X-Men #2-7
Originally released in 1991
Written by Chris Claremont (#2-3), Jim Lee (#4-7), John Byrne (#4-5), Scott Lobdell (#6-7)
Art by Jim Lee
With X-Men '97, a continuation of the 90's X-Men animated series, having its first episodes released today, I figured it was an appropriate time to go back to the 90's X-Men comic series. To my surprise, I found out that the third issue in this run was allegedly Chris Claremont's final X-Men issue. I'm guessing he's gone back to the series since then, but this was the end of a 16 year run from Uncanny X-Men #94 in 1975 all the way to X-Men #3 in 1991. That seems like an insanely long amount of time to be working on one series, but clearly, his writing was popular and he presumably enjoyed doing it.
Previously on X-Men, a group of fanatical mutants known as the Acolytes attacked the island nation of Genosha in Magneto's name, and the X-Men set out to stop them before Magneto swooped in. Jim Lee's art does a great job with emphasizing the big moments and using double page spreads to show off the whole team.
The plot, by Chris Claremont, hinges on some references to earlier issues, such as Moira MacTaggert's unstable mutant son or the time when Magneto was turned into a baby. Thankfully, I'd read most of the relevant issues through Marvel Unlimited before this, though I could see it potentially being tough to follow back in the nineties when older issues might not have been as accessible. Still, Claremont does a good job with summarizing the key details and keeping it easy enough to follow.
Claremont ends his run on X-Men, which lasted over a decade and a half, on a good note, with a showcase of how Magneto has grown over the years. It kind of feels like Magneto might be the character that Claremont is the most proud of when it comes to writing. He took a fairly straightforward evil mastermind and turned him into a much more complex character - one with a fleshed out backstory and motivations, where audiences could see where the character was coming from and understand his point of view.
The first story arc where Jim Lee takes over (with various other writers assisting with the dialogue) focuses on Wolverine and Omega Red for the most part. We get snippets of Wolverine's past as a CIA agent working with Sabretooth and a West German mutant known as Maverick during the height of the Cold War, when they were tasked with stealing a more malleable form of adamantium (the incredibly strong metal that Wolverine's bones are coated in) called carbonadium. Omega Red, a Soviet super-soldier who uses carbonadium to enhance his mutant abilities, tried to stop them, but failed.
Now, Omega Red needs carbonadium to live, and as far as anyone knows, only Wolverine knows where the stolen sample is, though his memory loss complicates things. He teams up with the Hand (who have hypnotized Psylocke to follow their commands) and the twin children of HYDRA leader Baron Strucker in order to get it, and Sabretooth gets thrown into the mix as well.
The other X-Men take a bit of a backseat here (apparently, there are multiple ongoing X-Men series at this point, with half of the team having a storyline in the Uncanny X-Men book), though Beast, Psylocke, and Jubilee have some good moments.
Even without Chris Claremont running the show, it seems like the X-Men are in good hands going forward, and thankfully, this book seems to avoid many of the sort of excesses that would define 90's comics. (though maybe that will come later, for all I know)
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