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In 1984 comic book readers were introduced to Forge. The heroic tech wizard made his first appearance in Uncanny X-Men #184, sporting some of the shortest shorts you’ve ever seen. To be fair, it was 1984.

Chris Claremont and John Romita Jr. continued to develop Forge, revealing the character’s hidden depths. He was a government contractor who had the power to intuitively understand any machines, and this ability was exploited to make weapons against mutants. Forge felt great guilt over this, as seen in the classic story ‘Lifedeath.’ During a panel at CCXP 2024, Claremont and Romita Jr. reminisced about the creation of Forge.

“I was very young and inexperienced, and using [Claremont’s] scripts was such an advantage, but at first it was a terrifying challenge. Very difficult, but it taught me so many things. He may not admit it, but he had a film sense in his scripts, and that helped me amazingly, and I could also thank him for that,” Romita Jr. said.

“The key thing with Forge is writing a thing where he works with the government, so put him in the ugliest clothes ever,” Claremont said. “The first time you see him, he’s in this ‘What the Dickens’ t-shirt and a pair of shorts, and that’s it. You have to figure out an initial grab you image that defines the character right off the bat. Stan and Steve Ditko with original Peter Parker, WHAM…you see this kid wearing a bow tie and ugly glasses, and the minute you see Aunt May you know that nobody could be that big a nerd…but he was.”

“You try to define everybody as they go,” Claremont continued. “If you make them real to yourself, hopefully they will become real to the audience out there, but most importantly, real to the artist that has to bring them to life.”

Forge has gone on to become a popular and consequential X-Men character. Not bad for someone who first appeared wearing (as Claremont puts it) the ugliest clothes ever.

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