Shall
I doodle cave-phantoms?
We, ah, reach that awkward point in this improvisation where I admit that the work of Chris Claremont is a bit of a blind spot for me. I’ve read some, barely scratched the surface. Mostly via a subscription I had as a kid one year for X-Men Classic, the reprint series for X-Men ala Marvel Tales for Spider-Man. The bit that I had covered Uncanny X-Men #189-200, which is a helluva run. John Romita, Jr. young and energetic, Xavier in leather and fishnets, Nimrod roaming the subways, Magneto on trial... I don’t remember a lot, bits and pieces. Some other X-Men comics here and there. Had a black and white mass market paperback reprint of a two-parter with Arcade and some other issues, too. Never went back and read the whole thing. It’s so big, so influential, that you don’t need to experience it directly. And, in my experience, when you do, it’s a letdown due to just how many folks ripped it off.
That’s the feeling of Poptopia. A rip off. Haven’t I read these stories before? Or at least heard about them? If Claremont is the Platonic Ideal, then we’re definitely watching shadows on the wall. A mutant leaving the X-Men in the hopes of living a normal life? Claremont did it. A group of desperate, freakish mutants living in the sewers? Claremont did it. A popstar all up in mutant affairs? Claremont did it. A mysterious mutant exterminator with a name recalling a previously known entity that thematically connects to what it’s doing? Claremont did it. You know the gag, because another show did it.
Except, where Claremont referenced Shakespeare and the Bible, all Casey has are mascots and X-Men comicbooks. The fight between Storm and Callisto for leadership of the Morlocks is turned into a barely-there conflict between Nightcrawler and the Cyclops. Except, there is a double meaning to the Cyclops’s name, both obvious. Immediately, he recalls the X-Men’s longstanding leader and guiding light – but, also, his own namesake, the mythological being with only a single eye in the middle of its forehead, which is how this mutant appears. Like Callisto, this character is a reference to mythology, going beyond the obvious self-referential bit to something more archetypal in its influence on all Western literature... and, by doing so, turns back on itself to point to Callisto, whose name is also taken from mythology, making the mythological reference actually an X-Men comicbook reference. Even when you think you’ve escaped, all roads lead to Xavier. The biggest twist is that Nightcrawler simply leaves the conflict, not wanting to earn the respect of these mutants through violence.
The little twists on the stories already told is the point. Take what came before and make it your own. It’s a longstanding tradition in storytelling, somehow seen as less than within the realm of superhero comicbooks. But, when you cast the Claremont run into the foundational mythological base of the X-Men – the ur-text, if you will – what other options are there? It’s no win. Everything is a variation or a reaction. You either become Claremont or you respond to Claremont. Casey takes Claremont on his own terms, casting these stories in new lights that make sense within the context of Casey’s body of work. A superhero not interested in solving problems with violence? See Adventures of Superman. A brooding former superhero looking to make a new life and avoid trouble in the spotlight of the tabloid media? See Automatic Kafka. A superhero comic that is so influenced by a single creator that you could argue that it turns that creator’s work into a genre unto itself? See Gødland.
If Warp Savant is a Casey stand-in, a metaphor for the comicbook obsessed continuity-junkie that takes it all in and has his very own head canon, then he’s Casey as a Claremont character. And his head canon is Casey’s through the lens of Claremont as a genre. What follows is Poptopia, a fever dream straight from that particular mind. The more I think about it, the more sense it makes that the entire Casey run takes place within Warp Savant. Metaphorically, of course. Isn’t that what all comicbook runs are? Little, self-contained pockets of cultural reality that we stack up to form our own canons? “Consistency, not continuity” is just another way of saying “What makes sense to me.” If an X-Men comicbook goes unread, did it even add to the mythology? I don’t want to say that Casey’s run doesn’t have its fans and its influences, but, alongside the joint run of his Man of Action cohorts and many others, it’s all detritus. Stacks of stories that are supposed to ‘count’ somehow, but I didn’t read so who cares. Maybe someday they’ll ‘count’ if I get around to them.
That makes this whole run an exercise, of sorts, that stands by itself. If there is any interaction, it’s with the idea of Claremont’s X-Men work as a genre unto itself, and Casey’s other work. If there’s a Venn diagram, welcome to the centre. That makes the choices somewhat purposeful. It’s not hard to see Chamber as the flipside of Warp Savant. Similar ages, looks, outlook on life... but for a giant hole blasted in one’s chest, you know? Attacking a military base and saving a popstar aren’t so different when you realise it’s the same impulse, the same desires... X-Men comicbooks are about X-Men comicbooks... And, if Warp Savant is Casey and Chamber is Warp Savant, then Chamber is Casey...
If you like Casey...
