You know, I realise that Chris Claremont probably deserves a job for life, as he basically created superhero comics as we know them today (with all the good and bad that entails) but there's something about the recently-announced X-Men Forever--wherein the publishers, readers, writers, and artists play an elaborate game of Let's Pretend and roll the clock back to 1991--that strikes me as . . .well, sad.
Much of Claremont's post-1991 work has had the awful sting of someone who stayed onstage far too long and had the awful fortune to degenerate into a parody of himself in full view of everyone.
I guess I wasn't expecting that particular metaphor to become so concrete . . .
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
While "X-Men Forever" is certainly going to provide us with many punchlines in the months to come, I wonder if Marvel hasn't just blundered into the perfect solution for the Claremont Problem: a book that appeals exclusively to his loyalists, with no prior readership to resent his derailment of a pre-existing series, completely retro, completely isolated from the rest of the franchise, no toes to step on... a book Claremont can write for as long as he wants.
The downside, of course, being that it'll only last as long as the market can sustain it, and on that basis I'd give it a year and a half, give or take... And then what? Where do you put Claremont after "X-Men Forever"?
Things of it is, if the interview I read with him can be beleived, apparently X-Men Forever will be presented as if Claremont had written hundreds of X-Books since the present day, none of which the reader will see, but should make everything astoundingly confusing and make the book even more impenetrable. Hopefully, for Claremont's sake, I read that wrong.
I think, after this fails, you revert to the Classic X-Men model and just reprint the old books with extra pages to buttress continuity points. I mean jeez, what else is left?
Now I'm really looking forward to the reactions when it comes out. :)
I may even buy a copy myself. :)
Post a Comment