X-POSITION: Rick Remender - My Questions Asked and a Bit of Ranting

Let's not mince words. I fucking love Uncanny X-Force. If it was a line of blow, I'd snort it up off the toilet seat of a truck stop in New Jersey after six guys came in with a bout of explosive diarrhea. It's been one of the best things Marvel has come out with since Emma Frost's bra size. So naturally when CBR has Rick Remender over for their X-POSITION column, I jump at the chance to ask questions. And by Odin's beard, they were asked and answered! Guess bathing in the blood of a bear and sacrificing ten goats was enough to appease the comic gods. It's almost worth the cleaning bill and the public indecency charge that's currently pending. Next time, I'll try to remember to keep my clothes on.

CBR: X-POSITION - Rick Remender

Lord, Buddha, and Odin all know I have many. If you read my last review, you know that Uncanny X-Force is in the middle of the Dark Angel Saga. It's Uncanny X-Force meets Age of Apocalypse. It contains a live Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, and Sabretooth. It has Fantomex Frenching Psylocke. It has Angel becoming more badass than he's ever been. You can't get much more of a high without rolling it into a joint! My questions were pretty basic, but one in particular left me hung over in ways I only get after trips to Bangkok.


Let's go next to the big picture from MarvelMaster616:

1) It was mentioned at Comic-Con that "Schism" will affect X-Force. What kind of repercussions can we expect?

Jason, Kieron and I have been in close contact to make sure that these books not only feel like a family of interconnecting stories, but to ensure our future plans respect the future plans of the other writers. The new status quo after "Schism" will add a new job on top of X-Force's already hectic schedule. Conversely, the events of the "Dark Angel Saga" will also greatly affect both of the other titles. And what we're talking about now, it could well grow into something that we can all reconnect on. There will be a lineup change in X-Force and a few other drastic changes as well.


2) I'm glad you got Jean Grey involved in the "Dark Angel Saga," as she's been absent from the X-books for so long. What is your approach to writing Jean Grey? And why do you state she was the love of Wolverine's life when he arguably has a deeper history with Mariko Yashida? And where would Melita fit in?

I guess it comes down to interpretation. I see this coming from the idea that an unrequited love is somehow more powerful than one that was fulfilled. I see Logan's first years in the X-Men, and his powerful attraction to Jean Grey, as the love that should have been. Logan and Jean did love each other, and they were obviously very attracted to each other, but there were so many things between them, so many reasons that could never happen, that they both went on with their lives and their other romances. Wolverine is an old, old man. He' s had many loves in his life. Think about writing a vampire, who's been alive for a couple hundred years. You have more than just one or two wives/long term girlfriends that he spent years in love with. Jean was the one fate conspired against and the one that haunts him.

3) I really enjoyed the scene in "Uncanny X-Force" #12 where Fantomex broke down Betsy's relationship with Warren. Can we say at this point that the seeds of doubt have been sewn in Betsy? What will the "Dark Angel Saga" do for their relationship as a whole?

I could tell you, but then there wouldn't be much reason to read the book. It's one of those questions that's impossible to give any answer to without spoiling the current storyline. Sorry.


Question's 1 and 3 were fairly satisfying. I'm glad Schism will affect what's going on in Uncanny X-Force since it seems to be fucking with every other X-books. But it's his response to the Jean/Wolverine relationship where I call bullshit. Now I've also made my feelings about this relationship clear. Hell, I did whole blog post on them. The jist of their relationship is it's unrequited. Wolverine loves Jean. Jean's attracted to him, but doesn't love him back. That creates tension, which was okay for the first few issue but it got old and boring fast. It fucked up X3 and it's fucked up their characters in pretty much every other incarnation, except for Age of Apocalypse.

Now Rick Remender's response implies that he thinks that Jean and Wolverine were more passionate than they really were. I'm sorry, but that just completely flies in the face of what's transpired over 40 years of X-men comics. Look at that underlined part. Should have been? Why the fuck should they have ever been? He seems to forget that before Wolverine came along, Jean had a pretty strong history with Cyclops. And by strong, I mean it was a central feature to the Dark Phoenix Saga (also known as the greatest fucking X-men story ever told). Not only that, Jean went with Cyclops when she came back even though Wolverine was alive and well. She stayed with him, married him, and raised a fucking kid with him in the future. That kind of shit is pretty hard to overlook. And somehow she and Wolverine share such a passionate love that it's worth saying it should have been?

Maybe I'm reading too much into his choice of words, but I also think he's not reading enough into his own shit. Wolverine and Jean stated outright that it couldn't work between them on more than one occasion. It wasn't because shit was between them. It was because the feelings were one-sided. Wolverine loved her way more than she could love him back. That's why she stayed with Cyclops. That's why they never did anything other than kiss.

He also doesn't seem to understand the very history of this relationship. It wasn't done because the two had chemistry. The only reason Chris Claremont wanted to hook Wolverine up with Jean was because he was pissed about Cyclops leaving Madelyn under Louise Simonson's X-Factor run. That's it. He preferred Jean with Wolverine simply because he wasn't Cyclops. I'm sorry, but that's a fucking stupid premise for a real relationship. I hope Rick Remender knows that because it kind of matters if he's writing this series. If he makes this relationship out to be more than it is, then it looks like he's not reading his own comics.

But I digress. Uncanny X-Force is still an awesome series and I hope Remender's skewed perspective of the Jean/Wolverine relationship doesn't skew the Dark Angel Saga. For now, it's been very nicely done. I hope it stays that way because this series is too awesome to be brought down by some bullshit misconceptions about a relationship that stopped being interesting back in 1991 and was forever tainted by X3. So Mr. Remender, if you're reading this, keep up the great work! I'm your biggest drunken fan and I shall continue to sacrifice goats and my neighbors cats to appease the comic gods in your name! Nuff said.

Dissecting the Relationship of Jean Grey and Wolverine

The content of this post is actually lifted form a post I made on a message board a while back. I thought it was poignant to post here as well because it covers a topic that is currently an ongoing issue in X-men Supreme and it is also a major issue of a current comics, X-men Forever Annual #1. The nature of this relationship has always been a source of contention in the comics so it's unavoidable for anyone who is trying to make a new X-men series. Here's my thoughts on this subject.

Among the most famous and probably most controversial pairings has to be Wolverine and Jean Grey. I've noticed there are a few notable Jean/Logan websites. It's a pretty popular pairing in the annuls of X-men. It became a central theme of the X-men movies. So naturally, I've used this pairing extensively in my X-men Supreme series so far. In doing so I've confronted something that has been bothering me for years now.

The romance between Jean Grey and Wolverine has been by far the most mishandled, misconstrued, and at times destructive pairing in the history of X-men. I know that's saying a lot, but given how long this plot has been used I think we can objectively say it ranks right up there. I've never come across a comic book couple that has such ardent detractors and die-hard supporters. As a fan in general, I think it's one of those "good on paper" type ideas that just was so poorly fleshed out that it's become an open scab throughout the story of the X-men. Part of the problem was how it started. Chris Claremont originally had Logan attracted to Jean Grey because he just soured on Cyclops and Jean Grey. He has gone on record as saying he completely despised the Scott/Jean romance after what happened with Madelyn Pryor and had he stayed on board, he would have broken them up and put Jean with Logan. He's already shown this in his X-men Forever series. It was one of the many reasons he split with the editors at the time. I think this sort of sets the tone because it wasn't so much done because these characters complimented each other. It was done more so as a foil to the Scott/Jean romance. That just really doesn't work. That would be akin to being a soccer fan just because you hate American football.

As a result, Logan and Jean's attraction was made to be really spotty. There were moments like Xtinction Agenda and Inferno where they kissed, but Jean pushed away. Then there were later moments like in Morrison where the kissing was mutual, but coupled with Jean lamenting over her love for Scott. The movies played this up even more by not just having Logan be the anti-Scott, but by having the part of Jean that was attracted to him be the darker part that became Phoenix. That really doesn't fall in line with her character and it speaks poorly of Logan's influence not just on her, but on everybody he's close to. In both cases it's always the same. There's an unrequited love between them. Logan loves Jean, but Jean doesn't love him in the same way and the man she does love is a man Logan can't stand. This sort of angle is good for a few plots, but it has been dragged out for so long over the years that it's not just old. It's destructive to their characters.

I look at X-men Forever as the best example. In this Chris Claremont clearly wanted them together now that no editors were in his way. But he couldn't undo the depth and complexity of the relationship Jean had with Scott, much of which he himself built up. The only way to make it happen was to force it and that just destroyed the elements of each character. It made Jean come off as a cheating skank and Logan come off as some overly emotional pretty boy when he's supposed to be the ultimate loner. This highlights the main stumbling block to their affairs. Logan and Jean are really made to compliment each other in the proper context. X-men Forever just thrust them together through sheer editorial force. Other mediums like the movies, Ultimate X-men, and the Earth X series put them together without any real depth. It was all just attraction that was pulled out of the air and used as a plot device. At no point was any effort made to really let it happen naturally as has been done with other successful pairings. The only instance I can cite that really made a serious effort to show their chemistry was Age of Apocalypse. That's where their romance was built around their respective characters and plot. It felt natural as it emerged and it was a good dramatic element to the underlying story. That's been the lone exception and I can't contemplate too many other areas where it has been done quite as well.

Now I know there are some who are completely disgusted by Jean and Logan as a pairing. That's perfectly fair. People can have their own tastes. Some hate it just because they love Scott and Jean so much better or they prefer Logan with someone else. My position is that any pairing can be made to work if it's done properly. And Jean/Logan has almost never been done properly. It's almost always been detrimental to each character. It either makes Jean out to be a skank or it takes away some of the defining characteristics that make Logan who he is. That's why I've often dreaded seeing references to it in most comics. That is also why I'm often against Jean hooking up with Logan when she comes back in 616 because given how it's been handled, it has little chance of ending well. I can understand in some ways how these two would be drawn together. They do have serious chemistry. That attraction is not just physical. There is some emotional depth to it and they do have potential. It's just the kind of potential that's not easily realized.

I've tried to keep this in mind as I've written my X-men Supreme series. At the moment, I have Jean and Logan dating. There's no unrequited love or unspoken passion. They actually are boyfriend and girlfriend and they actually are dating as a real couple. It's an angle to the characters I haven't seen explored too often even in fanfiction. I wanted to set my series apart in that respect so I've made a concerted effort to flesh out the Jean/Logan romance while avoiding some of the mistakes I feel have been made in other mediums. I'm sure some of the Jean fans here will disapprove. I respect that. But this is something I feel should be addressed because it's been so mangled in so many other ways.

Right now I'm just 9 issues in and Jean and Logan have been together since issue 5. I'm still left with some questions about this apiring. Can it be done well? Has it been done well? Have I done an okay job with it on my end? Am I completely wrong on my assessment? If so, please tell me. I want to know what you think. Jean and Logan are both some of my all time favorite comic characters. I've often had a conflicted view of the romance plots they've endured and I think it's something that deserves to be discussed.