Thank You Chris Claremont.

[R.E.B]

I don't care what anyone says about Claremont. He has never written an x-book i haven't enjoyed or purchased. I know this post might be deleted and i'm cool with that i just never make main posts and wanted to thank the man. Nightcrawler #7 is the best X-MEN book i have read in years and i'm not the biggest nightcrawler fan. So once again hats off to you Mr. Claremont, i got into comics when i was little because of the X-men cartoon and Storm is my fave character but man this book was gold.

I got to meet Mr. Claremont, and other X-greats yesterday, and it was great to tell him, Bob McLeod, & Peter David Thank You and that they are the reason I read comics. I just wish that I got to meet Louise Simonson, Kieron Gillen, and Bill Sienkiewicz and tell them Thank you as well.

Claremont is so passionate about these characters and to listen to him talk about the books, the movies, and the legalities of the rights was so great. He truly is the architect of the X-Men.

[Tazpocalapse]

I don't even necessarily believe the reason the X-Men have been so successful is because of Chris Claremont the writer, I think it's just the fact ANY writer was allowed to have so much creative control for so long a time period. Any writer who is intelligent and passionate about the subject could have been successful in that sort of a situation. The real travesty with American comics (unlike Japanese/Korean mangas and manhwas) is that the series are not identified with a certain creative team. They are just the "property of a corporation" which is why they contradict themselves, each new creator has to re-learn and re-figure out a bunch of things and so wastes a lot of issues, etc etc. Just a weird situation we have in the USA, sort of un-evolved.

I strongly disagree. If the X-mens success was based on any writer having creative control for a extended period of time. Than the X-men would not have been cancelled and revived later , to become one of the most popular books on the market. Actually Claremonts run is so beloved because he fleshed out who these characters were, he gave them thier own seperate identities and voices.

[Chilli_P]

The X-Men are, and hopefully will always be, my favourite comic book characters. And that is predominantly due to Chris Claremont. He's the definitive voice of the X-Men.

[Ricochet Rita]

I got to meet Mr. Claremont, and other X-greats yesterday, and it was great to tell him, Bob McLeod, & Peter David Thank You and that they are the reason I read comics.

I'm glad you did it, specially for Mr. McLeod, a modest but wonderful artist who didn't yield to "in style".

[Phoenix Raptor]

In the spirit of this thread, I sat down and read CC's X-Treme X-Men run from start to finish over the weekend. I'd bought all of the issues when they came out and enjoyed it then, but here's my opinion now:

Today's X-Climate seems to consist of stories that either meander along or have the same character in multiple titles, so you can't really fathom out what story comes before or after another. The X-Men are currently fractured with no immediate signs of that being repaired.

Claremont came off an admittedly lacklustre return to the core titles and set off with X-Treme X-Men. Almost straight away, we get Vargas - a seemingly regular human being who just happens to be able to kick the team all over the field. It's only later that Sage suggests that Vargas could be the physical embodiment of the Xavier Protocols (with Cassandra Nova being the psychic embodiment) and I personally thought that was a superb possibility!

The whole reason for Storm's splinter team was concerns about Charles and Destiny's Diaries, then Vargas appears from nowhere just as Cassandra flattens one of the home teams. Sage's train of thought was perfectly logical (as befits her character) and it showed CC tying his little corner of the X-Verse into the flagship titles.

By contrast, you have today's scribes blatantly ignoring things such as Rachel Grey's ties to the Phoenix and Ahab in stories that prominently feature both of those elements! Which seems a little silly, to my mind...

I'm not about to say that all of X-Treme was pure gold... the God Loves, Man Kills sequel (due to X2 coming out) was a bit odd at times but, for the most part, I thoroughly enjoyed the series. I thought having Larroca's pencils sent straight to colour without inking was fantastic as well - it made the series stand out from anything else at the time.

And I'm sure I'm in the minority here, but I was a big fan of the Cameron siblings he created. Especially Lifeguard. Considering Guggenheim's in the middle of a Shi'ar story, I'd have liked to have seen Heather's heritage touched upon at least, but it seems she and Neal Sharra are languishing in comic Limbo.

Anyhoo, in the space of 46 issues, CC gave us character development for practically every single person he wrote: we finally learned Bishop's name and where he actually came from... we learned an awful lot about Sage... Gambit and Rogue got their acts together at long last... Cannonball had an issue all to himself (again tied into the events of the core titles)... Thunderbird III showed he was willing to do what he felt was important to him (and an individual teammate)... Storm showed her inner and outer resolve on countless occasions... I just don't think we really see that kind of investment in the characters these days!!

So yeah, I love Claremont's writing on the X-Men. I don't pretend he's flawless but I do acknowledge his passion for the characters and I think that's something that's blatantly absent from the main X-Verse nowadays...

[Zelena]

I add my thanks to all these thanks…

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Review: Uncanny X-Men 143

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Review: Uncanny X-Men 251

[ARkadelphia]

I’m not in love, but I do wish we had as many as 10CC around. Just because.

[Tugger]

It was Chris' writing that got me into UXM & NM and most of the issues I re-read (and re-read) are his, so thank you. Top man!

[ericng]

It was Chris Claremont writing that brought me into X-Men and New Mutants and Excalibur.

I dropped New Mutants soon after he left New Mutants in #55 bcos the stories were becoming silly.

I also dropped Uncanny X-Men soon after Chris C. and John Bryne left Uncanny X-Men in #286. The stories were becoming mediocre and there weren't much character development.

I am all excited again after Hickman took over but the stories are still not as good as Chris era. X-Force is coming very close though.

When he came back to do Xtreme X-Men, the stories weren't as good as in his early days.

Some of the artists during Chris C. era were also legendary (much better than most current artists), people like Alan Davis, Sal Buscema, John Buscema, Marc Silvestri, Jim Lee, John Bryne, Dave Cockrum.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

He's had more good than bad, but he's had bad. Try "Sovereign Seven" or his Exiles run.

Thanks for the heads-up I'll be sure not to try.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Lady Louise Simonson was his editor who played a very important role to bring out the best in him.
I believe Chris Claremont was so pleased with her as his edistor that he liked using marvel characters she co-created.
Take the marvel character Officer Charlotte Jones, introduced in X-Factor #51...

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

He made use of the character during his run on Fantastic Four. She was now Detective Charlotte Jones...

Also loved it that Claremont had the super hero team Fantastic Four deal with the nation of Genosha...

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

...The nation that the super hero team X-Men dealt with for the first time in Uncanny X-Men #235