Stan Lee Didn't Like Chris Claremont's X-Men

2 days ago 9

Stan Lee (foreground) and Days of Future Past cover in the background

Ambrose Tardive is an editor on ScreenRant's Comics team. Over the past two years, he has developed into the internet's foremost authority on The Far Side. Outside of his work for ScreenRant, Ambrose works as an Adjunct English Instructor.

Stan Lee wasn't a huge fan of Chris Claremont's X-Men, at least according to the showrunner of the iconic 1990s Animated Series. Lee created the characters in the early 1960s, while Claremont transformed the franchise decades later, helping forge its modern identity, but apparently Lee had reservations about what his mutant heroes became.

In an interview with Geeks.com from 2017, X-Men: The Animated Series showrunner Eric Lewald spoke about Stan Lee's input on the series.

Cyclops, Jubilee, Wolverine, and Beast from X-Men the Animated Series

Lewald noted that Stan "never liked the direction" of the X-Men franchise after its 1975 reboot, while he was more inspired by Chris Claremont's '70s and '80s run on Uncanny X-Men.

According To The Showrunner Of "X-Men: The Animated Series," Stan Lee Wasn't A Fan Of The Franchise's Greatest Era

Lee Had Reservations About Chris Claremont's X-Men

According to Eric Lewald, who helped create X-Men: The Animated Series, franchise progenitor Stan Lee wasn't heavily involved in the making of the series, but he apparently wanted to be. However, at that point in the early 1990s, Lee's creative sensibilities were a little too outdated for Lewald and his collaborators on The Animated Series.

Lewald compared it to generations of music, explaining:

[Stan Lee is] intense. The problem with us was that when he had done the book in 1963 with Kirby, it was about "extraordinary youngsters!" To us, that was like a Pat Boone record, when we were trying to do metal / rock. I was told that he never liked the direction that the books had gone since 1975, and since we liked the newer books, he fought us on the tone and direction of the show.

Besides his analogy, though, it is Lewald's off-handed remark about the post-1975 X-Men franchise, and Stan Lee's feelings about it, that sticks out in retrospect. After all, Chris Claremont is generally regarded as the "third founder" of the X-franchise, after Lee and artist Jack Kirby.

Stan Lee's writing style is best described as a kind of "campy realism." Lee wanted his stories to be relatable, and socially relevant, and at its best it was, but it was also always over-the-top and overtly melodramatic. Fifteen years later, Christ Claremont revolutionized X-Men by making it soap operatic, epic, and most importantly, sexy.

Chris Claremont Saved The "X-Men," But Stan Lee Reportedly Didn't Love His Work

A Generational Divide Among X-Men Icons

The original 5 X-Men members pose in an orange circle.

Claremont's X-Men went to darker, edgier places than his predecessors were willing to. That's considered a strength of his run, but for Stan Lee, it seemingly strayed too far from his original vision. Still, it's fair to say Stan might have been a little too close to the subject to decide what was best for the X-Men.

Most X-fans agree that Chris Claremont captured the essence of the franchise, as established by Stan Lee, while updating it for his era. By doing so, he ensured that the X-Men would be a Marvel institution in perpetuity. But at least at the start of the '90s, around the time Claremont ended his first X-Men run, Stan Lee didn't vibe with his work.