Thoughts

Claremont wraps up his latest Space Saga, and arguably his longest yet, with a fine double issue. I think he sometimes gets unstuck on the longer format, and ends up writing episodically to fill the page count and that doesn’t quite gel together as a story. There is no such problem here. He takes all the numerous plot strands he’s been building – both cosmic and personal – and resolves them all. Not a single page feels like a meaningless side-quest, or box ticking the X-men through a list of challenges. It’s just one big epic story.

And just when you think its all done it delivers an epic cliffhanger. I remember this revelation being a bit of a shock when I was reading it first as back issues. Reading all the issues now, its crazy how many heavy hints Claremont dropped that things back on Earth weren’t as safe as you might think. With hindsight, they seem as subtle as a brick, but young me missed them!

Fun Panel

Carol Danvers/Binary getting distracted by Cosmic Ghost Storm is a lovely moment – captured with kinetic energy by Smith.

None More Claremont

One of the common criticisms of Claremont is the fact that he is frequently verbose, to the point of pretentious. I can see, it but have always been drawn to wordy, ambitious comics so it always seems a weak complaint. And there are many moments where his style of storytelling just sings. Cosmic Sci-fi is just such a place. And if you are playing in this genre, this type of telling works perfectly.