X-Men Visionaries: Writing Of Chris Claremont TPB [Paperback]

Chris Claremont (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Marvel Comics (July 21, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785105980
• ISBN-13: 978-0785105985
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,405,742 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars TWO Important Warnings . . ., April 20, 2005

By 

J. Norris "sleepydog" (Boston) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: X-Men Visionaries: Writing Of Chris Claremont TPB (Paperback)

First of all, NONE OF THESE REVIEWS ARE FOR THE RIGHT PRODUCT!! The trade paperback that is for sale on this page reprints only ONE Jim Lee X-Men issue! I don't know how Amazon constantly gets this screwed up, but they are all-too-often posting reveiws for different products on the same page. Anyway, the product in question is the CHRIS CLAREMONT edition of the X-MEN visionaries TPB line, and it is THAT book which i am going to pan forthwith: This is an ego-indulgent selection of largely unrelated X-Men comics that totally disregards the reader and instead ends up as a vehicle by which Claremont can compile what he wrongly imagines to be his most "visionary" stories about this legendary superhero clan. Now, i have immense respect for Claremont and great admiration for everything he has contributed to the X-Men and superhero comics in general, but, that said, this collection still sucks. Instead of focusing on what makes the X-Men great (their teamwork, their collective inner conflicts about the society they seek to protect, the various ways in which their powers mesh and interact to create an indomitable fighting force, etc), Claremont picks a few rather inane and unrelated plot fragments dealing with what he feels are essential "character developements" among individual members of the various team incarnations. Consequently, the reader is presented with virtually actionless soap-opera like episodes dealing with Storm's love affair with Forge (beautifully illustrated by Barry-Windsor-Smith, but still terrifically dull when taken out of context), Kitty Pryde's sage-sensai relationship with Wolverine (terribly illustrated, despite C.C.'s editorial statements to the contrary, and also dull when removed from its broader storyline), a humorless farce of a bedtime story involving cartoonlike effigies of the aforementioned heroes, a single issue of the Hellfire Club/Savage Land story arc (already available in the vastly superior "Dark Pheonix Saga" TPB) and Claremont's later collaboration with Jim Lee (again, beautifull art, but questionable story selection). Most of these comics seemed poignant and relevant when i read them the first time as a 13 and 14 year old boy, but removed from their larger plot-contexts and veiwed in retrospect, they no longer have much to offer most fans. A huge dissapointment all-around (up to and including Claremont's self-aggrandizing editorial remarks) that is capped off nicely by the fact that NONE of the original covers are reprinted with the rest of the contents. This is really the final insult to the readers and fans when you consider that, especially in the case of the Barry W. Smith issues, the covers were the most memorable things about these comics!! If you want a quintessential Claremont X-Men story, you should get the Dark Pheonix trade and avoid wasting your money on this junky, slapdash book.