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Firstly, it enhances their heroism. They are not fighting for their personal comfort (they live in a mansion). They routinely depart from it, however, willfully walking into prejudice, violence, and even death in order to secure the safety and comfort of others. 2/6
She only emerges in response to Wolverine’s desperate need, her first step toward transitioning from fan to hero herself. This transition informs her role as a reader-surrogate character, routinely deconstructing comics tropes. 5/7
Jubilee is an orphan living in a shopping mall, and even that meager existence is being dissolved in front of her eyes. Her witty banter and con-artist smile hide a tragic backstory right from the start. 2/7
While Claremont is sometimes ridiculed for his inefficient prose, the efficiency of his character work is remarkable (and accelerated to new levels by Paul Smith art), with one issue establishing, resolving, or advancing a litany of character arcs operating simultaneously. 6/6
Kitty getting mentored by Stevie; Storm reconnecting with nature after her transformation by the brood; a montage of Kitty applying different forms of pressure on X; Cyclops and Lee’s relationship achieving a sweet resolution; 4/6
As a result of all of this the Piotr/Illyana relationship has traction and gravitas, fertile material for later writers to pull at readers’ heartstrings with a rarely compelling non-romantic relationship, one that never fails to generate pathos (at least for me, anyway). 5/5
The Piotr/Illyana relationship is your average patronizing brother/sister dynamic on the surface, but through Illyana’s demonic transformation, Claremont adds a layer of irony and symbolism to create something unique and compelling. @TalkingMagik @TheDarkchyIde #xmen 1/5
The Frazetta horror style adds a great deal to the defining arc of Silvestri’s run (and possibly Claremont’s for that matter): Inferno, giving the hellish nightmare depicted a sense of spectacle that is genuinely hypnotic (even as it is terrifying), bordering on the sublime. 5/5
Juxtaposed with this is Rachel’s embrace of the Phoenix costume and identity - asserting a heritage that the 616 was largely denying her - only to be confronted with the violence and death associated with that heritage, her dark inheritance. 4/7 @TalkRachelGrey @AlielynR