Claremont is wordy
I will argue that Chris Claremont is the greatest X-Men writer of all time. He charted the X-Men for 15 years and really made them into what they are. I can never take that away. With that being said, he is EXTREMELY wordy. Pages are filled with tons of speech bubbles. The dialogue at times is extremely overwritten. Less is more sometimes and Claremont never got that. I believe some of it is a product of the times. Marvel comics were written in a way to always introduce stuff as if the reader is coming to it for the first time. So you will get lots of panels of characters explaining their powers in the most ham-fisted way.
Gambit doesn't know consent
Alright, here is where we get problematic. Gambit was your typical 90's roguish heart throb, that steals kisses and women's hearts. Looking back on this now, this is REALLY a problem. I will have more specific examples later, but at this point, he forcefully kisses Jean Grey as if it were some kind of prize. Nevermind he was in the danger room and it was a robot that blew up on him. This will be come a pattern with this dude.
Over explaining everything
As mentioned above, there are SO MANY SPEECH BUBBLES. This is why comics of this era take so long to get through. I don't need to elaborate more here.
Old school X-Men; watching them training as a team is cool and is a good intro for new fans in this case
We get to see the X-Men training in the danger room and here is always one of the strengths of their books. It is always cool seeing them do team up moves and actually working together. It's always hammered home that they need to work together to accomplish missions, so it is always cool to see how they get there. It's a show, not tell part of their story telling. It also serves as a way to show how they interact to new readers. This I approve of.
Jim Lee art is fantastic
You are seeing Prime Jim Lee here. He is a great artist and it really shows throughout this run. He does have a penchant for putting everyone in cool poster poses probably more than he should. I think that is also a product of the 90's. All of his X-Men look great. You will see me reference his art more in my later notes.
Old school Nick Fury!
For those that don't know, before all the Marvel movies, Nick Fury was just an old white guy with the Reed Richards hair style. White hair on the sides, brown hair on the top. This is truly a different era of comics.
Wolverine is gonna wolverine
Wolverine is always the lone wolf and I made this comment because he runs off to do his own thing as he always does.
Brown and yellow the best costume?
At the beginning of this series (first three issues) Wolverine is in his Brown and Yellow costume, a staple of the Claremont run. I would argue any of you that it is his best costume. If you won't accept that, it is my personal favorite. Look, the yellow and blue one is cool, but this one is streamlined in a way that the other ones aren't. For one, he doesn't have those damn shoulder pads. I just think it is a cool look.
Flatscan = mutants' n word for humans
Some of the more evil mutants refer to humans as "Flatscans". Like the n word, I don't know why you choose this derogatory term, but here it is.
Mutie = humans' n word for mutants
Guess humans need their own word, in case you couldn't tell they hate mutants. Here you go. This has been a public service announcement for you all.
Start of gold and blue teams!!
Here is where we see the start of the infamous gold and blue teams of the X-Men. For the uninitiated, the Gold Team consisted of Storm, Colossus, Jean Grey, Iceman and Archangel. Storm lead this particular team. The Blue team consisted of Cyclops, Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue, Beast, Psylocke and Jubilee. Cyclops is the leader of that team. I think there is no argument here. The blue team is clearly the cool kids team. This book was also the one that followed their adventures. Look, all the heavy hitters are on that team. It's not even fair. Also, why give Storm the weaker team?! Hmmmmm....
X-men are low key the bad guys in this. Magneto was trying to mind his business. They attacked him first thinking he was like he used to be
Oh man. Let me delve into this a little bit more. So we know Magneto is like the X-Men's #1 villain. Everyone gets that. At this point in time in the comics, he had turned good, served as the headmaster of Xavier's school while was gone and worked with most of the team. All of a sudden after some humans bothered him, he defended himself, the X-Men roll up on him and start to fight him without talking first. They are all like, "You will always be evil. A leopard never changes their spots" and all that kind of nonsense. I'm on Magneto's side in this one. He even tries to give them a chance to back off saying he means no harm. They fight him anyway. The X-Men are kinda a-holes.
Splash pages abound!
I mentioned before how Jim Lee is all about the splash pages? Yeah, in these action scenes they are exactly that. Beautiful yes, but sometimes completely unnecessary in their composition. That being said, if I had to money to buy these pages of original art, you better believe I would.
Forgot Rogue and Magneto were a thing
I totally forgot that Rogue and Magneto had a thing. Before they slid Rogue over to Gambit, her and Magneto had a connection. Let's just ignore the glaring age differences between the two. This relationship was further explored again during the Age of Apocalypse storyline that would appear a few years later. Anyways, she is the only one that keeps trying to appeal to Magneto and vice versa.
A lot of nonconsensual kissing in this book. Jean/Gambit, Fabian Cortez/Psylocke, Cyclops/Jean, Dazzler/Longshot
Alright. Let me tackle each of these scenarios. We talked about the Jean/Gambit one earlier. For the Fabian Cortez/Psylocke one, they are in the middle of a battle. Cortez takes it upon himself to force a kiss upon Psylocke, where he explains that his mutant power is to heighten the powers of other mutants. He couldn't put his hands on her or do it. No, he had to have a super rapey kiss. He even gloats about it like he is taking some of her power away. Awesome guys. For the Cyclops/Jean one is slightly different. They are together at this point in the book. However in this moment, they are in the middle of a battle where Cyclops has been turned bad. He forces his kiss on Jean and then asks her if it is as fun as Wolverine's. Then blasts her with his optic blasts. WOW. Finally, the Dazzler/Longshot kiss. For context, Dazzler and Longshot used to be a thing. Then Dazzler lost her memories (via some old x-men story with the Siege Perlious or something? Look, go wikipedia it. It's some soap opera, comic booky nonsense) and she is minding her own business in her normal life. Longshot shows up out of nowhere and talks about how they were once in love and kisses her. Nevermind Dazzler reacts initially to not even knowing who he is. That doesn't stop our boy, Longshot. No means no, man.
Professor X is a dick
Look, I don't think I need to explain anymore than that. In this run, he comes off as super judgemental towards Magneto. He has taken this moral high ground that he hasn't earned. Yes, Magneto was bad in the past. However, he has gone out of his way to avoid conflict with the X-Men until they force his hand. Then he decides to turn the X-Men to his side with some mutant wackiness (re: someone's special power or something). Just pages of pages of Xavier speech. Man, this book has made me PRO Magento.
Moira modifies Magneto's genetic structure to make him good, but was unethical. He finds out and is PISSED. Self fulfilling prophecies guys.
Whew. Let me get into this one. I will summarize some more comic book wackiness. At one point, Magneto got turned back into a baby. Moira decided to raise him and tried to change him to make him a good guy. She is a scientist and she takes it upon herself to help herself to some genetic modification of Magneto. The reason being, "He was bad before, but what if I take away that part of him. Then he can be good". I don't think I need to explain how morally wrong that is. When Magneto finds out, he is justifiably pissed. As he explains, now he has doubts whether any choice he makes is truly his own or because of this modification. She tries to tell him that because he was bad, she was only trying to make him better. He explained that seeing humans murder his parents (he was a holocaust survivor) is what made him who he is. Look, you can't blame him. His point is, my experiences made me who I am, not my genetic code. How dare you? So in effect, in trying to make him good, you made him MORE bad. I will march on the streets for Magneto at this point.
Mets jokes STILL hold true. Ha!
There were some jokes about the NY Mets sucking in these issues. This part is still true! In this way, these issues have aged well.
Final issue of Claremont writing is issue #3
At this point, issue #3 was the last issue (at the time) of Claremont writing the X-men after 15 years. This is a huge deal. Just wanted that to be said because they explicitly say that on the credits page so you KNOW.
Moira tried to fix Magneto and then gaslights him saying his bad all along anyway?! WOW
That shaky moral high ground the X-Men keep standing on? Totally erased in these issues in my opinion. I think this comment is in reference to Moria getting one last dig in on Magneto as he chooses to go down with the ship when Asteroid M is destroyed. Basically she is saying that no genetic changes would make him good. Last time I checked, you were playing around with people's genes. Let's have a Magneto day, guys.
Magneto gave Professor X the business in his speech
I can't remember all the specific, but Magneto basically dresses down Professor X on his way to his "death". I think it was chastising him for always thinking his way is the best way without hearing anything else. Yo, the X-Men are the real villains.
Ugh. "Smart people" dialogue is the worse, re: beast
So at this point, Claremont is gone and Jim Lee and Scott Lobdell have taken over plot/script duties for this next four issues in the collection that introduces us to Omega Red. At this point, we get numerous lines of Beast using many big words to nail hope the dialogue. I went back to get this choice section to illustrate my point. Here is some of Beast's dialoge: "Then it's serendipitous I heard about your impending gastronomic ventures.. and decided to avail myself not only of your charming company..but also this most capacious jeep." What a normal person could say is, "Hey, we're tagging along on your date, Gambit". This dialogue is THE WORST.
Comics go a lot quicker without Claremont writing
These issues read a whole lot quicker with Claremont not writing. Bad dialogue aside, there are not pages and pages full of speech bubbles now. If anything, it's more focused on ACTION.
Wolverine is just back in his blue and yellow for no reason
Well, after those three issues to start this run, Wolverine is just back in his blue and yellow costume. Well okay. That is a choice. No explanation needed.
Hmm, Psylock just happens to be swimming and in a bikini huh?
Alright. So at this time, all the X-Men ladies were turned into sex symbols. Psylocke particularly. You have an asian ninja with a british accent and purple hair. Checks a lot of boxes. In this instance, she just HAPPENS to have been doing a few laps in the pool in a two piece bikini. Then she has to spring into action to fight some bad guys. So she throws on a jacket that doesn't hide anything. I bring this up because Jim Lee draws a sexy Psylocke and we never forget that because she is always posed for maximum effect. I got nothing else to add here.
Jim Lee did some of the plots?
I finally took notice of the credits that Jim Lee the artist is now Jim Lee the writer. Writing is not his strong suit. Like, at all. These issues move quickly and have some cool twists, but man. Stick to what you are good at.
Lee's version of Wolverine is my favorite. Adam Kubert is second
Jim Lee absolutely draws my favorite version of Wolverine. Back then, he was portrayed and drawn as the 5'3" guy he is supposed to be. That is one of his characteristics. It's why there are so many short jokes made at his expense, but also what makes him more dangerous. The most defining feature is his distinctive hairstyle. It is patently ridiculous, but also simultaneously awesome. He has a definite look that you always know it is him when you see him. Adam Kubert also draws an amazing Wolverine, but Lee wins out easily.
Forgot about Sabretooh and birdy!!
I don't know why Sabretooth had a female sidekick, but he did. Maybe it's to counter the Wolverine/Jubilee duo? I know they explained it, but who cares. It's just a thing here and we have to deal with it. It's patently ridiculous that Sabretooth needs a sidekick at all, really.
Gambit/Sabretooth. Hint of their connection
Ooooooooh man. I forgot about THIS. There is some dialogue that hints at a past connection between Gambit and Sabretooth. What is a throwaway bit of dialogue turns out to be something much bigger. That comes to light in Uncanny X-Men #350. I know there is a statute of limitations on spoilers, but I won't say it here. It is just some real, deep cut X-Men stuff. Quick hint: It was REAL bad.
Good action, a lot of sexy Psylock poses
Lee does great action scenes. I don't want to take anything away from him on that. In the middle of these, it's hard to not notice the sexy Psylocke poses for no reason.
And there you have it, my hot takes on "X-Men: Deadly Genesis". Feel free to check it out yourselves and see if you felt the way I did!
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