Claremont | the m0vie blog

X-Men: Inferno (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Darren

With our month looking at Avengers comics officially over, we thought it might be fun to dig into that other iconic Marvel property, the X-Men. Join us for a month of X-Men related reviews and discussion.

I don’t like Inferno. There, I said it. There have been dry patches in Claremont’s Uncanny X-Men run before, and some would argue that his work following Inferno would be quite esoteric, but Inferno has always represented, to me at least, the creative low-point of Claremont’s Uncanny X-Men run. That doesn’t mean that I can’t appreciate it for what it is, or acknowledge the care with which the writer crafted it, but it is just too much of a big random mess to really enjoy it. It’s a disjointed crossover that resolves the long-running Madelyne Pryor mystery that Claremont had been weaving through the book, but also features demons and goblins for some reason. It’s just a great big mess.

There’s a Storm comin’…

Continue reading →

Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Act of Vengeance, chris claremont, Claremont, cyclops, dark phoenix saga, Empire State Building, games, inferno, Jean Grey, John Carter, Louise Simonson, Madelyne Pryor, Mister Sinister, Orphan Maker, Tina Turner, uncanny x-men, video games, wolverine, x-men, x-men: inferno | 5 Comments »

Fall of the Mutants: Uncanny X-Men (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Darren

Part of me does feel a little bit sorry for Chris Claremont. After all, his Uncanny X-Men run was trapped in a perpetual second act. He hadn’t introduced the franchise, inheriting it from a bunch of other writers and artists, and he couldn’t resolve it either. So, as a writer, Claremont was charged with keeping readers interested in an on-going narrative that spanned well over a decade. Occasionally, the writer would try to keep things fresh, and Fall of the Mutants represents just such an attempt. Trying to transition his team from one status quo to another, you have to give the writer credit for pitting the team against an enemy who is (effectively) God, even if it does make this chapter in his on-going saga the equivalent of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

United we fall…

Continue reading →

Filed under: Comics | Tagged: chris claremont, Claremont, cyclops, fall of the mutants, Forge, hannibal, Jean Grey, Louise Simonson, marvel comics, matt fraction, Mister Sinister, mutant massacre, Mystique, Psylocke, Sinister, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Storm, uncanny x-men, uncanny x-men: fall of the mutants, vietnam, wolverine, x-men, x-men comics, x-men: fall of the mutants | Leave a comment »

X-Men: Mutant Massacre (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Darren

Mutant Massacre represents something of a minor game changer in the world of the X-Men titles that Marvel was producing. Originally proposed by Uncanny X-Men scribe Chris Claremont as a story to be told within that title, editorial seized upon the opportunity to connect their developing line of mutant titles, having each monthly issue of Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor and The New Mutants serve as a single chapter in an expansive storyline. It really was the first X-Men crossover, setting the template for dozens to follow over the coming decades from “thematic” crossovers like Fall of the Mutants to more straight-forward examples like Inferno or X-Tinction Agenda, or even ones that came long after Claremont like Messiah Complex or Second Coming. More than that, though, Mutant Massacre demonstrated the key attributes of Claremont’s rapidly expanding universe, reintroducing a sense of uncertainty and dread into the comics.

Tearing the X-Men to pieces…

Continue reading →

Filed under: Comics | Tagged: bryan singer, chris claremont, Claremont, Comics, dark phoenix saga, emma frost, magneto, mutant massacre, Mystique, new mutants, nightcrawler, Nightcrawler (comics), Professor X, Race-Ethnic-Religious Relations, the mutant massacre, uncanny x-men, x-men, X-Men: First Class, x-men: mutant massacre | 2 Comments »

Acts of Vengeance: Uncanny X-Men – Wolverine, Jubilee & Psylocke vs. The Mandarin (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Darren

April (and a little bit of May) are “Avengers month” at the m0vie blog. In anticipation of Joss Whedon’s superhero epic, we’ll have a variety of articles and reviews published looking at various aspects of “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.”

In celebration of the release of The Avengers, this weekend we’re taking a look at the massive 1989-90 crossover “Acts of Vengeance”, which pitted various villains against some unlikely heroes. I’ll be looking at some of the most fun match-ups. This arc is collected in the companion omnibus.

I know that a lot of people would argue that Claremont’s Uncanny X-Men sort of lost the plot a bit after Inferno, when he first sent the team to live in the Outback and then sent them through the Siege Perilous, essentially disintegrating the iconic superhero team and scattering its members to the wind with little idea of who or what they are. I, for the record, actually quite liked that period of Uncanny X-Men history, if only because it was so breathtakingly ambitious and completely unlike anything I ever expected in a superhero team book.

Detractors would, not unreasonably, suggest that there was a very good reason that Claremont’s approach was completely distinct from anything ever tried in a superhero team book. However, most of those who decry that era of Uncanny X-Men will concede that there were some highlights to be found. The Acts of Vengeance tie-ins, featuring the wonderful artwork of Jim Lee, are among the more widely-praised of Claremont’s work in this era, and I find it quite tough to disagree.