The New Mutants averted X-Men West
"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."
"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.""
"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" "X-Men West," Louise Jones cut in.
"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."
"And luckily at about the same time (artist) Bob McLeod had just surfaced (...) and the pieces all meshed together."
https://uncannyxmen.net/secrets-behi...ted-x-men-west