The Best There is at What He Does: Examining Chris Claremont's X-Men

by Jason Powell

The X-Men franchise is a sprawling comic-book mythology, to which hundreds of creators have contributed material over the past 50 years. The period from 1975 to 1991 is special, however, as the X-Men universe was guided by the voice of one writer, who wrote every single issue of The Uncanny X-Men during that span. His name is Chris Claremont, and he made the X-Men what it is today.

The Best There is at What He Does is an appreciation of the long-term narrative Claremont lovingly crafted month after month, over the course of nearly 17 years. Proceeding chronologically through the issues, this exhaustive overview analyzes the trends, arcs, and themes that emerge over the course of his landmark comics opus.

From Sequart Organization. More info at http://sequart.org

Genres: Nonfiction, Comics, X Men

297 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 4, 2016

Reviews

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Claremont's X-Men were a huge influence on my young life. This was an insightful walk down nostalgia lane that also opened my eyes to a few things my younger self missed along the way before. Had to opportunity to fangirl over the X-Men with the author -- Check out my interview here

[Downward · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is essentially as academic paper that goes through chris claremont's 17 year run on uncanny x-men and dissects it issue by issue, picking apart specific themes and characters. it shines various literary lights on the comics, notably feminism: in a time where male characters dominated the pages, claremont offered female characters with depth and rich interior lives, eschewing their traditional roles as plot points and victims and becoming avatars of real world feminine power. its interesting to see comics viewed in such a significant academic light, and claremont in a unique person to focus on, since his uninterrupted run is the longest singular voice in mainstream superhero comics, and over the course of 1975-1991 you can watch him evolve and take risks and repeat himself and flesh out sketches that he had left behind years ago. this book was a pleasure to read, and if you're a comics fan you should have at it.

[Jameson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This feels like a summary of the blog. Which is what I expected and why I’ve given it a miss for so long. For one, from the get-go it’s inferior to the blog since there aren’t any comments. I don’t know how Powell would have worked them in exactly but facts are facts: oftentimes the comments outshone the blog posts. So what’s all new and all different? A recap of Klock’s Clairmont (sic, natch) history (I love Klock’s candor—and his name—but he kind of discredits his entire book.) And a less issue-detailed approach. Otherwise, you’re better off just reading the blog. Oddly, the book is crippled by occasional bits that seem intent on what I can only assume is some kind of virtue-signaling rather than making proper sense:

“As flirted with occasionally in the earliest issues and then reintroduced by Adams and Thomas toward the end of the ’60s, one of the X‑Men’s themes was prejudice, the “mutants” (such as they were) being a kind of all-purpose collective stand-in for any and all disenfranchised minorities. The metaphor was and is problematic for a number of reasons – e.g., most of the X‑Men are white and privileged – which is why the Sentinels turn out to be, as Adams puts it, “such a solid concept.”

This is a paragraph working overtime and double time both to completely miss the big, shiny point, and to gain what exactly? The opportunity to use the word problematic? To vaguely finger-wag and hand-wave away a stupid objection to the realities of a metaphor… yadda, yadda, yadda… like, no duh. Powell isn’t stupid, so maybe he’s one of those people that lost their minds in 2016. It reads like Powell is trying really hard to avoid stepping a land mine that’s not even there if you spend even a tick thinking about it. Alas, fans of the word “problematic” can rejoice, though, Powell uses the term at least half a dozen times.

Overall, skippable unless you have no intention of reading the blog (which is still online but as ever it’s a pain to navigate from post to post.)

[Jim Geraghty · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I get older and make my own efforts at writing fiction, I look back on the stories that amazed me when I was younger and wonder just why they were so darn captivating. Back in the late 80s/early 1990s, what was happening each month in the Uncanny X-Men was a really big deal. (It probably helped that my first few were Jim Lee's "audition" in issues 256-257-258.) I've gone back and re-read other popular comics from Marvel and DC from that era and... they just don't hold up as well. It turns out that the Chris Claremont-trademarked stuff that I thought at the time was slowing down the action - the melodrama, the monologues, the pages full of dialogue balloons, the endless subplots, the utter unpredictability of where the story was going - was integral to seeing the characters as people first and foremost, and superheroes second. Jason Powell combines the best qualities of an obsessive fan with an astute critic's measure of what made Claremont unique in his field. When it comes to pop culture influence, Claremont is not that far behind the icons like Stan Lee, George Lucas, Joss Whedon, etc., but his work is much less discussed and explored. This book was exactly what I was looking for in explaining why Claremont's creative run on a comic book stands out so much... and why it will be a long, long time before someone equals it.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

An in depth look at Marvel Comic's mutant superheroes, the X-Men, under the control of Chris Claremont from 1975 until his abrupt resignation halfway through writing a comic issue in 1991. In between, the comic world was irrevocably changed. From 'the All-New All-Different' replacement squad through the Dark Phoenix Saga, the rebirth and redefining of Magneto, the Fall of the Mutants, the rise of X-Force and the New Mutants, Claremont made the X-Men one of the most successful comic series in history. This book features commentary on each and every issue from the blast-out-of-the-gate start to the end.
To get the most out of this book, one would have had to have read the majority of the issues when they came out.
Fortunately for Powell, millions of readers did just that.

[THOMAS A RUNGE · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read all of the Claremont X-Men comics as they were published but still found lots of insights into behind the scenes events.

[Greg Viola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably just for x-fans, but an extremely satisfying read if you are one.

[Neal Obermeyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first I thought this was just going to be a book about Claremont's work, which I figured I would enjoy. Then I got to the issue-by-issue breakdowns and thought it was going to be a recap of his work. I figured I would enjoy that trip down memory lane.

However, I soon realized that this was telling the story of Chris Claremont through his run on X-Men, and the care and thoughtfulness Powell shows to his themes -- and the adoring detail used to illuminate those themes -- resulted in a fascinating tale of this man's genius through the framework of a monthly publication. This is masterfully structured and executed, and it has made me go back and start re-reading Claremont's X-Men run from the beginning.

That's my one complaint -- if you don't already own all these X-Men issues, prepare to be motivated to start acquiring them. I can't wait to re-read that entire run with this new perspective and then come back and re-read this book.