First time reading Claremont’s run...

[Uncanny X-Man]

Does anyone remember this little gem of a story from Marvel Fanfare?

http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chron...40_storm.shtml

I feel it might be slightly overlooked due to being outside the main series - the Uncanny X-Men stories published in parallel to it can be enjoyed even without this short story, which however establishes how Ororo finds Rogue after she runs away from the team following the Michael Rossi incident and, most importantly, confirms Mystique and Destiny knew that Ororo would lose her powers while trying to prevent the same from happening to Rogue.

It's also amazing how Claremont seeds the events of the Fall of the Mutants via Irene here, despite the story still being 5 years away at this stage:

MFAN40_FallOfTheMutants.jpg

But continuity and foreshadowing aside, this Marvel Fanfare story is an exquisite exploration of Ororo and Raven's characters, what they have in common, what sets them apart. I suspect the reason this wasn't published in Uncanny at the time was that the setting and themes were a bit... borderline for the time? Claremont always featured regular doses of fetish clothes and S&M themes in his story, and of course the Hellfire Club had already long been introduced, but perhaps this was deemed a tad to explicit for the main book. Regardless, I urge any Storm sand Mystique fan to check out this story as it's really well worth it.

[Su_Whisterfield]

Does anyone remember this little gem of a story from Marvel Fanfare?

http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chron...40_storm.shtml

I feel it might be slightly overlooked due to being outside the main series - the Uncanny X-Men stories published in parallel to it can be enjoyed even without this short story, which however establishes how Ororo finds Rogue after she runs away from the team following the Michael Rossi incident and, most importantly, confirms Mystique and Destiny knew that Ororo would lose her powers while trying to prevent the same from happening to Rogue.

It's also amazing how Claremont seeds the events of the Fall of the Mutants via Irene here, despite the story still being 5 years away at this stage:

MFAN40_FallOfTheMutants.jpg

But continuity and foreshadowing aside, this Marvel Fanfare story is an exquisite exploration of Ororo and Raven's characters, what they have in common, what sets them apart. I suspect the reason this wasn't published in Uncanny at the time was that the setting and themes were a bit... borderline for the time? Claremont always featured regular doses of fetish clothes and S&M themes in his story, and of course the Hellfire Club had already long been introduced, but perhaps this was deemed a tad to explicit for the main book. Regardless, I urge any Storm sand Mystique fan to check out this story as it's really well worth it.

I remember it for the stunning art, both the cover and the pin-up of Kurt with an earring. I bought the comic when it came out. I still have it.

[Sparko]

Looks like Cyclops is back!!

28F28168-C94E-4062-9E8D-3E9F9FBE243B.jpg

Days of Future Past was fantastic too... wow. What an atmosphere to start! The stakes were so high. Claremont. On fire!!

[From The Shadows]

Does anyone remember this little gem of a story from Marvel Fanfare?

http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chron...40_storm.shtml

I feel it might be slightly overlooked due to being outside the main series - the Uncanny X-Men stories published in parallel to it can be enjoyed even without this short story, which however establishes how Ororo finds Rogue after she runs away from the team following the Michael Rossi incident and, most importantly, confirms Mystique and Destiny knew that Ororo would lose her powers while trying to prevent the same from happening to Rogue.

It's also amazing how Claremont seeds the events of the Fall of the Mutants via Irene here, despite the story still being 5 years away at this stage:

MFAN40_FallOfTheMutants.jpg

But continuity and foreshadowing aside, this Marvel Fanfare story is an exquisite exploration of Ororo and Raven's characters, what they have in common, what sets them apart. I suspect the reason this wasn't published in Uncanny at the time was that the setting and themes were a bit... borderline for the time? Claremont always featured regular doses of fetish clothes and S&M themes in his story, and of course the Hellfire Club had already long been introduced, but perhaps this was deemed a tad to explicit for the main book. Regardless, I urge any Storm sand Mystique fan to check out this story as it's really well worth it.

I read it long ago and yes it was daring at the time where Raven smacks a much younger dude on his practically bear ass as well as her morphing into a man at the end with some suggestive stuff with Irene. The art was really beautiful.

I also liked the X-Men Savage Land adventure in the same title with art by Cockrum and Smith issues prior to this story. It was a bit pricey but the paper was high quality shiny stuff.

[Uncanny X-Man]

I sometimes wonder how some of the stuff Claremont did back in the day would be received in this day and age of instant backlash. Depowering Ororo who was/is arguably comics' highest profile black woman for years? Utterly destroying one character (Carol Danvers) to "benefit" another character of his own creation (Rogue)? Nightcrawler sleeping with his sister? Kitty and Piotr's underage romance? Betsy getting transformed into an Asian woman? People slipping into S&M clothes the moment they get mind-controlled? Yeeesh.

[Handsome men don't lose fights]

The thing about Claremont that I desperately miss with most modern writers, is that he made sure you got your money's worth from issue to issue. No condensed crap. You can finish most comics these days in five minutes. Claremont gave you something to chew on. If you finished one of his books in 20 minutes, it's because you were skipping pages that focused on your least favorite characters.

[Handsome men don't lose fights]

Next up...

Attachment 92910

Claremont was the only writer who understood how Logan's powers worked. A healing factor doesn't make you immortal. Logically, it should reduce your lifespan by decades if you keep abusing it, because replacement tissue is always weaker than the original. Not only could Wolverine age naturally like in DOFP, it was a miracle he hadn't died earlier.

[Zelena]

The thing about Claremont that I desperately miss with most modern writers, is that he made sure you got your money's worth from issue to issue. No condensed crap. You can finish most comics these days in five minutes. Claremont gave you something to chew on. If you finished one of his books in 20 minutes, it's because you were skipping pages that focused on your least favorite characters.

There was a lot to read… sure. That was rather common in these times.
And emotions didn't feel cheap, easy… characters dwelled on them a lot. But also the comic artists were good at conveying the feelings… Also good at varying the panels, the viewing angles. It was more dynamic and less boring.
The action was more dense, the story more told with ellipses.

[Sparko]

There definitely was more to comics back then compared to now. I have found myself reading new comics really fast compared to these older ones. And the content was often richer back then.

Slightly related, I just read the Poison-X crossover and was loving it. I’ve been catching up on all things Venom and I loved this story. Looking forward to reading Venomized and see how things go from here. And now, I’m wondering how long I will wait till get to this era of X books.

[Ying Ko]

Claremont's run was legendary. It was the pinnacle of comics back in the day.

Having said that, last year I tried to reread it but could only get through the first 2 volumes of the Marvel Masterworks collections before I gave up.

It was simply too... wordy, plus I could still remember everything that happens, even decades after originally reading it.

Still, one of the greatest runs ever.

[shooshoomanjoe]

Man it's a unforgettable experience reading his run. It was comic book gold.

I started backwards though with Morrison's run > Whedon's run > somewhat Mike Carrey > Claremont run. I also didn't read adjacent books during his run like X-factor and New Mutants.

I honestly skipped the 90s...

The 90s had the Age of Apocalypse and Generation X. Fun time to be an x fan.

[Thundershot]

I too am rereading Claremont’s run... It’s refreshing to read older comics from the 70’s and 80’s because as mentioned above, they weren’t a 3-5 minute read and you’re done. Nowadays things are made for the trade and decompressed so it takes the same time to read a TPB than it did to read one issue from back then. I also really really miss THOUGHT BALLOONS!

[yogaflame]

I love thought balloons. Such a unique storytelling device. It was awesome to see a scene play out and multiple people have their own internal thoughts juxtaposed to their external actions/voiced words. That's something special. I have no idea why they ditched them. The preferred 'narration boxes' of today usually end up monopolizing a page, to the extent that 'team books' are now usually stealth solos, where only one character really gets explored, to the detriment of all the others.

[Sparko]

I love thought balloons. Such a unique storytelling device. It was awesome to see a scene play out and multiple people have their own internal thoughts juxtaposed to their external actions/voiced words. That's something special. I have no idea why they ditched them. The preferred 'narration boxes' of today usually end up monopolizing a page, to the extent that 'team books' are now usually stealth solos, where only one character really gets explored, to the detriment of all the others.

This here. Bring back thought bubbles!

[pandafarmer]

I love thought balloons. Such a unique storytelling device. It was awesome to see a scene play out and multiple people have their own internal thoughts juxtaposed to their external actions/voiced words. That's something special. I have no idea why they ditched them. The preferred 'narration boxes' of today usually end up monopolizing a page, to the extent that 'team books' are now usually stealth solos, where only one character really gets explored, to the detriment of all the others.

I also REALLY miss the notations like "Read SpiderMan #13 to see why they are concerned about Scott!" to help you travel through the weedy storylines.