X-Men fans may see the return of a familiar name to the comic book franchise in 2020. Chris Claremont wrote the X-Men from 1975 through 1991, longer than any other writer. During that time, he wrote Uncanny X-Men, co-created The New Mutants, co-created Excalibur, helped launch X-Men, and wrote Wolverine’s first solo series. He co-created many of Marvel’s most popular and notable mutants, including Rogue, Psylocke, Kitty Pryde, Mystique, Emma Frost, Jubilee, Sabretooth, Legion, and Gambit. He returned to the X-Men franchise in 2000 and remained a staple of the line through 2015. He’s written occasional one-shots since then and another Marvel project with Claremont looks to be on the way in 2020.
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During an interview on Syfy‘s New York Comic Con livestream, Claremont hinted that he’s in talks to re-team with artist Salvador Larroca for an upcoming project. Claremont and Larroca previously worked together on Fantastic Four from 1998-2000, then launched the X-Treme X-Men ongoing series in 2001.
“That’s the trouble with falling in love with these idiots,” Claremont said of the X-Men during the interview. “You can’t walk away, no matter how hard you try. As a line was said in Godfather III, ‘No matter how hard I try to walk out, they keep pulling me back in.’ I figure if Al Pacino can get away with it, I might as well give it a shot.”
“It’s a possibility, I have no idea what that means,” Claremont continued, suggesting the project with Larroca is not finalized. “I guess you better come to the panel tomorrow with me and [Marvel editor-in-chief] C.B. [Cebulski] and see what that’s all about. Because it’ll be as much of a surprise to me as it will be to you.”
No firm news came from that Marvel Fanfare panel. Cebulski did tease that “We will be seeing more of Chris Claremont’s writing at Marvel next year.”
This year, Claremont reteamed with New Mutants collaborator Bill Sienkiewicz for the one-shot issue New Mutants: War Children, which read like a lost issue of their original New Mutants run together. Larroca returned to the X-Men franchise earlier this year, teaming with writer Matthew Rosenberg for a run on the relaunched Uncanny X-Men series.
Speculating, it is possible Marvel is trying to arrange for Claremont and Larroca to produce and X-Men one-shot similar to the New Mutants one-shot Claremont worked on this year. It could even be inspired by their X-Treme X-Men run. Otherwise, Marvel may be looking to have Claremont and Larroca work together to write an X-Men title tying into the return of Marvel’s “The End” line. That may be redundant for Claremont, who wrote a trilogy fo X-Men: The End miniseries published form 2004-2006, but it could also give him the opportunity to write the X-Men without worrying about tying into the current continuity or status quo.
What do you think of Claremont possibly returning to the X-Men with Larroca? Let us know in the comments.
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Image Credit: Marvel Comics
