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X-Treme X-Men (2001) (Collected Editions)
X-Treme X-Men Vol. 1: Destiny
Collects X-Treme X-Men (2001) #1-9.
Forming an all-new team are the veterans Storm, Bishop, Psylocke, Thunderbird, Rogue and Beast. They are joined by new mutants including Sage. Together, they are charged with finding the mysterious Books of Destiny' journals on which the fate of the world rests.
Forming an all-new team are the veterans Storm, Bishop, Psylocke, Thunderbird, Rogue and Beast. They are joined by new mutants including Sage. Together, they are charged with finding the mysterious Books of Destiny' journals on which the fate of the world rests.
218 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2001
10 people are currently reading
174 people want to read
About the author
Chris Claremont
3,281 books894 followersChris Claremont is a writer of American comic books, best known for his 16-year (1975-1991) stint on Uncanny X-Men, during which the series became one of the comic book industry's most successful properties.
Claremont has written many stories for other publishers including the Star Trek Debt of Honor graphic novel, his creator-owned Sovereign Seven for DC Comics and Aliens vs Predator for Dark Horse Comics. He also wrote a few issues of the series WildC.A.T.s (volume 1, issues #10-13) at Image Comics, which introduced his creator-owned character, Huntsman.
Outside of comics, Claremont co-wrote the Chronicles of the Shadow War trilogy, Shadow Moon (1995), Shadow Dawn (1996), and Shadow Star (1999), with George Lucas. This trilogy continues the story of Elora Danan from the movie Willow. In the 1980s, he also wrote a science fiction trilogy about female starship pilot Nicole Shea, consisting of First Flight (1987), Grounded! (1991), and Sundowner (1994). Claremont was also a contributor to the Wild Cards anthology series.
Claremont has written many stories for other publishers including the Star Trek Debt of Honor graphic novel, his creator-owned Sovereign Seven for DC Comics and Aliens vs Predator for Dark Horse Comics. He also wrote a few issues of the series WildC.A.T.s (volume 1, issues #10-13) at Image Comics, which introduced his creator-owned character, Huntsman.
Outside of comics, Claremont co-wrote the Chronicles of the Shadow War trilogy, Shadow Moon (1995), Shadow Dawn (1996), and Shadow Star (1999), with George Lucas. This trilogy continues the story of Elora Danan from the movie Willow. In the 1980s, he also wrote a science fiction trilogy about female starship pilot Nicole Shea, consisting of First Flight (1987), Grounded! (1991), and Sundowner (1994). Claremont was also a contributor to the Wild Cards anthology series.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
June 26, 2009
Ah yes, when they wanted to shake all the X-Men books up in 2001, Claremont could still sell books if not write them. So they took him off the major titles and created a new one with a terrible name so he could go off and play on his own. This would come to be a common treatment of Claremont in this decade.
I should say, this book is more boring then terrible for me. Especially when you see what Morrison is doing at the same time over on New X-Men. It seems a common malady of the comic book writer to outwrite his relevancy. So while New X-Men was finally moving X-Men forward, X-Treme (I hate to even type that) was wallowing around. He brings in a mysterious post-mutant species which feels exactly like the Neo from his recent Uncanny and Adjectiveless run, he introduces a mutant lifeguard named... Lifeguard, and her surfer brother who's powers are he surfs around on his board... Yeah, think about that one for a while.
Probably the most interesting aspect/character is Sage formerly Tessa of the Hellfire Club as she is the biggest question of the group. But her powers are annoyingly ambiguous and wide reaching. If you are a Rogue fan, she is perhaps the main character of the series, but Claremont's not doing anything new with her thus far.
The art is Salvador Larroca (I believe he inks as well which shall come up below [heh:]) and Liquid on color. Some people love the way this series looks. I do not. It isn't painful, but it is a little frustrating. The inker does this thing where the shadows look like rough pencil shading. This flattens and softens the whole image which feels very juxtaposed against the coloring. In fact the coloring kinda takes over the images, which the coloring is certainly a distinct look, but to lose the images is not worth the price. The whole pencil shading may fly with a more stylized artist, but Larroca is a pretty straightforward Carl Pacheco wannabe with over glorified body models.
Oh well.
I should say, this book is more boring then terrible for me. Especially when you see what Morrison is doing at the same time over on New X-Men. It seems a common malady of the comic book writer to outwrite his relevancy. So while New X-Men was finally moving X-Men forward, X-Treme (I hate to even type that) was wallowing around. He brings in a mysterious post-mutant species which feels exactly like the Neo from his recent Uncanny and Adjectiveless run, he introduces a mutant lifeguard named... Lifeguard, and her surfer brother who's powers are he surfs around on his board... Yeah, think about that one for a while.
Probably the most interesting aspect/character is Sage formerly Tessa of the Hellfire Club as she is the biggest question of the group. But her powers are annoyingly ambiguous and wide reaching. If you are a Rogue fan, she is perhaps the main character of the series, but Claremont's not doing anything new with her thus far.
The art is Salvador Larroca (I believe he inks as well which shall come up below [heh:]) and Liquid on color. Some people love the way this series looks. I do not. It isn't painful, but it is a little frustrating. The inker does this thing where the shadows look like rough pencil shading. This flattens and softens the whole image which feels very juxtaposed against the coloring. In fact the coloring kinda takes over the images, which the coloring is certainly a distinct look, but to lose the images is not worth the price. The whole pencil shading may fly with a more stylized artist, but Larroca is a pretty straightforward Carl Pacheco wannabe with over glorified body models.
Oh well.
August 19, 2016
Claremont starts out the unfortunately named X-Treme X-Men with a typical Claremontian bang: a mysterious new villain with mega powers, a giant-sized MacGuffin plot hook, some random new romantic entanglements, and a lot of angst about why this team is off on their own doing basically nothing instead of upending the status quo over in New X-Men. This first 9-issue arc wraps up the initial couple plot threads and sets the series on a reasonable foundation, and avoids a lot of the '90s tropes that made characters like Storm, Gambit and Bishop so boring, but there are hints of problems to come. For a writer who is normally so scrupulous about his characters' powers, Sage gets to do basically whatever she wants, which ruins the tension in a couple scenes. The new red and blue color scheme has not aged well, and Larocca's art has a lot of sexy poses for no particular reason, which since this is a Claremont book means over half the team.
February 24, 2013
Chris Claremont and X-Men are a writer and franchise with the same relationship as George Lucas and Star Wars. While both have been praised for their work in on the franchise in the past and are recognised for bringing something truly into the public light they are also known for less than stellar later involvements. Both introducing unpopular ideas or for much more visible flaws in their writing styles as time went on.
Thankfully X-Treme X-Men, despite the title, is by no means any Phantom Menace. Unfortunately neither is it up to par with something like Days of Future Past.
Set at about the time Grant Morrison was writing Charles Xavier’s evil psychic ying-yang demon twin into existence (don’t ask), this comic was running and following up on a plot recently introduced into the universe: The diaries of Destiny. Tomes which recorded the future for the Marvel universe and specifically and X-Men. Realising both the danger they pose and the problems which might arise from remaining at Xavier’s mansion, many core members of the X-Men split off to hunt down the diaries and prevent them falling into the wrong hands.
This more or less gets derailed very quickly but not quite for the reasons you’d think. Attacked and captured by an anti-mutant police force with only Rogue evading her pursuers, the team is put into a trial by fire in a desperate attempt to escape capture. Yet they quickly begin to realise that there is another foe, a far worse figure, they have yet to face.
Perhaps the comic’s biggest detriment and biggest strength is Claremont still writes as he did back in the 80s. The writing here is in his traditional style and stands out quite clearly from authors like Grant Morrison or Joss Whedon even if it doesn’t involve quite so many walls of text. It can come across as charming but less realistic than you might expect or off-putting in its more direct methods of detailing information to the audience.
So why am I also calling this its biggest strength? It’s still written like it’s from the era of when heroes actually were allowed to act as heroes in Marvel. None of the team are openly spiteful for no reason, written out of character, clearly on the verge of shooting one another in the back; instead they’re genuinely good rather than extremely ambiguous and actually feel like a superhero team. They’re people you want to see win and any internal conflict is being done for a reason not just the sake of conflict or to make the fictional universe that bit more depressing to read.
Furthermore while the start of the story is action packed it has enough twists and turns to keep you interested. As the X-Men’s enemies adapt to their powers and seem to be testing them, they are similarly having to work around them and there’s the added bonus of Rogue still being on the loose. It’s only done long enough to establish the characters for that bit more than they already are and then is pulled back to more conservative levels once the last minute surprise has taken place. Something which definitely helps to make it enjoyable rather than a slog to read through alongside Salvador Larroca’s art, which aside from some odd inking looks and cheesecake covers is some of the best about.
It’s unfortunate that once the action does stop, the plot starts to lose steam as well. There’s a clear preference towards ‘down-time’ issues which turn up frequently where no action seems to be taking place and the plot isn’t being followed up upon. While this might be good once in a while to break up intensity several seem to take up the middle part of the book and it’s only side-stories which really keep following up on the action such as Bioshop’s investigations into a murder. Rather than being front and centre as they should have been, each seems to take up equal amounts of space within some issues creating breaks in the action. That being said Claremont does still show his skill in keeping track of the characters when they do separate to follow their own storylines, managing to tie them together surprisingly well and have them keep linking together when needed. When they are all involved in action it allows for each to stand out and have their moments in the spotlight rather than just being pushed to one side or ignored. Even when the quality of said stories varies heavily.
If there is one thing which really killed the comic however, it’s the new characters. While the previously introduced Thunderbird is fine in of himself and has enough plot to keep him going, later mutants and the series’ main enemy leave little impression and don’t have the distinctive personalities to really stand out. It leaves you wanting a lot more from them when so little of them is actually explained or really defined enough for them to be meaningful.
While the first volume of X-Treme X-Men is something i’d hesitate to call bad, in terms of story it’s not that good. You’ll probably forget about it not long after reading and there really isn’t that much here which you couldn’t find being done better elsewhere either in past collections or by other writers. The only reason it might be worth recommending is for context and the introduction of characters who would be involved in the much better second volume but otherwise give this one a miss.
Thankfully X-Treme X-Men, despite the title, is by no means any Phantom Menace. Unfortunately neither is it up to par with something like Days of Future Past.
Set at about the time Grant Morrison was writing Charles Xavier’s evil psychic ying-yang demon twin into existence (don’t ask), this comic was running and following up on a plot recently introduced into the universe: The diaries of Destiny. Tomes which recorded the future for the Marvel universe and specifically and X-Men. Realising both the danger they pose and the problems which might arise from remaining at Xavier’s mansion, many core members of the X-Men split off to hunt down the diaries and prevent them falling into the wrong hands.
This more or less gets derailed very quickly but not quite for the reasons you’d think. Attacked and captured by an anti-mutant police force with only Rogue evading her pursuers, the team is put into a trial by fire in a desperate attempt to escape capture. Yet they quickly begin to realise that there is another foe, a far worse figure, they have yet to face.
Perhaps the comic’s biggest detriment and biggest strength is Claremont still writes as he did back in the 80s. The writing here is in his traditional style and stands out quite clearly from authors like Grant Morrison or Joss Whedon even if it doesn’t involve quite so many walls of text. It can come across as charming but less realistic than you might expect or off-putting in its more direct methods of detailing information to the audience.
So why am I also calling this its biggest strength? It’s still written like it’s from the era of when heroes actually were allowed to act as heroes in Marvel. None of the team are openly spiteful for no reason, written out of character, clearly on the verge of shooting one another in the back; instead they’re genuinely good rather than extremely ambiguous and actually feel like a superhero team. They’re people you want to see win and any internal conflict is being done for a reason not just the sake of conflict or to make the fictional universe that bit more depressing to read.
Furthermore while the start of the story is action packed it has enough twists and turns to keep you interested. As the X-Men’s enemies adapt to their powers and seem to be testing them, they are similarly having to work around them and there’s the added bonus of Rogue still being on the loose. It’s only done long enough to establish the characters for that bit more than they already are and then is pulled back to more conservative levels once the last minute surprise has taken place. Something which definitely helps to make it enjoyable rather than a slog to read through alongside Salvador Larroca’s art, which aside from some odd inking looks and cheesecake covers is some of the best about.
It’s unfortunate that once the action does stop, the plot starts to lose steam as well. There’s a clear preference towards ‘down-time’ issues which turn up frequently where no action seems to be taking place and the plot isn’t being followed up upon. While this might be good once in a while to break up intensity several seem to take up the middle part of the book and it’s only side-stories which really keep following up on the action such as Bioshop’s investigations into a murder. Rather than being front and centre as they should have been, each seems to take up equal amounts of space within some issues creating breaks in the action. That being said Claremont does still show his skill in keeping track of the characters when they do separate to follow their own storylines, managing to tie them together surprisingly well and have them keep linking together when needed. When they are all involved in action it allows for each to stand out and have their moments in the spotlight rather than just being pushed to one side or ignored. Even when the quality of said stories varies heavily.
If there is one thing which really killed the comic however, it’s the new characters. While the previously introduced Thunderbird is fine in of himself and has enough plot to keep him going, later mutants and the series’ main enemy leave little impression and don’t have the distinctive personalities to really stand out. It leaves you wanting a lot more from them when so little of them is actually explained or really defined enough for them to be meaningful.
While the first volume of X-Treme X-Men is something i’d hesitate to call bad, in terms of story it’s not that good. You’ll probably forget about it not long after reading and there really isn’t that much here which you couldn’t find being done better elsewhere either in past collections or by other writers. The only reason it might be worth recommending is for context and the introduction of characters who would be involved in the much better second volume but otherwise give this one a miss.
August 29, 2018
Nice artwork and some refreshing approaches in some ways. Overall not amazing storylines but the art is really quite good and interesting. Very light inking gives a different look than I've seen before in X-Men.
August 31, 2022
Well, that was x-tremely dull.
February 14, 2022
Some flashes of the old magic but the art is not great and the experience overall neither good nor bad.
July 23, 2021
A new era opens with a brand new title, the X-Treme X-Men. Marvel wanted to move the X-Men in a new direction without losing the legendary Chris Claremont, so they give him his own book which opens up the core X-Men titles for Grant Morrison and Joe Casey.
A small team of X-Men leaves their friends and families in search of Destiny's prophetic diaries. Afraid that even Xavier would succumb to the temptation of changing the future, Beast, Bishop, Rogue, Psylocke, Sage, Storm, and Thunderbird set out in complete secrecy severing all ties with their former teammates. They quickly learn, however, that they are not the only ones on the hunt. A dangerous new threat, Vargas, confronts the team in Valencia with deadly consequences. This portion of the run includes some significant changes for Psylocke and Beast as well as a little character development of Sage (originally the Hellfire's Tessa) and Bishop.
The second part of this collection sees the team take time away from their quest when the top Australian crimelord is killed. The lead suspect is none other than Gambit.
There are some elements that don't make much sense. For example, the team rushing off to save the crimelords children who know nothing about their father or his business, yet they are in danger because they could take over his business? There are several characters that just seem unoriginal and so uninteresting that it is obvious we will never see them outside this title (Lifeguard and Red Lotus).
One issue was part of the "Nuff Said" event. It was a month in which every issue sold contained zero dialogue, thought bubbles, or narration blocks. For me, these stories were very difficult to follow. I had to interpret pictures, and I was wrong more often than not.
All in all, however, it was still a good read that included a decent mystery with a classic X-Men villain. I enjoyed seeing Bishop assume the role of detective, and I am glad Chris Claremont answered the open question about the impact of Sage's sudden departure from Sebastian Shaw and the Hellfire Club. I also liked Lady Mastermind's first appearance. She is more ruthless and less of a sniveling sycophant than her father (but just as much a follower).
The premise works here. The separation from the flagship titles allows Chris Claremont to tell more traditional comic book stories without disrupting the events unfolding in Uncanny X-Men and New X-Men. Salvador Larroca's artwork is beautiful, and he gets the opportunity to draw from his Spanish homeland.
It isn't the original X-Men stories, and it isn't part of the new movement. It is a comfort read with familiar characters in uninteresting situations. I don't think this Chris Claremont's best work, but in my eyes, it redeems his X-Men: Revolution. Salvador Larroca's beautiful art always helps.
A small team of X-Men leaves their friends and families in search of Destiny's prophetic diaries. Afraid that even Xavier would succumb to the temptation of changing the future, Beast, Bishop, Rogue, Psylocke, Sage, Storm, and Thunderbird set out in complete secrecy severing all ties with their former teammates. They quickly learn, however, that they are not the only ones on the hunt. A dangerous new threat, Vargas, confronts the team in Valencia with deadly consequences. This portion of the run includes some significant changes for Psylocke and Beast as well as a little character development of Sage (originally the Hellfire's Tessa) and Bishop.
The second part of this collection sees the team take time away from their quest when the top Australian crimelord is killed. The lead suspect is none other than Gambit.
There are some elements that don't make much sense. For example, the team rushing off to save the crimelords children who know nothing about their father or his business, yet they are in danger because they could take over his business? There are several characters that just seem unoriginal and so uninteresting that it is obvious we will never see them outside this title (Lifeguard and Red Lotus).
One issue was part of the "Nuff Said" event. It was a month in which every issue sold contained zero dialogue, thought bubbles, or narration blocks. For me, these stories were very difficult to follow. I had to interpret pictures, and I was wrong more often than not.
All in all, however, it was still a good read that included a decent mystery with a classic X-Men villain. I enjoyed seeing Bishop assume the role of detective, and I am glad Chris Claremont answered the open question about the impact of Sage's sudden departure from Sebastian Shaw and the Hellfire Club. I also liked Lady Mastermind's first appearance. She is more ruthless and less of a sniveling sycophant than her father (but just as much a follower).
The premise works here. The separation from the flagship titles allows Chris Claremont to tell more traditional comic book stories without disrupting the events unfolding in Uncanny X-Men and New X-Men. Salvador Larroca's artwork is beautiful, and he gets the opportunity to draw from his Spanish homeland.
It isn't the original X-Men stories, and it isn't part of the new movement. It is a comfort read with familiar characters in uninteresting situations. I don't think this Chris Claremont's best work, but in my eyes, it redeems his X-Men: Revolution. Salvador Larroca's beautiful art always helps.
June 24, 2018
Chris Claremont's initial X-Men run was perhaps my favorite in all Marvel canon, the peak of that continuity with so much creativity and gripping story flowing through it. So it's kind of sad to see him relegated to such mediocrity as this. The artwork in this makes it almost unreadable, a total eyesore, glossy and uneven. it's almost as if it were trying to be something it wasn't ready for yet. Once in a while you get a pretty panel, usually involving Storm, but that makes the rest so inconsistent. Bad faces for the most part, weird proportions all over. As for the story itself...walls of text that simply aren't all that compelling in having me flip pages, you won't fully get it by just picking it up if you haven't read whatever led up to it (and I don't think I have). Some of the background stuff here, like Irene Adler and Mystique being detectives, is stupid. I never cared once through this volume about any of the characters. The title is also a little lame, there's nothing 'Xtreme' about this book even if I were accepting of it.
I've read worse, but this was pretty disappointing, there are so few Marvel runs printed these last 25 years which I have enjoyed, and this is clearly not one of them. The talent involved is far, far better than the book, or at least it was at one point.
I've read worse, but this was pretty disappointing, there are so few Marvel runs printed these last 25 years which I have enjoyed, and this is clearly not one of them. The talent involved is far, far better than the book, or at least it was at one point.
February 14, 2023
Destiny (#1-9). Following on from X-Men: Revolution by Chris Claremont Omnibus, we get a much better story. I mean, that's not saying much, but whereas in Revolution Claremont was constantly introducing new plot elements that no one cared about, here he at least returns to some old tropes, with the hunt for the Books of Destiny and the concerns over Xavier both lending a good foundation to the story.
Mind you, from there we get yet another cipher-villain in Vargas, and a pretty crappy fridging to set him up as a big bad, and then a very muddy murder story in Australia that could have been good but wasn't and two ridiculous new X-Men in Lifeguard and Slipstream (the latter not actually a mutant yet), who only gain some depth when Claremont offers them interesting parentage in the next volume, so it's not all gold stars [3/5].
Mind you, from there we get yet another cipher-villain in Vargas, and a pretty crappy fridging to set him up as a big bad, and then a very muddy murder story in Australia that could have been good but wasn't and two ridiculous new X-Men in Lifeguard and Slipstream (the latter not actually a mutant yet), who only gain some depth when Claremont offers them interesting parentage in the next volume, so it's not all gold stars [3/5].
May 8, 2017
Kind of a narrative mess that is fun to read for the most part.
Characterization seems spot-on for the most part and then just off at points - almost like a different writer took over for a single issue (though that is not the case). One character is written off in a particularly poor way and another sort of disappears. A couple of mutants in the story seem to have powers that basically allow them to do whatever is necessitated by the plot at the time. Flashbacks abound and sometimes it is difficult to tell what the timejumps are trying to accomplish. Plotlines that are set up as extremely important just disappear...
I want to say that it is atrocious. But I've read worse (and recently) X-men comics. I hope this series picks up, though...
Characterization seems spot-on for the most part and then just off at points - almost like a different writer took over for a single issue (though that is not the case). One character is written off in a particularly poor way and another sort of disappears. A couple of mutants in the story seem to have powers that basically allow them to do whatever is necessitated by the plot at the time. Flashbacks abound and sometimes it is difficult to tell what the timejumps are trying to accomplish. Plotlines that are set up as extremely important just disappear...
I want to say that it is atrocious. But I've read worse (and recently) X-men comics. I hope this series picks up, though...
September 16, 2020
This is kinda dated, not terrible, but that whole thought bubble thing where they're describing what they're doing, really seems kinda cheesy nowadays. Also the fact that the mutant girl who doesn't really think of herself as a superhero calls herself "Lifeguard" and she's actually a lifeguard in real life it's bad.
When I bought this I actually thought I was buying the newer "X-Treme X-men" series, but I have 3 or 4 graphic novels from this series so I'll probably keep reading, just not super excited about it.
When I bought this I actually thought I was buying the newer "X-Treme X-men" series, but I have 3 or 4 graphic novels from this series so I'll probably keep reading, just not super excited about it.
December 4, 2022
A little wordy for my taste, but a decent story and nice art. I read some X-treme X-Men back in the day in single issues, but it was kind of in the middle of the run, so it's nice to go back to the beginning. Claremont is old school in his technique, and that makes the dialogue and narration a little archaic for 2001 audiences, and even more so today. He may have lost his fastball at this point, but he could still construct an interesting story if you have the patience for it. Definitely not for everyone, though.
November 1, 2023
Claremont’s first stint with the X-men books is one of the best runs by a comic author. X-treme X-men is a mess from poor pacing and recycled versions of previous characters. Vargas reminds me of the Neo and the return of Sebastian Shaw is a disappointment compared to how Claremont used him before. Psylocke continues to decline as a character. Thunderbird is a terrible character. I’m not sure I can put the blame on Claremont because the feel and style of the book is too similar to the other concurrent X-men books.
August 11, 2019
I like Claremont’s writing. Sage becomes more important. A brief appearance of Brian Braddock and Meggan (though not in hero form). It is strange that the storyline shifts so abruptly from Vargas to Australian mobs. There is a reason for it, but it is distracting. I guess they needed Lifeguard. Overall, it is a decent enough collection, slow at some points.
November 29, 2021
The coloring on the first half is some of the worst I've ever seen. Early 2000s digital blasphemy, like watching a soap opera through a dirty window. This came out a decade after Claremont left the X-Men, but it reads like a relic from the past. I enjoyed it in spite of all this. Not sure what that says about me.
April 2, 2022
If everything you think is bad would be a comic, it would be this. Claremont was good with his stories, although at that point there was already way too much talking, but why drag a guy out of his retirement and make him try to recreate old magic? Week old pizza ain't good after reheating.
Some ok art, but that was clouded with endless talking.
Some ok art, but that was clouded with endless talking.
February 11, 2019
Worst in the world. Forever.
January 22, 2025
I admire Claremont for his reimagining of Sage and his deep simp for Storm. Most of his swings miss for me. Larroca’s pencils never disappoint.
July 20, 2025
The art is fabulous, the story feels all over the place. A fun time nonetheless to read.
June 15, 2025
2025 Update:
I had to drop this down to one-star. It's really depressing to see how much Claremont's skills had deteriorated even twenty-five years ago. Rereading his 80s work last year gave me a better understanding of why people connected with his work. He had solut, well-thought out ideas that were so intriguing that you could really give a pass to his trite dialogue and tendency to over-describe things. I hoped that I would have a similar response to his X-Treme work during this reread but I'm afraid I had the opposite reaction.
The concept of this title: That a splinter group of X-Men are out to find Destiny's diaries to try and prevent some of the massive tragedies they've experienced is really cool. Unfortunately, whether it was through bad editorial or poor planning, there are no other good ideas in this book. Claremont tries to stretch out into a bunch of different subgenres over the course of the book, and he fails at all of them.
The dialogue is wooden but the kind of wooden that's been chewed to dust by termites. You could easily convince me that the writer of this book had never spoken to another human being but had, instead, watched a lot of television.
He also jumps around in time to try and explain some background stories but he gets lost in his own timeshifts and creates not just plotholes but plotgalaxies. Yes, it's easy to flip back a page and figure out what he was trying to do and what he's trying to say but it's not a reader's job to fix a badly written story.
There's no reason to read this. I was wrong to say that long-time Claremont fans might enjoy this. I think it would make them truly sad to see a favorite writer lose all sense of their own skills. It depressed me.
************************
Original 2018 Review:
If you wish Chris Claremont would have just written the X-Men forever, then this book is For You. Excruciatingly detailed narration that overexplains things that you can see in the art. (For example, someone is driving, and he feels the need to inform you that the character is driving a car, and stops just short of telling you that a car is a machine with four wheels and an engine. He does, however, use three adjectives and an adverb to describe how the person drives.) Heavy, heavy reliance on minutae from his original run on the book, character deaths that are immediately revealed to be fake, and characters constantly losing their temper and acting irrational towards their best friends of many years.
It's mostly tiresome. He introduces a villain who is immediately The Most Powerful Villain They've Ever Faced, while also seeding in villains from his 80s run. He introduces new characters with dated and stupid powers (a mutant with the power of surfing) with no sense of irony or acknowledgement that it's silly.
The premise of the series: Rogue leading a team of X-Men to investigate Destiny's diaries (again, a staple of his 80s run) is intriguing enough to give this a second star, despite it being written poorly, and having the colorists soften the pencils and inks so much that Larocca's art looks like a cheap 70s cartoon filmed with a vaseline lense.
I remember finding this book more interesting when it was coming out in issue format, but I think that was mostly because I assumed the story was going to go somewhere, and I now know better.
Claremont does allow for some quasi-interesting developments to place this in the Morrison run, as we see how Beast transforms from his previous form to the feline Beast we meet in New X-Men, and Jean makes an appearance on the astral plane showing Storm what they're dealing with in the more interesting title.
I can only really recommend it for diehard fans of Claremont and X-Men completists.
I had to drop this down to one-star. It's really depressing to see how much Claremont's skills had deteriorated even twenty-five years ago. Rereading his 80s work last year gave me a better understanding of why people connected with his work. He had solut, well-thought out ideas that were so intriguing that you could really give a pass to his trite dialogue and tendency to over-describe things. I hoped that I would have a similar response to his X-Treme work during this reread but I'm afraid I had the opposite reaction.
The concept of this title: That a splinter group of X-Men are out to find Destiny's diaries to try and prevent some of the massive tragedies they've experienced is really cool. Unfortunately, whether it was through bad editorial or poor planning, there are no other good ideas in this book. Claremont tries to stretch out into a bunch of different subgenres over the course of the book, and he fails at all of them.
The dialogue is wooden but the kind of wooden that's been chewed to dust by termites. You could easily convince me that the writer of this book had never spoken to another human being but had, instead, watched a lot of television.
He also jumps around in time to try and explain some background stories but he gets lost in his own timeshifts and creates not just plotholes but plotgalaxies. Yes, it's easy to flip back a page and figure out what he was trying to do and what he's trying to say but it's not a reader's job to fix a badly written story.
There's no reason to read this. I was wrong to say that long-time Claremont fans might enjoy this. I think it would make them truly sad to see a favorite writer lose all sense of their own skills. It depressed me.
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Original 2018 Review:
If you wish Chris Claremont would have just written the X-Men forever, then this book is For You. Excruciatingly detailed narration that overexplains things that you can see in the art. (For example, someone is driving, and he feels the need to inform you that the character is driving a car, and stops just short of telling you that a car is a machine with four wheels and an engine. He does, however, use three adjectives and an adverb to describe how the person drives.) Heavy, heavy reliance on minutae from his original run on the book, character deaths that are immediately revealed to be fake, and characters constantly losing their temper and acting irrational towards their best friends of many years.
It's mostly tiresome. He introduces a villain who is immediately The Most Powerful Villain They've Ever Faced, while also seeding in villains from his 80s run. He introduces new characters with dated and stupid powers (a mutant with the power of surfing) with no sense of irony or acknowledgement that it's silly.
The premise of the series: Rogue leading a team of X-Men to investigate Destiny's diaries (again, a staple of his 80s run) is intriguing enough to give this a second star, despite it being written poorly, and having the colorists soften the pencils and inks so much that Larocca's art looks like a cheap 70s cartoon filmed with a vaseline lense.
I remember finding this book more interesting when it was coming out in issue format, but I think that was mostly because I assumed the story was going to go somewhere, and I now know better.
Claremont does allow for some quasi-interesting developments to place this in the Morrison run, as we see how Beast transforms from his previous form to the feline Beast we meet in New X-Men, and Jean makes an appearance on the astral plane showing Storm what they're dealing with in the more interesting title.
I can only really recommend it for diehard fans of Claremont and X-Men completists.
December 27, 2022
I was so excited, even though it was years after the first run, to read Claremont's return to X-MEN. The fact that he was getting to create his own team and add some new characters was also exciting. The series (1-9) started off swift and very Claremont. Lots of action and dialogue. Around issue 4 it started to stray and what should have been a great first run arc..turned into an ok arc. At times the art was bearable at times just less. Claremont will always be the greatest writer to ever write for marvel, even if this was birdie instead of a hole in one.
May 21, 2014
I read (and bought - d'oh!) this book mostly for Psylocke's death. What a rip-off! She dies all too quickly in a fight with a nobody (Vargas! Mwahaha), all in the space of a page or two, and then it's off to her funeral. Damn. One of my favourite mutants, too!
The 'Books of Destiny' story line went nowhere fast, as if Claremont himself forgot about it. Also, like another reviewer mentioned, the two new mutants are oh-so-lame. I'm indifferent to Storm, don't care about Bishop, Sage, or even Rogue. And there's that mutant whose name escapes me (Wikipedia tells me it's 'Thunderbird II'). And then there's only Beast (Hank McCoy) left with any kind of appeal to me, but that wasn't enough to save this book for me.
Art wise? Good work by Larroca. Vibrantly coloured, yes, but it's like you can still see Larroca's pencils underneath. What's up with that?
Plot wise? Claremont would've done well to keep his story focused instead of introducing too many elements and then losing the thread. Maybe then this series could've been taken seriously. But between this series, Chuck Austen's Uncanny X-Men [snicker] and Grant Morrison's New X-Men, which do you think has more appeal? Yeah, that's what I thought.
The 'Books of Destiny' story line went nowhere fast, as if Claremont himself forgot about it. Also, like another reviewer mentioned, the two new mutants are oh-so-lame. I'm indifferent to Storm, don't care about Bishop, Sage, or even Rogue. And there's that mutant whose name escapes me (Wikipedia tells me it's 'Thunderbird II'). And then there's only Beast (Hank McCoy) left with any kind of appeal to me, but that wasn't enough to save this book for me.
Art wise? Good work by Larroca. Vibrantly coloured, yes, but it's like you can still see Larroca's pencils underneath. What's up with that?
Plot wise? Claremont would've done well to keep his story focused instead of introducing too many elements and then losing the thread. Maybe then this series could've been taken seriously. But between this series, Chuck Austen's Uncanny X-Men [snicker] and Grant Morrison's New X-Men, which do you think has more appeal? Yeah, that's what I thought.
November 28, 2015
Chris Claremont had attempted a return to the X-Men titles following "The Twelve" storyline, but I didn't find those stories to be all that entertaining. This first arc of X-Treme X-Men, however, was MUCH more enjoyable, and a refreshing reminder of some of Claremont's more successful previous endeavors with the X-Men characters. The cast is pretty engaging, especially with Storm and Rogue at the forefront of the events that occur. Sage is also a breakout star, at least for me, in this arc. The newly introduced villain, Vargas, is an interesting one, and very enigmatic. The only unfortunate elements to this story were the removal of two cast members -- one to hop over to Grant Morrison's New X-Men, and the other... well... let's just say that it was a sad twist, and this book suffered for the losses in the storylines that followed.
July 9, 2009
Some decent, but not outstanding Claremont X-Men. He handles Gambit and Bishop well here, though the Bishop as detective idea is underdeveloped. His Rogue gets on my nerves. And this Storm doesn't seem like the Claremont Storm of old. The new characters are annoying (Thunderbird, Lifeguard, etc.) and I don't get Sage. But Larocca's art is nice to look it most of the time (when the panels aren't too stuffed full).
September 3, 2012
Not a bad start to a series. Storm has collected some Xmen to go off in search of Destiny's diaries that foretell the future. On the way an anti-mutant police force attacks them, and a very strange powerful man kills one of their own. This is a shock, and well done. There's some nice character stuff with Rogue and Gambit. A good read, if a little too wordy at times.
February 5, 2015
The first third or so of this book is a real chore to read. There's more dialogue and expository text than actual actions and interactions. However, once it starts going, it's pretty good.
My favorite thing reading this books is the close and affectionate ties these X-men have to each other. It's nice to see that be a part of everything.
My favorite thing reading this books is the close and affectionate ties these X-men have to each other. It's nice to see that be a part of everything.
March 19, 2015
Say what you will about the different X-factions and spin-offs, the X-Treme X-Men has been one of the best yet! Led by Storm, this odd grouping (Kitty, Rogue, Remy, Tess, Bishop, and more) have their fair share of challenges, both internally and externally. It leaves you wondering if they'll pull it off in each arc.
July 26, 2011
Lovely art, and a pretty decent story. Much of the usual mutant angst. :)
February 7, 2014
I really enjoy this story and art; to me it hearkens back to the early days of the X-men.
June 7, 2016
awesome. go LIFEGUARD!!!!
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