Chris Claremont’s X-Men: The Last Five Years (Part One)

Starting my readthrough of Chris Claremont’s 15-year run on X-Men, I knew I was in for a long and wild ride. What I didn’t realise was how massive those last five years would be. And so, instead of doing this in one final article, I’ve split the end of Claremont’s run into two. With all the changes the X-Men go through as a team, with the story arc expanding into extra titles, and the breakneck pace of the plot, hopefully two articles will be enough.

Hitting the Ground Running

Immediately, in this final chunk, we see Claremont basically blow everything up. It’s not the first time he’s done this and it certainly won’t be the last. But with the “Trial of Magneto” in Uncanny X-Men #200, Charles Xavier is forced to leave Earth to join his love – Princess Lilandra of the Shi’ar Empire – in her fight to reclaim the throne from her despot sister. As Xavier beams away, he leaves his school and X-Men in the capable hands of… Wait, am I reading this right? Magneto??

While the New Mutants and X-Men aren’t big fans of this decision, from a writing perspective it’s a masterful move on Claremont’s part. Not only did we begin to see the subtle redemption arc of Magneto, all the way back in God Loves, Man Kills, but his dynamic with both the New Mutants and the X-Men is full of dramatic potential and is entirely unlike that of Xavier with his pupils. Claremont shoves us into exciting new territory where you really can no longer lean back and rely on the old tropes or rhythms of this series. Not only do we see both teams tentatively trying to figure out if they can really trust their old foe, but we see the incredibly human story of Magneto trying to live up to the dream Xavier had for him. He, himself, isn’t quite ready to trust he’s the right man for the job. He’s ever aware of his reputation, of his own demons, and of the responsibility he’s been saddled with. Claremont dares us to empathize with a villain and maybe even learn to love him.

Spanners in the Works

While this would normally be a great jumping on point of a brand new chapter of X-Men, there was something dark brewing on the horizon that the team would have to get through first: Secret Wars II (not to be confused with Jonathan Hickman’s brilliant Secret Wars (2015).) The Beyonder, from the first Secret Wars (1985), had decided he wanted to try his hand at becoming a human being. Jim Shooter’s somewhat uneven, strange, and controversial event book brought The Beyonder into regular contact with Claremont’s Uncanny X-Men. In fact, the entire team gets up and chases Rachel Summers (Phoenix) to San Francisco, to stop her from trying to take on The Beyonder by herself. By the end of Secret Wars II, Shooter had our beloved New Mutants defeated in battle, obliterated, and then reborn through the machinations of The Beyonder.

It’s pure chaos. In many ways, Secret Wars II feels like a violent invasion of the stories Claremont had been weaving together so seamlessly. And yet, his writing doesn’t miss a beat. Instead of fighting the chaos, he embraces it. When the New Mutants come back to their school, they’re traumatized by what’s happened – almost catatonic. Their distrust for Magneto as their new headmaster is only deepened by their emotional state. Meanwhile, the X-Men, still reeling from the cosmically confusing events they’ve just been through, are brought back to New York to deal with a massacre of an underground mutant society, a time-displaced Sentinel, and the nefarious dealings of the Hellfire Club. They receive no respite but are instead tossed about from one emergency to another. 

The types of battles the X-Men fight are incredibly varied and layered. Nimrod, the advanced Sentinel from a dystopian potential future, represents the bigotry and hatred that all mutants face and are forced to suffer under a fearful yet powerful human majority. The Hellfire Club, the mega-rich secret mutant group that pulls the strings of the world from behind closed doors, are more nuanced and difficult to understand. In some ways, they’re not unlike Magneto once was. Their agendas claim to be pro-mutant, despite seeming to be more about their own accumulation of power. And finally, there are the mysterious Marauders, a group of hyper-violent mutants that rip through their own kind mercilessly in the name of someone they simply refer to as “Sinister.” 

As the X-Men face off with foe after foe, the underlying message becomes clear: Even though the team’s most notorious villain has switched sides, that doesn’t mean we’ll be at a loss for good antagonists. And with the introduction of teams like the Marauders, we also see the seeds of new story arcs that will gradually unfold over time.

That Undying Redhead

There’s one series that begins during this time period that actually has none of Claremont’s fingerprints on it – though it’s still a necessary title to keep up with to follow all the plotlines that exist during his tenure. The series in question is X-Factor, wherein the original X-Men form a public organization in which they masquerade as mutant hunters, so they can find vulnerable mutants who are in need of help. The only problem was, one of the original X-Men had famously died at the end of Claremont’s Dark Phoenix Saga. However, despite his vehement opposition to the idea, the X-Factor series went ahead, along with a resurrection arc that would bring Jean Grey back onto the scene. 

The series, created by Bob Layton, Jackson Guice, and Josef Rubinstein, certainly felt a little forced. It also ignored a lot of the character development that had been done with characters like Cyclops. X-Factor still, however, played a massive role in setting the stage for further events in these X-titles. For one thing, the X-Factor team and their advertisements were unwittingly flaming the fire of anti-mutant sentiment. As they gather steam, the ever-present question becomes “Are we helping or hurting our cause?” When Louise Simonson joins Guice as writer of the series in issue #6, she introduces the arch-fiend Apocalypse who plays his own part in stirring up tension between humanity and mutant kind.

Fall of the Mutants

This tense environment becomes the backdrop for the X-Men’s last stand (no, not THAT Last Stand). In Dallas, Texas, the team fights a mystical battle against the hate-mongering Adversary. A spiritual being who is fueled by bigotry and dissent, the Adversary is ultimately vanquished like all good antagonists are, but at the cost of our heroes’ lives. Yep, that’s right! With plenty of issues to go in this grand opus, Claremont wipes his cast out entirely.

And so, the question becomes “What next?” For one thing, there are a few teams that continue in the spirit of the X-Men. The previously mentioned X-Factor and New Mutants live on, trying to fill the shoes of our favourite mutants. Along with them, in the oft forgotten corner of the X-Universe, Muir Island, Kitty Pride and Nightcrawler have escaped a similar fate to their comrades, having been laid up in hospital due to wounds they’d suffered in a previous battle with the Marauders. They, along with Captain Britain, Megan, and eventually Rachel Summers, form their own group to carry the torch of their friends and family onwards: Excalibur. But for the X-Men themselves… Perhaps death isn’t quite the end. Is it ever, really, in comics? For that, you’ll have to read part two of this article.

Surely This is All Too Much to Handle, Isn’t It? (It’s Not, and Don’t Call Me Shirley!)

You would think that a section of X-history like this – which is so jam packed with endings, new beginnings, and threats to all of reality – would be too much to follow or understand. But somehow, Claremont can make the most intensely suspenseful moments still feel like they’re about the characters. At no point does this narrative feel like it’s chugging along simply because the writer says so. Every major event, plotline, and new chapter is guided by the deft hands of someone who truly understands what makes stories work.