Uncanny X-Force vs. Armageddon

IGN: In Fear Itself: Uncanny X-Force by Rob Williams and Simone Bianchi, the team tackles an increasing threat from a group of extremists -- the Purifiers -- that believe Armageddon is impending, and they're holding superhumans responsible. We talked with Williams about the correlation between his story and the recent "rapture" theories, the book's ties to Rick Remender's Uncanny X-Force series, and more. Marvel also gave us an exclusive first look at some pages from issue #1, hitting stores July 6, 2011.

        
    

IGN Comics: Fear Itself is a pretty topical event, and it looks like your Uncanny X-Force tie-in mini is keeping that tradition with its theme of Armageddon. With all of the rapture hoopla that just passed, was there any influence from those real-life predictions on this story?

Rob Williams: There wasn't, but the timing's become rather pertinent. I guess this is exactly the type of thing that Matt Fraction and company were feeding off with the core concept of Fear Itself. There's hard economic times for a lot of people, there's always some form of apocalyptic tomorrow just beyond the horizon, whether it was the millennium bug in 2000, the recent predicted rapture, the Mayan 2012 thing. Whether you believe in any of these things or not we certainly live in a world where extreme religious groups are driven to terrible actions by their beliefs. That's where our mini-series is coming from.

IGN: In Uncanny X-Force proper, we're about to undertake a journey that points to the downfall of Angel. Will those story beats be reflected in Fear Itself: Uncanny X-Force?

Williams: Not really. We wanted to make this a self-enclosed storyline that will be accessible to new readers and which will, hopefully, appeal to regular readers of the core book. So we have three issues and a definite beginning-middle and end here. Rick Remender's planted plot threads in the main X-Force series - which I'm loving, by the way - and they're his to complete. I was pretty thrilled to be asked to have these characters for three issues. But the core X-Force story is Rick's.

IGN: X-Force typically operates behind the curtain, unseen. Is their mission throughout Fear itself going to be more overt or still on the down low?

Willaims: They're, by their very nature, a black-ops, covert team. The world, and the majority of the X-family, don't know they exist. That will continue here. Our finale takes place very much out in the open. But in a world where superheroes are commonplace, no-one's going to be able to identify X-Force as a definable team from their actions here.

IGN: Can you tell us what connection, if any, the "Purifiers" have to the God of Fear and The Worthy?

Williams: They're their little thematic children, even though the God Of fear doesn't have a clue about that. But that is enough to cause widespread loss of life, as you'll see in the story. The wider events of Fear Itself cause a lot of people to think that this is the end of the world. That's going to send this particular splinter group off the deep end. They believe that it's not just mutants who are the children of the devil, it's all super-people. And they think that the devil is here and about to take humanity to hell. So it's up to them to save as many souls as they can right now. The God of Fear would be very proud of their actions, I'm sure.

IGN: This tie-in sounds like it has more of a philosophical bent to it than some of the other minis that are coming. Is this something brought about by the nature of the characters?

Williams: It's about the power of belief. We wanted to write a story which dealt with the themes of Fear Itself. To ask what a mutant kill crew are afraid of. The Purifiers believe that the superhumans have brought the end of days down on humanity, that mankind's morality has sunk to the point where we've reached a tipping point to annihilation. And despite how crazy that might sound, X-Force are going to look at themselves, with all the blood on their hands, and wonder if, amidst the crazy, there's a kernel of a point there. There's a meta aspect to the story too - should superheroes, as a concept, really be a kill crew in the first place?

Plus a lot of widescreen action sequences. I kind of wanted this to be a big Hollywood action movie with a theological edge.

IGN: What does Simone Bianchi bring to the table for this book?

Williams: Unbelievable visuals and a ton of energy on the page. Everyone knows how good Simone is - and when I was told he was on this project the whole nature of it lifted. It's a treat to work with an A-list talent. As a writer you always want to play to people's strengths so giving Simone some killer action sequences was the plan. And I certainly think we've done that. There's two sequences in particular which would cost umpteen millions to put on a movie screen. I'm not sure how much Marvel are paying Simone but he's made this book look like a blockbuster.