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Post by Icctrombone on Apr 28, 2017 4:19:00 GMT -5
This was the first really strong X-Men storyline, as far as I'm concerned, even though it got a bit messy and unfocused aboard that space platform. The pinnacle for me though was the beginning of #98 -- the first time Claremont gave the team downtime and took the opportunity to explore them as full characters, enjoying New York City at Christmas until all hell decided to break loose. We had Scott and Jean enjoy their first kiss while Lee and Kirby ogled from the sidelines, as well as Kurt and Peter trying to pick up women in the most adorable of ways. Agreed! It was fun seeing the team bonding and building their friendships with little tidbits given here and there throughout the story-line giving them more depth of character. It was 98 that grabbed my full attention and pulled me into wanting to continue with the team. And Cockrum was hitting it out of the ballpark with his art making the merry mutants individualistic and stylish. Claremont hadn't as yet gone off the deep end with too much of making them "his own" so it all felt more real and fresh than later on when he was more prolific with his authoritative writing. Oh heck yeah. I had a nightmare last night that I was tied to a chair and made to read panels like these over and over again.   Sorry, shaxper. |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 28, 2017 7:47:11 GMT -5
Chris Claremont: Never knowingly using one word when twelve will do.
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Post by impulse on Apr 28, 2017 11:11:34 GMT -5
I'll preemptively duck to dodge the rotten fruit coming my way, but I think Morrison's New X-Men was the best X-Story in decades. He got a little heavy-handed at the end, and he didn't stick the landing, but the first 3/4 of his run is among my favorite comics ever written, wildly-inconsistent-sometimes-bordering-on-atrocious art aside. In a similar vein, Whedon's first arc on Astonishing X-Men was a superb follow-up. I don’t think the rest of his run was as good, though.
Days of Future Past is my favorite classic story, but it would be hard to pick and choose a single good story from Claremont’s classic run. I am not familiar with much pre-Claremont, but in general I enjoyed most of his issues even though the writing style has aged poorly IMO and is very overwrought by modern standards.
Also, I loved the original Age of Apocalypse. It was a very fun and obviously well-thought out and detailed dystopian alternate reality, and it was a lot of fun knowing it was temporary. A lot of unmitigated crap came out of it, unfortunately, but the original was quite good.
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Post by badwolf on Apr 28, 2017 13:52:46 GMT -5
I'll preemptively duck to dodge the rotten fruit coming my way, but I think Morrison's New X-Men was the best X-Story in decades. He got a little heavy-handed at the end, and he didn't stick the landing, but the first 3/4 of his run is among my favorite comics ever written, wildly-inconsistent-sometimes-bordering-on-atrocious art aside. *throws a fresh, ripe mango your way* I agree, Morrison's run was a revelation. Shame editorial messed with it, but what we got was still great. |
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Post by impulse on Apr 28, 2017 15:09:04 GMT -5
*throws a fresh, ripe mango your way* I agree, Morrison's run was a revelation. Shame editorial messed with it, but what we got was still great. It was terrible that the first thing they did the second it was over was wipe it out and basically do literally the opposite of everything good he did and just kept the superficial or crap stuff. The aftermath of how they handled it was the catalyst for my eventuality dropping all X Books. Shame. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 28, 2017 15:58:40 GMT -5
I'll preemptively duck to dodge the rotten fruit coming my way, but I think Morrison's New X-Men was the best X-Story in decades. I'm not a big Morrison fan by any means, but I agree that his run was better than pretty much anything that came after the Mutant massacre. I liked the way he changed the dynamics lf the school and apparently ignored fan servicing. Unusual things like Cyclops getting drunk at the Hellfire club were also refreshing. On the negative side, his plots were often about things we had things before and at times he seemed to have a hard time remembering which character was which. New concepts like "secondary mutations" were also introduced out of the blue and never explored fully. But overall, I'd take that run over the 90's X-Men anytime! |
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Post by badwolf on Apr 28, 2017 16:11:06 GMT -5
The secondary mutations were the one thing I didn't care for. It seemed so arbitrary.
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Post by impulse on Apr 28, 2017 17:16:37 GMT -5
Yeah, Morrison's run certainly had some large flaws. Secondary mutations were unusual although some use of them was fine. He could have used some stronger editing, and I really wish, controversial or not, Frank Quitely had pencilled the whole wrong. He and Morrison have fantastic creative chemistry together. We'd still be waiting on it if he tried it, though.
I'm not huge on Morrison's other work I've read, but he definitely brought a desperately needed freshness to the X-Books, and he set them up with a great new status quo...that Marvel beat back into the ground immediately. Oh, well.
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Post by Icctrombone on Apr 28, 2017 19:37:22 GMT -5
Morrison's run was the only thing to get me to buy an X-men comic since issue #200. I'll admit that I was also drawn to it my the Frank Quietly artwork.
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Post by spoon on Apr 28, 2017 19:47:20 GMT -5
Difficult to pinpoint just one, as Chris tended to stretch storylines over many, many issues, starting from quiet subplots that would grow into full blown stories. My overall favourite is the Dark Phoenix storyline, of course, in which I would count issue #125 and issues 129-137. It was just overwhelming. Next would be the first Wolverine mini-series. Then the Brood saga (#154-157 and 162-166). A very creepy and exciting take on the Alien movies. A favourite story arc of mine, even if it will never be called "the fill-in-the-blank saga", is how Cyclops got over Jean's death, reconciled with the idea that she was gone, and managed to rebuild his life without forgetting her. That was a moving, true to life way of depicting grief, mourning and resilience. (It was also before the era of test tube cloned time-displaced transdimensional resurrected zombie lovers). Those post-Dark Phoenix Saga issues are among the Claremont issues I've re-read least frequently, in part because I think Cockrum was not shaky in his second X-Men stint. But when I have re-read them, my opinion of Lee Forrester has improved over time. She fit really well into that arc of Cyke growing through his mourning. I have wondered how it would have turned out if Claremont had tried to keep Scott and Lee together longer. It felt more real than Scott and Maddie. Ironically, since I'm not a big Madelyne Pryor fan, my favorite storyline might be the issues reprinted in the From the Ashes TPB (#168-176). I'm pretty sure those are the issues I've re-read the most. I love Paul Smith's art. Even though Cyclops gets a lot of focus, the whole ensemble get opportunities to shine. |
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Post by spoon on Apr 28, 2017 20:00:16 GMT -5
I'll preemptively duck to dodge the rotten fruit coming my way, but I think Morrison's New X-Men was the best X-Story in decades. He got a little heavy-handed at the end, and he didn't stick the landing, but the first 3/4 of his run is among my favorite comics ever written, wildly-inconsistent-sometimes-bordering-on-atrocious art aside. In a similar vein, Whedon's first arc on Astonishing X-Men was a superb follow-up. I don’t think the rest of his run was as good, though. Days of Future Past is my favorite classic story, but it would be hard to pick and choose a single good story from Claremont’s classic run. I am not familiar with much pre-Claremont, but in general I enjoyed most of his issues even though the writing style has aged poorly IMO and is very overwrought by modern standards. Also, I loved the original Age of Apocalypse. It was a very fun and obviously well-thought out and detailed dystopian alternate reality, and it was a lot of fun knowing it was temporary. A lot of unmitigated crap came out of it, unfortunately, but the original was quite good. I'm not a fan of Morrison's run, although I've only read a portion of it. I wasn't really reading X-Men when it came out. After it was over, I read the first hardcover (which I guess is about a third of the run) and didn't feel motivated to read the rest. But I was under the impression that folks like me were a distinct minority. To me, it seemed like Morrison wasn't very interested in the X-Men and just wanted to graft ideas on to the characters whether or not they fit. And yes there was some atrocious art. I think it was Igor Kordey who drew an issue that looked like it only took him 10 minutes to draw. Being unfamiliar with pre-Claremont X-Men is not a big loss, and I say that as someone who is essentially a completist for the first 30 years of X-Men. The early Lee/Kirby issues are good. The last Thomas/Adams issues (with a couple fill-ins on art) are good. The mass of issues sandwiched in-between are largely forgotten because they're largely mediocre. There's a brief stint that's noticeably better. I think it was a few issues that Arnold Drake wrote, but I'm not sure. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2017 21:30:15 GMT -5
Mine would be the Dark Phoenix Saga -(Uncanny X-Men #101-108, 1976–1977), It was written by Chris Claremont with art by Dave Cockrum and John Byrne. It's changes the way I look at Jean Grey and because of that; it was the most startling change of them all going from Marvel Girl to Phoenix and eventually Dark Phoenix and introduction of the Hellfire Club.
It's took me a long time to get over it and had the most impact on my love for Jean Grey; it's changes the relationship with Scott Summers and Logan and the rest of the X-Men itself.
It was a difficult choice to make and I had to share this with you.
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Post by badwolf on Apr 29, 2017 18:57:54 GMT -5
Yeah, Morrison's run certainly had some large flaws. Secondary mutations were unusual although some use of them was fine. He could have used some stronger editing, and I really wish, controversial or not, Frank Quitely had pencilled the whole wrong. He and Morrison have fantastic creative chemistry together. We'd still be waiting on it if he tried it, though. I'm not huge on Morrison's other work I've read, but he definitely brought a desperately needed freshness to the X-Books, and he set them up with a great new status quo...that Marvel beat back into the ground immediately. Oh, well. I've enjoyed most of Morrison's work that I've read, but I particularly like his takes on established properties, like the X-Men, Superman or Doom Patrol (just to name a few.) |
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Post by berkley on Apr 29, 2017 23:25:29 GMT -5
Like most fans, I'd probably rate the Claremon/Cockrum/Byrne era, roughly #94 to #150, as my favourite X-Men period, but no particular story from it stands out in my mind. I'd have to re-read them t remind myself which ones I liked best at the time.
If I had to name the single X-Men story that made the biggest impression on me it was probably the one about The Stranger, from the very early days of the series. I was too young to read it when it first appeared but read it as a reprint not too many years later, probably around 1970.
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