I want to thank Chris Claremont and John Byrne!

[Corey W]

Claremont's X-Men run is without a doubt the greatest sustained run on a superhero comic in history. It is so far above everything else that I can't even think of what might be second.

Claremont/Byrne was the highlight of that run and for years they made a lot of really great comics together. And both did very fine stuff after.

Claremont had a decade on X-Men after Byrne left, including as people have pointed out the very fine work with Jim Lee and the classic God Loves, Man Kills. Byrne had FF, Superman, Alpha Flight and more.

Two really great creators.

[Darrell D.]

I would rate Morrison and Whedon's X-men run over Byrne/Claremont personally.

Yeah, I kind of agree with that, and I grew up with Claremont's and Byrne's X-men.
It's kind of hard to reread.
But, I would happily give the books to a kid to start reading, as I think that is where the appeal works.
Which, really, is as it should be.

[merrick97]

Claremont's X-Men run is without a doubt the greatest sustained run on a superhero comic in history. It is so far above everything else that I can't even think of what might be second.

I think this is without the most hyperbolic overstatement ever made at CBR.

The following would like a word with you:
Walter Simonson's Thor run
Gruenwald's Captain America run

[merrick97]

Damn. Fall of the Mutants and Mutant Massacre remain two of my favorite X-Men stories.

Just godawful. I was pulling my teeth out trying to get through Fall of Mutants and Inferno. Silvestri's artwork also made that hard.

[Darrell D.]

Just godawful. I was pulling my teeth out trying to get through Fall of Mutants and Inferno. Silvestri's artwork also made that hard.

Inferno just had waaayyy too much happening and as a result it's kind of scatter-shot.
Doesn't help that Claremont was in his exposition for almost every other panel phase.
It's painful to read.

[Darrell D.]

I think this is without the most hyperbolic overstatement ever made at CBR.

The following would like a word with you:
Walter Simonson's Thor run
Gruenwald's Captain America run

There are two good runs of Thor: Kirby's and Simonson's.
Gruenwald's Captain America, while he obviously had a lot of love for the character, was just so boring.
Give me 1970's Kirby Cap or Brubaker's any day.

[Corey W]

I think this is without the most hyperbolic overstatement ever made at CBR.

The following would like a word with you:
Walter Simonson's Thor run
Gruenwald's Captain America run

I am a HUGE fan of Gruenwald and Gruenwald's Cap and I like Cap more than I like any X-Man, but Claremont's X-Men blew Gru's Cap out of the water in terms of importance and sustainability and, arguably, quality. Claremont took a franchise that had literally been cancelled and with Byrne turned it into the center of the MU. Gru's work on Cap was seminal, but not nearly to the same degree.

Along the way, Claremont made Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, and dozens of others the popular characters that they are today. Gru introduced fan favorites such as the Serpent Society, U.S. Agent, Diamondback and others, but Claremont easily gets the nod there.

Both told a number of all time great stories. I am not sure that you could have a ten year plus run if you didn't. Cap No More, Scourge and others stack up well with Dark Phoenix Saga and God Loves Man Kills, but Gru's Cap run was incredibly uneven and fell off a cliff near the end. Claremont's run also fell off a cliff near the end, but not as far and Jim Lee helped.

I really just can't see the two runs as being close.

Simonson's Thor was majestic and every time I list the great Marvel runs it is included along with Miller's DD, Lee/Kirby FF, and Dittko/Lee Spidey, which are with Claremont/Byrne on X-Men the five runs that I view as game changing for Marvel. But Simonson's Thor was only about a third as long as Claremont's X-Men and didn't have nearly the same impact.

The Lee/Kirby FF and the Lee Spider-man runs are the two that I would probably throw up against it, but Claremont's output on the X-titles was just staggering. A decade and a half that rewrote the history of the franchise.

The most impressive thing that he did, which I think was as hard back then as it is now, is bring a new character (Wolverine was basically new) to prominence. It is difficult to imagine that the MU went more than a decade without Wolverine and more than 20 years without him being ubiquitous.

[matthewaos]

I know that some will hate me for this, but I prefered Lobdell's X-Men. To be honest Claremont and Byrne were some good creators, but at the time I started collecting the sucked pretty much and I have very few memories of stuff I have read by them.

[destro]

Those Marvel Team Ups with Byrne/Claremont were some of the best Spider-Man stories I've ever read. Far better than what was being done in Amazing and Peter Parker at the time.

[merrick97]

I am a HUGE fan of Gruenwald and Gruenwald's Cap and I like Cap more than I like any X-Man, but Claremont's X-Men blew Gru's Cap out of the water in terms of importance and sustainability and, arguably, quality. Claremont took a franchise that had literally been cancelled and with Byrne turned it into the center of the MU. Gru's work on Cap was seminal, but not nearly to the same degree.

Along the way, Claremont made Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, and dozens of others the popular characters that they are today.

John Byrne was the one who pushed for WOlverine to be a larger character, not Claremont. I believe Cockrum also didn't like Wolverine either.

[The Sword Is Drawn]

I think this is without the most hyperbolic overstatement ever made at CBR.

The following would like a word with you:
Walter Simonson's Thor run
Gruenwald's Captain America run

Yeah, but you've got to remember just how consistent Claremont's run was for 17 years, unbroken. Few writers can match that.

[Iron Maiden]

I think this is without the most hyperbolic overstatement ever made at CBR.

The following would like a word with you:
Walter Simonson's Thor run
Gruenwald's Captain America run

Not to mention Stan and Jack on Thor and Fantastic Four, you know, the guys made it all possible.

[timeismoney]

The work that Chris did on Magneto has to be the best transformation of a character in comic book history which evolved the character which is what great writers do. That is why Grant will never get respect from me because rather than do anything new with Mags he made him regress back to the character he hasn't been for 20 years disrespecting everything Chris has done with Mags.

[Rasputin9977]

The work that Chris did on Magneto has to be the best transformation of a character in comic book history which evolved the character which is what great writers do. That is why Grant will never get respect from me because rather than do anything new with Mags he made him regress back to the character he hasn't been for 20 years disrespecting everything Chris has done with Mags.

Didn't the Magneto in Morrison's abyssmal run turn out to be Xorn?

[squashmaster]

I would rate Morrison and Whedon's X-men run over Byrne/Claremont personally.