Action Figure Blues Forum

For years I have collected interviews online with Claremont discussing what he planned for the X Men and what went wrong. As with everything nowadays it seems the editors screwed everything up. They ordered Jean Grey killed, they ordered Jean Grey brought back, they wouldn't let him use the bad guys he originally planned for the Mutant Massacre, the had him kill of Maddy Pryor. What else is very interesting is how many of his ideas would get used after he left and how half assed they were. Here's an interview from 1996 where he talks about some of this:


http://www.seriejournalen.dk/tegneserie_indhold.asp?ID=32

Gonna read this now, but you got any info on X-Men Forever? Haven't heard of it. LOVED the Avengers one.

Hey and 1 more post and you're not a pegwarmer anymore.  :)

They are letting Claremont return to the X Men and pick up where he left off in 1991:

http://www.wizarduniverse.com/020709nyccclaremont.html


So no Maggot, no Joseph, No Legacy Virus, No Magneto is a drug addicted pedo, none of the crap that followed. He is picking up after X Men #3.

Ah, ok. This could be amazing, or completely craptacular. I can't remember when Claremont was last on his game, so I'm thinking it might be the second. But I'll be giving it a go!

Two things could kill this, right now they are saying editors won't get involved and he can do whatever he wants. He doesn't have to worry about Magneto showing up in some other book as a bad guy, he doesn't have to deal with editors telling him to push Gambit, or Wolverine or that such and such is hands off. The other is if people have no patience, when new readers pick up the old X Men stuff they bitch about how hard it is to follow because things take so long to unfold. That's how Claremont is and I can't see that changing. If he can be left alone to his own devices this could very well be epic.

Yep, I hope that is the case. There's a wealth of stuff there that could be done very well.

I like in the interview how Gambit isn't actually part of the team yet, he is just hanging around trying to decide whether to stay or not. I recently reread my X Men collection and when Gambit was first brought to the X Men with Storm he kept trying to leave. I never understaood why he finally decided he wanted to stay.

We could have had the Dark Wolverine Saga:


Originally Posted by Chris Claremont
Originally, back in 1991, my intent was to have Wolverine killed by Lady Deathstrike. His healing factor would go into overdrive to save him. In the meanwhile, his body would be acquired by the Hand and he would be "reborn" by them as their new Master Assassin, at which point he would lead them against the X-Men. This in turn would lead to the greatest imaginable challenge to the relationship (remember, they weren't married back then) between Scott and Jean, with who knows what kind of repercussions (short & long-term), leading up to a final cathartic conclusion in Uncanny 294 and then Uncanny 300.


He also mentions that Jean would join the hand and allow Wolverine to seduce her, Colossus would have ripped the claws out of Wolverine by the roots and the Healing factor would have gone into overdrive pushing the metal out of Wolverine, turning him into a metal monster for a time. All the while Shadow King would have taken over Muir Island, captured Gateway, taken over the Reavers and the Hellfire Club. Everything would have come to a head in UXM 300 where the Wolverine stuff would come to a conclusion, Shadow King and Prof X would have their final confrontation where Prof X would die once and for all.

Found this online from Claremont historian David R, very interesting:


Mad Jim Jaspers and the Fury:

Chris Claremont brought Sir Jim Jaspers in Uncanny X-Men #200 planning a mega-arc for him. Chris' plan was for Jim Jaspers to have a slowly-growing role in the title, and eventually create a Jaspers Warp in the Marvel Universe. However, Jaspers-creator Alan Moore was having a falling out with Marvel over the Dr. Who reprints appearing in U.S. Doctor Who editions. Claremont was unaware of the political goings-on until Moore read Jim Jaspers appearance in UXM #200 and went berzerk. Alan Moore cut ties to Marvel and the legal ownership of Jim Jaspers went into limbo.

Claremont also intended to bring the Fury into the mega-arc, since the Fury's ownership was more hazy. And the "Special Executive" also, which eventually turned into the Technet. John Romita Jr. was to be the artist, and there were to be hints to this "Big Event" in other Marvel titles. At first, this story was planned as Marvel's 1986 answer to DC's "Crisis on Infinite Earths". Running through multiple titles and having ramifications in several books. But then, Claremont learned of the Alan Moore/Marvel clash and completely rewrote his mega-arc. And the "Marvel Crisis" instead morphed into the Mutant Massacre.

The original arc was to begin with Uncanny X-Men #200 with the appearance of Sir Jim Jaspers, and the only person able to stop him--Charles Xavier---is now off-world. The next six issues went as were originally printed, but then changes begin. Nimrod, the futuristic Sentinel living as a Hispanic worker, was planned to merge with the Fury and not only become indestructible, but also incredibly intelligent. "Doctor Doom times a googleplex" was the term used to describe the hybrid. Romita was now leaving the book, and Alan Davis was asked to draw it, but he declined.

The Mutant Massacre was supposed to be solely the Nimrod/Fury hybrid causing the destruction. No Sinister, no Marauders. He is finally stopped by Kitty Pryde phasing through him. Both Kitty and Nightcrawler were to be critically injured, so they are sent to Muir Island along with Colossus as bodyguard, and a new X-Man Longshot! Colossus would have become a foil for Brian Braddock (whose on Muir Isle) and Kitty begins a crush on Brian.

Mutants begin to swarm to Xavier's Mansion for protection, and with Phoenix Rachel Summers gone and Kitty and Brian in Scotland, there were no mutants around to see the parallels with Days of Future Past or with the Jaspers Warp. America falls into the throes of mutant hysteria and with Magneto now in charge of the X-Men, he must make some radical decisions to effect the status quo.

Magneto  has taken control of the School and has to make radical decisions, allegiances are made with villains (Hellfire Club). The United Nations decrees that  mutants  are a menace. Jim Jaspers meets the Fury, and unlike the Jaspers Warp, makes an ally of the Fury (or he thinks he does.) With reality collapsing and the Nimrod/Fury killing more mutants,  Forge  gets involved and essentially what transpired in  Fall of the Mutants  happens here. The stuff in Dallas.  The Adversary  was originally intended to be  Mad Jim Jaspers.

However, the finish was different. Instead of the X-Men becoming undetectable to electronic devices, the mutants who entered the Siege Perilous return but with the warps they've undergone (this was indeed used in Inferno and post #250.) Uncanny would have been a much darker comic, with Excalibur intended as the light-hearted one. X-Factor and New Mutants would have cleared the rubble and tried to rebuild mutant/human relations.

Pretty interesting stuff!

the X-universe would have been a different place.. maybe less sopa Opera!

I am looking forward to this.

One thing I remember reading, though, is that Claremont had planned to kill off Dazzler (body disintegrating into pure light) if he'd kept going. I love Alison, and don't want her to die, even in an "Elseworlds" tale.  :)

That had more to do with his ongoing war with Jim Shooter, Shooter created her and it was his baby. So because Shooter kept fucking with Claremont's stuff, Claremont was trying to get revenge, very childish on both their parts

Well, I never knew that! I'm glad it didn't happen.

And I find it really hard to believe that Jim Shooter would EVER be childish  ::)

 .... COMIC BOOK WRITERS GONE BAD!

Chris Claremont was my hero for many years. He gave us the Mutant MAssacre which I'll always be respectful for but to me it feels like his time is gone. Sovereign 7 was horrible and I'm still scarred by his Aliens vs Predator series from a few years back. That said, I won't be reading this series.

Funny story.
I met Warren Ellis some years back and he told me a story about when Claremont was king at marvel and was making enough cash to buy learjets, etc, and he said how Claremont used to brag how Shadowcat/Kitty was based on the daughter of some friends of his. He gushed that she was some uber-student gifted in everything and was certain to go on to big things, etc. Some years later, almost mirroring Claremont's own slide down the ladder, this girl had fallen into a bad crowd and was doing drugs, etc. When Ellis was in the Marvel offices he got into an exchange with Claremont and finally snapped back and asked if they were going to update Shadowcat and make her into a crack whore. He said he wondered whether he'd ever work for Marvel again? 

 :D

(this is my third mini rant on the subject)

Sword of BRADDOCKS sucked ass ....

the dialogue was lame, the characterisation even lamer, it WAS CRAP! I demand a REFUND .... CLERMONT, my expectations were soooo high .... I stuck with you during the S7 series (ugh) and believed in you!!! I BELIEVED IN YOU!

WHY OH WHY!!!!!!

Better not stuff up Forever ..... or we'll be having words.

I passed. I flipped through it and looked a mess. Glad I did.

I wish I had ....

You should scan it in and rewrite the dialogue  :D

ooooooh now that would be interesting
 :D

Oh, how many times have I wanted to do that?  ::)