# xmen

🥉 Fantastic Four (1998)
Okay I'll be real this would've placed second if it wasn't like 5 pages. Claremont masterfully reworks the FF's transformation for drama in a version where Johnny's first act as the Human Torch was to absorb the heat of the crash -- and explode.

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Late in the run, Claremont debuted Jubilee, a character whose bombast functions as a thin veil for deep insecurity and vulnerability. In “Generation X,” Scott Lobdell largely departed from that in order to take Jubilee from a dependent sidekick to a central heroine. 3/8

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Peter David's extended run on Hulk is another one memorable for its length.

PAD does one issue more than Gru's Cap on the old Claremont/X-Men scale.

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Tonight's issue of X-Factor opens, quite hilariously, with a mandate to clean up the mess left by X-Factor; and given everything that brought this book together–that's no small task!

In what certainly amounts to a great deal of bias and preference towards Claremont and his...

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As UXM grew ever darker and deeper, Kurt Wagner stood out as a rare joyous character in an often bleak series, someone who relished the role of showman, and though Claremont at times punished him for this, he also found spaces to let Kurt thrive. 1/8

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Most encounters with Ororo are met with awe, but Claremont's willingness to allow this awe to exist beyond the confines of heterosexual attraction is part of what shades the connection between M'Rinn and Ororo even when it's contextualized by maternal connection.

The second...

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Hey there friends, let's talk about a backup story!

Tonight, we're reading the backup to Classic X-Men 'Solace', starring the Wind-Rider herself, Ororo.

As we quickly approach the last of Claremont's consistent entries to these reprints, a form of his storytelling that...

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In terms of the romance, Claremont leaves it open, simply explaining that the pair spent some wonderful time together as teens. He only reveals that this time was profound, joyous, and spurred a romantic interest. 8/9

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The story is framed around a generic white colonizer (safari hat and all) who holds a lifelong grudge against the pair. Claremont does, however, incorporate some interesting symbolism on the futility of racially-based hatred. 7/9

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The punk movement emphasized androgyny as a rejection of gender norms. We see this quite clearly in Storm’s transformation, which comes directly after a pair of life-changing encounters with two of Claremont’s most androgynous characters at the time: Callisto and Yukio. 4/8

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...time with any consistency, we'll be reading books outside of the purview of Claremont's stewardship–and the resentment baked into X-Factor means little effort is made to recapture the voices established for these characters.

It was something faced recently with Cockrum's...

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If Phoenix was Jean, rather than Jean the Phoenix, it does mean that her development under Claremont can be hand-waved away.

Jean's capacity for rage is present in the story from the moment she's ripped from the safety of her Jamaica Bay cocoon, but her immediate fall...

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Claremont's hatred for Scott is terrifying. All I see on these panels is a confused young man who should have been prevented from marrying his dead girlfriend's lookalike, because clearly Maddie didn't like Scott and he didn't like her. +

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...when one of his student's most inner desires was just a nod of his approval.

Erik's grief–and turn to alcohol–are seriously gut-wrenching to read, a testament to how believably Claremont paints his hoped-for redemption in the Trial alone.

There's a real tenuous sense to...

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...of the White Queen of the Hellfire Club.

I want to get out of the way early that–as has regrettably caught on–I am something of an Emma Frost apologist and so my coverage of her is hardly absent pretty obvious bias. Under Claremont, Emma is for the most part evil...

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...especially when Claremont makes SURE to comment on his weight notwithstanding, the man is at least given the opportunity to die in peaceful satisfaction of his valor.

Nimrod teleports away and Tessa extends amnesty in Shaw's name to the team so that both may escape detection.

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...to highlight the ultimate heroism of his final sacrifice.

For a C-list-at-best member of the Hellfire Club, Leland is given a fairly moving and honestly tragic send off as Claremont narrates these final moments of his life.

The optics of his death ending in heart attack...

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...against his behaviors in UXM

The outcome of his fall in battle remains unclear as the tension in battle shifts toward Harry Leland's last stand in defense of his species.

Claremont has put a lot of energy toward identifying Leland's cowardice, a criticism that works...

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..."meat" of the mutant metaphor–the concept of mutants as a monolithically oppressed sub-group of humanity–really clicked.

The allegory has always been present in Claremont's Run, but UXM is one of the earliest moments that worst of humanity is the enemy of all mutants...

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