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X-Treme X-Men (2001) (Collected Editions)
X-Treme X-Men, Vol. 6: Intifada
Collects X-Treme X-Men #24, 31-35.
Mutants have declared a human-free zone in California. The X-Treme team faces off against a hostile X-Corp in California as a brand new mutant menace comes to the forefront. What evil is lurking beneath the surface driving both teams over the edge?
Mutants have declared a human-free zone in California. The X-Treme team faces off against a hostile X-Corp in California as a brand new mutant menace comes to the forefront. What evil is lurking beneath the surface driving both teams over the edge?
152 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2004
About the author
Chris Claremont
3,300 books907 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.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
September 30, 2022
There's not much noteworthy here but I enjoyed the Cannonball, Sunspot, and Magma reunion.
January 26, 2023
This is an okay read, probably more interesting as a time capsule than as a comic adventure. The politics of this book are fascinating and also kind of bad. The plot feels like it was written by a conservative columnist in the 90s. It really flips the X-script with forced mutant gentrification of formerly mixed neighborhoods, mutant-on-human crime, in California no less, cops and politicians letting it go on out of fear, and Xavier's own agents advancing a pro-mutant legal and political agenda in a sleazy fashion without concerns for what is happening to baseline humans that of course leads to violence. Meanwhile the X-treme team is acting as mutant police while Storm successfully lobbies for legal sanction to do so. The catchphrase of the team is that we're all human. Very"colorblind." It all feels coded to the kind of people who use phrases like "reverse racism," which is kind of weird from the guy who did more than almost anyone to lean into the trope of mutants as metaphor for minorities. Then again, this is Marvel in the aftermath of 9-11, when they, like too much of America, unquestioningly embraced the neocon perception of reality and went out of their way to present George W. Bush as a thoughtful and honest leader with a few folksy quirks and not the criminally unqualified failson and big business stooge he really was.
Honestly, the further I get into this run, the more authoritarian vibes I get. Reading this run helps me understand Bishop's heel turn in Messiah CompleX. He's always been a tool for The Man, hasn't he? Then again, the mutants as minorities metaphor does break down when you consider mutants' physical power. Some of them are literally world breakers In this world, the oppressors kind of have the ghost of a point. I mean, if you ignore all the other hundreds of superhumans that AREN'T treated as abominations. Probably shouldn't tug too hard on that thread.
I digress.
There are other machinations in place, including a mutant psychic predator pulling strings, probably the big bad of the latter part of the series if there is one.
I feel like I should say something about the characterization, but I don't have a lot. Rogue and Gambit are supposed to be depowered, but both take active roles. Cannonball joins the team so we can read caption after caption about how he's from a Kentucky mining town and therefore a Real American and virtuous in all the ways that entails. Bishop and Sage are definitely doing it off panel. Storm is still injured from the invasion storyline but is doubling down on being a hardass. Will she live to regret this? I don't know. The next book features her extensively in what appears to be a mutant fight club, so I'm sure her lingering spinal trauma will feature prominently unless Claremont has forgotten how foreshadowing works. I honestly have no idea even though I'm sure I read the single issues way back when.
Can we take a moment to talk about the weird sexual energy between Storm and Gambit? Because what the fuck was that anyway?
Okay I've rambled on enough about this. Overall, not loving the vibes I'm getting from this book. Vaguely faschy themes, at least as read by someone who experienced both Bush and Trump era "law and order" politics as an excuse to militarize the police for the purpose of oppressing dissent. This is definitely the Republican X-book, whether it was supposed to be or not.
Note: I do not know Chris Claremont's politics and I don't want to conflate my reading of this work with an opinion about how he feels about anything in the real world. I am not saying I think he is an authoritarian or a neocon, though I do speculate that those themes are seeping into his work at the time because that was the world we lived in during the early 2000s and everything I do know about him indicates that he is well read and pays attention to current events.
God that was a lot of words for a comic book everyone forgot about years ago.
Honestly, the further I get into this run, the more authoritarian vibes I get. Reading this run helps me understand Bishop's heel turn in Messiah CompleX. He's always been a tool for The Man, hasn't he? Then again, the mutants as minorities metaphor does break down when you consider mutants' physical power. Some of them are literally world breakers In this world, the oppressors kind of have the ghost of a point. I mean, if you ignore all the other hundreds of superhumans that AREN'T treated as abominations. Probably shouldn't tug too hard on that thread.
I digress.
There are other machinations in place, including a mutant psychic predator pulling strings, probably the big bad of the latter part of the series if there is one.
I feel like I should say something about the characterization, but I don't have a lot. Rogue and Gambit are supposed to be depowered, but both take active roles. Cannonball joins the team so we can read caption after caption about how he's from a Kentucky mining town and therefore a Real American and virtuous in all the ways that entails. Bishop and Sage are definitely doing it off panel. Storm is still injured from the invasion storyline but is doubling down on being a hardass. Will she live to regret this? I don't know. The next book features her extensively in what appears to be a mutant fight club, so I'm sure her lingering spinal trauma will feature prominently unless Claremont has forgotten how foreshadowing works. I honestly have no idea even though I'm sure I read the single issues way back when.
Can we take a moment to talk about the weird sexual energy between Storm and Gambit? Because what the fuck was that anyway?
Okay I've rambled on enough about this. Overall, not loving the vibes I'm getting from this book. Vaguely faschy themes, at least as read by someone who experienced both Bush and Trump era "law and order" politics as an excuse to militarize the police for the purpose of oppressing dissent. This is definitely the Republican X-book, whether it was supposed to be or not.
Note: I do not know Chris Claremont's politics and I don't want to conflate my reading of this work with an opinion about how he feels about anything in the real world. I am not saying I think he is an authoritarian or a neocon, though I do speculate that those themes are seeping into his work at the time because that was the world we lived in during the early 2000s and everything I do know about him indicates that he is well read and pays attention to current events.
God that was a lot of words for a comic book everyone forgot about years ago.
April 16, 2022
I have not been particularly impressed with X-Treme X-Men, but this collection is a bright spot. Chris Claremont presents the unintended consequences of a growing mutant presence in human society from the perspective of regular people caught in the crossfire.
The first single issue story takes place in the aftermath of the Weapon XII battle in the Chunnel that resulted in Darkstar's death (Uncanny X-Men #130). Sam Guthrie (Cannonball) decides to stay and help the rescue teams searching for survivors -- and the dead. Bigotry is handled in a more realistic and compassionate way as Sam sees them cope with the massive destructions mutants helped cause.
The five-part arc explores this theme at a more personal level. Rogue and Gambit retire to a small beach town in which humans and mutants live in peaceful coexistence. The X-Treme X-Men prevent a young suicide bomber's attempt to violently disrupt communal harmony. Their investigation into her motives uncovers a shadowy plot. They also learn more about the woman whose life was shattered by the loss of her family at the hands of callous mutant hoodlums.
Chris Claremont continues to use villains, supporting characters, and plotlines that he developed since his return to the X-Men which gives him creative freedom, but it also gives the run a feeling that it doesn't quite fit into the primary narrative. That is unfortunate since Intifada offers an interestingly different viewpoint of Xavier's Dream.
The first single issue story takes place in the aftermath of the Weapon XII battle in the Chunnel that resulted in Darkstar's death (Uncanny X-Men #130). Sam Guthrie (Cannonball) decides to stay and help the rescue teams searching for survivors -- and the dead. Bigotry is handled in a more realistic and compassionate way as Sam sees them cope with the massive destructions mutants helped cause.
The five-part arc explores this theme at a more personal level. Rogue and Gambit retire to a small beach town in which humans and mutants live in peaceful coexistence. The X-Treme X-Men prevent a young suicide bomber's attempt to violently disrupt communal harmony. Their investigation into her motives uncovers a shadowy plot. They also learn more about the woman whose life was shattered by the loss of her family at the hands of callous mutant hoodlums.
Chris Claremont continues to use villains, supporting characters, and plotlines that he developed since his return to the X-Men which gives him creative freedom, but it also gives the run a feeling that it doesn't quite fit into the primary narrative. That is unfortunate since Intifada offers an interestingly different viewpoint of Xavier's Dream.
July 13, 2017
Continuing the great x-read of 2017…
This is a pretty good volume though it feels a bit… I don’t know. It just feels like the story doesn’t really go much of anywhere. The Rogue mystery is more odd than it is intriguing. The odd sexual tension between Gambit and Storm seems out of place at the least and out of character at the most. In fact, there are quite a few moments where the characters don’t seem entirely themselves. It isn’t Chuck Austen levels of character weirdness by any means, but it is occasionally off-putting.
The plot is fairly bare bones and fairly cliché.
It’s entertaining, at least a bit. But it is nowhere near the best of the x-books so far.
This is a pretty good volume though it feels a bit… I don’t know. It just feels like the story doesn’t really go much of anywhere. The Rogue mystery is more odd than it is intriguing. The odd sexual tension between Gambit and Storm seems out of place at the least and out of character at the most. In fact, there are quite a few moments where the characters don’t seem entirely themselves. It isn’t Chuck Austen levels of character weirdness by any means, but it is occasionally off-putting.
The plot is fairly bare bones and fairly cliché.
It’s entertaining, at least a bit. But it is nowhere near the best of the x-books so far.
January 22, 2025
As a lover of Rogue and Gambit I enjoyed seeing them feature prominently in these comics (if not together).
These last few editions have really highlighted the difference in the perspective of the X-Treme X-Men and the New X-Men, however, like many X books, you can sort of feel the decline coming after a very strong first 24 editions.
It remains great to have Bishop seeming so vital and clear in his role in the team and Sage is a great addition.
These last few editions have really highlighted the difference in the perspective of the X-Treme X-Men and the New X-Men, however, like many X books, you can sort of feel the decline coming after a very strong first 24 editions.
It remains great to have Bishop seeming so vital and clear in his role in the team and Sage is a great addition.
July 29, 2021
Pretty dark stuff, as usual. It's like they're trying to get Jews and Palestinians to get along and work things out, except it's mutants and baseline humans. You've got extremists on both sides and then people in power trying to push their agendas by making the two sides hate each other even more.
April 17, 2018
Most of this X-Treme X-Men run is terrible. Considering skipping out on the rest of it.
November 6, 2018
I found it pretty boring and hard to get through
January 31, 2024
2.5/5.0
July 2, 2025
2025 Readthrough Update:
I stand by the review but wanted to add that Claremont does a decent job of pulling his New Mutants characters, who he clearly cares about and wants to be an important part of the X-verse, into the X-Treme X-Men story. Some of the elements are a bit clunky but overall I enjoyed seeing Magma and Sunspot again. I do want a better explanation for how and why Emplate is a part of X-Corps but I'm hoping to find that info in another X-book.
***************************************
Original 2018 Review: The entire run of X-Treme X-Men is wildly inconsistent, as Claremont constantly changes the focus of the book. The series definitely benefited from his abandonning the Destiny Journals quest, and the weirdly dated and uninteresting Lifeguard and...whatever Surfer Boy's name was...characters.
By this volume, the book is a series of side stories featuring Claremont's favorite characters. It consistently checks in with the Morrison run to explain why his characters aren't in that book. And, in this volume, it works.
I frequently reference how much I dislike Claremont's reliance on narration boxes, so I'm impressed that in this volume he'll often go six of seven pages without using any before he crowds the panels with overexplanations of backstory or descriptions of things we can clearly see depicted in the art.
The art in this book, while not great, is an improvement over the previous volumes. The darker tones are a better match for Jordey and Larocca's soft focus camera work.
The stories are okay. We see why Cannonball joined the team after the Weapon XIII storyline from Morrison's run, Rogue has been depowered and is living happily in California until an anti-mutant terrorist attempts to bomb a Lila Cheney concert, there's a weird Storm and Gambit storyline where they're maybe romantically involved for some reason and also trying to improve mutant human relations via Val Cooper? It's messy, but it's not terrible. I found it interesting enough that I was disappointed when the volume didn't so much wrap everything up as just stop. And it's another abrupt change of focus coming up in the next volume.
I recommend it for Claremont fans, and people who enjoy Rogue, Gambit, Storm, Bishop, Cannonball, and Sage (surely, someone must be a huge Sage fan).
I stand by the review but wanted to add that Claremont does a decent job of pulling his New Mutants characters, who he clearly cares about and wants to be an important part of the X-verse, into the X-Treme X-Men story. Some of the elements are a bit clunky but overall I enjoyed seeing Magma and Sunspot again. I do want a better explanation for how and why Emplate is a part of X-Corps but I'm hoping to find that info in another X-book.
***************************************
Original 2018 Review: The entire run of X-Treme X-Men is wildly inconsistent, as Claremont constantly changes the focus of the book. The series definitely benefited from his abandonning the Destiny Journals quest, and the weirdly dated and uninteresting Lifeguard and...whatever Surfer Boy's name was...characters.
By this volume, the book is a series of side stories featuring Claremont's favorite characters. It consistently checks in with the Morrison run to explain why his characters aren't in that book. And, in this volume, it works.
I frequently reference how much I dislike Claremont's reliance on narration boxes, so I'm impressed that in this volume he'll often go six of seven pages without using any before he crowds the panels with overexplanations of backstory or descriptions of things we can clearly see depicted in the art.
The art in this book, while not great, is an improvement over the previous volumes. The darker tones are a better match for Jordey and Larocca's soft focus camera work.
The stories are okay. We see why Cannonball joined the team after the Weapon XIII storyline from Morrison's run, Rogue has been depowered and is living happily in California until an anti-mutant terrorist attempts to bomb a Lila Cheney concert, there's a weird Storm and Gambit storyline where they're maybe romantically involved for some reason and also trying to improve mutant human relations via Val Cooper? It's messy, but it's not terrible. I found it interesting enough that I was disappointed when the volume didn't so much wrap everything up as just stop. And it's another abrupt change of focus coming up in the next volume.
I recommend it for Claremont fans, and people who enjoy Rogue, Gambit, Storm, Bishop, Cannonball, and Sage (surely, someone must be a huge Sage fan).
September 2, 2016
Claremont and Kordey deliver a lively small-town romp, a new twist on a hoary "human extremist hates mutants" plotline that actually delivers on some of Grant Morrison's world-changing promises. I really disliked Scott Adams' inks on this arc, which give the art a leaden and haphazard feel, and the story has some really weird moments - like Storm flirting with Gambit for no good reason - but they are more than balanced out by the delightful concept of San Diego's Mutant Town, a place where Storm's team of increasingly paranoid, standoffish X-Men have to make nice with the locals and get over their own prejudices. We've all read this story a dozen times, but Claremont actually puts some twists into it - this time, the bullies, the teenager lashing out, and the girl caught in the crossfire aren't who you think they are, and it was surprisingly fun to find out how it would all work out.
On a larger scale, Claremont deserves major credit for finally giving Rogue and Gambit the chance at a happy ending, without closing their story off completely. Kordey's attendant "edgy tattooed" look for Rogue is rather cringe-worthy these days, but no more so than the impossible outfits for Emma Frost that were going on at the same time in New X-Men. The story beat of "I lost my powers but I can still fight!" means much more when applied to the X-Men who are practically defined by their powers, and it's to the author's credit that he realizes that and milks it for all it's worth.
On a larger scale, Claremont deserves major credit for finally giving Rogue and Gambit the chance at a happy ending, without closing their story off completely. Kordey's attendant "edgy tattooed" look for Rogue is rather cringe-worthy these days, but no more so than the impossible outfits for Emma Frost that were going on at the same time in New X-Men. The story beat of "I lost my powers but I can still fight!" means much more when applied to the X-Men who are practically defined by their powers, and it's to the author's credit that he realizes that and milks it for all it's worth.
September 16, 2018
There are a few good things going on here, but a LOT of bad things. First, the good: the villain's plot, although nearly impossible to make sense of, seems interesting, and so you keep reading. Story-wise, there are a few nice action moments. And the characterization of Rogue throughout is interesting, seeing what she would do without being burdened by her powers. [However, see problem (2) below.]
The bad: (1) Character fatigue! Characters are introduced and forgotten, or introduced and used with no explanation. I have been an X-Men fan for quite a while, so I have a pretty good knowledge of the characters, but I have no idea who some of these characters are. (2) We get Rogue beating up various super-people without the use of her powers--more than once!--with no explanation of how this makes any sense at all. (3) During all of this, Gambit and Storm are on some secret mission I never could make sense of, which apparently mostly consisted of skinny dipping in various moonlit rivers and flirting a lot. I never actually figured out what was going on with those two, why I care, or why I keep getting updates.
So, I'm really tempted to give it a 1/5, but I like to reserve that for really worthless books, and this did have a few good things going for it.
The bad: (1) Character fatigue! Characters are introduced and forgotten, or introduced and used with no explanation. I have been an X-Men fan for quite a while, so I have a pretty good knowledge of the characters, but I have no idea who some of these characters are. (2) We get Rogue beating up various super-people without the use of her powers--more than once!--with no explanation of how this makes any sense at all. (3) During all of this, Gambit and Storm are on some secret mission I never could make sense of, which apparently mostly consisted of skinny dipping in various moonlit rivers and flirting a lot. I never actually figured out what was going on with those two, why I care, or why I keep getting updates.
So, I'm really tempted to give it a 1/5, but I like to reserve that for really worthless books, and this did have a few good things going for it.
October 25, 2015
And then the art didn't suck. I've been reading X-Treme and the writing has been consistently good. I guess they changed the artists or at least the style - because this is much better. And I've read some around the edges of Rogue's life powerless in California. But it make a real difference to have a writer who cares about the characters and knows what to do with them. And it's not the crazy action or the horrible villains that makes the difference. It's who they are and how they act. Sam in the chunnel. Sam meeting Amara at the airport. Rogue - who I typically barely like being awesome. Bishop not being horrible. But then throw in realistic style art with a great color palette and lots of details, and you've got something a lot better. This wasn't a big or important book - it was just an ordinary one done extremely well. 4.5 of 5.
November 28, 2015
This was a read of mediocre quality at best, but it did benefit from the reintroduction of Gambit and Rogue to the cast after long being absent. Cannonball gets a couple of standout moments, which, as a big fan of his character, was enjoyable to see. I like the X-Corporation characters that were involved, too, but none of them received a lot of focus. The idea of a community where humans and mutants were coexisting in general peace was an interesting concept, even though it obviously couldn't last in the long run. It's definitely a bit better than the arcs that come directly before or after it, but still, my interest in this series had waned ever since the Invasion arc ended.
June 8, 2013
I'm a big fan of X-men, especially the developing love story between Rogue and Gambit. I was disappointed at buying this comic however as a result of very little story from the original X-men series. The characters were shallow and easy to dislike. Credit nonetheless however for the artwork, which is always amazing in Marvel.
July 10, 2014
One of my favorite comic books in my collection!!!
June 11, 2017
Rogue and the x-men faces a villain and his minions that tries to take over a whole city for the mutants by force and the animiosity that results
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews