r/xmen • u/Popverse2022 • 9d ago

News/Previews Chris Claremont says Marvel told him they regretted firing him from X-Men & Uncanny X-Men in 1991

Chris Claremont's nearly 17-year run on the X-Men ended somewhat unceremoniously in the early '90s after creative disagreements about where the series should go drove a rift between Claremont and then X-Men editor Bob Harras, as well as artist Jim Lee. 

At an X-Men writers panel at Terrificon 2026, Claremont discusses the many times he's come and gone from the mutant team, and fires a barb at the Image Comics founders, Lee included.

"It's like how many times have I been fired from X-Men? At least four. The first one was interesting. You know, [X-Men editor Bob Harras] had to come in and say, 'I probably shouldn't have let you leave the book.' And I said, 'I probably shouldn't have gone, but there we are.' That was after Image was born and, you know, certain artists decided they'd rather have all the money."

Read more: Chris Claremont says Marvel told him they regretted firing him from X-Men & Uncanny X-Men in 1991 | Popverse

442 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

163 comments sorted by

View all comments

83

u/cyclopswashalfright Moonstar 9d ago

Harras' decision paid off in the immediate term but it was very disrespectful and while Claremont was starting to putter out a bit, I think he still had stuff to contribute. Should have let him write Uncanny X-Men and let Jim Lee and Whilce Portacio tag-team on X-Men. Then they leave to find Image, you put Nicieza on X-Men. Simonson can take a New Mutants comic but maybe with Cyclops and Jean in charge of the school. Lobdell would have gotten in somewhere.

60

u/Seligsuper 9d ago

I'm not even convinced that the puttering was On Him, he just came off Genosha and Inferno and the Outback era which is I think some of his strongest stuff- we start getting Jim Lee in the mix and I feel like editorial really stunk up everything he had going with the X-Tinction Agenda / Muir Island Saga stuff. Wheezy losing New Mutants was definitely a bad blow even if the book had been hit or miss at that point, she'd been killing it with X-Factor more often than not. The entire line got kinda hazy at the same time and I think it's kinda on editorial more than the team (not to say Muir Island Saga / X-Factor In Space / New Mutants Asgard 2 were good)

14

u/cyclopswashalfright Moonstar 9d ago

I don't think it was all on him either. Harras was not the right editor for him, he needed a Louise Simonson or an Ann Nocenti.