Uncanny X-Men - Chris Claremont VI.

X-Men v1 #125-128.

Mutant X is one of those stories. You know what I mean – a classic.

When the time came to reinterpret the X-Men mythos twenty years later, one of the first story arcs in Ultimate X-Men was a retelling of Mutant X. In fact, it arguably got one of the most faithful reinterpretations in the new series. Aside from the fact that it's a damn good story, the general affection for it is probably due to two facts: the figure of Proteus (whom I'll discuss more at the end) and the concision of the arc. Despite the laborious, long-reaching setup, the story itself is contained neatly in just four issues. This distinguished it among Claremont's web of plots, and made it stand out more than, say, the Phoenix Saga, which was composed of a lot of separate elements and was told over a longer period of time.

Uncanny X-Men - Chris Claremont IV.

X-Men v1 #117-121.

While Wolverine was already starting to drift into focus in the Savage Land story, he became much more prominent in the final chapters of the X-Men's tour around the world. We started finding out more and more about him – including, at long last, his real name. (Which wasn't actually his real name at all, of course, but let's not split hairs.) Buuuut this information was presented to us in tantalizing bits and pieces. In contrast, Storm's we learned of Storm's entire history in the span of a couple of pages. Wolverine is an enigma, a man whose past is shrouded in mystery... even to himself, as it turned out. This would become crucial to his character. Claremont had a plan for his backstory, but it ultimately didn't work out, so for the longest time, he literally didn't have a past.

Uncanny X-Men - Chris Claremont II.

X-Men v1 #101-110.


Issue #101 marked the beginning of the Phoenix Saga, the conclusion of the Eric the Red subplot and culmination of a year's worth of stories from Claremont. And yet, the Phoenix Saga was also a stepping stone for bigger and better things. It's a story where the X-Men save the entire universe, an epic, and yet it was handily eclipsed by the Dark Phoenix Saga. It brought back a few classic X-Men villains to face off against the new team, but it also introduced a veritable host of new supporting characters.

This period also marks a transition for the art team. Penciller (and co-creator) Dave Cockrum decided to leave the book, though he returned for a considerable stretch of issues a few years down the line. He handed the reins over to Jack Byrne starting with #108. He unfortunately left right during the climax of the storyline, but Byrne was similar enough to him stylistically that the change isn't exactly jarring, or perhaps even very noticeable (at least to someone whose eye for art is as horrible as mine).

#106 was filled in by Bob Brown (and, incidentally, plotted by Bill Mantlo, due to complicated circumstances that I'll explain later) and #110 by Tony DeZuga, with assists provided by Cockrum.