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

Here we are, we’ve finally come to the end of Chris Claremont’s gargantuan run on Uncanny X-Men. After some 400 issues (including accompanying titles like New Mutants, X-Factor, and Excalibur) and 15 years of publishing time, Claremont brings his opus to a brilliant conclusion and ushers in the beginning of a new era. These final moments are some of the most experimental, original, and daring in the entire saga. Some spoilers ahead of what follows after The Fall of the Mutants event, mentioned in the last article.

Mutant Heaven’s Got a Revolving Door

The last time we saw our favourite mutants, they were fighting the mystical Adversary in a battle to the death. It seems this is the end of the X-Men. But as they give their lives to save reality itself, their souls are whisked away to a realm beyond time and space. There, the goddess/alien/enigma called Roma is waiting for them, having been freed from the Adversary’s machinations as a result of our protagonists’ actions. Due to the selflessness they’ve displayed, she offers them another chance at life.

Unlike most of Claremont’s work in X-Men, this particular moment does feel like it requires a peek into a different part of Marvel history in order to make sense of it. Roma, who makes very few appearances in Uncanny X-Men, is a much more prominent figure in the Captain Britain mythos. In fact, she and her father Merlin resurrected the protector of the UK in a very similar fashion during Alan Moore’s run on the title. (It’s also worth noting that Claremont co-created Captain Britain alongside Herb Trimpe and Fred Kida.) So, when the X-Men receive a new lease on life from the daughter of Merlin, it doesn’t come completely out of nowhere. It’s foreshadowed and continues the process of bridging the worlds of Captain Britain and the X-Men, a process which began with introducing the Captain’s sister Psylocke to the team. 

When Storm, Wolverine, Rogue, and the others burst back onto the scene, they arrive in Australia. It’s here we meet the Reavers, a band of gleefully violent cyborgs who have overtaken a town in the Outback. They’re pillagers, murderers, and thieves. Our mutant freedom fighters deal with the Reavers (though some get away) and begin to operate out of the town, acting in secret as the ghost-like protectors of the disenfranchised. In dealing with the Reavers, the X-Men use an object gifted to them by Roma, the fabled Siege Perilous – a kind of gate that judges those who pass through it and gives them new lives based on their deeds. If the mechanics of the Siege seem confusing, you’re not alone in thinking so. The ambiguity of the Siege — its uses, purpose, and effects — is something Claremont seems to revel in. Some questions are best left hanging in the air. Yet, after its use on the captured Reavers, the Siege remains in our heroes’ possession, an enigmatic and vaguely ominous relic of immense power.

Infernal Synchronicity

The Reavers, however, would soon be the least of the X-Men’s worries. Brewing in the background of every title, especially in the pages of Louise Simonson’s New Mutants (which she took over as writer in issue #55), were the sinister rumblings of an impending battle between Earth and Limbo. Simonson teased out Illyana Rasputin’s loss of control over her otherworldly domain slowly over the course of dozens of issues. Similarly, Claremont hinted at Madelyne Pryor’s own role in the oncoming events, dropping clues of her unraveling psyche. By the time the Inferno event took place, the many titles included were so brilliantly interwoven, that your understanding of what caused these events depended entirely on which title you were following. The New Mutants, X-Factor, and X-Men all claimed sole responsibility for what was going on, despite the tangled web of reasons that were actually at play. 

Inferno acted as a giant, shining example of how dependent these titles were on one another. If you were only reading Uncanny X-Men, you were really only getting a quarter of the whole story. The same went for X-Factor, New Mutants and Excalibur. (Though, of all of them, Excalibur in large part existed off in its own happy little corner.) In many ways, Inferno said to readers, “We’re not just writing a title. We’re building a world.” The end of the event tied up plenty of loose ends. The New Mutants saw the end to their troubles with Limbo. The X-Men had seemingly gotten to the bottom of their Sinister problem. And many of the worries plaguing Cyclops in X-Factor finally came to a screeching, if painful, halt. But the event would leave an indelible mark on these titles. After Inferno, nothing would quite be the same for any of our characters.

Blown Apart

When the X-Men returned to their Outback base, the mysterious Siege Perilous finally became a centerpiece of the action. Claremont was once again ready to start from scratch, erasing the status quo for a new, wild, and unpredictable chapter for our mutants. After these events, everything in the Uncanny X-Men title became scattered, both in geography and genre. While some readers found this difficult to take – reportedly, the dip in sales during this time ultimately led to Claremont’s tenure ending – it’s one of the most refreshingly original times in mainstream superhero comics one can find.

Readers bounce around the globe, from Wolverine nursing his wounds in Australia with a youthful Jubilee reluctantly helping him get back on his feet to Rogue exploring Antarctica’s prehistoric Savage Land. We get glimpses of New York, Madripoor, and the East African island nation built off of the backs of mutant slaves – Genosha. At times, the title feels like a ninja-style action comic. Other times, it’s a political thriller, or a hack and slash adventure. While the threads of these stories feel only loosely connected, the result is an expansive tale that feels like it encompasses so many facets of what it feels like to be lost. In many ways, it would seem like the lostness some readers feel in this section is part of the design. It’s an invitation to empathize with our characters as they grapple with identity, purpose, and their own humanity.

Return to Form

With the last chapters of Claremont’s run, he brings us back to a new normal. In the Genosha-based X-Tinction Agenda event, and the immediate follow-up, The Muir Island Saga, all of our characters come back together again to fight against the forces of evil and bigotry. The titles once more intermingle in such a way that each is essential to the greater story. And though these events do return readers to a familiar place, none of the scattered threads from the previous era are lost. Every moment, every thread, every connection becomes necessary to the set up of these events and their aftermath. Claremont once again displays his incredible knack for patient storytelling – a kind of writing that asks you to pay attention, keep track, and trust that this will all come back and mean something later.

Ultimately, Claremont closes out his time (though not by choice) as architect of this corner of the Marvel Universe in much the same way as he operated in it all along. He creates incredibly rewarding dynamics by putting together characters that couldn’t be more different than one another. The fast-talking Jubilee is saddled with being Wolverine’s sidekick, the devious Gambit becomes Storm’s self-appointed guardian, and the action-loving Rogue acts as Magneto’s only advocate in turbulent times. The drama, humour, and poignancy that pops up from these unlikely duos is fantastic. Claremont also has an unmatched attention to detail. He’s able to keep track of all of the many storylines that are running alongside each other and wait until the perfect moment to bring each to fruition. And as always, it seems that the moment he thinks things are the slightest bit stale, he’s ready to nuke the entire premise of the comic and build it up from scratch. Claremont finalizes his tenure alongside Jim Lee with three issues that set the stage for the next chapter of mutant comics.

There’s a reason this run is legendary. There’s a reason it’s become the definitive example of great X-Men comics. Chris Claremont and his many collaborators are nothing short of superheroes in their own right.