X-Position: Matt Fraction

Uncanny X-Men writer Matt Fraction talks about Psylocke once again in this week's X-Position. He haven't revealed much as usual though.

So I hear Psylocke is returning to the X-Books in big style during the Sisterhood arc, right? Will she just come out of nowhere and say "Hi, I'm back" or is there more? What are your plans for her from now on?

Matt Fraction: Who? Ah, that joke never gets old. To me.

Psylocke is indeed making her way back to our corner of the X-verse. How she gets here, why, who does it, and what it all means is really at the heart of the ‘Sisterhood’ arc – it explains everything about who the Sisterhood are, what brought them together, and what they've been up to since...what, “Uncanny” #499 or whatever it was when we first saw the Red Queen putting her girls in place.

Sword of the Braddocks: Changes

Pages: According to Previews, X-Men: Sword of the Braddocks, solicited as 40 pages, will now include 26 pages of all-new story along with an 11-page reprint from X-Men: Unlimited #47.

Release date: "Sword of the Braddocks" was supposed to be released on March 4th, but it has now been pushed back to March 25th.

Pencils/Colors: Wil Quintana will no longer do the colors for this issue, Dave Beaty will. Scott Clark is still doing the pencils though. According to their official board: "Dave and Scott are officially doing colors and inks, but officially Scott's penciling and Dave and Scott are doing the colors (unofficially I think they both are doing inks, too). It's more of a digitally painted story, kind of like what we did with Stargods." If anyone is interested, Scott Clark's DeviantArt page has some "Stargods" artwork.

New Exiles #18 Art

New Exiles #18 Spoilers

Spoilers: After last issue's big battle, Mystiq and Betsy mourn Cat's death, Gambit helps rebuilding the town and Rogue spends more time with Colyn. This world's President and Nerimani both agree that Lilandra will remain in exile on earth while Nerimani will assume the Shi'ar throne. Morph decides to stay with Nerimani, to make sure he leaves things in this world better than when they came. Rogue decides to stay too for she has found true love with Colyn. Mystiq, Sabretooth, Gambit and Psylocke leave and return to the Crystal Palace where they meet Sage. Tessa explains that she has merged the essence of her being with that of the palace and that whenever someone tries to communicate with the palace, they'll be talking to her. Betsy gets mad at Sage and run away. Tessa says she did what she had to do because the palace had lost its soul and because of that, whole dimensions were ending and the omniverse was dying. The palace wanted Cat at first, but Sage thought she was too young and couldn't handle it. Psylocke and Sage have a heart-to-heart and Betsy asks her what if this has no going back to what Sage responds that she simply doesn't care: she says she has a sense of everything and might as well make existence a better place. Meanwhile Gambit is swimming on the Crystal Palace's ocean where he finds Valeria Richards (from New Exiles Annual). Valeria simply says she was able to find the palace because she is smart. Sage gathers the team and send them on another mission while Morph returns to the Crystal Palace saying he couldn't leave his teammates. Another day, another mission. Something has happened on Gambit's earth: The Black Panther's people killed Gambit's father (Namor) so he decided to stay on his homeworld with his family as the new king. The Exiles and their allies finally defeat Black Panther and free Gambit's world. A couple of days later... the team spends some downtime together on the beach and Psylocke and Sabretooth make out (yes, they did it!). At night the team (Sabretooth, Psylocke, Mystiq, Valeria, Morph and Sage) look at the stars. They say they'll start again and look after everyone and every place. End!

Next: X-Men - Sword of the Braddocks!

Terry Dodson on Uncanny X-Men #504 Cover

Uncanny X-Men artist Terry Dodson has talked about issue #504 cover and reveals who is the lady next to Psylocke:

"It's the British Psylocke. The cover reflects one of the storylines featuring Emma investigating Scott's mindscape with all the various women from his life. The Storm on the cover is actually the mohawked 80's version. Also, in the background of page 9 panel 2 behind Emma you see 3 little figures - one of those is the British Psylocke. There lots of little hidden gems in there."

And there is more! Terry Dodson adds that "The initial idea [to include British Psylocke on the cover] came up because there's the little scene with her in the background panel and I thought it would make a great cover showing both of them together as it's impossible for them to be together (under normal circumstances, which the cover wasn't). It's always fun to add a mystery element to a cover to get readers to pick up the issue."

When asked about why Jean Grey wasn't included on the cover, he says: "Good observation - if you look at the issue there are NO redheads at all in Scott's mindscape as this is a story point of the issue and of things to come and also, none of the teen New Mutant / Young X-Men characters are there (for obvious reasons)."

May 2009 Solicits

Uncanny X-Men #510

Written by: Matt Fraction
Pencils & Cover by: Greg Land
Variant Cover by: J. Scott Campbell
SIEGE! The Sisterhood executes a massive raid on the Graymalkin Facility, taking their fight to the Uncanny X-Men, and you won't believe the ferocity. No one is safe! Everybody fights! But why? How? What do they want? And how long can violence at such an insane level last? Oh, about most of the issue.

X-Men Forever Alpha
Written by: Chris Claremont
Penciled by: Jim Lee
50/50 Covers by: Jim Lee
X-Men Forever marks Chris Claremont’s exciting return to a story he left unfinished over 15 years ago. Now, X-Men Forever Alpha #1 gets you caught up on all the best-selling action leading into Forever #1 with this special reprint of X-Men #1-3. The Master of Magnetism embarks on a holy crusade to rescue his fellow mutants from the coming genetic conflagration with humanity...regardless of the cost to either side. All that stands in the way of absolute chaos are the mutant heroes known as the X-Men, whose powers and abilities set them apart from a humanity that hates and fears them.

New Exiles #18 Preview

Cover by: Tim Seeley

Writer: Chris Claremont
Pencils: Tim Seeley
Inks: Tim Seeley
Colored by: Wil Quintana
Lettered by: Tom Orzechowski

The Story:
FINAL ISSUE! They WERE the New Exiles… but after last issue’s shocking ending and a loss that will tear them apart, how can our heroes possibly continue? The answers await you here, true believers, along with clues as to what the future holds for our favorite dimension jumpers! Join X-Maestro Chris Claremont for a bittersweet chapter we can only call “BEGIN ANEW”!

In Stores: February 18, 2009

Vote for Psylocke @ Hasbro.com/marvel

Starting February 10th through March 5th Hasbro.com/marvel is running a fan poll to choose the next five figures to be made! You get to choose five out of seventy characters in honor of Marvel's 70th Anniversary.

Make sure to get your vote in now since there is only a few days left and remember to vote for Psylocke as one of your five choices!

Go to www.hasbro.com/marvel scroll down to the News Headlines section and click on the 70th Anniversary Fan's choice

A Better Look at...

With a little bit of work here and there and I got it! Here's the whole background image from Matt Fraction's Marvel.com video. This could be the cover for Uncanny X-Men #509, but we still don't know that for sure. Enjoy it!

Marvel One on One: Matt Fraction & British Psylocke!

Writer Matt Fraction joins Marvel.com Assistant Editor Ben Morse in the the Marvel.com Studio to talk about INVINCIBLE IRON MAN, UNCANNY X-MEN and more in the latest episode of our Marvel One on One video series. He didn't say anything about Psylocke, but behind him there's an upcoming cover for Uncanny X-Men by Greg Land featuring both Asian and British Psylocke! Maybe British Psylocke is the 'resurrection' they've teased about on NYCC!

A Few Updates

In the lack of Psylocke's news, here's some minor updates concerning her and the X-Men:

• Uncanny X-Men Resurection: Matt Fraction's comments about an "old favorite" resurrection were misunderstood. He says the resurrection comes during the Sisterhood arc (Uncanny X-Men #508-511). Remember that he said the upcoming arc with Greg Land will have a "resurrection," "an old favorite" - a resurrection of some sort. So far the the only character confirmed to return in Sisterhood is Psylocke and everybody knows she's not dead. Remember Spiral was involved in Bett's body swap and Spiral is part of the Sisterhood... It makes you think. We'll have to wait and see on this one.
  
  
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: There's a possibility that Psylocke may be featured on the upcoming Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 game. Kalina, one of the games producer, has said that she got her favorite Marvel character to be in the game. She says we'll find out who this character is at or before San Diego Comic Con. Well, in the past Kalina has stated that Psylocke was her favorite character along Gambit and Spiderman. We'll have to wait on this one too.
  
  
• Terry Dodson on Psylocke: Uncanny X-Men artist Terry Dodson says he won't be designing a new costume for Betsy and that we'll have to wait and see if she'll return as an Asian or as a British. And of course, that she'll kick major ass!
  

New York Comic Con 2009: X-Men Teasing

While there was no real information on what will happen to X-Men Legacy after the current arc ends, there was certainly some teasing about upcoming Uncanny X-Men arcs:

Uncanny X-Men #504-507: Fraction's talking up UNCANNY, current story, Lovelorn, deals with Colossus.

Uncanny X-Men #508-511: Next arc is Sisterhood, about the Sisterhood of Evil Mutants and what they're up to with art by Greg Land.

And in the next arc is a ressurrection, an "old favorite," tease Fraction and Lowe. "Because we don't have enough characters in Uncanny," jokes Fraction.

Fraction can't discuss too many plans for Uncanny X-Men because they're top secret. Upcoming arc with Greg Land features a resurrection of some sort. An old favorite. "We don't have enough characters in the book. We need seven to eighteen more..." says Fraction.

Unncanny X-Men #512: Right after the close of Sisterhood, the X-Club (Beast's science team) have a stand-alone biggie-sized one-off crazy adventure.

Uncanny X-Men #513-onwards: Bad stuff.

"Things are about to get very difficult for Scott Summers," Fraction said of the appearance of a new redhead in the Marvel Universe, the child Hope as seen in Cable.

How big of a year will Cyclops have? Alonso: They're on a big journey and he's making a lot of big decisions. As Matt quipped earlier, it's going to be a complicated year for Cyclops That mutant girl has green eyes and red hair. Draw your own conclusions. Messiah Complex was the first chapter of a trilogy of events, with Messiah War being the second.

New York Comic Con 2009: X-Men Announcements

Now let's check what was said about the X-Verse in general. The announcements in the panel were:

X-Men Forever is a bi-weekly series that brings writer Chris Claremont back to the X-Men with artist Tom Grummett. The story will pick up where X-Men #3 left off, with Magneto dead and the X-Men greatly changed. It begins in May 2009 with X-Men Forever Alpha, collecting X-Men Vol. 2 Issues #1-3, plus a new eight-page story. Then X-Men Forever will begin with a new #1 issue in June.

Note: As we all know Psylocke was part of the Blue X-Men when X-Men #1-3 was published, so it's quite possible that she will show up in this new series. Betsy had just became a ninja, still doubting her loyalty and her place among the X-Men. So what would happen to Psylocke after X-Men #3 had Claremont never left? We'll see!

Other announcements include the cancellation of Young X-Men with issue #12 and more:

Old Man Logan Giant-Sized Special, which concludes the Old Man Logan story by writer Mark Miller and artist Steve McNiven.

New Mutants is a new ongoing series by writer Zeb Wells and Diogene Neves that begins in May and features the classic characters from New Mutants.

Dark Wolverine, the story in the Wolverine ongoing series that will begin with Issue #75 in June, causing the title to be renamed to reflect its tie-in to the 'Dark Reign' story. Written by Daniel Way and Marjorie Liu.

X-Force: Sex & Violence, a painted three-issue mini-series starring Wolverine and Domino that comes out in late 2009 from writers Craig Kyle and Chris Yost, and artist Gabriele Dell'Otto.

GeNext United, which is the return to the future world of the children of the Children of the Atom. The five-issue mini-series will begin in May by writer Chris Claremont.

New York Comic Con 2009: Psylocke

Marvel's X-Men panel Friday at NYCC focused on announcements about a variety of new comic series coming out this year and some more teasing. Not much was said about Psylocke that we didn't know already. Take a look:

Marvel.com: Claremont is writing a one-shot next month, Sword of the Braddocks, reuniting Psylocke and Captain Britain and resolving certain story arcs from Exiles. Fraction says it would be great to see Greg Land draw Psylocke.

CBR: Psylocke will be appearing in "Sword of the Braddocks," Claremont said, "resolving some of the storylines from Exiles and leaving readers totally frustrated." Again, David misheard the title as "Sort of the Braddocks."

IGN: Psylocke? Sword of the Braddocks - reunites Psylocke and Captain Britain. Resolves certain story arcs that have been running in Exiles.

Newsarama: Claremont: She's in Sword of the Braddocks reuniting her with Captain Britain.