The Four Color Media Monitor

Comic Book Movie announced that yet again, Claremont's returning to Marvel to write an X-Men special based on another special he wrote partnering Wolverine and Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat in the mid-80s:

During his groundbreaking 16-year Uncanny X-Men run, Chris Claremont transformed Marvel's Merry Mutants into the pop culture phenomenon they are today.

Now, his unparalleled impact on the franchise continues with all-new stories that add new depth and revelations to this influential era. This April, Claremont returns to a key turning point for one of the X-Men's most iconic duos in the pages of Wolverine and Kitty Pryde.

Teaming up with rising star artist Damian Couceiro (X-Men Unlimited), Claremont will further reveal Wolverine and Kitty's adventures in Japan, following their beloved 1984-1985 team-up series, Kitty Pryde and Wolverine. The saga pits the pair against all-new villains while they forge the incredible bond that redefined them as characters.

He and artist Alan Davis, who's also working on this, may be well intentioned but are still awfully late, much like the recent Rogue special written by Tim Seeley. Newsarama says:

There are few writers as synonymous with the X-Men as Chris Claremont, whose initial run with the team lasted 16 years. In the decades since, he's returned from time to time, and now, Claremont is back again alongside artist Damian Couceiro with a story that teams up Wolverine and Kitty Pryde.

Set in the era in which Kitty was Logan's protege, the series picks up threads from the original Kitty Pryde and Wolverine limited series of the '80s - even using the quite similar title Wolverine and Kitty Pryde for the new limited series.

Back in the original Kitty Pryde and Wolverine title, the pair faced off against the demonic ninja warrior Ogun, who has gone on to become an archenemy for Kitty in particular. The new Wolverine and Kitty Pryde title sends the pair to Japan on a visit to Wolverine's ex-paramour Mariko Yashida, with a ninja adventure unfolding around them.

Whatever one thinks of Claremont's synonymity with X-Men, it's almost the only thing he's ever written in the past 2 decades, with very little else to his credit within that time. Which may be the problem. When he first began his career, he had a few Hulk and Daredevil stories to his credit, and even Power and Iron Fist, IIRC. But by the end the 70s, X-Men was probably all he ever wrote for Marvel going forward with rare exceptions, and his work for DC was little too. If that's all he's to be known for, he doesn't exactly have the most prolific of careers, does he?

In any event, he's coming back to mainstream comicdom pretty late again, and it's not doing any good to prop up Marvel by writing a "retro" comic for them that doesn't do anything to improve the fortunes of modern storytelling, especially when the X-Men are now being run into the ground by overrated scribes who definitely aren't helping the status of the comics they're writing.

Labels: history, marvel comics, msm propaganda, women of marvel, X-Men