Chris Claremont’s X-Men: The Next 5 Years

It’s hard to write an article about the middle chunk of Chris Claremont’s run on X-Men. It’s a period of time that’s so wild, chaotic, and ever-changing that it’s difficult to boil down to particular themes and throughlines. Yet, in a way, that’s exactly what ties these years together. With his first five years on X-Men, writer Claremont set up a comfortable status quo. The many strange new characters that had popped onto the scene – Nightcrawler, Storm, Wolverine, and Colossus – quickly went from teammates to a kind of family. But in the following five years, it was like Claremont planted a bomb right in the heart of the team, upending their well-worn dynamics and sending them all into various degrees of disillusionment. This next five years (published in 1980 to 1984) of X-Men are a master class in character development.

The Brood Saga

The Brood Saga is one of those X-Men stories that has gone down in history as a classic – fittingly, too. It’s an arc that’s almost too crazy to believe. Away on another world, multiple members of the X-Men are implanted with the embryos of a violent alien race. A part of the process of implanting, however, involves lulling the host into a gentle hallucination. This leaves Wolverine, whose healing factor makes him resistant to all manner of things, alone on a twisted planet that looks nothing like what his euphoric teammates perceive. The struggle and aftermath of this storyline shakes the team not only out of their idyllic hallucinations, but out of many of their conceptions of how the world works. Characters like the young Kitty Pryde leave this confrontation hardened and changed. Artists Dave Cockrum and Paul Smith paint such horrific pictures of the Brood homeworld and the Brood themselves that it’s not hard to empathize with our traumatized band of heroes as they exit this conflict.

God Loves, Man Kills

While The Brood Saga is there to shake the X-Men’s ideologies, the Marvel graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills exists as though to show them there’s still hope for their vision. When it comes down to it, God Loves, Man Kills is quite possibly the all-time highlight of Claremont’s time on X-Men. Coming off of the heels of something like The Brood Saga, it doesn’t try to paint the X-Men’s lives as any simpler than they actually are. Instead, it dives into the discomfort, prejudice, and outright hatred they and mutantkind face everyday. The graphic novel centers around fundamentalist preacher William Stryker, who believes mutants are an abomination before God that deserve to be eradicated. His extremist rantings spur many anti-mutant hate crimes, all while he organizes violent acts of terrorism behind the scenes of his “ministry.” The story becomes a conversation about religion, hatred, and the ways Christianity in particular can become twisted towards certain bigoted agendas. The conclusion to the graphic novel is all the more stunning, because it requires the X-Men to look this bigotry right in the eye and respond without lowering themselves to their enemy’s standards. Artist Brent Anderson’s use of character acting is subtle and moving, underscoring every tragic moment and intense exchange with a humanity that makes this graphic novel feel like more than just a comic. It speaks to our real lives.

Wolverine + Kitty Pryde/Wolverine + Lifedeath + Scott and Madelyne

The X-Men don’t continue to exist as they were after these disillusioning events. Instead, they splinter, with many of the characters going off into their own corners of soul-searching and growth. Wolverine takes a trip to Japan. Storm experiences a devastating loss in the Lifedeath arc of the main title, which has her going home to Kenya for a while. Cyclops moves away to Alaska to try and get control of his own life. Even relative newcomer Kitty Pryde finds herself in Japan for a while, with Wolverine going to help her in the Kitty Pryde & Wolverine mini-series. But Claremont doesn’t simply forget about these characters and their journeys. Instead, he checks in on them on a regular basis. It means Uncanny X-Men begins to grow in scope, both thematically and geographically. We get breaks from the typical superheroics to see Storm trying to integrate back into life in East Africa or Cyclops learning what it’s like to be a family man with his new wife, Madelyne Pryor. (I’ll be talking more about Madelyne in the third part of this series.)

This splintering of the group goes to show how far Claremont has brought these characters. Yes, they still have a level of familial connection to each other, but there’s also a level of pain and trauma they share that makes being together difficult at times. Many superhero comics of this era would simply move from event to event, with no real accounting of the costs and losses the heroes suffer. Claremont, however, treats his characters as human beings who experience the emotional wear and tear of their fantastic lives. Interestingly, we see this theme run in both directions. While many members of the X-Men begin to feel the fatigue that comes with being a hero for so long, characters like Magneto and Rogue begin to feel tired of their lives of villainy. Claremont expertly and patiently teases their consciences out from under their years of wrongdoing.

The New Mutants

While the X-Men are experiencing change after change, another title is running alongside their issues – New Mutants. Along with artist Bob McLeod, Claremont introduces us to a band of new… well, mutants. The series is aptly named, after all. While the X-Men are away in space, Charles Xavier begins to go through his own dark night of the soul. Questioning whether his tutelage has simply weaponized his students and placed them in harm’s way, he gets the opportunity to start over with a new group of pupils. After gathering Sunspot, Mirage, Karma, Wolfsbane, and Cannonball together – young teens who are grappling with their newfound mutant abilities – he becomes intent on creating a safe haven for them where they can be protected and learn about their powers. Of course, things never turn out that simple and the New Mutants often find themselves needing to fight for their lives.

As a series, The New Mutants juxtaposes itself to X-Men in several ways. For one thing, Charles’ new students are far more bright-eyed and naïve than his X-Men have become. In short, they still have a lot to learn. Things haven’t gotten as complicated for them yet. It’s almost as though Claremont has created a time capsule back to his “first five years” era with The New Mutants. Not only does it throw a spotlight onto all the ways the X-Men have grown and changed since the beginning of this run, but it also acts as a kind of omen hanging over this new team. The New Mutants exist in a tension between Charles’ hopes for the team and what seem like the inevitable struggles they must face as they grow and change themselves.

Conclusion

In many ways, Claremont’s run on X-Men feels almost unrecognizable at this stage. The characters are scattered all over the map. Some heroes are thinking of hanging up their capes, while some villains are considering making things right. The once tight-knit family of mutants is now a complex group of people with shared trauma and deep wounds. And yet, despite the heartbreak these pages bring about, the lifelike growth of these characters makes them feel relatable and human. With the introduction of The New Mutants, Claremont only further underlines the ground his series has covered so far. The intricacies and subtleties of this era of X-Men make for some of the richest storytelling in superhero comics. Claremont continues to amaze as he pulls you deeper and deeper into the lives of these characters.