Friday, June 17, 2011

Alonso & Lowe Divorce Marvel's Mutants in X-Men: Regenesis

LinkRick Remender just tweeted: "None of the changes in other X-books will affect Uncanny X-Force. The stories interconnect but the book and purpose remain." So it looks like X-Force is safe, and it still remains the black ops undercover group book!

With plenty of details still under wraps, Newsarama consulted Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso and X-Men group editor Nick Lowe to get some answers to these questions, and try to get a little bit of a clearer picture of what's in store for the X-Men in the near future.

Nrama: With the announcement today came the "Who Will You Follow?" teaser image. How literal should we be taking it? Is this at all an accurate representation of who is going to end up on which side, or more just a red herring/metaphorical illustration? Then there's the curious matter of Professor X back in a wheelchair, which seems like it must be there for a reason.

Alonso: The “Who Will You Follow?” teaser image is just that: a teaser image. It should not to be taken literally. Professor X’s wheelchair is meant to give the image a classic feel — we’re not putting him back in it. And who’s to say that everyone in that picture will still be alive this September?

Nrama: On the conference call last week, there was talk of how the philosophical split between Cyclops and Wolverine had to be played in a way that both sides had a reasonable argument, without either being clearly "right." Was the same kind of doctrine applied to establishing the direction characters would go in the split? Making sure that both teams were balanced, and not one was too stacked — either in terms of popularity of power sets?

Lowe: As a group we wrestled with this a lot. We had a mini-X-Retreat back in January. We had X-Writers and X-Editorial there working through Schism and its aftermath and a big part of that meeting was who goes where and why. It mainly came down to individual characters and belief systems. Once you know what the philosophical issue is it’ll make a lot more sense. It wasn’t like an NFL general manager or coach decided who to draft or trade to build the strongest team. It’s up to the individual X-Men, not the leaders of each side.

Nrama: And on that note, are there going to be any mutants who either reject the idea of the split entirely, or choose to stay neutral?

Alonso: Given the nature of the split, that would be hard to do.

Nrama: It's natural to hear this news and wonder how the other X-books will be affected. X-Men: Legacy has just started to establish its own team with Rogue, Magneto, Xavier, etc., a dynamic that would seem to be untenable post-Schism. Adjectiveless X-Men and Astonishing have a bit more of a fluid format, but would also seem to be affected greatly. Are we headed for another shift in direction for Legacy? Will all these titles be sticking around?

Lowe: All the X-Books are going to have to react and deal with the status quo coming out of Schism. Mike Carey, who is the bees knees, has some amazing plans all throughout Schism and has really cool ideas on what Legacy is going to be after that. Adjectiveless X-Men will also feel the effects of Schism but will keep its identity as the most Marvel U-ingrained X-Book with lots of ties to the greater universe. Astonishing, well that’s going to be an announcement all to itself. And you didn’t even mention Uncanny X-Force or New Mutants or X-Factor or Generation Hope. They are all going to feel the effects and be changed by Schism.

Nrama: Let's look at Uncanny X-Force, then — we can't imagine that book is going anywhere, but given Wolverine's leadership status on that team, can we intuit from today's news that there will likely be a significant impact on the book?

Lowe: Yep! You’ll see effects there, too. You’ll have to wait a month or two after the rest of the books because Rick and Jerome are still in the middle of the “Dark Angel Saga” saga as well. But both Schism and “Dark Angel Saga” will change that book in big ways.

17 comments:

jarim77 said...

"And who’s to say that everyone in that picture will still be alive this September?"


You know, Psylocke coming back to 616 universe was the reason I started reading X-books again so if they kill her off I'll drop all marvel books and this time my decision would be final.

FSaker said...

Me too! Kill Betsy and you'll lose this reader, Marvel.

I fear for Psylocke, although Remender did say that he has plans for her relationships with both Captain Britain and Jamie Braddock for year two of Uncanny X-Force. Plus, he spared E.V.A. in the first arc, so I think (and hope) he'll spare Betsy in Dark Angel Saga as well.

Anonymous said...

I don't think Psylocke will die, I think the professor will. That might be why they chose a nostalgic representation of him sitting in his chair. it seems Cyclops and Wolverine can replace Magneto and Professor X's dreams. I only hope Betsy doesn't stick to Scott's team. Uncanny is going to suck with that creative team.

FSaker said...

BTW, I read the full interview and... Greg Land wanted to get out of Uncanny X-Men AND MARVEL DIDN'T CUT HIM OUT OF THE BOOK??? Damn, what should happen for the readers to finally get rid of his "art"??

Rahsaan said...

LOL about Land! Actually, it's no laughing matter. And whenever I see some Jim Lee art for DC, I miss him so badly on the X-Men.

FSaker said...

Changing subject, I read somewhere that Psylocke does indeed appear in Uncanny X-Men #538 (besides the cover, of course), and that she actually gets LINES! Is it true?

And what about X-Men #13? Is she in it?

jarim77 said...

@plasticpeace

Good point about Chuck. As long as he's around it would be difficult to have a real split between various X-Men since many would be looking up to him.

And it just yesterday when Remender told me that Betsy's relationship wih her bro would be touched in the year two of X-Force.

I guess I'm just insanely paranoid when it comes to my favouret fictional characters.

Anonymous said...

Hey, isn't that sword cutting her shoulder?

jarim77 said...

----
Hey, isn't that sword cutting her shoulder?
----

Actually no.
The blades are not as sharp so close to the handle. The area used to cut is about 75% of the blade length.

Zephyrzon said...

@fsaker

she has a few lines I'll quote them below

"The Breakworlders are all in custody. I'll be better for them if you peacefully joined them"

she saying this to Kruun the Breakworld alien

PS. Stunning picture of her (double kitanas), storm, namor angel, hope and iceman

Later Dr. Nemesis say "I hate space ninjas! I hate all ninjas" and an annoyed Besty says "Thanks"

jarim77 said...

@fsaker

She does appear in X-Men #13. But only on 1 panel and no lines.

FSaker said...

@The Great Black North & @jarim77 - Thank you both very much for the info!

I loved her quotes in Uncanny, especially her dialogue with Nemesis! She should interact with X-Club more often, all stories where she worked with them (the time-travel story, the Utopia crossover and the death of Dr.Takiguchi/JapaneseGuy) still have some of her best moments since her return to the X-Men.

treysome said...

We know Cyclops, Emma, Wolverine, Hope and Rogue will definitely survive.

FSaker said...

@treysome - I wouldn't be so sure about Emma...

(...yeah, she'll probably survive, but unlike the other 4 ones, she's no longer essential to any X-book. She can be killed if Aaron and Lowe want to)

As for the other four, yeah, they're safe (even though Gillen said that Cyclops could die and Uncanny would have only his followers, but I seriously doubt it).

I actually think Hope should get Professor X, the Five Lights and the New/Young X-Men, move to the Australian Outback headquarters and start a third X-Men team. That way readers would finally get a book featuring the New X-Men, Hope would finally start to be a REAL leader, and Charles would actually have a purpose (to guide and train the new generation of mutants). Sadly, this ain't gonna happen...

jarim77 said...

@FSaker

Yeah, they basically could kill Emma at some point. But I don't think they would because she's not the type of character that is usually killed off. She's very prominent but not alays actually doing anything. She's just there. And she's not stepping out of the traditional female role. (Yes, comics are sexist.)

Francis said...

@jarim
y'know i have a feelin emma might get killed, not now just a few time forward (and then you say everybody dies in MU...and you'd be right xD)

treysome said...

just read the recent x-creators look into Cyclops and it's safe to say the Scott/Emma thing ain't breaking up in Schism, so that promo picture doesn't really mean who will be on which side