The Claremont Run

In The Claremont Run, J. Andrew Deman presents truly impressive data and shows the ways one might track how gender is represented in comics using various quantitative measures. The author’s qualitative analysis is also well developed and helps make the quantitative data relevant for all types of comics scholars. As questions about how the genre takes on identity politics become more and more prevalent, analyses like Deman’s, which develop complex syntheses rooted in data, will undoubtedly become foundational.

— Sam Langsdale, coeditor of Monstrous Women in Comics

J. Andrew Deman utilizes a mixed-methods framework to highlight how Chris Claremont’s work on the X-Men offered an innovative approach to gender and sexuality. Deman's research supports the often-lauded progressive stance attributed to Claremont by documenting the subtle ways in which his run centered a wide range of female characters and by carefully reconsidering the expectations linked to masculinity. The Claremont Run, in considering gender and bodies, emphasizes how Uncanny X-Men provides pathways for transformation and offers the reader an important way to see the series in a new light.

— Julian C. Chambliss, coeditor of Assembling the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Essays on the Social, Cultural, and Geopolitical Domains

If you were ever curious how much each X-Man talks or thinks on the page, Deman’s book has cataloged and applied it in an essay written with deep love and admiration. It’s the perfect complement for anyone looking to revisit Claremont’s run or read his enduring stories for the first time.

— Eric Vilas-Boas, Vulture

Deman’s book offers us extended meditations on gender in the X-Men. It is a masterful work on the ways Claremont’s run is not only iconic, but achieves a level of gender subversion at a time when comics stood by traditional masculine and feminine roles . . . this is an excellent work of scholarship showing the ways public and academic scholarship can meet to open up new perspectives on works of popular culture.

— International Journal of Comic Art Blog

The Claremont Run is a dynamic and convincing piece of literature that brings attention to gender dynamics with a specific era of X-Men. Deman pushes deeply into the psychological, cultural, and societal aspects that Chris Claremont challenged, but Deman also analyzes minor characters to highlight that Claremont wanted each character to subvert gender norms . . . Deman's overall expertise and compelling argument throughout the books creates a quick-paced and convincing piece of literature for both scholars and everyday readers.

— The Journal of Popular Culture

Well-reasoned and insightful...[The Claremont Run is] an excellent resource for those looking into gender studies within the comics industry or for those comic fans looking for scholarly analysis.

— Technical Communications