I think Claremont's New Mutants is as good as - or maybe even better - than his Uncanny X-Men. The first 55 issues or so of that title is one of the best comic runs ever. All the characters were well-developed and seemed like real people. Granted, they had flaws but Claremont wrote them as fundamentally good people trying to do the right thing, and that made you cheer for them as they went through their conflicts.
I loved New Mutants because it was fresh, new characters without any pre-established history. You watched them grew under the person who created them. As much as I enjoyed X-Force, it's a shame that the latter half of the run became so disjointed to force them into all the events circling the other X-Books.
I didn't realize it until their attempt at a movie that many of the early issues in the first 2 or 3 years could be considered horror genre. Hellfire Club renegade tries to kill them, Xavier recruits them to be Brood hosts, the government tries to take them into custody with Sentinels, Shan dies/disappears, they meet the witch Selene, Illyana spends half her life in a demonic limbo but gets free until Belasco sends his demon after her, White Queen of the Hellfire Club captures them to brainwash them to join her teen class, Demon Bear comes for Danielle Moonstar, Cloak & Dagger's powers somehow possess Rhane and Bobby, Xavier has a son that has split personalities for each power including one for the terrorist that killed his stepfather, and of course Shan turns out to be possessed by the Shadow King. And some of us were so dim to think because they got bit by the superhero bug, that they were X-Men in training. Once Chris Claremont left the book, so did I.
I loved how the earlier books were definitely an attempt at something new and succeeded. I think as New Mutants got bigger, and the more demand for events and titles, Claremont stretched himself too thin trying to do this. Uncanny, Wolverine, Excalibur, and the mini-series. I appreciated that Louise Simonson took over, but I will admit that Liefeld and Nicieza gave the title the injection it needed to jump into the 90s. Though it never captured the same dark undertones of OG New Mutants.
I think Claremont's New Mutants is as good as - or maybe even better - than his Uncanny X-Men. The first 55 issues or so of that title is one of the best comic runs ever. All the characters were well-developed and seemed like real people. Granted, they had flaws but Claremont wrote them as fundamentally good people trying to do the right thing, and that made you cheer for them as they went through their conflicts.
I loved New Mutants because it was fresh, new characters without any pre-established history. You watched them grew under the person who created them. As much as I enjoyed X-Force, it's a shame that the latter half of the run became so disjointed to force them into all the events circling the other X-Books.
I didn't realize it until their attempt at a movie that many of the early issues in the first 2 or 3 years could be considered horror genre. Hellfire Club renegade tries to kill them, Xavier recruits them to be Brood hosts, the government tries to take them into custody with Sentinels, Shan dies/disappears, they meet the witch Selene, Illyana spends half her life in a demonic limbo but gets free until Belasco sends his demon after her, White Queen of the Hellfire Club captures them to brainwash them to join her teen class, Demon Bear comes for Danielle Moonstar, Cloak & Dagger's powers somehow possess Rhane and Bobby, Xavier has a son that has split personalities for each power including one for the terrorist that killed his stepfather, and of course Shan turns out to be possessed by the Shadow King.
And some of us were so dim to think because they got bit by the superhero bug, that they were X-Men in training. Once Chris Claremont left the book, so did I.
I loved how the earlier books were definitely an attempt at something new and succeeded. I think as New Mutants got bigger, and the more demand for events and titles, Claremont stretched himself too thin trying to do this. Uncanny, Wolverine, Excalibur, and the mini-series. I appreciated that Louise Simonson took over, but I will admit that Liefeld and Nicieza gave the title the injection it needed to jump into the 90s. Though it never captured the same dark undertones of OG New Mutants.