After more than eight years away from the small title which he
made into a mini empire over the course of about 17 years, Chris
Claremont, who made the X-Men the Marvel Comics cash-cow they are
today, returned to them. Starting with issue 125 of his own title,
Chris began writing Wolverine, a character who he may not have
created, but has done most of the work on creating the backstory
for, no matter how convoluted it may have become.
Fans, in general, have mixed feelings on Claremonts writing.
Hes very wordy, and often goes on and on, ad infinitum, in his
descriptions. He starts plotlines that go unresolved for years,
while introducing even more of the same. On the other hand, many
fans feel he is great at characterization, and often the pay-off
of his long stories is well worth the long wait. Towards the end
of his decade and a half run of Uncanny X-Men, his stories began
faltering severely for many. Some say its the best work of his
career. I rather like it myself, since it was when I first
started getting X-Men regularly.
When I heard he was returning to Wolverine, I was excited.
Wolverines stories have been poor since his adamantium was removed,
and have started improving, at long last, with issue 117. The art
was good, the stories were interesting, and well-written. With
Claremont, it could only get better. Right? Yes. And no.
Issue 125 hit the stands. The art was still done by the same
people, so that was great. Claremonts story was also very well
written. It detailed the villainess Vipers kidnappings, her mind
controlling of all the women that have meant anything to Wolverine,
and her plans to use the women against him. The youngest of these,
Kitty Pryde, and Jubilee escaped Vipers clutches, and saved
Wolverine. And with the aid of the Black Widow, freed the others,
and stopped Viper.
Then, as is typical of Claremont, a bombshell was dropped in the
final panel. Viper was Wolverines wife. This did not go over well
with the general fan community. How come this was never mentioned
before? How could Wolvie be married to one of the Marvel Universes
most dastardly villainess? What is Claremont smoking??
I liked the issue. Well written, and well drawn. Simple as that.
And I had faith that Chris wouldnt let the fans down, and all would be
explained.
Again, I wasnt disappointed.
The marriage was a pre-arranged thing, a promise that Wolverine
made to a dying friend. This made perfect sense. Wolvie has always
been a man of honor, he has always respected the wishes of his friends,
and kept the promises he made. Some fans still werent to pleased,
but I was.
And of course, Wolverines archnemesis, Sabertooth had to show up
and crash the wedding. Eventually, he proved himself victorious, or
so Wolvie thought. Sabes had played possum and began fighting back
again. It was revealed that now he had the adamantium skeleton and
claws, and proceeded to beat the crap out of Logan, eventually throwing
him off a cliff, and attacking Kitty Pryde.
Before I get into the bad stuff, Id like to take my hat off to
Lenil Francis Yu, the penciller of Wolverine, for the costume designs
in these two issues. The new outfits of the mind controlled women were
excellent, particularly Jean Greys, and in issue 126, the wedding gown
worn by Viper, and Kittys dress were also superb. Nice work!
Then came issue 127. Ugh. That sums it all up right there. It
totally crashed after what I felt were two excellent issues. Wolverine
was back in his old brown and orange costume, which I always missed, and
that was a nice touch. But in my opinion and in many others, he was back
in an old costume, but out of character. Two rivaling factions were
striving to take over the island nation of Madripoor, where the story
takes place, and he chose to take them down instead of trying to save
Kitty from the claws of Sabertooth.
And issue 128, the final part, and Claremonts last issue for now,
was worse. It hastily tied up the plotline, none too satisfactorily.
Also, the guest artist is one I do not care for too much, so the issue
just totally lost my interest.
This is typical of Claremont, though. His stories are often hit
and miss. Not just for me, but for nearly all the readers out there.
I would still love to see him come back to the X-Men, as a group, or
to a single character, at some point in the future. More often than
not, his stories are hit, and he knows these characters, almost
intimately, having written them for so long. Maybe that is also part
of the problem. At least, his issues will probably be better than the
upcoming issues by Todd DeZago, and new regular writer Erik Larsen.
Thats a whole nother column though, so until next month, keep your
X-Pectations low. You wont be disappointed.
