Carey Extends His "Legacy" to Space & Beyond

CBR News spoke with Mike Carey about his plans for X-Men Legacy.

Issue #250 hits stores in just a couple of months. What can you tell us about the milestone issue?

Our main story in the issue kicks off a new arc that runs until issue #253. It's a story about Legion and some of the things that happen to him as a result of "Age of X" and the restoration of the X-Men's normal reality.

Issue #250 also has a back-up story that sets up the arc that begins in issue #254. It also explains some of the lingering mysteries from "Age of X." Specifically those relating to Revenant; her identity and how she came to be among the X-Men.

I understand this back-up also shines some light on another lingering mystery; the whereabouts of Havok, Polaris and Marvel Girl.

Oh yeah, we see them. Not just in glimpses, they're in the thick of the action. All three of those characters are very cool and fun to write and I've missed having them around -- which is the main reason why I floated the idea of bringing them back in like this.

Since we last saw those three characters, they were in space. Will the arc that begins in #254 take your team to the cosmic corner of the Marvel U?

Yes. The last we heard from them I believe was in "Realm of Kings" and they were on their way home. Obviously they never got there.

So in the story that begins in #254, four of our six protagonists end up in a very remote section of space. They're dealing with a crisis that arose in the aftermath of the "War of Kings" -- the war that was fought between the Kree (led by the Inhumans) and the Shi'Ar. But you don't have to know anything about the "War of Kings" to know what's going on. We're focusing on the destruction wrought in the conflict on some of the remoter parts of the Shi'ar empire. We'll be looking at what that meant for a strategically unimportant but narratively interesting part of the galaxy.

During "War of Kings," Professor X's ex-wife and former Shi'Ar empress Lilandra Neramani was murdered. Refresh my memory -- have we seen Xavier react to that news yet? Does he even know of Lilandra's death and will his feelings about her murder be part of this story?

As far as we know, he has no idea this has happened. And he doesn't find out in this story, although some of the other members of the team do. That means Professor X will find out very soon.

Earlier, you commented on just how powerful the new team in "X-Men: Legacy" is. I'd imagine the space arc will test their mettle with some pretty powerful adversaries. What can you tell us about the dangers they'll face?

We have, effectively, a running firefight going on between two alien groups. One if the Shi'ar, the other is a new and very scary race called the Grad Nan Holt. But we also have a not-very-natural disaster going on around them, which will probably end up destroying both sides. The X-Men are trying to avert this disaster and drawing fire from both sides in the process.

It's fast-paced, action-oriented sci-fi story. The setting is a planet-sized space station which has become a battlefield and is falling apart: imagine someone trying to write Larry Niven's Ringworld in 80 pages -- that's kind of what this is.

Finally, what can you tell us about your plans for "Legacy" following the space arc? We're only a few months away from "Schism," the event story line destined to tear the X-Men apart. Will "X-Men: Legacy" tie-into "Schism"?

Yes, the team will be drawn into the events of "Schism" and we'll see how they respond to things. "Schism" will be a supremely important storyline for "X-Men: Legacy." Everybody on that team is going to have a very powerful response, and Magneto and Professor X in particular are going to have to define their position. The result of that may redefine our status quo a bit.