Reading through 2021 13: Uncanny X-Men Omnibus 2, by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Dave Cockrum and many more

Uncanny X-Men Omnibus 2, by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Dave Cockrum and many more

c.1980, printed in 2020

I could write about ten different essays about this book, so I'm trying to boil it down to essential ideas and not just my nostalgia from reading and rereading these in the mid-80s.

Before X-Men was a movie, before it was a cartoon, before it was product line at Marvel, it was just a minor title with creative freedom. Chris Claremont was the writer of the book for 17 years as it became a juggernaut. Rereading these now, I learned a lot about his writing.

The first half of this is one of the most acclaimed Marvel stories ever, the Dark Phoenix Saga, written by Claremont, drawn by Byrne, and plotted by the both of them together. Byrne later used to joke that if Claremont was writing by himself, it would have just been conversations between characters. Byrne would have major creative differences with Claremont and abruptly leave the book to write and draw Fantastic Four, and if I compare those two books, there is a lot of crossover. Byrne is fun, but he's a "hard sci-fi" guy, he wants to pretend his space aliens have some basis in reality. His run of X-Men shows that.

Then he leaves the book, Dave Cockrum comes on as penciler, and man, the book gets ridiculous. Doctor Doom encases Storm in an organic metal shell and she subconsciously causes the biggest hurricane ever. Cyclops is in the Bermuda Triangle and ship wrecks on an island that just happens to be next to the ancient island Magneto raises from the sea floor to be his new base. The White Queen zaps Storm with a Personality Exchange Gun which swaps their bodies. In the Marvel Fanfare issues included, the Savage Land Mutates use a de-evolving ray to reverse the effects of evolution, turning Spider-Man into a giant spider. Claremont was dead serious about characterization, but at this point, his plots aren't so far off from when he had Wolverine tussle with leprechauns around issue 97.

But then, within this, he uses these ridiculous plots as places to hang incredible character beats. Probably the best is having Magneto take down a fourteen-year-old Kitty Pryde. Looking at her body, he realizes that he's completely lost his way and is becoming the kind of person he claimed to be fighting against. It's pulp storytelling, but Claremont goes on to develop the story for the next four years, as Magneto tries to become a better man and eventually takes over for Xavier. This is essentially what all the X-Men under Claremont did: They saw their own faults, and looked at the other members, even the ones they didn't like, and had respect for them, and used them to be better people. And when they didn't, the other members were there to encourage them to be their best. This isn't what was going on in other team books of the time.

This is a super hero comic ostensibly for kids. Look at that art!

My favorite story in the book exemplifies the amazing character work among the ridiculousness: a short story about Jean Grey's sister Sara remembering an adventure together with her. At Jean's grave, Sara Grey thinks about how much she misses Jean, and remembers when she learned Jean was a mutant. The two were having a day sailing, and Sara thinks about how she was then less comfortable around Jean having learned that Jean is a mutant. She worried that if Jean was a mutant, then possibly her kids could be mutants too. (this is a very clear "coming out" metaphor) Then their sailboat is attacked by Attuma of Atlantis, who brings them to his undersea kingdom and changes them to blue water breathers in order to be his new brides. Absolutely stupid story, and it wasn't a favorite of mine at the time. But then the final page, Sara talks to Jean's grave, and thinks about how different she feels now. She misses her sister, and realizes that she wouldn't care one bit if either of her children were mutants, she only hopes they can grow up to be half the people her sister was. It's such a potent, honest expression on how people can get divided from the people they love due to prejudice and hate, but at the end of the day, (hopefully) it's love and respect that will be the legacy of the relationship. Incredible emotion, well-told, in a story about Attuma using Atlantean technology to capture human brides.

A particularly touching letter

The book also includes letter pages, and they're very interesting, especially the ones written by people who take the book to heart. It really was trying to capture emotions that other books of the time had no interest in. For folks who felt like they couldn't be seen, this book gave them hope.

I enjoyed reading this so much. I still read some new X-Men comics, but after reading this, I'm well-aware of why I loved this group so much, and how much was lost when it simply became a franchise.