick Colossus<div class="Section1">
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">A neglected character, Colossus was originally intended to be the star of the X-Men book, and his shot at stardom with his own mini-series ended up not happening, either.</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyd1884uTgjJiOjPsXMQHnriV1JTs_IiS0eCfWnBOEB0TeFkVjc4YfHAf6ckAwpiOHhzlDnN0Po87sMidxU52nJEaKYQSUWnDvXkFDi5XITYZrM3h4WvDaOwOfYkxkrKFkyaOG3GOF-1D5/s1600/1979+-+X-Men+b.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="137" sda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyd1884uTgjJiOjPsXMQHnriV1JTs_IiS0eCfWnBOEB0TeFkVjc4YfHAf6ckAwpiOHhzlDnN0Po87sMidxU52nJEaKYQSUWnDvXkFDi5XITYZrM3h4WvDaOwOfYkxkrKFkyaOG3GOF-1D5/s400/1979+-+X-Men+b.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The initial inception of Colossus (Peter Rasputin) was done as a character for Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, when (artist) Dave Cockrum was doing that book,” writer Len Wein recalled in The X-Men Companion. “He never had a chance to use him. We were at a party at Marv Wolfman’s house years ago and we were standing out on the balcony talking about characters, and he had wanted to make some changes in the Legion while he was drawing it, and he came up with this idea of doing a Russian character. We talked about possibilities, and he described the power and Colossus was the name I suggested to him at the time. Russian Colossus, and all that. He was going to use it there and never got a chance to, so we decided, “Well, we’ve created a character, might as well use him elsewhere.” So we put him into the X-Men.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Some of my plans have been forgotten since it became such a radically different book. But Colossus, for example, was meant to be the star of the book. That’s why he was the big figure in the first half-dozen covers; he was going to be their Thing, their Hulk, their permanent member. That’s why his costume is red, yellow, and blue. Primary colors.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“When (subsequent writer) Chris Claremont gave him a cosmonaut brother (in X-Men #99, 1976), I wanted to strangle him. Suddenly Colossus was not ordinary anymore, and what made him work was that he was ordinary, despite his powers. If his brother’s a cosmonaut, then the KGB had to be checking out that family, there’s no way he could have been living simply in the collective. I had him out in Siberia almost on purpose. No one ever noticed him. The townspeople didn’t bother, he was good to them, and they all lived out there. The government didn’t even know he existed. But with a cosmonaut brother, they can’t possibly not know he existed. Chris really turned everything around by doing that. That’s the problem. Writers can have a great idea for a story without thinking of all the ramifications.”</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: DA;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: auto;" /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgUBvrmlYxyO-vexEOrqB1uT6GZC_vlJ3hZ36IJm0qIuqdC6PEo2kRPEH8R7qExJmlAMcHHxefkFWuZsY1TkUAq2c2PLuYzCpG4t0VI8zubrzx-efEbbto21wGtLm1C3yV1qpsTuDZTjYq/s1600/Chris+10.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" sda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgUBvrmlYxyO-vexEOrqB1uT6GZC_vlJ3hZ36IJm0qIuqdC6PEo2kRPEH8R7qExJmlAMcHHxefkFWuZsY1TkUAq2c2PLuYzCpG4t0VI8zubrzx-efEbbto21wGtLm1C3yV1qpsTuDZTjYq/s320/Chris+10.gif" width="267" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQOjP8FJh86XfId5YJymdnxMcr1iN6nju9qdmbsyWBBhKevRylkWgqnMkb8VLH8gYxej7BaDt_I4lxZi33_14X5bZIaOlEU4Qn71-J05afimuNmJV5987jmutApvx6IIlEdtGykPyy-J-Q/s1600/Chris+10a.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" sda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQOjP8FJh86XfId5YJymdnxMcr1iN6nju9qdmbsyWBBhKevRylkWgqnMkb8VLH8gYxej7BaDt_I4lxZi33_14X5bZIaOlEU4Qn71-J05afimuNmJV5987jmutApvx6IIlEdtGykPyy-J-Q/s400/Chris+10a.gif" width="192" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Colossus leaves the X-Men</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I would have played him up more,” Wein told The X-Men Companion. “I think Chris tends to let Colossus stand on the sidelines; he focuses on Wolverine and Storm, the characters he’s most interested in, and lets the others flow around. So he hasn’t really treated Colossus that much. I’m not sure what I would have done, but I think I would have paid more attention to the character than Chris has been doing.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Len always felt the strong guy, the strong man, was the best character to be the lead character,” Cockrum acknowledged in The X-Men Companion. “He makes a good visual, and we went ahead and made him the prominent figure on the covers a lot, but he’s been terribly neglected and I think it’s about time we did something with him really.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">And Chris Claremont had plans in that regard. “It took a long time for us to find Colossus,” Claremont revealed in The Comics Journal #50. “Now that we’ve found him, we’re beginning to get into him a little bit more.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“There’s a scene in X-Men #119 (1979) where everybody’s happy, it’s a Christmas party, they’ve defeated Moses Magnum, saved Japan, saved the world. Banshee’s alright, everyone’s happy – except Colossus, who’s standing out on the porch, looking miserable, and Storm goes out and says, “What’s wrong?” And he says, “Well, it’s Christmas. And I miss my folks.” He’s homesick. And this will be built up over the next few issues, culminating in his quitting the X-Men. The character nobody anticipated quitting.”</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“What will become of Colossus’ growing realization that what he is doing as an X-Man may be to the detriment of his homeland, the Soviet Union? He leaves the X-Men. He comes back, but there are times when perhaps the charaterizational imperative is to make a more permanent break.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">However, this character development was dropped after X-Men #124 in 1979. Many years later, in 1989, Claremont wrote a story for Classic X-Men #29 where it was revealed that Colossus’ homesickness had stopped because he had learned during a visit to the Soviet Union that it was the wish of his fatherland that he remained an X-Man.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMywFeZHiAGo_U5QDp9BZZ3TkX05p2oQ557ZW2XI5NqCGxxsP9XMji4ynIQOy0njsNiPrWOSvtayx4Kjq7n-aYlj4Vn6jMPWZpACH4kKL1XpSoZ56541vxYhjZiwotkULMGbZQoKcLWhUT/s1600/outtake+22.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" sda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMywFeZHiAGo_U5QDp9BZZ3TkX05p2oQ557ZW2XI5NqCGxxsP9XMji4ynIQOy0njsNiPrWOSvtayx4Kjq7n-aYlj4Vn6jMPWZpACH4kKL1XpSoZ56541vxYhjZiwotkULMGbZQoKcLWhUT/s400/outtake+22.gif" width="258" /></a></div>
</div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Son of Colossus</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Before the story in Classic X-Men #29 appeared, Marvel Age #39 announced: “The big news this month is the upcoming Colossus Limited Series. Feeling somewhat guilty for not protecting his Soviet homeland, the armored X-Man (accompanied by his younger sister and New Mutant Illyana) will travel back to his native land for the first time since he joined the X-Men. This odyssey will give Peter the opportunity to question his role in the world, and to wonder whether he is actually accomplishing anything as a super hero. This six issue series is being written by Chris Claremont and pencilled by Rick Leonardi. Watch for it this summer (1986)!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The Colossus mini-series never appeared, however.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnrofldSH43RZU3zKG-HOwJW8sg0YNibpm1mUHOUnYIFmaZwt2IruL-sTZ0Mtli1gJEfXUO9t-xWTqtTJhbXhW6ykAvAeqsEJxWc69XkUDIiLhw_zIzC4bkmvJa4lAPh2YQLY42Wc31arB/s1600/Chris+52.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" sda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnrofldSH43RZU3zKG-HOwJW8sg0YNibpm1mUHOUnYIFmaZwt2IruL-sTZ0Mtli1gJEfXUO9t-xWTqtTJhbXhW6ykAvAeqsEJxWc69XkUDIiLhw_zIzC4bkmvJa4lAPh2YQLY42Wc31arB/s320/Chris+52.gif" width="257" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijKcZn7adboZYpG_-4RnSjsjRe4r693OjBqQ4NNjDy0A3chKAMEye2kWBeiOnHyXy3h1SvFiVfdn2NjBNX04ubJrkhUXqUTDIcO70d5DKxRii4LPXfifg6j2Mp_xOqLLVFOrqFoAITgzRt/s1600/Chris+53.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" sda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijKcZn7adboZYpG_-4RnSjsjRe4r693OjBqQ4NNjDy0A3chKAMEye2kWBeiOnHyXy3h1SvFiVfdn2NjBNX04ubJrkhUXqUTDIcO70d5DKxRii4LPXfifg6j2Mp_xOqLLVFOrqFoAITgzRt/s320/Chris+53.gif" width="224" /></a></div>
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In another issue of Classic X-Men, #21 from 1988, Colossus met and supposedly had his sexual debut with the girl Nereel in the Savage Land. In X-Men Annual #12, 1988, Colossus met her again and now she had a son named Peter like Colossus. Nereel never told Colossus if he was the father, but when she and Peter were last seen together in Uncanny X-Men #250 in 1989, it was revealed that Nereel was in love with Colossus.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6No6h2uSC_ax_w_dZjbR4_FwmYUnC1ZUjATG59sDh8i0NFOP9KuSnkud5rEfeC2dlD7W7OdKRqGmbLpVlvd86CVZslIB8-AztKChf1daJ4B3urI0XJ77qWbs3xIAVYh3z1m_AmVw4wrWd/s1600/Chris+54.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="120" sda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6No6h2uSC_ax_w_dZjbR4_FwmYUnC1ZUjATG59sDh8i0NFOP9KuSnkud5rEfeC2dlD7W7OdKRqGmbLpVlvd86CVZslIB8-AztKChf1daJ4B3urI0XJ77qWbs3xIAVYh3z1m_AmVw4wrWd/s400/Chris+54.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In the 2004-2006 X-Men: The End series, which was written by Claremont and set 15 years in the future, Peter, the son of Colossus and Nereel, appeared as Kid Colossus. In the GeNext and GeNext: United mini-series from 2008 and 2009, which are set 10 years further in the future, Pavel Rasputin, the son of Kid Colossus and grand-son of Peter Rasputin and Nereel, appeared.</span></div>
</span><span style="color: white;">.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Sources:</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Margaret O’Connell: Chris Claremont, The Comics Journal #50, October 1979</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: The X-Men Companion I, March 1982</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Bill Slavicsek: Colossus Back In U.S.S.R., Marvel Age #39, June 1986</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>Scififilmnerdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13068646164385257711noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5108928770317234018.post-45161238448293531922012-01-26T06:36:00.000-08:002012-06-27T08:38:22.011-07:00Storm’s untold stories<div class="Section1">
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">From an unrevealed lineage over Lifedeath 3 to secret adventures in World.</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjauERi211XGhGRSex3VGqa9z8v2sU9kvi8HBhtD51wxsmlkiYeiKBE4aRZYv-IUfAIBkPwGpF5gsLUJyik69jY7zunS5Bcqpi_cXjtGZ5yuaKXvP8w2m2-PUyhPE91JnqNKLZvnO1mHsVZ/s1600/1979+-+X-Men.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gda="true" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjauERi211XGhGRSex3VGqa9z8v2sU9kvi8HBhtD51wxsmlkiYeiKBE4aRZYv-IUfAIBkPwGpF5gsLUJyik69jY7zunS5Bcqpi_cXjtGZ5yuaKXvP8w2m2-PUyhPE91JnqNKLZvnO1mHsVZ/s400/1979+-+X-Men.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“When I became a pro and I was doing Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes I proposed four new legionnaires,” artist Dave Cockrum recalled in The X-Men Companion. “I had a guy who was a weather handler called Typhoon who had a flowing dark cape with yellow trim.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“When I did up the original X-Men designs, one of the characters was called the Black Cat. Take a look at Storm without the white hair and without the cape, and that’s essentially the Black Cat. She had dark hair, which was sort of like Wolverine’s, tufted on top with the ear effect. And she could transform either into a cat – I preferred the idea of a house-cat and I think we were talking about both a house-cat and a panther – and she could also half-transform into a humanoid cat.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“She was a very striking-looking character. This was before the project got shelved. It got shelved, time passed, and in the interim there must have been two dozen female cat characters. You had Tigra and the Cat. It seemed kind of stupid to go on and do another cat character with all the other ones running around, and so we dropped the whole shtick. We were hassling and arguing and trying to figure out how we could work her in, and we had already planned to use Typhoon from the Legion of Super-Heroes proposal. But we couldn’t figure out what to do with the black girl. We really liked her. We wanted to use her, and (Editor-in-Chief) Roy Thomas just threw out, “Why don’t you make her Typhoon?” And everybody’s mouths were hanging open. I ran out of the room and drew her with long white hair and a cape on and came back in and that was it. Everybody said, “Yeah! Yeah!” and her working name was Typhoon for awhile.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Storm and the Furies</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“She was called Typhoon originally, and none of us liked it,” recalled writer Len Wein in The X-Men Companion. “It didn’t sound feminine enough, it sounded like something you spat rather than said, and we talked to Roy about it as he was going out the door. “Well, she’s a mistress of the storm, she’s got all these powers, what do we call her?” And he said, “Why don’t you simply call her Storm?” And we all went, “Jesus, Johnny Storm…” And he went, “So what?” and we said, “Okay, you’re the boss,” and we called her Storm.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">It became up to subsequent writer Chris Claremont to define Storm’s personality and history. “This is something that will be expanded on in the Lady Daemon/X-Men story that Michael Golden and I are planning,” Claremont told The X-Men Companion. “The idea is that Storm’s mother comes from a line of, for want of a better term, witch-women that to a very real extent can be traced back to the dawn of humanity. They have been in this part of Africa since the beginning of humanity. There is a lot more to Storm than just the ability to create winds. There’s a sensitivity, a power, and this is not to say that she has magical abilities, but she is heir to a tradition, to a lineage that is incredibly old and incredibly in tune with life.”</span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Unfortunately, the Lady Daemon/X-Men story never appeared, but in 2006, Claremont wrote Uncanny X-Men Annual vol.2 #1 in which it was revealed that Storm descended from a royal lineage that reached back to the dawn of humanity.</span><br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: DA;">In 1976, there was another story that didn’t see print. </span>“When the team went to Muir Island (in X-Men #104, 1976), Wolverine notices that the insect girl from Count Nefaria’s Ani-Men, Dragonfly, had escpaped from confinement, and that was because I had worked up an idea for a spin-off book that I was going to call The Furies,” Cockrum revealed in Comics Creators On X-Men. “It was going to feature Storm, Clea from Doctor Strange, Tigra, Namorita, Dragonfly and an alien girl that I had come up with called Moon Fang, who rode a giant bat. I had gotten a tentative okay to do the book, but I just never got around to finishing the first plot, so it never happened. That escape was left hanging. They never cleared it up.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYxUhQlygRrgEYQ5ZYg7c7a81Q32_V4unwp_nephDqyjWY-LTIABFgsTSp2KXbm59qzEUf6yRnuH5hMU7udwryXih0CndLl4l30Js5WXgrdPXxSl2nSCSb9aSnmm5P9kRG3FqD1H_TeRW3/s1600/Chris+5.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gda="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYxUhQlygRrgEYQ5ZYg7c7a81Q32_V4unwp_nephDqyjWY-LTIABFgsTSp2KXbm59qzEUf6yRnuH5hMU7udwryXih0CndLl4l30Js5WXgrdPXxSl2nSCSb9aSnmm5P9kRG3FqD1H_TeRW3/s320/Chris+5.gif" width="178" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Worthy of Storm’s love</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">For years, Storm remained single. “There is no man, really, in the Marvel universe who’s good enough for her, who is her equal,” Claremont thought in The X-Men Companion. “She would not be taking a step down by falling in love with the Black Panther, perhaps. John Byrne and I toyed with the idea of having her get into a relationship with Scott Summers or start to, but unfortunately I’ve really kind of done that with Misty Knight and Danny Rand (Iron Fist). (…) Part of my antipathy toward the Black Panther is that I don’t have any control over him as a character, and I don’t want Storm suddenly showing up in other books, waltzing out with the Black Panther.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“There were relationships that I felt transcended gender,” Claremont told Seriejournalen.dk. “Storm and Yukio is something that I never really got into. I mean, I had my own thoughts, but I never really got into it.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">When Storm finally did fall in love, it was with Forge, a mutant inventor who had designed a gun that was used to neutralize Storm’s mutant powers, possibly permanently, in Uncanny X-Men #185, 1984. In Uncanny X-Men #201, 1986, Cyclops and Storm were duelling for leadership of the X-Men. Cyclops’ wife, Madelyne Pryor, was anxiously awaiting the outcome when she noticed a sudden thunderstorm. This was presumably a sign that the effect of the gun used on Storm was only temporary, and that her mutant powers were returning. During the duel, she was subconsciously affecting the elements. However, Storm’s victory was retroactively rendered invalid in X-Factor #38, 1989. Supposedly, it was Madelyne Pryor, using powers she didn’t know she had, that decided the outcome of the duel.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJrdGwPBFn-aJMHzvkBrXRRNDTZgQSmAH8z2OrMNBpBAIOrD8_BHO1fQmoh09U7JrQdcgx-OqZaD7VdgWTQQkdlMtSVgKgLkvr2qWNYwI1cdHXvccsmgMiV2hjA6vEkITjgbXw56G6bUKQ/s1600/Chris+25.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gda="true" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJrdGwPBFn-aJMHzvkBrXRRNDTZgQSmAH8z2OrMNBpBAIOrD8_BHO1fQmoh09U7JrQdcgx-OqZaD7VdgWTQQkdlMtSVgKgLkvr2qWNYwI1cdHXvccsmgMiV2hjA6vEkITjgbXw56G6bUKQ/s400/Chris+25.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Storms shall pass</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Classic X-Men #22, 1988, Storm journeyed from the Savage Land to World, where she befriended M’rin and C’jime. In X-Men Annual #12, 1988, she met them again and it was revealed that she had had several adventures with them in between. However, those adventures were never told.</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHde_9_KHH2BLLcZ5_k8vJiiGhJmNCWLBmkCwdGAhEoJyqzj76MJCY-Xd_TTvjDn3ptB2y0_dht46C7Imxy_zlLKscD0arcWsU6YrEMcUIMM_5Y99t6hEthJsryJ0otrbAxVXoB2HS6-nd/s1600/Chris+51.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHde_9_KHH2BLLcZ5_k8vJiiGhJmNCWLBmkCwdGAhEoJyqzj76MJCY-Xd_TTvjDn3ptB2y0_dht46C7Imxy_zlLKscD0arcWsU6YrEMcUIMM_5Y99t6hEthJsryJ0otrbAxVXoB2HS6-nd/s320/Chris+51.gif" vca="true" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In 1991, Storm was supposed to have had a third “Lifedeath” solo story, this one both written and drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith. ““Lifedeath 3,” is the final story of the “Lifedeath” trilogy,” Windsor-Smith revealed in Amazing Heroes #188. “In “Lifedeath 2” (in Uncanny X-Men #198, 1985) she was in Africa and dealing with famine to a degree, and in “Lifedeath 3” she’s back in Africa and dealing with famine in a more heads-on way.”</span><br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“It was going to be just a 22-page story. I started it a couple of years ago because they needed a fill-in on X-Men, and so I said I’d do Lifedeath 3 because I had an idea anyway. And I started this 22-page fill-in myself, and then I had this accident and everything was put on hold, and by the time I was back working again they no longer needed a fill-in because Chris was caught up with his schedule. So Lifedeath 3 developed from a 22 pager into what is now going to be a bookshelf-format thing. 48 pages, yeah.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The story ended up getting rejected by Marvel Comics, however. The editor felt it advocated suicide because an elder of an African tribe went out into the forest to die. Windsor-Smith then redrew Storm into Adastra of the Young Gods and published the story as Adastra In Africa from Fantagraphics.</span><br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Uncanny X-Men #255, 1989, written by Chris Claremont, the precognitive mutant Destiny told Forge that storms pass and that he should love Mystique with all his heart. Subsequent writer Scott Lobdell had Forge break up with Storm in Uncanny X-Men #290, 1992, but Forge never really got together with Mystique despite some flirtation between them during their stint together as members of X-Factor in X-Factor #112-139, 1995-1997.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Years later, in 2006, Storm married the Black Panther in Black Panther vol.4 #18.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggro-E9c8LkhRQ3f9FvPQBuvSqLAZBoGYYZu5ajpEmtx2JdKsB64OFTedbvMKtXKXD8MXMYsVYsvswSLh8rrZXTTXZczJPgPV0m2LrFi1rTsGqZJULPC3h05aQ1ZPfyeUNF5QUJQL6jkDQ/s1600/Chris+68.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gda="true" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggro-E9c8LkhRQ3f9FvPQBuvSqLAZBoGYYZu5ajpEmtx2JdKsB64OFTedbvMKtXKXD8MXMYsVYsvswSLh8rrZXTTXZczJPgPV0m2LrFi1rTsGqZJULPC3h05aQ1ZPfyeUNF5QUJQL6jkDQ/s400/Chris+68.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilFeHABqeXIyfYwCw5c7-5d6EWD3VWOf5wnnGWtMD8jkOlRz4w9PU1nM7fYh3wPhOahVZa4Y6nHqKIxTrIRlMQrW2oESharPpD1lSVqR7dn_9AnXJfpzhAc7vV5zihh8mC97hx4IrEqmxH/s1600/Chris+69.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gda="true" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilFeHABqeXIyfYwCw5c7-5d6EWD3VWOf5wnnGWtMD8jkOlRz4w9PU1nM7fYh3wPhOahVZa4Y6nHqKIxTrIRlMQrW2oESharPpD1lSVqR7dn_9AnXJfpzhAc7vV5zihh8mC97hx4IrEqmxH/s320/Chris+69.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><strong>Sources:</strong></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Amazing Heroes #188, February 1991</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tom Defalco: Comics Creators On X-Men, April 2006</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: The X-Men Companion I, March 1982</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: The X-Men Companion II, September 1982.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tue Sørensen and Ulrik Kristiansen: Chris Claremont Interview, seriejournalen.dk, 1995</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>Scififilmnerdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13068646164385257711noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5108928770317234018.post-32501527875115228382012-01-19T07:11:00.000-08:002023-12-04T02:50:46.099-08:00Nightcrawler’s forbidden origin<div class="Section1">
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The editor and subsequent writers rejected X-Men writer Chris Claremont’s ideas for Nightcrawler.</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQUVwHAMZ2bxUM3aOUO5LNLIMeR0hUuj2QwcHz0ZfqKoFG2oxCMMukYrS1vF40Rxru9MgXBeNDnj0YYnAaM5fE1mtLbvWccATSHRjVjIy21WMASVsaaXZUVfMeqtHJLAAFrGhJmGUZhxIM/s1600/Chris+3.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="155" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQUVwHAMZ2bxUM3aOUO5LNLIMeR0hUuj2QwcHz0ZfqKoFG2oxCMMukYrS1vF40Rxru9MgXBeNDnj0YYnAaM5fE1mtLbvWccATSHRjVjIy21WMASVsaaXZUVfMeqtHJLAAFrGhJmGUZhxIM/s400/Chris+3.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Artist Dave Cockrum created Nightcrawler, one of the most popular X-Men characters. “In 1974, writer Len Wein and I were invited to revive X-Men,” Cockrum recalled in Wizard #33. “For months, I’d been badgering Roy Thomas, then Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief, for my own series, and he finally came through for me. One day, he walked into the area that I worked in, and he literally told me to go home and come back with some X-Men. I was really excited about this.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The first new X-Man that Cockrum introduced was Nightcrawler, a personal favorite that he had created years earlier. “I was still in the Navy when Nightcrawler popped into my head,” Cockrum recalled. “I was stationed on Guam at the time, and I sat up one night in the middle of this crazy typhoon because it was just too noisy to sleep. I don’t know how my mind went down this path, but suddenly I found myself thinking about this Nightcrawler character, this demon from Hell who had flubbed a mission and, fearing what would happen to him if he went back – what kind of punishment he’d have to face – had decided to stay above ground, so to speak, in the world of humans.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">A very malevolent demon</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Cockrum’s first wife Andrea was with him that fateful night in Guam. “We decided wouldn’t it be fun if he was a demon and he could teleport and run up walls and he howled like an animal… and all kinds of weird stuff,” Cockrum recalled in The X-Men Companion. “He was a nasty son of a bitch. The only thing that made him any kind of a good guy at all was just that he chose to help the good guys.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“When I became a pro and I was doing Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (at DC Comics) I proposed four new legionnaires and Nightcrawler was one of them. But (editor) Murray Boltinoff’s response was that he was too weird looking.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">DC’s loss was Marvel Comics’ gain. Instead of a demon escapee from Hell, Nightcrawler became a mutant from Germany where he had been a carnival freak at Der Jahrmarkt before joining the X-Men. His real name was Kurt Wagner.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Cockrum also created the African Storm, the Russian Colossus and the Native American Thunderbird for the revamped X-Men team, but Nightcrawler remained closest to his heart during his run as X-Men artist. In The X-Men Companion, subsequent artist John Byrne remembered: “I came to the X-Men being very down on Nightcrawler because I felt that Cockrum had given him far too much of the spotlight. I felt in those early days it was Nightcrawler Comics co-starring the X-Men.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">No image-inducer allowed</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">When Chris Claremont took over as the writer of X-Men with issue #94 in 1975, it became up to him to define Nightcrawler’s character and establish his past history. “When we first started using him, I think we intended to go with that dark, malevolent side,” Cockrum recalled in The X-Men Companion. “Personally, I now prefer him the way he is, the swashbuckler. Every goddamn Marvel weird-looking person (is brooding), so why not have one who doesn’t?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I think it was just because he was my favorite character, and he started reflecting my attitudes and I’m a frustrated swashbuckler and I’m a movie buff. So, it just came about naturally.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Initially, Chris Claremont had Nightcrawler use an image-inducer to hide his true appearance from the public, so they wouldn’t chase him down like an angry mob as had happened in his first appearance in Giant-Size X-Men #1 in 1975.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“There were a lot of readers out there who actually thought it was something he could do, not a gizmo he carried, but a super-power,” Cockrum recalled. “It wasn’t something he could do and we were trying to point that out.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I would never have given him the image-inducer,” Len Wein told The X-Men Companion. “I think it was one of my original orders as an editor to get rid of the thing, because so what? You’ve got a character whom, if he could look like anybody else, denied what he was all about. He should have to wear the trenchcoat and slouch hat and his hands in his pockets and his tail tucked into his pants so people wouldn’t climb the walls as he walked past them.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nightcrawler’s father revealed</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Early in his run as X-Men writer, Chris Claremont got the idea that the ruler of the dimension of dreams, Nightmare, who had pointy ears just like Nightcrawler’s, should be revealed as Nightcrawler’s father. Unfortunately, Nightmare was an ancient foe of Doctor Strange and Roger Stern, who was writing Doctor Strange at the time, did not like the idea.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Chris had come up with the latest of several crazy ideas and declared that Nightcrawler’s father was Nightmare,” Stern recalled in Back Issue #29. “And I replied with something like, “No, he’s not. I’m not going to let you appropriate one of my character’s major villains.” As I recall, Len Wein crossed the room and shook my hand. And not too long after that, I did become the X-Men editor and was able to make sure that didn’t happen for long enough that Chris eventually changed his mind.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Many years later, in Uncanny X-Men #428-434 from 2003-2004, writer Chuck Austen revealed Nightcrawler’s father to be Azazel, a mutant from biblical times also known as Satan. He was trapped in the dimension through which Nightcrawler teleports and had sired mutant offspring capable of opening gateways to Earth. The mutants Kiwi Black and Nils Steiger (Abyss) were Nightcrawler’s half-brothers. Azazel had entrusted the gypsy witch Margali Szardos to raise Nightcrawler. In X-Men Annual #4, 1980, she had told Nightcrawler that she had found him next to his dying mother when he was barely an hour old.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Uncanny X-Men #142, 1981, Nightcrawler met the shape-shifting mutant Mystique, who had a physical resemblance to him. She told him that his adoptive mother Margali Szardos could answer his question about who she was. But Nightcrawler never asked Margali.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG9TiOkrvllMDz_4uDlEweIyQuIVkVCJw91rZ4N3jl7nOHe_YRvs3o_Hzw4t1oOZJQlIpVXDdQI6EX_ImN8n2QqVg9_rd3JWGjSFHrKJHfBNXkAQUXfd2GZf3d3dKw1RYGDLBEc2IybdlF/s1600/Chris+19.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG9TiOkrvllMDz_4uDlEweIyQuIVkVCJw91rZ4N3jl7nOHe_YRvs3o_Hzw4t1oOZJQlIpVXDdQI6EX_ImN8n2QqVg9_rd3JWGjSFHrKJHfBNXkAQUXfd2GZf3d3dKw1RYGDLBEc2IybdlF/s400/Chris+19.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Last of the Elfburgs</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Uncanny X-Men #204 from 1986, Nightcrawler rescued a new character, Judith Rassendyll, from the hitman Arcade. Afterwards, Judith learned that she was the last of the Elfburgs and heir to the throne of the European country Ruritania.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDF_oKnxNpJ4PUYsXSKLMj3eyjtwIG_CO-SLpNmmk51ojFZmKWTDZs9Zq-RvroAjHaNcWjvpQuyUsBrV0DTO6V2U8wqV06Sj5Y0ICzVrnyBpHC3Dz_VqWeRsXLne3yPq16RXqUp2e03APC/s1600/Chris+26.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDF_oKnxNpJ4PUYsXSKLMj3eyjtwIG_CO-SLpNmmk51ojFZmKWTDZs9Zq-RvroAjHaNcWjvpQuyUsBrV0DTO6V2U8wqV06Sj5Y0ICzVrnyBpHC3Dz_VqWeRsXLne3yPq16RXqUp2e03APC/s400/Chris+26.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Uncanny X-Men #204 had been advertised in Marvel Age #36: “It’s the start of an epic adventure that will take Nightcrawler from the wilds of Central Park to the back woods of Europe.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Nightcrawler deals with his fears about the Beyonder, a love-life that’s falling apart, and the truth about himself and his origin.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“We started to do his origin and the story died on us,” Claremont told Comics Focus #1. “We set up, we started it rolling, tried to hammer it into something of value, and it died. This happens. Once in a while you’ll run into a story that’s a major dud, it just will not fly, no matter how much air you pipe into the wings. So, we rewrote the ending of the story and instead did one with Rachel Summers, Wolverine and the Hellfire Club, which led up to the “Mutant Massacre”, which turned out to be a much more powerful and effective storyline.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Nightcrawler’s origin story was cut short in Uncanny X-Men #206, in1986, with Nightcrawler not accompanying Judith Rassendyll to Ruritania. It was never revealed who had hired Arcade to kill Judith, but it was probably someone who didn’t want her to ascend to the throne of Ruritania.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpukM5LQ2NZ0nO7-vJoebPqWdySv7jK9ScTFY9ogbu4yD2EyGuVMt1IWL0t-GWzFGeF1rngmpksGexvg4YSBXTGxCxtY3ed_kjF8oGBAIi6Hii1fZHMHhh89l7OOU-7-5liw1BzXuPqXI9/s1600/Chris+27.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpukM5LQ2NZ0nO7-vJoebPqWdySv7jK9ScTFY9ogbu4yD2EyGuVMt1IWL0t-GWzFGeF1rngmpksGexvg4YSBXTGxCxtY3ed_kjF8oGBAIi6Hii1fZHMHhh89l7OOU-7-5liw1BzXuPqXI9/s320/Chris+27.gif" width="183" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Judith reappeared in the Excalibur: Mojo Mayhem special edition in 1989 where she was now Princess of Ruritania and about to enter into an arranged marriage. Despite romantic attraction between Nightcrawler and Judith, she has never appeared again.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieKSaQ3bmRW7nTmvuJ4ivz75uqCWcoXeVeMB_9Tm4gcY_YHPb_oe8zOs23awQduN_aU-BxdJzELAch5QKkFV-B0MjzvV47uPsHgXlBr6WsWK1cdUA8IYaXlVDsqU5e16ouOOHV0d38fCwJ/s1600/Chris+77.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieKSaQ3bmRW7nTmvuJ4ivz75uqCWcoXeVeMB_9Tm4gcY_YHPb_oe8zOs23awQduN_aU-BxdJzELAch5QKkFV-B0MjzvV47uPsHgXlBr6WsWK1cdUA8IYaXlVDsqU5e16ouOOHV0d38fCwJ/s320/Chris+77.gif" width="258" /></a></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></h3>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nightcrawler’s mother revealed</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">When Nightcrawler joined Excalibur in 1988, Claremont announced in Amazing Heroes #134: “One of the storylines we will seriously try to play with is Nightcrawler’s origin. We would’ve done that in X-Men, but the story was such a dud, I decided not to do it. Hopefully now we’ll try again and do it right. Everyone has been wondering why Nightcrawler and Mystique look alike.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">However, his origin didn’t happen in the pages of Excalibur either, but a 64 pages Excalibur hardcover graphic novel was announced in Marvel Age Preview #1 to ship in December 1990: “Chris Claremont and Alan Davis continue their Excalibur collaboration with the biography of Kurt Wagner – Nightcrawler, from his birth to his rescue at the hands of Charles Xavier. We will finally learn more of the mysterious connection between Nightcrawler and Mystique!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">However, the graphic novel never appeared either, and Nightcrawler’s origin ended up being written by Scott Lobdell in X-Men Unlimited #4, 1994, instead. Lobdell did not follow Claremont’s ideas, but he knew about them. He explained his reason for going in another direction to Seriejournalen.dk: “It was always Chris’ plan that Mystique and Irene Adler (Destiny) were lovers, and that Mystique at one point had transformed into a man and impregnated Destiny and she gave birth to Nightcrawler. So, Mystique and Destiny were actually Nightcrawler’s father and mother.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The likelyhood of either A, Mystique growing genitals with sperm that had a DNA-code, or B, Mystique being a guy who was perpetually in the body of a woman, I thought was pretty slim.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Instead, Lobdell had Mystique be Nightcrawler’s mother with Destiny playing no part in the equation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mystique freaked out</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Claremont told about his choice for Nightcrawler’s parents in his online Cordially Chris forum: “As for when Mystique and Irene got together, look at the back-story established in X-Treme X-Men # 1 and 2 (2001); check out the fashions and the social culture in the visuals.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Regarding Mystique, I always considered her default form to be blue-skinned and female. However, being a full-spectrum metamorph, gender for her is a matter of choice, convenience and necessity. Her assumption of the male gender during this particular period of her life relates more to the prejudices of the time. A male consulting detective is likely to be taken a tad more seriously in official circles than a woman.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Claremont also told why Mystique had left the infant Nightcrawler: “Mystique abandoned him because she was totally freaked by this indigo-furred creature with “deformed” appendages and a forked tail! At that point, Mystique had no idea (s)he was a mutant, or a metamorph; (s)he simply reacted as many normal folks would in similar circumstances. And in the process had something of a nervous breakdown, mental collapse. Which of course was a whole other story that will never see print. (I do seem to have a lot of them.)”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Roger Stern commented on the matter in Back Issue #29: “Too many people in the Marvel Universe are secretly related to one another, and it’s much more interesting when mutants have normal parents.”</span><br /><br />Fastforward to 2023 and in X-Men Blue: Origins #1 written by Si Spurrier, it was established that Mystique and Destiny were Nightcrawler’s parents after all. Mystique had impregnated Destiny by transforming into Azazel, so the real Azazel from Uncanny X-Men #428-434 written by Chuck Austen was not Nightcrawler’s father after all and so Nightcrawler did not have any actual half-brothers either. But with the lesbian couple Destiny and Mystique being forced to abandon their infant son who was then raised by Margali Szardos, they had Professor Xavier change their memories to the real Azazel being the father to cope with the trauma. Yeah, that makes no sense, but the fact is that after all the complications, the end result is that Nightcrawler’s parents are Destiny and Mystique.</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Sources:</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Timothy Callahan: Nightcrawler’s Two Dads, Back Issue #29, August 2008</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Comics Focus #1, June 1996</span> <br /> Cordially Chris, comixfan.com/xfan/, 16 and 24 June 2003<br />Asyia Iftikhar: <a href="https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/11/30/x-men-nightcrawler-mystique-destiny-retcon-comic-books/" target="_blank">X-Men’s Mystique Confirmed as Nightcrawler’s Father In New Gender-Swap Back Story</a>, Pink News, 30 November 2023 <br /> Marvel Age #36, March 1986</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Marvel Age Preview #1, June 1990</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Clifford Meth: Ex-X-Man, Wizard #33, May 1994</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: High Caliber, Amazing Heroes #134, February 1988</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: The X-Men Companion I, March 1982</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: The X-Men Companion II, September 1982</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tue Sørensen and Ulrik Kristiansen: Interview with Scott Lobdell, seriejournalen.dk, 1995</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-style: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>Scififilmnerdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13068646164385257711noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5108928770317234018.post-53687729469710476272012-01-12T07:43:00.000-08:002012-06-27T07:55:56.398-07:00Wolverine's secret origin<div class="Section1">
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">With Sabretooth as his father, how could he become anything but a bad boy?</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUeURvi0ZiG1wsniRl5J2eSPy-p1cSCcf9THSmVWvs2a8M6OInH8XOCOIAfRaoAeDsZDyQkvVodyRRJ5vtX71JUQhPuceq9RXMuFkZutjkY10pwb0mAXwO-Ws-kQtwvK6UrPDdySPj5d0F/s1600/1974+-+Hulk+181.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUeURvi0ZiG1wsniRl5J2eSPy-p1cSCcf9THSmVWvs2a8M6OInH8XOCOIAfRaoAeDsZDyQkvVodyRRJ5vtX71JUQhPuceq9RXMuFkZutjkY10pwb0mAXwO-Ws-kQtwvK6UrPDdySPj5d0F/s400/1974+-+Hulk+181.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“(In 1974) I suggested to (writer) Len Wein, over lunch, that I thought it was time we had a Canadian hero,” recalled then Editor-in-Chief at Marvel Comics, Roy Thomas, in The X-Men Companion. “There was talk about names like Captain Canuck, Captain Canada, things of that sort, and I suggested that since we had a Canadian market and I felt guilty about not having more Canadian characters in the comics, the X-Men should have a character that I suggested be called the Wolverine because that animal inhabits Canada as well as the Northern United States and would be familiar to both. He could be a Canadian and be very fierce. I was thinking of someone much like what evolved, a very fierce character worth his weight in wildcats, that kind of thing.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“And he should be short, because wolverine’s are small, and they’re very fierce,” Thomas added in Comics Creators On X-Men. “After that, Wolverine was all Len working with John Romita, who designed the character.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Roy suggested, “Do a character called Wolverine,” gave him to me to create for the Hulk, and most of the rest of the details as to who and what he was were my own,” Len Wein recalled in The X-Men Companion. “So I decided to make him a teenage mutant, to be one of the new X-Men if it came to pass.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“He was a mutant only in terms of his ferocity and his animal senses. He was a hunter and a tracker and incredibly resilient. He was able to get the stuff kicked out of him by the Hulk and still be able to get back on his feet.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">A mutated wolverine</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Len Wein described Wolverine’s personality in The X-Men Companion: “Like the personality of a wolverine, snapping, nasty, aggressive, not a nice person. Heroic, because that’s his bent, that’s what he’s after, but not a nice guy. He’s tough, savage and a fighter.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“He has to fight to control himself, but what would make him a hero in my vision of him was that he would be able to overcome his natural instincts to slit your throat. That was what really would make him a hero, not his abilities to beat you up. The fighting was what he lived for.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“As far as his origin goes, originally we had intended to have him be a mutated wolverine,” artist Dave Cockrum revealed in The X-Men Companion.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“There were remarks in the storyline at one point where somebody was assessing Wolverine and saying, “I’m not even sure if he’s human,” or something like that (in X-Men #98, 1976), which would have led up to it,” Cockrum added in Wizard Tribute To Wolverine. “But Stan Lee found the concept disgusting.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The claws were retractable, but into the gloves,” Wein noted in Back Issue #4. “I guess it was Dave and (subsequent writer) Chris Claremont’s idea to make them part of his body.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Dave said Len thought the claws were in the gloves and he and I both agreed, “Why?” If they’re in the gloves, then anybody could wear the gloves,” Claremont told Back Issue #4. “We needed something that made him a mutant, something that made him unique. The claws were obviously artificial, and if the claws were part of the glove, what made him a mutant? The reductium of the equation was what makes him a mutant is the healing factor. But if he has a healing factor, what about the claws? Well, let us make the claws part of him. The healing factor enables him to survive with the claws. Dave and I thought, “This is cool, we’ll run with it.””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMqjRbSs8GcEepaPgIbiwMIfrg3Ha4_ZxjFByHebFyTiQ13SmQNdoOzXzYI2uxRrJqAuq7haOg35rE7LKscJh884IlLzSAO0Yr6e6vdk75XHkibqRV7hVjgmAegHFD5E52Otk_Ciao5pHh/s1600/Chris+4.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMqjRbSs8GcEepaPgIbiwMIfrg3Ha4_ZxjFByHebFyTiQ13SmQNdoOzXzYI2uxRrJqAuq7haOg35rE7LKscJh884IlLzSAO0Yr6e6vdk75XHkibqRV7hVjgmAegHFD5E52Otk_Ciao5pHh/s400/Chris+4.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">The first unresolved plot</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Len thought Wolverine was 19 years old,” Claremont told Back Issue #4. “Dave is the one that came up with the look, the hairline. (…) The way Dave drew him, he looked older. As I wrote him more and more, he felt older.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“It just seemed in my mind to fit the character, the notion that he’s been around a long time,” subsequent artist John Byrne noted in Back Issue #4. “I got to thinking he looks pretty rough and tumble for a guy who has a healing factor. Maybe he’s been around a long time.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The over a century old was something that was decided later on,” Claremont added in Back Issue #4. “You gradually build the structure of the character.”</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“(Writer) Roger (Stern) and I have a Captain America story we’d like to do, guest-starring the X-Men, where Cap will be talking to a couple of them, and Wolverine is real quiet at first,” Byrne revealed in The Comics Journal #57. “And when he finally speaks, Cap will do a take and say, “Corporal Logan?” Because, you see, Cap met him during the war. And that might be the first time in one of the books we come out and say just how old this guy is.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Stern and Byrne left Captain America before getting around to doing this story, though, so it wasn’t until Uncanny X-Men #268 in 1990 that Claremont wrote a similar story revealing Captain America and Wolverine’s history.</span></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The first unresolved X-Men plot arose in X-Men #103, 1977. At Cassidy Keep in Ireland, a leprechaun that knew his real name was Logan surprised Wolverine. Wolverine asked how the leprechaun knew his name, but the question remained unanswered.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Claremont told Back Issue #4 that the name Logan was inspired by Mount Logan, a mountain in Canada. “The idea was the tallest mountain being the name of the shortest character.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Chris and Dave had said quite openly they could never figure out what to do with Wolverine,” Byrne revealed in Back Issue #4. “Dave’s favorite character clearly was Nightcrawler. When I started, Chris was still conferring with Dave on the plot, and I was really just the art robot for the first two or three issues, until finally I just protested and said, “Excuse me, it’s not Dave’s anymore. And Chris told me at one point, “We’re going to write Wolverine out because we don’t know what to do with him. And I stamped my little foot and said there is no way you’re writing out the only Canadian character. And so I made him mine. Whenever I do a group book I make one character mine and sort of focus on that character so I have a focus for the book.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Even though I didn’t like him and I didn’t know exactly what to do with him, I don’t think we were ever thinking about actually removing him from the book,” Cockrum contradicted in Comics Creators On X-Men.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmbVPJacxVT4yy82zL8uuFrxMe373yhdtlxT7CQE6KfozklfP__uGXMUnyobGaUwGzdMVWqHNUbSd7tyaR4K23etJHCDaWZcp15j7h7Jy4mBkfuD5eAFiUTfSImd_0MCdTnxi47-iaBVRb/s1600/Chris+6.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmbVPJacxVT4yy82zL8uuFrxMe373yhdtlxT7CQE6KfozklfP__uGXMUnyobGaUwGzdMVWqHNUbSd7tyaR4K23etJHCDaWZcp15j7h7Jy4mBkfuD5eAFiUTfSImd_0MCdTnxi47-iaBVRb/s320/Chris+6.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Wolverine’s father</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“When I did Iron Fist #14 (1977), I had done a design for what I thought Wolverine looked like without his mask on, which I sent to Chris,” Byrne recalled in Back Issue #4. “And Dave had already done one, which I didn’t know about. And I ended up using that design for Sabretooth.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“And that sort of planted little things in my head, and then I got to thinking about that storyline, that typically Chris throwaway line in that Sentinels story (in X-Men #98, 1976) in which the Sentinels said Wolverine was a mutant and a technician said he wasn’t. And I suggested that Sabretooth was his father and that Sabretooth was the mutant and that the mutation had bred true. So Wolverine was actually the first of a new species, and that’s why it confused the technician. Then we got to playing about how Wolverine is 50 years old and Sabretooth is 100 years old.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“His mother was a Native Canadian and he’d lived up in the mountains for most of his life, feral, until he was found by James Hudson,” Byrne added in Comics Creators On X-Men.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I was never entirely sure whether Wolverine would ever learn for himself that Sabretooth was his father,” Byrne said in Back Issue #4. “I thought that perhaps Sabretooth would know, but that Wolverine himself might not ever know.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Although the confusion on the technician’s side was probably just caused by the claws hidden inside Wolverine, the idea of Sabretooth being his father stuck around. “John Byrne and I had a storyline that would have established Sabretooth as Wolverine’s father,” Claremont confirmed in Wizard Tribute To Wolverine. “And that was a thread that I ran through the series for my entire tenure. The whole point of the birthday party story in Wolverine vol.2 #10 (1989), my last issue, was to establish that pretty much every year on his birthday he gets hunted. And every year he has lost. I also did it in a back-up story in Classic X-Men #10 (1987).”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span> </h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguSnyzq7kAIDmeueSVhVuJtjJjXr0n_GAnJkAt4puHFHG41cHTByEntHXTdPLrt-5Mppxj8kZ1EHlsvmhKT_IJuAv1agauGVKPolsPQc-hSQydJTjsmSaa9iAV5y_K6IpOjID-w5nyx9e6/s1600/Chris+7.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguSnyzq7kAIDmeueSVhVuJtjJjXr0n_GAnJkAt4puHFHG41cHTByEntHXTdPLrt-5Mppxj8kZ1EHlsvmhKT_IJuAv1agauGVKPolsPQc-hSQydJTjsmSaa9iAV5y_K6IpOjID-w5nyx9e6/s400/Chris+7.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></h3>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Sabretooth’s employer</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“What I ultimately was going to establish was that all the Sabretooths we had seen heretofore, with the possible exception of the one in Iron Fist #14, were clones made by Mr. Sinister. They were Xeroxes,” Claremont revealed in Wizard Tribute To Wolverine.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">However, in Iron Fist #14, 1977, Sabretooth had an employer whose identity has never been revealed. Sabretooth had been hired to stop lawyer Jeryn Hogarth’s investigation into who was draining Rand-Meachum of funds. With Mr. Sinister having a retroactive influence in the Marvel universe, it is possible that he could have been Sabretooth’s employer, stealing money from Rand-Meachum to finance his clone experiments.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Sinister’s modus operandi was to capture an operative, stick him in a stasis chamber, clone a copy and send that person out to do battle,” Claremont revealed in Wizard Tribute To Wolverine. “So you have an inexhaustible supply of Marauders from his clutch of villains.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">That explained how Vertigo could be both a Marauder and a Savage Land Mutate at the same time. The Marauder Vertigo was a clone of the Savage Land Vertigo who had escaped Mr. Sinister like the original Sabretooth had.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">”In the case of Sabretooth, you had a Xerox of a Xerox,” Claremont explained in Wizard Tribute To Wolverine. “That’s why the Sabretooth that has always appeared working for Sinister has been so flawed and so easily beaten. We’ve never seen the real thing. The real thing is quite happy lurking around the fringes of the X-Men universe without any interest whatsoever in the X-Men, but an abiding interest in Wolverine. And Wolverine knows it. But that’s one of those unknown stories that’ll probably forever remain untold.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In New Mutants #75 from 1989, written by Louise Simonson, it was hinted at that it wasn’t the real Sabretooth who had died, but although a clone of Sabretooth appeared in X-Men vol.2 #34 in 1994, subsequent writers never figured that Sabretooth was ever anything but the real deal. In X-Men vol.2<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>#34, writer Fabian Nicieza used the idea that the Marauders were clones, but not that Mr. Sinister kept the originals in storage, only samples of their DNA. In Gambit vol.3 #8-9 from 1999, Nicieza further stated that, with the exception of Sabretooth, all of the Marauders had been cloned so many times that their original bodies no longer existed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP9j3h2KwzAYpENwJnWPLAOCPvjfUHnIe0WrtiHmWlnGiajO26Ni7VwsEO6YulIQRYI9XL_CyRRpdsnqcBN0pMUIKm3L6CR05Asc3qgxe010-3F5J1ARBgn2iPAPQsA1m9N-MyIURKomEG/s1600/Chris+8.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="125" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP9j3h2KwzAYpENwJnWPLAOCPvjfUHnIe0WrtiHmWlnGiajO26Ni7VwsEO6YulIQRYI9XL_CyRRpdsnqcBN0pMUIKm3L6CR05Asc3qgxe010-3F5J1ARBgn2iPAPQsA1m9N-MyIURKomEG/s400/Chris+8.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Created to die</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In X-Men #118, 1979, Wolverine met Sunfire’s cousin, Mariko Yashida. “Everyone has a vision of Wolverine. What kind of girlfriend would he have?” Claremont asked in Back Issue #4. “You run down a list of possibilities, and with Mariko we basically wanted to trump all those preconceptions and just say, “Ha, ha! This is the girl he chooses to fall in love with: The absolutely, impossibly unattainable vision of purity.” It’s doomed from the start.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“It was a typical yin-yang, rough and soft thing,” Byrne told Back Issue #4. “She was so exactly not right for him that it had to be. And I know she got quite a bit tougher after I left. But she was supposed to be the delicate flower, the porcelain doll that he just instantly falls totally in love with because she’s everything that he’s not.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">”And that’s essentially Beauty and the Beast,” Claremont added in Back Issue #4.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">”Chris suggested she become the housekeeper,” Cockrum revealed in The X-Men Companion. “I said, “Chris! She’s got housekeepers! She wouldn’t become one!””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">”Mariko was mine,” Byrne claimed in Back Issue #4. “I had just read Shogun, which Chris had not read at that point. I just absolutely wanted to steal that character, just shamelessly steal the character. And as you probably know, she was created to die.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">”We kicked around the idea that we’d get into a wedding, they’d say, ”I do,” Sabretooth would jump out and kill Mariko on the altar and leave, and that would be that,” Claremont revealed in Backissue #4. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Sabretooth was going to attack her, but she wasn’t going to die at his hands,” Byrne said to Back Issue #4. “She was going to end up basically brain dead and in a hospital and Wolverine just doesn’t believe that she’s gone, and Jean links their minds, and he sees that there’s nobody there and he pulls the plug on her.”</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Wolverine would then seek revenge on Sabretooth. “There will be a big fight and (Wolverine) will kill him on camera, and there will be no doubt about it,” Byrne told The Comics Journal #57. “And that will be the one instance where because of the way the story is set up I don’t think even (Editor-In-Chief Jim) Shooter would be able to object to a good guy killing somebody.”</span></div>
</div>
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1-sCQvHYbzklAJ5MYtP87Jl-Zxe8yujQxYE2iMDooS-EAfhqvgXM-WMX-plpbNc6Y09Mx1IEHJWFAj8RmtsT59N9Tp2qEy_GlKnUz2EqySFlHT_GGB35yXAAu_0shN9dNmc5x_vSwGNUJ/s1600/Chris+14.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="331" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1-sCQvHYbzklAJ5MYtP87Jl-Zxe8yujQxYE2iMDooS-EAfhqvgXM-WMX-plpbNc6Y09Mx1IEHJWFAj8RmtsT59N9Tp2qEy_GlKnUz2EqySFlHT_GGB35yXAAu_0shN9dNmc5x_vSwGNUJ/s400/Chris+14.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Lethal weapon</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">”The idea was Wolverine’s not like the other X-Men,” Claremont told Back Issue #4. “He is, when necessity arises, a stone killer. Nightcrawler is not. Storm is not – she has killed, and it’s haunted her ever since. Wolverine, if the need requires it, will go out and kill somebody. End of story. Won’t think twice about it. This was a bone of contention with (Editor-In-Chief) Jim Shooter.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Evidently, John went to a convention and Jim was appalled to hear John saying, “Yeah, Wolverine killed the guard in X-Men #116 (in 1978); yes, Wolverine’s a crazy guy; yes, Wolverine will cut people to pieces without a second thought,”” Claremont recalled in The X-Men Companion. “Jim came back to the office and said we must either present Wolverine’s victims alive and hale and repaired and unhurt, or Wolverine must pay for his crimes, stand trial and be punished.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“His feeling was, X-Men don’t kill, and he wanted us to establish that all the Hellfire guards and the Savage Land guys were still alive somewhere, they were banged up really bad, but he hadn’t killed them,” Claremont told Back Issue #4. “Whereas I think both John and I felt that it was very important to establish that Wolverine had this inner lethality about him that marked him as different from the rest of the X-Men.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Shooter was the one who insisted that everyone that Wolverine had ever killed should turn up alive, possibly with bionic parts (which they did in Uncanny X-Men #152, 1981),” Byrne told Back Issue #4. ““Heroes shouldn’t kill.” I said, “Well, Wolverine isn’t really a super-hero, is he? Not in the classic sense, anyway. That was sort of the whole point.””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK2ZAPq3ap6Yj6CGyX_i8IC7ftpX4rTohyphenhyphenGd_JZQPqAz43cjzBhIe4sSxKY6-MZKChafUZmBC3ibyo3iCfWLADJhaoUtCRAvILx8xc_LAinVsT3BMjXjjIERD7gAFCfC6JMW8ugcrpe51g/s1600/Chris+13.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="291" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK2ZAPq3ap6Yj6CGyX_i8IC7ftpX4rTohyphenhyphenGd_JZQPqAz43cjzBhIe4sSxKY6-MZKChafUZmBC3ibyo3iCfWLADJhaoUtCRAvILx8xc_LAinVsT3BMjXjjIERD7gAFCfC6JMW8ugcrpe51g/s320/Chris+13.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Protecting humanity from Wolverine</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“So we began toning Wolverine down, making him more rational, the rationale for this being that he could not have loved Jean, could not have experienced X-Men #137 (1980) and not be changed,” Claremont explained in The X-Men Companion. “Wolverine’s response was to grow up.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Then, after we set this process in motion, Jim came in and demanded to know why Wolverine was being turned into a sissy. Evidently, what he wanted was for Wolverine to have the capacity to go crazy and kill but never be allowed to kill. He wanted Wolverine to be as much of a potential danger to the X-Men as to other people. So we turned right around and had Wolverine try and cut Nightcrawler’s head off over Mariko (in X-Men #143, 1981), which made no sense whatsoever.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“That’s what Shooter wanted, this sense of a time bomb ticking away in the midst of the X-Men,” Byrne told The X-Men Companion. “This guy, at any moment, for any reason, could go off, and he wouldn’t necessarily kill a villain. He could turn around and deck Nightcrawler just for something to do.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“When he attacked Nightcrawler for kissing Mariko under the mistletoe (in X-Men #143)… Come on, he knows these people are friends; he’s not going to do that,” Cockrum opinionated in The X-Men Companion. “I mean, that was no menace. That was apparently done on Shooter’s orders, “Make Wolverine do something crazy.” Personally, I think that was a bad choice. That’s all inconsistent with what they’ve done with him.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The whole notion of Wolverine in my head was that the only reason he was in the X-Men was so he could be controlled,” Byrne said in Back Issue #4. “Xavier had brought him in more or less to keep an eye on him.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The X-Men are taking the role of the Wolverine’s guardian,” Byrne added in The X-Men Companion. “Their role is not only to protect the X-Men from humanity; it is also to protect humanity from the X-Men.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dark Wolverine</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Wolverine is surrounded by a very specific set of parameters, stay within those parameters, you’re fine,” Claremont stated in The X-Men Companion. “But if you cross the line, you have to be prepared to take the consequences, like a rude word, or a punch in the nose, or you can have your guts cut out. It depends on the gravity of the transgression.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The definitive Wolverine sequence is he’s sitting at the breakfast table, eating a bowl of cereal, and Kitty comes in and says, “Hi!” in exactly the wrong tone of voice, and Cyclops comes in, and there’s Wolverine eating his breakfast cereal, and Kitty lying on the floor disembowelled,” Byrne told Back Issue #4.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“So everyone around him had to be on their best behaviour and on their toes because you never know when you might end up with Dark Wolverine,” Claremont added in Back Issue #4.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I think a lot of that comes from his upbringing, from having Sabretooth as his father,” John Byrne told The X-Men Companion. “I would think that this is an abused child like nobody’s been before. I think that along came World War II and he was told, “Go out and kill,” and he discovered that he could send a great deal of his angst that way.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Byrne’s unused adamantium theory</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Early on, Chris said that Wolverine had mutated these claws, which were biological adamantium,” Byrne revealed in The X-Men Companion. “When I got up off the floor, I said, “No, this is what happened.” And what I conceived of was that his power is total regeneration, except it didn’t work on his bones. One day he was in a tremendous accident and every bone in his body got broken, and everything regenerated except that when he got up out of bed, his weight broke his legs. And they realised that whatever it was he had didn’t work on the calcium-based bones or whatever excuse you want to use.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“This happened a long time ago – well, just after the war – and it was some twenty odd years, or longer, as Marvel time goes, before James Hudson (Vindicator) found him. So I figured that Wolverine was a basket case, basically. Terribly crippled, in a wheelchair, body brace, the whole thing, living out in the woods as much by himself as he could and just becoming more and more bitter over the years.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Then Vindicator came along and said, “Listen, the way your body heals, we can do something we can’t do with any other human being. That is, we can remove each of your bones individually, cast them in adamantium and replace them,” and that’s what they did - a very long and probably painful process. They removed every one of his bones, except the spinal column and the skull, which they reinforced. And as for the question, “Where do the red blood cells come from?” which everybody hits me with, his power is total regeneration and his red blood cells don’t wear out, so he doesn’t need new ones.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><strong>Sources:</strong></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tom DeFalco: Comics Creators On X-Men, April 2006</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Michael Eury: I Was A Teenage Wolverine!, Back Issue #4, June 2004</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Mitch Itkowitz and others: John Byrne, The Comics Journal #57, 1980</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: The X-Men Companion I, March 1982</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: The X-Men Companion II, September 1982</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: Pro 2 Pro – Claremont And Byrne: Wolverine At 30, Back Issue #4, June 2004</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Wizard Tribute To Wolverine, 1996</span></div>
</div>Scififilmnerdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13068646164385257711noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5108928770317234018.post-65541442974879655152012-01-05T07:49:00.000-08:002012-06-27T08:23:29.563-07:00Banshee: Reserve X-Man<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The first all-new, all-different X-Man to appear was close to having been created as a woman.</span></h2>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-spzxBSmoYng/TwXFbxsBrDI/AAAAAAAAAE4/li5VoHwuwoU/s1600/Chris+1.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" rea="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-spzxBSmoYng/TwXFbxsBrDI/AAAAAAAAAE4/li5VoHwuwoU/s320/Chris+1.gif" width="211" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Banshee was created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Werner Roth and was introduced in X-Men #28, 1967. “For some reason, I kept having these ideas for mutants from other countries,” Thomas recalled in Comics Creators On X-Men, “but Stan (Lee) wouldn’t let me add a sixth X-Man at that time, right after I’d started scripting the book.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“One thing I felt bad about after (Banshee’s) first issue was that I thought he should have been a woman,” Thomas told The X-Men Companion. “But Stan felt it wouldn’t look good for five X-Men to be fighting a supervillainess,” he added in Comics Creators On X-Men.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I think I must have wanted to create an adult, leprechaunish character, which Werner and I did, and I think I let that overrule the fact that of course I knew that a Banshee was really a female,” Thomas confessed in The X-Men Companion. “I think I made a mistake there – one of a number I’ve made in my life. But the character seemed pretty popular from the beginning even among the people who knew it was supposed to be a woman.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">When writer Len Wein added Banshee to the all-new, all-different X-Men in 1975, he decided to de-age the character. “I acknowledged that he was probably in his late 30s or so, but I had Dave Cockrum draw him so he looked younger – tried to fudge it as best I could to make him seem about 29,” Wein revealed to The X-Men Companion. “He was the old one of the group. I only put him in there because I happen to love writing an Irish accent, so it was as simple as that.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I thought that to make Professor X an effective mentor, you wanted that mentor to be older than everybody else,” Wein added in Back Issue #4. “I wanted a guy who was a father figure. When you have other characters who are as old as that character, you undercut that aspect of the mentor. So there had to be a considerable age difference between Professor X and the rest of the X-Men.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“It was Len’s feeling that Banshee as a heroic character had to stop being funny looking,” Cockrum recalled in The X-Men companion about the decision to lose the leprechaun-looking pointed ears and pug-nose. “So, we somewhat gradually, but probably not as gradually as all that, changed him from a caricature Irishman into a nice-looking man.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Unnecessary X-Man</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I like Banshee, I always have,” Cockrum told The X-Men Companion. “We talked about getting rid of him once before when I was on the book – I guess it was in X-Men #104 (1977). I suddenly realized I was doing a panel here and the only normal face in the whole group was Banshee, and it was such a relief to have a normal face to draw that, on the basis of that, I suggested we keep him and not get rid of him after all. (…) We talked about having his castle be kind of X-Men East.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Banshee I always thought didn’t really belong,” subsequent artist John Byrne revealed in The X-Men Companion, “which is why I did what I could to get rid of him and finally succeeded in getting rid of him. He was the older, wiser head who was unnecessary because there was Xavier. His power was a long-distance zap, which is unnecessary because of Cyclops. His costume lost any outstanding points it had as soon as we had Phoenix, because he was the redhead with the green-and-yellow costume. So I liked Banshee a lot in terms of his personality but I could never really think of him as belonging in the group and I remember after we wrote him out with X-Men #129 (1980) – the issue that introduced Kitty Pryde – some five or six issues later I realized he hadn’t been in the book for five or six issues and that I hadn’t missed him.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In Spider-Woman #37-38, 1981, writer Chris Claremont introduced the mutant Siryn who turned out to be the daughter of Banshee. “Siryn will stay in Ireland,” Claremont told The X-Men Companion. “What I plan to do is have a core group of X-Men and then have a number of characters on the periphery – Polaris, Banshee, Beast, etcetera – who can come in. It will be a Mission: Impossible format: As the story requires, we will use what members we need, and run it like that.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The idea of having a team of reserve X-Men was only used once, however, in Uncanny X-Men #146, 1981.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: small;">Like daughter, like father</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“(A) thing that always bothered me about Banshee was that I was never able to exploit his powers to the fullest extent, in the same way I did with Siryn,” Claremont explained to The X-Men Companion. “All he could do was scream, and the scream would burn through things, or cut through things, and he could stun people, and he could fly and that was it. I was thinking, first of all, you could use the sound as a hypnotic agent, you could use the sound to affect the chemical balance of the brain, you could use ultra-low frequency sound for disintegration or stunning. You could create sonic holgrams, or use ultra-high frequency to transmit messages. The potential is limitless, but because Banshee is an established character with established powers, to change any of that would have given him “new powers,” and that was considered verboten.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“So my way around it is to take them all away (in X-Men #119, 1979), and my plan is then, through Siryn we give him back his powers. The rough idea I have now is that she uses her own abilities to knit his vocal chords back together by sonic surgery – he will then have these enhanced abilities that his daughter has.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">However, that plan never amounted to anything. When Banshee finally rejoined the X-Men in Uncanny X-Men #253, 1989, it was after his power had healed naturally, following his adventures in Marvel Comics Presents #17-24, 1989.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">After Banshee’s death in X-Men: Deadly Genesis #2-3 in 2006, his daughter Theresa changed her codename from Siryn to Banshee to honor her father’s memory in X-Factor #200, 2010. After all these years, Roy Thomas’ “mistake” on the Banshee’s gender has finally been corrected.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><strong>Sources:</strong></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tom DeFalco: Comics Creators On X-Men, April 2006</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Michael Eury: I Was A Teenage Wolverine!, Backissue #4, June 2004</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: The X-Men Companion I, March 1982</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: The X-Men Companion II, September 1982</span></div>Scififilmnerdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13068646164385257711noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5108928770317234018.post-44840044788024390062011-12-14T07:36:00.000-08:002011-12-14T07:36:34.109-08:00The all-new international X-Men<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The new X-Men were actually born to tap into Marvel Comics’ foreign market.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ZzT3o-sRxjfmojeQqVWh25sITk3Uw_RdKc59plIhTpTDmADt_DU9tX124rAOKKRD5_d4-rcP18QyLKLldjHTop3xRFZTUCZojTakSSGg4V2h4YDyCFW4FhYHPQ8erBhQ0DfBeofadgVE/s1600/Chris+2.gif" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="305" oda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ZzT3o-sRxjfmojeQqVWh25sITk3Uw_RdKc59plIhTpTDmADt_DU9tX124rAOKKRD5_d4-rcP18QyLKLldjHTop3xRFZTUCZojTakSSGg4V2h4YDyCFW4FhYHPQ8erBhQ0DfBeofadgVE/s400/Chris+2.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“(In 1973, ‘74) Stan Lee and I had a meeting with (the President of Marvel Comics) Al Landau,” then Editor-in-Chief Roy Thomas recalled in Comics Creators On X-Men. “Al suggested Marvel do a group of foreign superheroes… characters from countries in which Marvel sold a lot of comics. Stan and I liked the idea.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Al Landau had his own company called Transworld, which at that time was reselling Marvel’s work overseas by the page,” Thomas added in The X-Men Companion. “He knew that if we, for example, had big markets in three or four countries and we had a team that had three or four characters in it, one from each country, we’d have a terrific hit on our hands overseas.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I had been wanting to bring back the X-Men for a while,” Thomas told Comic Creators On X-Men. “I said, “Look, the group we should do as the international team is the X-Men. Take a couple of the original members, like Cyclops, and have them go looking around the world gathering up mutants from other countries.””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-size: small;">Mutant Blackhawks</span></span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I had the idea that Cyclops and one or two others – I’d probably have gone for Marvel Girl, myself – would have a ship that would float around from one country to another, hidden by clouds,” Thomas revealed in Comic Creators On X-Men. “It could cross borders without having to go through customs.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Sort of a Noah’s Ark thing, that would fly around with a portable cloud around it,” Thomas added in The X-Men Companion. “It would hover over various countries in search of different X-Men and that would get them into adventures. However, I obviously expected to get up to about four, five, or six characters that would be pretty regular and then, of course, you bring others in, you take them out.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I was thinking of the international flavour of a team like the Blackhawks, who came from six or seven different countries,” Thomas told Comic Creators On X-Men. “I think I mentioned that to Dave Cockrum and Mike Friedrich, who were supposed to be the original artist-writer team.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Dave Cockrum was brought to it because he was a good, young, available artist who was interested in the assignment. He had been doing a lot of different character designs, and we were going to have to create new characters.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I was hanging around Marvel in those days looking for something to do,” Dave Cockrum recalled in The X-Men Companion. “One day I had a few minutes alone with Roy when he wasn’t doing anything and we started to kick around the idea of the X-Men. He said that he had always wanted to start a new group and sort of treat them like mutant Blackhawks, an international group. I think they would be based on the island that Magneto used to have that was invisible to tracking devices and radar and which you couldn’t see. Magneto had it in a Sub-Mariner crossover (in X-Men #6) and we had talked about the possibility of the X-Men appropriating that island and operating out of there.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-size: small;">A different direction</span></span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“This all happened shortly before I left the Editor-in-Chief position,” Thomas continued in Comics Creators On X-Men. “I think the idea sat on the shelf for some months after that. When Len Wein came on as Editor-in-Chief, he sort of appointed himself writer.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I don’t know what the problem was, but the X-Men project went on hiatus for a while,” Cockrum recalled in Comics Creators On X-Men. “When it came back, Mike was occupied with other stuff and he had to pass, so Len was brought in.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“By the time the book came out (in 1975), I was long gone from the Editor-in-Chief job,” Thomas concluded in Comics Creators On X-Men. “They completely lost sight of the idea of selling the book in a lot of different countries. I don‘t know why Al Landau let that whole part of the idea be ignored, but at least it was there long enough to have been an impetus to get the new concept going, and then somehow everybody lost the road map. I’m sure I mentioned that to Mike or Dave originally, but somehow or other, by the time Len was writing the book, the whole idea of having the new heroes be from countries where Marvel sold a lot of comics got lost.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Roy gave me some notion of what he’d like to see in terms of international characters, but ultimately, of course, the new team didn’t really wind up being what Marvel expected,” Cockrum revealed in Comics Creators On X-Men. “I got together with Len Wein and we kicked around some ideas and then I just went home and started drawing characters.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-size: small;">Starting from scratch</span></span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The principal idea was that if we had all of these foreign characters, we could export the books to their respective countries,” artist Dave Cockrum recalled in Wizard Magazine. “Then we went and picked a bunch of nationalities whose countries weren’t likely to take the books to market, places like Russia and Africa.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“It had been cancelled with the old cast initially, and it wasn’t selling very well even when it was being done by Roy Thomas and Neal Adams and Tom Palmer,” Len Wein reasoned in The X-Men Companion. “If that group of talent couldn’t make that group of characters sell… The decision to keep even Cyclops was ours. We just wanted to tie the new series to the past, something to make it recognizable as the X-Men. Cyclops was the only great character among the old X-Men because of the eyeblasts, and the sense of tragedy about the character.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“With the exception of Cyclops, I never considered the original characters to be all that strong,” Cockrum told Wizard #33. “So I was happy for the chance to reshape things. I practically started from scratch.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-size: small;">The second try</span></span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Marvel were going to continue reprinting in the regular title and do a Giant-Size series,” Cockrum revealed in Comics Creators On X-Men. “The first book, Giant-Size X-Men #1 – Len and I plotted it together, though there were also a number of other guys in the bullpen, including Chris Claremont, who sat in on the sessions and kicked in ideas. We hammered out the first story and decided we didn’t like it so we threw it out and started over again. The story that came out was actually our second try.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“What I remember primarily is that the original story idea was absolutely horrible,” Cockrum told The X-Men Companion. “It was something to do with sending the new team down to South America to rescue the old X-Men and finding a whole bunch of Aztec gods walking around and raising hell and having to combat the Aztec gods who would wind up to be the original X-Men dressed as Aztec gods and I was going, “Nooooooo…””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I don’t know if anybody else disliked it as much as I did, but I finally said, “Listen, I don’t think I can stand this” and Len went out and took a pill – he was taking a lot of tranquilizers in those days. And we all got up and walked around, and sat down and started thinking about it again.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-size: small;">X-Men flunkers</span></span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“When we were first planning out that first issue, we decided what we were going to do was have it be an aptitude test or an entrance exam or something like that,” Cockrum revealed in The X-Men Companion. “They would be sent off to rescue the original X-Men, but the original X-Men would not actually be in any danger. We figured if it’s an entrance exam, theoretically, there are people who are going to flunk as well as people who pass, and so we had Banshee and Sunfire, and we were gonna flunk ‘em. Then, we thought, “Well, that doesn’t seem fair, we ought to have a new guy to flunk too, a new guy who’s unsuitable.” So that was what Thunderbird was for, to be a flunker. He was unsuitable because he was anti-social.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“But at the last minute – well, I liked Banshee and we all liked Thunderbird, so we figured to hell with it. It turned out not to be a test anyway. So we had Sunfire, who nobody much liked, go off in a huff, and we kept Banshee and we kept Thunderbird. But then we didn’t know what to do with Thunderbird because we never thought him out. It was easier to kill him off than to think him out.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I liked the new characters and thought they were strong enough to carry the book,” Cockrum told Comics Creators On X-Men. “We actually got some angry letters when we came out with the new guys. “How dare you get rid of the old guys?” That sort of thing.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Len Wein wound up becoming Editor-in-Chief and had to give up a book or two. Len Wein and I had actually plotted the Nefaria story (in X-Men #94-95) before Chris was hired. It was originally going to be Giant-Size X-Men #2, but Marvel decided not to go with the Giant-Size title. The company re-established the regular X-Men title and broke the story into two parts.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-size: small;">Len Wein’s unused X-Men ideas</span></span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“When I did the first few stories – Giant-Size #1 and the two-parter that Chris ended up dialoguing – Chris Claremont was very excited about things. He made some good suggestions,” Len Wein explained to Comic Book Profiles. “At the time, I was Editor-in-Chief and could only write a book a month with the schedule I was keeping. I was writing Incredible Hulk and the X-Men so something had to give. The Hulk was my favorite book and my favorite character so I had to find someone to take over the X-Men. Chris’ enthusiasm made him a logical choice.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Chris was chosen and that turned out to be a good thing,” Cockrum recalled in Comics Creators On X-Men.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I was going to bring characters in and out of the book, to keep you on your toes,” Wein revealed in The X-Men Companion. “Professor X was going to erase knowledge of the X-Men from the rest of the world, any record of Colossus and Nightcrawler. The people in charge of those records would wander into the room one day and put them in the paper shredder and burn away the files and never notice they weren’t there anymore. I was going to have Professor X solve the problems of this international group by eliminating evidence. And then eventually someone was going to stumble over something and go. There was going to be a big conflict. He’d erased the evidence of their existence from the rest of the world, and other people would discover that these characters had been elsewhere first. (…) Chris did other things.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Sources:</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Comic Book Profiles #8, Fall 1999</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tom DeFalco: Comics Creators On X-Men, April 2006</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Clifford Meth: Ex-X-Man, Wizard #33, May 1994</span></div>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: DA;">Peter Sanderson: The X-Men Companion I, March 1982</span><br />Scififilmnerdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13068646164385257711noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5108928770317234018.post-59852649218960975782011-12-05T07:01:00.001-08:002011-12-06T03:06:01.143-08:00Stan Lee's X-Men<br />
<div>
</div>
<h2 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The creation of the Mutants, and the true origin of Onslaught</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7SUW3WSHwZWMro1dUeR2PLBOYWYCxsGLUmwQaDce75mWqFnWujpdvcrbka2zp5WtWVdp6fCZXv-duGgFfolv1wdLDAgcahOOLjEZKFZ7OMc_4UzEaI0EtRdCrueK0seNcj3wy569OgTXC/s1600/x-pin-up-combined.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7SUW3WSHwZWMro1dUeR2PLBOYWYCxsGLUmwQaDce75mWqFnWujpdvcrbka2zp5WtWVdp6fCZXv-duGgFfolv1wdLDAgcahOOLjEZKFZ7OMc_4UzEaI0EtRdCrueK0seNcj3wy569OgTXC/s400/x-pin-up-combined.gif" width="305" /></a></div>
<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Marvel Comics Group’s X-Men series started publication in 1963. It was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby. What separated it from other superhero comics at the time was that the X-Men were mutants, Homo Superior. They were born with an extraordinary gene that manifested during puberty, resulting in super powers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In the Marvel Universe, mutants weren’t deviations from humanity, but instead the next step in humanity’s evolution. That’s why mutants were hated by humanity, which feared that mutants would take over the world, which just happened to be what the X-Men’s archenemy Magneto wanted to do.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The X-Men’s mission was to find mutants and teach them how to deal with their super abilities, as well as to protect both mutants and humanity from the exploitation of evil mutants. The X-Men’s teacher was Professor Charles Xavier, and the X-Men consisted of Cyclops (Scott Summers), Marvel Girl (Jean Grey), Beast (Henry McCoy), Angel (Warren Worthington) and Iceman (Bobby Drake).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I wanted to do a new team of heroes and I said to myself, “I’ve run out of radioactivity and gamma rays and cosmic rays – what excuse can I find for these guys getting super powers?”” Stan Lee recalled in Comics Creators On X-Men. “I took the cowardly way out and said, “Wait a minute, what if they were just mutants? What if they were just born that way? Everybody knows there are mutations in real life. There are frogs that are born with five legs and so forth. I can get these guys to have any power I want. I’ll just say, “Well, they’re mutants. They were born that way.” Nobody can argue with that!””</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“As with all superhero teams, I had to have an excuse for putting them together,” Lee recalled in Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty. “The Fantastic Four were essentially a family, the Avengers were a club. What could the X-Men be that would be different? (…) I figured if they’re teenagers, what’s more natural than a school?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-size: small;">The Mutants</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“Now I had to decide what kind of powers the X-Men should have; what kind of people they should be,” Stan Lee told Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty. “At the time, there was no character around (at Marvel) with wings, so I figured I’d design a guy who flies – the Angel. He was rich and conceited. Then I wanted a character sort of like the (Human) Torch. What’s the opposite of fire? Ice. Water might have been the opposite, but I couldn’t think of anything to do visually with water.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The Beast I loved – he looked like the crudest one, but he was the most well-educated and cultured. I enjoyed that contrast. I hated the name Marvel Girl, but I couldn’t think of anything better. Cyclops was another favorite, because I love tortured heroes – and he was tortured because he couldn’t control his power. He was the serious, brooding one.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I thought of Professor X as (actor) Yul Brynner. (…) I thought it would be good if he was physically limited, since his mind was so powerful. Even though he was confined to the wheelchair, in a way he was the most powerful.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I thought Professor X would want to get them all together without anyone suspecting what he’s doing as he trains them, so what would be better than what seems to be a private school? I figured anybody would drive by, see the sign and figure it’s a normal school. Little would they dream that there’s a Danger Room inside.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“By the way, the Danger Room was Jack Kirby’s idea. I thought it was great because we could always open with an action sequence if we needed to.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I originally wanted to call the book The Mutants, but Martin Goodman, who was my publisher at the time, didn’t like that name,” Stan Lee revealed in Comics Creators On X-Men. “He said our readers wouldn’t know what a mutant was. So, okay, since their leader was Professor Xavier, and they each had an “X-tra” power, I decided to call them the X-Men. So I said to Martin, “How about X-Men?” He said the title sounded good so we went with it.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-size: small;">The concept of the X-Men</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The X-Men were unique among all our characters,” Stan Lee stated in Comics Creators On X-Men. “With the Fantastic Four and the Avengers, you had groups of heroes that everyone liked. Nobody felt hostile to them. When I started out with Spider-Man, the police were against him and people were afraid of him. I wanted a team of superheroes that were treated like Spider-Man. Instead of being lauded by the public, they’d be feared and hated and hounded and shunned. (…) The more good things the X-Men did, the more the public hated them. I thought that was an interesting concept.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The whole underlying message of the X-Men was about “love thy fellow man”. He may have wings growing out of his back or beams shooting out of his eyes, or he may be a different colour or different race, but he’s still your brother. It’s wrong to hate or persecute people just because they look or act different than you, or because they worship differently than you do.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“It’s tough for me to remember specific stories or villains, but I know I loved Magneto,” Lee confessed in Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty. “I thought magnetism was a great power because there was so much I could do with it. Somebody points a gun at him and he gestures and the barrel bends. We figured out a way he could walk in the air. I like villains who are more than one-dimensional: He didn’t think of himself as a villain.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“On the other hand, he did call his group “The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants”. We were kind of corny in those days.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I remember that I liked (Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch) very much and I thought it would be fun to have villains who aren’t really bad deep down,” Lee told Comics Creators On X-Men. “We already had a reluctant hero with Spider-Man so I thought it would be fun to create a pair of reluctant villains.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“I had big plans for Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. I wanted them to eventually give up being villains and become heroes. That’s why I used them in Avengers after I left X-Men.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7VTyLunuNZTTzUD6LQpCIIWAXcRmkFofe_-exOzUacwb1-xpvAmQNWo7APuPFrmkE8rZI3AkRuhCLDCd9auaaIbzrpKJFl18hzH6wPg3pgG3eFoZEldykQTTe80C4VD2A2JYNUxKLTT-P/s1600/Scan0001.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7VTyLunuNZTTzUD6LQpCIIWAXcRmkFofe_-exOzUacwb1-xpvAmQNWo7APuPFrmkE8rZI3AkRuhCLDCd9auaaIbzrpKJFl18hzH6wPg3pgG3eFoZEldykQTTe80C4VD2A2JYNUxKLTT-P/s320/Scan0001.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span> <span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> </span></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-size: small;">Professor X’s crush on a student</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In X-Men #3, Professor Xavier was revealed to suffer a crush on his student, Jean Grey. “Stan would falter occasionally like in that one weird balloon where Professor X suddenly is thinking, “I love you passionately” about Jean Grey,” subsequent writer Roy Thomas told in The X-Men Companion. “When I asked Stan about that a little later, he said, “I don’t know, it just seemed like something that made sense. I tossed it in to complicate things.” And the thing is that sometimes these things were best forgotten.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“It came as quite a shock when Xavier admitted it to himself,” artist John Byrne recalled in The X-Men Companion. “Xavier used to be in love with Jean, but that was forgotten a long time ago.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">However, many years later writer Mark Waid took Jean Grey on a journey into Professor X’s mind in X-Men vol.2 #53, 1996, where she was confronted with this repressed memory – one of many that should have resulted in Professor X becoming the villain, Onslaught. When it didn’t, Mark Waid quit the title. “It was always my conception that Onslaught was Professor X, pure and simple,” Waid explained in Wizard #90. “The nonsense about adding Magneto’s evil to that mix to me weakened (the storyline) and made the whole situation a lot less interesting.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“(Onslaught) was not the most well-received storyline in the world and there are a lot of reasons for that,” Uncanny X-Men writer Scott Lobdell admitted in Comics Creators On X-Men. “I can blame myself in that I was at odds with another writer over some of Xavier’s buried thoughts that became the basis for Onslaught. (…) The idea that Xavier would bury his yearning for a young Jean Grey? Way too creepy for me! I think it was an idea that Stan tossed into the earliest pages of X-Men and quickly realised that student/teacher mutant love was a bad idea. I agreed and thought it should never again be revisited. To that end, I was rowing strongly against the tide and the best crossovers are the ones where everybody worked together. The crossover that eventually saw print seemed more like a work-in-progress than a finished story.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The reason Stan Lee and Jack Kirby produced amazing stuff was because they didn’t have four or five people (editors and co-writers) looking over their shoulder, changing their dialogue willy-nilly, and making them re-plot stuff halfway through a script,” Mark Waid concluded.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcw7vZP4kpriGPLNVTjAs15pXT7j5j4CIZcVbp9jJSZZazL7gGkgmv03twuowHH4L0X4hXVDodVMyesUSS8GenHUqNSkJgSCWSOoM-IENSAO99169LqOhjZmNUurhII3ThaqaCqd6DzFoQ/s1600/Scan0002+a.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dda="true" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcw7vZP4kpriGPLNVTjAs15pXT7j5j4CIZcVbp9jJSZZazL7gGkgmv03twuowHH4L0X4hXVDodVMyesUSS8GenHUqNSkJgSCWSOoM-IENSAO99169LqOhjZmNUurhII3ThaqaCqd6DzFoQ/s400/Scan0002+a.gif" width="368" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-size: small;">Professor X’s brother</span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The sales started to slip after (artist) Jack (Kirby) left the book,” Stan Lee confessed in Comics Creators On X-Men. “At some point I stopped writing the book, too.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Kirby left with X-Men #17 and Stan Lee with #19 in 1966 after which the book suffered from bad stories and art until writer Roy Thomas and artist Neal Adams teamed up on it with issue #56 in 1969. However, that was too late to stop the series from cancellation. X-Men #66, 1970, became the final issue until it was revived as a reprint book with #67 in 1971.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I always wanted Magneto to turn out to be Professor X’s brother,” Stan Lee revealed in Comics Creators On X-Men. “If I had stayed with the book, that’s what I would have done. (…) I figured that I could come up with an explanation when I needed it: I always did. But I thought it would be fun if Professor Xavier and Magneto were brothers.”</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">While Stan Lee wrote the X-Men, they often guest-starred in others of Marvel’s books, but when he left the title, the guest-appearances also ceased, which probably didn’t help the flagging sales. Following X-Men #2, the Angel appeared in Tales Of Suspense #49 and the entire team had a cameo-appearance in Avengers #3. After X-Men #5, Iceman appeared in Strange Tales #120 and the entire group in Fantastic Four #28. A cameo appearance in Spider-Man Annual #1 followed X-Men #6, and after X-Men #7, they appeared in Journey Into Mystery #109. Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch appeared in Strange Tales #128 following X-Men #8, while the X-Men had cameo appearances in Fantastic Four #35-36 after X-Men #9. Finally, after X-Men #13, they had a cameo appearance in Fantastic Four Annual #3, and Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch joined the Avengers in Avengers #16 following X-Men #16. Stan Lee wrote all of these appearances himself. Collect them all.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Sources:</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">James Busbee: Danger Room, Wizard #90, February 1999</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Tom DeFalco: Comics Creators On X-Men, April 2006</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Stan Lee with Patrick Daniel O’Neill: X Marks The Spot, Wizard: X-Men Turn Thirty, August 1993</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: The X-Men Companion I, March 1982</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Peter Sanderson: The X-Men Companion II, September 1982</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>Scififilmnerdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13068646164385257711noreply@blogger.com1