Chris Claremont was RIGHT.

[Meehl]

What I am trying to say is, Ed Wood got punished for his sense of weird humor, while Claremont rode a wave of success on his equally weird and similar pulpy style of storytelling because they were each in a different entertainment medium. The target audience was the key, and Claremont had it in comic books because it is a more liberated storytelling medium, while movies are far more strict due to studios footing the bill for a movie. Ed Wood worked in movies and some writing, but his particular brand of humor did not reach out to the public in the medium he operated in.

You analogy failed because you can be a cultural icon while producing high end work (CC) or by producing weird and unusual work (Wood). The cultural icon aspect is all the Wood has. CC has the quality of his work during his best period to stand behind.

[Ebonyleopard]

Funny you should write this now OP. I was just re-reading some of the old Claremont days X-Men (starting with Inferno) and you are right, you never really got the felling the X-men were secluded from the world in general in how he wrote. If it weren't random crowd comments where someone would say something about something else in the MU, there was always something either in exposition or cameo that still had the X-men feel like the outcast in the larger world not isolationist in a world they couldn't be bothered with. Frankly I'd take the original Avengers vs X-men with the trail of Magneto over what's currently going on anyday.

[Valeria Kementari]

Funny you should write this now OP. I was just re-reading some of the old Claremont days X-Men (starting with Inferno) and you are right, you never really got the felling the X-men were secluded from the world in general in how he wrote. If it weren't random crowd comments where someone would say something about something else in the MU, there was always something either in exposition or cameo that still had the X-men feel like the outcast in the larger world not isolationist in a world they couldn't be bothered with. Frankly I'd take the original Avengers vs X-men with the trail of Magneto over what's currently going on anyday.

FF vs X-Men was superior. It's totally one of my favorite limiteds of all times.

[Ebonyleopard]

I wonder if some of you really miss Claremont, or are just saying that out of misplaced nostalgia.

His last uninhibited X-Men work was X-Men Forever. That was literally him doing whatever he wanted with the X-Men.

That's the thing though it's him doing whatever the hell he wanted with the X-Men not something that would really matter or count. IT literally was a writer doodling in prose. You say X-Men Forever I say X-treme X-Men's first 3 stories. Fun stories with great characterizations (Characters that behaved and acted like characters) and I'm sorry, I sorta miss the internal monologue from characters in comics. For one, it made you actually feel like you were lieterally 'reading' a comic 'book' instead of just looking a pictures. It also helped with exposition but from the character's point of view of events that were going on, all the while gaining more insight into the character his/herself.

That's what I miss more than anything about Claremont's writing, the character moments. I Feel I knew more about who each X-Men were as individuals when he wrote than I do now. I couldn't tell you half the motives of what constitutes the current X-Men teams (Save for plan titled X-MEN in the current story, though the only character who's insight I truly understand is Storm's )

[fod_xp]

That's the thing though it's him doing whatever the hell he wanted with the X-Men not something that would really matter or count. IT literally was a writer doodling in prose. You say X-Men Forever I say X-treme X-Men's first 3 stories. Fun stories with great characterizations (Characters that behaved and acted like characters) and I'm sorry, I sorta miss the internal monologue from characters in comics. For one, it made you actually feel like you were lieterally 'reading' a comic 'book' instead of just looking a pictures. It also helped with exposition but from the character's point of view of events that were going on, all the while gaining more insight into the character his/herself.

That's what I miss more than anything about Claremont's writing, the character moments. I Feel I knew more about who each X-Men were as individuals when he wrote than I do now. I couldn't tell you half the motives of what constitutes the current X-Men teams (Save for plan titled X-MEN in the current story, though the only character who's insight I truly understand is Storm's )

Except that's the problem, I strongly dislike his canon 616 work, yet I relish reading his X-Men Forever work. I am not even joking about this. I'll even refer to X-Men Forever as X-Men Corrections solely in praise of Claremont's X-Men Forever volumes 1 & 2.

[Ebonyleopard]

Except that's the problem, I strongly dislike his canon 616 work, yet I relish reading his X-Men Forever work. I am not even joking about this. I'll even refer to X-Men Forever as X-Men Corrections solely in praise of Claremont's X-Men Forever volumes 1 & 2.

Wow, Ok, never though I'd see that coming.

But anyway, the thing I loved the most about Claramont's writing was his crowd sense. Man, the funny things he'd have people say, yet it gave you such a..almost first person perspective of being at an event when the X-Men were fighting someone. One of my favorite later scenes he did was when in the Outback, Dazzler (man his Dazzler was great) and Rogue (you know, the real southern belle) Got in a a spat because Rogue stole Dazzler's outfit and roller skates and was getting some time in with Longshot and their fight caused Rogue to be blasted into a private drawing session with (still British) Psylocke and Colossus.

I think he's like the last person to remember Colossus was an artist (because if that wasn't the cause we wouldn't have Colossus creating whales with crab legs....)

[fod_xp]

Wow, Ok, never though I'd see that coming.

But anyway, the thing I loved the most about Claramont's writing was his crowd sense. Man, the funny things he'd have people say, yet it gave you such a..almost first person perspective of being at an event when the X-Men were fighting someone. One of my favorite later scenes he did was when in the Outback, Dazzler (man his Dazzler was great) and Rogue (you know, the real southern belle) Got in a a spat because Rogue stole Dazzler's outfit and roller skates and was getting some time in with Longshot and their fight caused Rogue to be blasted into a private drawing session with (still British) Psylocke and Colossus.

I think he's like the last person to remember Colossus was an artist (because if that wasn't the cause we wouldn't have Colossus creating whales with crab legs....)

Just to blow your mind even more, my favorite X-Man is Henry McCoy, I still kept reading X-Men Corrections even after he died, and I actually had no problem with the way Claremont wrote him. I also adored the character of Daisy "Duke" Dugan. I could never remember her last name so I always called her Daisy Duke. I loved the fact she and Sabretooth had a thing going, and he kept telling her that hanging around him would lead to a violent end full of regrets, and she, being the completely lovable cheek she is, said she didn't care and she figured it was worth it. I think they were the best part of that entire series for me, personally.

[Darthfury78]

Claremont is always right.

Chris Claremont should have handled the MC2 version of the X-Men that would reflected their ages in real time until 2013 from their ages shown from 1980's Days of Futures Past with Wolverine and Kitty Pryde. Another thing that he should have done was integrate Mystique and her Freedom Force(aka The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants) into Spider-Man's world in connection with Destiny's prophesy.