Some really late-night X-men ramblings
Jul. 28th, 2002 04:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiSo, I went to bed at about 1, and woke up when ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
shadesong did, because I'm not as sound a sleeper as she is.
Before going to bed, I finished reading through all of my X-Men graphic novels/collections. It's pretty much every collection up to The Mutant Massacre (I'm missing the Dark Phoenix Saga for some reason, but I've got it all but memorized).
And I realized something.
I'd been saying for ages that the X-Men (and all associated titles) went to hell in a handbasket in 1989, with Inferno. And that they haven't been worth shit since, with the exception of of the two Peter runs (David on X-Factor, Milligan on X-Force). All of that's still true (not to say there hasn't been a good issue or three amongst the four million titles put out, but nothing worth the cost of the paper it was printed on).
But it turns out that Claremont went downhill way earlier than I thought, back in 1988.
Granted, the Mutant Massacre was a direct set-up of Inferno (references to Mr. Sinister -- the worst-named villain in the history of comics, by the way -- abound). But it's amazing how many tricks Claremont has to re-use, right down to the "Angel's crucified" one (Warren seemed to have only one purpose in Claremont's universe). And how bad the dialogue gets (not helped by Louise Simonson's work on X-Factor -- the woman could write Power Pack and Superman well, but not the mutants).
Claremont had also lost all ability to give his characters real personalities. Rogue had moved from being a uniquely troubled soul to being a tough chick with a southern accent. Wolverine now wasn't sure if he really liked to kill or not. Magneto decided he was a good guy. Whatever was convenient, Claremont went with it. It's something that's inspired the X-writers for years (and is a major problem with Morrison, especially).
And this is already well after the first appearance of Mojo (which wasn't bad, but like so many things, should have been limited to only once), the post-"Futures Past" appearance of Rachel Summers (see last parenthetical note), the first Jubilee (same powers, same name, different person), Longshot, Legion, etc. And this series introduces us to Malice, because you always need another plot device to allow Lorna to be possessed.
*sigh*
I though Claremont had lost it as a writer back in the late '80s. Looks like he lost it way earlier.
And yeah, I know that even during the "good" times, he was setting up Inferno and beyond (the stories with Maddie are some of the best), but that was when there was just one title, and plotlines were clean. But by the time Mutant Massacre happened, there were already three main titles (Uncanny X-Men, New Mutants, and X-Factor), and this crossover brought in Power Pack and Thor (and only this last one was well-written, as Walt Simonson's run on the title was still one of the great ones). That's not counting the mini-series (which had progressed from the occasional Wolverine one to an onslaught (lowercase -- the lame-ass character named Onslaught was years away). The idea of tightly plotting storylines had long passed everyone at Marvel by, it seems.
And the worst part? Bad as this stuff was, Claremont (and even Weezie) was leagues better than most of the hacks who would follow.
It's just hard to believe the best X-stuff is over twenty years old.
shadesong did, because I'm not as sound a sleeper as she is.Before going to bed, I finished reading through all of my X-Men graphic novels/collections. It's pretty much every collection up to The Mutant Massacre (I'm missing the Dark Phoenix Saga for some reason, but I've got it all but memorized).
And I realized something.
I'd been saying for ages that the X-Men (and all associated titles) went to hell in a handbasket in 1989, with Inferno. And that they haven't been worth shit since, with the exception of of the two Peter runs (David on X-Factor, Milligan on X-Force). All of that's still true (not to say there hasn't been a good issue or three amongst the four million titles put out, but nothing worth the cost of the paper it was printed on).
But it turns out that Claremont went downhill way earlier than I thought, back in 1988.
Granted, the Mutant Massacre was a direct set-up of Inferno (references to Mr. Sinister -- the worst-named villain in the history of comics, by the way -- abound). But it's amazing how many tricks Claremont has to re-use, right down to the "Angel's crucified" one (Warren seemed to have only one purpose in Claremont's universe). And how bad the dialogue gets (not helped by Louise Simonson's work on X-Factor -- the woman could write Power Pack and Superman well, but not the mutants).
Claremont had also lost all ability to give his characters real personalities. Rogue had moved from being a uniquely troubled soul to being a tough chick with a southern accent. Wolverine now wasn't sure if he really liked to kill or not. Magneto decided he was a good guy. Whatever was convenient, Claremont went with it. It's something that's inspired the X-writers for years (and is a major problem with Morrison, especially).
And this is already well after the first appearance of Mojo (which wasn't bad, but like so many things, should have been limited to only once), the post-"Futures Past" appearance of Rachel Summers (see last parenthetical note), the first Jubilee (same powers, same name, different person), Longshot, Legion, etc. And this series introduces us to Malice, because you always need another plot device to allow Lorna to be possessed.
*sigh*
I though Claremont had lost it as a writer back in the late '80s. Looks like he lost it way earlier.
And yeah, I know that even during the "good" times, he was setting up Inferno and beyond (the stories with Maddie are some of the best), but that was when there was just one title, and plotlines were clean. But by the time Mutant Massacre happened, there were already three main titles (Uncanny X-Men, New Mutants, and X-Factor), and this crossover brought in Power Pack and Thor (and only this last one was well-written, as Walt Simonson's run on the title was still one of the great ones). That's not counting the mini-series (which had progressed from the occasional Wolverine one to an onslaught (lowercase -- the lame-ass character named Onslaught was years away). The idea of tightly plotting storylines had long passed everyone at Marvel by, it seems.
And the worst part? Bad as this stuff was, Claremont (and even Weezie) was leagues better than most of the hacks who would follow.
It's just hard to believe the best X-stuff is over twenty years old.