Marvel's Mutants: The X-Men Comics of Chris Claremont

(Paperback)

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Description

In 1975, Marvel Comics revived the X-Men, a failed title which hadn't used new material for half a decade. It was a marginal project in an industry then in crisis. Five years later, it was the bestseller in a revived comics market. Unusually in the comics world, one man, Chris Claremont wrote the comic over seventeen years, from 1975 to 1991, developing new characters such as Wolverine and Storm, and taking themes from Freudian psychology, Christian temptation narratives, Existentialist philosophy and the language of sub-cultural identity.
Marvel's Mutants is the first book to be devoted to the aesthetics of these comics that laid the foundation for the worldwide X-Men franchise we know today. Miles Booy explores Claremont's recurrent themes, the evolution of his reputation as an auteur within a collaborative medium, the superhero genre and the input of the artists with whom Claremont worked. Also covered are the successful spin-off projects, which Claremont wrote: solo Wolverine mini-series and whole new teams of mutant superheroes.

Reviews

`Miles Booy is an expert critic and his much-welcomed account of Chris Claremont's tenure on Marvel's X-Men will be essential reading for comic fans and historians alike. Booy succeeds in analysing the narratives and politics of comics with admirable scholarly detachment while never losing sight of the fun nature of his subject. This book is likely to be the definitive survey of Claremont's contribution to the Marvel universe.' - James Chapman, author British Comics: A Cultural History, 'An excellent and timely book about the unsung genius of Chris Claremont, the most under-appreciated comics writer, who nevertheless made a vast contribution to the super hero genre. Booy gets deep into the work, and why Claremont is so influential.' - Paul Cornell, award-winning comics writer of Wolverine, X-Men & more, 'Marvel's Mutants provides the sort of literary analysis of the X-Men that weve been waiting for. This is not more of the same, endless discussions of the X-Men's politics. Rather, Miles Booy excavates and illuminates the subtle but often forgotten themes and tropes - joy and hunger, civilization and savagery, humanity and machinery - that truly gripped the attention of long-time writer Chris Claremont. This is a compelling, novel, and necessary reconsideration of the foundational period of the X-Men. - Neil Shyminsky,

Author Bio

Miles Booy is an expert on Marvel comics. He is the author of Love and Monsters: The Doctor Who Experience, 1979 to the Present (2012) and a contributor to The Cult TV Book (2012), both from I.B Tauris.