Marvel.com: To save the world, Warren Worthington III had all of his memories and personality wiped from existence, essentially hitting the reboot button on his own life. The teenage Angel appears at a time when the X-Men perhaps have still not fully come to terms with the void their longtime friend and teammate has become. Brian Michael Bendis explains how Angel fits into the X-Men's past and the future of All-New X-Men future.
Marvel.com: Angel and Jean Grey have a similar situation since both of their future selves are not around. Current Angel is basically a blank slate. Does young Angel get to find out all of the crazy stuff he’s been through with Apocalypse?
Brian Michael Bendis: That is something I’m going to be a little vaguer about because there’s some big stuff coming up in our second arc. People, by the very nature of the story, were very interested in telling Jean exactly what happened to her and having her react to it. Angel is completely freaked out by the fact that no one is talking about him, because no one knows what to say. And he’s like, "all right, you’re willing to tell Jean she died twice, but where am I?" There’s sort of a closure with Jean, because she’s gone. There’s not closure with Warren. It’s still happening, it’s a very fresh wound, the him rebooting himself thing. And no one knows how they feel about it. No one knows if they feel guilty about it, so that’s going to push the story forward in the second arc.
Marvel.com: Does he become very aggressive on trying to find out what happens?
Brian Michael Bendis: Yep. It’s intense. Not to spoil everything, but they have to agree as a group to do the things they are doing now, and not everybody agrees, but they have been outvoted. So not everyone is desperate to be where they are right now. You have a character like Angel, who many not have even wanted to go [forward] in time in the first place, and he gets here, and now nobody’s talking. It’s spooky, to say the least.
Marvel.com: You previously mentioned that Wolverine meeting the teenage Jean Grey is going to be a big moment. Are we going to get to have that with Psylocke and teenage Angel?
Brian Michael Bendis: Yes, but that’s further down the line. Right now it’s about the immediate problem of his situation. But yes, as you can see just from the questions you are asking, there are a myriad of story possibilities that are emotional and legitimately threatening and boy oh boy, right?
Marvel.com: Any last thoughts about Angel before we move on?
Brian Michael Bendis: Even though Jean is faced with quite horrible things involved with her death, there’s something even more shocking about what Angel’s faced with. Even though Beast postures more about his place as a mutant and as an X-Men, Angel isn’t a fully-formed adult yet and he is being faced with truly shocking things that he never thought he’d see about himself and his teammates.
“For so long, my life has been out of control. Chaos and serendipity, wrapped in insanity. I have suffered, I have lost. Not just my life, but my very soul, my self. But no more. Now I know who I am.” – Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Braddock, daughter of Otherworld, mutant, telepath, telekinetic, defender of the realm and, above all, X-Man.
