Workshop: "Second Genesis: Writing Early Claremont X-Men" by Lady Mordecai

[jij]

Second Genesis: Writing Early Claremont X-Men

This is an essay on writing X-Men, but within a very specific time period--early Claremont, from 1975, when the “new” X-Men debuted, through 1982, specifically Logan and Mariko’s attempted wedding. The logic behind my cutoff date is mostly that I have to have a place to stop. There’s a lot of

Comments

[rocaw]

Great essay!

I got into the X-men in the 90s, so it was interesting to read about the team that came before! There was actually a lot I didn't know, so thank you for all the wonderful info! =)

[ladymordecai]

Thanks! This was a huge chunk of time that I think shaped how the family of titles developed, and also introduced key characters, so I'm pleased to have been of service.

[twbasketcase]

This was so well done! You definitely know what you're talking about with these characters, that's for sure! Awesome work :D

[ladymordecai]

This era of X-Men has lived in my head for quite some time, so I was pleased to be able to put the knowledge to use. Thanks!

[likeadeuce]

This is very cool, thanks for writing it.

I feel like this is an era that means a lot to the people who are writing the X-books now, so it's definitely worthwhile to go back and think about how it started.

It's also good to see more discussion of the X-men in this community -- I've got a Jean essay coming up next month.

Not to ask a dumb question, but do you know of anybody who's writing fic of this era right now? It seems like the original 5 are having a resurgence because of X-men: First Class, but I haven't really seen people tacking Colossus or Storm or Nightcrawler, which is really a shame.

[ladymordecai]

First things first: BEST ICON EVER. Or at least the most appropriate. I do love me a geeky in-joke.

This era of X-Men means a lot to me, and to the title, and I think to a lot of people who read superhero comics. I'm sad to say that this era is where I tend to stay in Marvel fandom; I haven't had a presence there in a while. If there are people writing this era, I'm afraid I don't know them. I hope there are, though.

I look forward to your essay on Jean!

[likeadeuce]

I don't know where you are in regards to current canon but there has been some really nice fic out of 'Astonishing X-men' that calls back to things that have happened over the years. resolute has done some really nice stuff with Kitty and Rachel Summers recently, for example.

Now that Storm is back in the main X-books, I'm hoping to see more dealing with her as well. The uneasy power balance between her and Scott that you touch on a bit in the essay is one of the threads that has fascinated me over the years.

[ladymordecai]

Thank you! I have to say that this thing ate me alive a little--I know this era very well, and have thought about it a lot without writing about it much, and thus this essay became much, much longer than I originally anticipated. And there's more where it came from, but I think this covered the basics and a little extra, so I stopped.

I knew I wanted to stop it before the breadth of the X-titles became too much to handle, and thought about quitting once The New Mutants started, but just HAD to get a little farther into Logan, Kitty and Ororo.

Thanks again!

[ladymordecai]

Thanks. It was a pleasure to write, hair-pulling and all.