INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS CLAREMONT BY by Fr. Niko Bekris about God Loves, Man Kills and Magneto
FN: In your introduction to God Loves, you mentioned that one of the greatest quotes to inspire you was Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and being judged on the content of one’s character. I love how you incorporated the imagery of that into “Xavier’s Dream”- tolerance, living together, loving those who hate us. That’s always been something very powerful that I’ve loved about the book during your tenure on it. It’s been speculated that when Stan Lee first created the characters, he included a notion of the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s, but when you came on board was when we started hearing more about “Xavier’s Dream,” and of Magneto as a Holocaust survivor.
CHRIS CLAREMONT: So I thought that, if Begin found it in himself to make that change, why not Magneto? And if Magneto could find it, again from a dramatic perspective, you’re left with a character who is plagued by fundamental guilt and fundamental conflict.
If Charlie’s dumping this responsibility on his shoulders has the desired effect, he then has to look back on the portion of his life where he was a villain and deal with the guilt and ramifications of that, but he can also be plagued by his doubt-
“Am I making the right decision? Have I made the right decision?
If I use my powers the way I used to just this once, that’ll be okay, right? I won’t do it again, just this once. It’ll be easier.
It’ll resolve the situation quickly, efficiently, no one will know. I can get away with it… but should I?”
That as a dramatist, is a lot more fun to play with.
The idea was to bring the conflict into the foreground, but in the process, make him the more empathetic and dramatic character.
Regrettably, corporate policy wanted him as a villain.
Source: https://christcoffeecomics.com/2015/06/24/interview-with-chris-claremont-part-1/
While Claremont got inspiration from the history of Menachem Begin, it wasn´t his zionist ideas the thing that Claremont related to Magneto but rather his capability to change his pov, his methods and in the end seek a benefice of all parties involved.
Claremont´s intention on the X-men was to try to reflect how the polarization in society often leads to both parties having opposite povs that end up fragmenting society, just like Charles and Magneto´s ideological fight ended up fragmenting mutantkind cause.
In the end Claremont wanted Magneto to change, to take over Charles X-men leadership, lead by example, have doubts over his former actions as a radical defensor of mutants and worry about both humans and mutants, constantly taking care of not using his old methods that cost many lifes in the past and honestly it´s a great narrative that goes beyond the ideological pov and goes right into the light and darkness inside human nature.
He was forced to change his story in the end, Marvel needed a villain but that´s why this aspect of the character always comes back because it´s foundational.
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the cat of all time
also I have to mention that Shiningflight was Mistystar's rival from like 5 moons or something, that guy was hating on her to the bitter end
OH THEY SHOW YOU THE LIVES YOU'RE GIVEN AND WHO GIVES THEM THAT IS SO FRICKEN NEAT
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