Leah Williams Unpacks ‘Age of X-Man: X-Tremists’

Adventures in Poor Taste! reached out to writer Leah Williams to learn more about all the thought and care that’s gone into making Age of X-Man: X-Tremists special to so many X-Fans.

AiPT!: X-Tremists is one of those series that sneaks up on you and stays with you long after you’ve put it down for many reasons. One is unrequited love and all the feelings that come with it. Everything Fred goes through after revealing his love for Betsy is so relatable. Did you draw on your own past experiences to help readers experience something that is universal while also feeling so deeply personal?

Williams: More so than anything else I’ve written in comics, and it’s very uncomfortable to me. I obfuscate everything, of course, I am not self-inserting because that’d be one of the shittiest things I could do with this opportunity. However, my bottom-line is just wanting to provide something authentic. I like an airtight narrative (and obviously that gets more complicated in a collaborative medium like comics; not all of the moving components, many of which aren’t your responsibility to interpret, will land together perfectly), so drawing from some emotional experiences I know are authentic just as a means to provide gravitas is something I made an exception for in Freddy’s case. He deserved the credibility at the expense of my discomfort.

The way readers reacted to the moment of him confessing his feelings was sort of harrowing and humbling at the same time. For me, what he describes is a part of the queer experience–like, knowing you are attracted to your same-sex friend while closeted and fearful of consequences should you speak up. You love them. But you also love just getting to be around them. So you choose the pain of longing instead of the pain of loss or rejection, and after awhile you convince yourself that you’re maybe even happy like this. It was for the best. Then you dig yourself a pain rut and remain inside it indefinitely.

When X-Tremists #2 came out I learned the extent to which that’s a shared experience, though, and the way I learned this was because maybe dozens (I want to say?) of people reaching out to me and admitting they’re each feeling that same pain. And they just live like this. I’m still staggered breathless by that day.

I was similarly unprepared for how Betsy’s confession in X-Tremists #3 would land. Someone tweeted “Thank you.” and only that to me, and after glancing at their profile and seeing them speak to their own audience with the specifics of what they were going through and why Betsy’s confession mattered to them, I knew what that “Thank you.” meant and it made me want to cry just looking at it. You know exactly what it means in that context. And then for the second time, I just had this day of learning the extent of just how many people who read it are all hurting with the same specific pain.

I don’t know where to put this knowledge. It’s definitely breaking my heart, and overall, the X-Tremists experience has changed me on some fundamental level. I didn’t know what the f--k I was doing with Fred’s confession, to be honest–I just wanted something real and raw, and ringing with sweetness. I mostly feel like I stumbled into significance with Fred’s confession. I knew it rang true for me; I never realized the extent to which it would for everyone else. And learning it leveled me.

AiPT!: In the regular Marvel Universe, Psylocke is often portrayed as one of the X-Men characters who is most confident in her own skin–even when the skin hasn’t been that of her original body. Where did the idea come from to explore Betsy’s body issues?

Williams: Betsy Braddock was only ever body-confident when inhabiting Kwannon. She’s never once been satisfied with the body she was born with. She expresses this a few times prior to her journey through the Siege Perilous but earliest, I think (?) is when she just indicates dissatisfaction with her body’s physical limitations compared to her brothers’. Then there are some circumstantial details that could or could not be used in a discussion of Betsy’s body image issues, depending on how you feel about it–she starts dying her hair purple. She starts modeling. These things aren’t indicative of anything in particular on their own. But later, Betsy allows Mojo to give her cybernetic eye implants and that’s when we really start to explore Betsy Braddock’s profoundly unsettling obsession with body modification. And after this, we get a truly harrowing glimpse into Betsy’s body dysmorphia: in the Uncanny X-Men Annual #11 by Chris Claremont and Alan Davis, each of the X-Men is presented with their heart’s one true desire via the Siege Perilous. The trick is not to fall for this trap, obviously, and they have to resist overwhelming temptation despite it being the one thing they’ve always desperately longed for. All of them succeed.

Except Betsy. And her dream, her most desperate desire, is to be physically perfect–an armored woman. Sleek and made of steel. Impenetrable and strong. She says she chooses this path to protect those that she cares for, but once this is undone by the end of the issue: cut to like a year later, in a different book, of a different run, but with same pre-Kwannon Betsy: she’s still chasing the “perfection” of this ideal body and has started wearing custom armor just to mimic it.

It’s the usage of the word “perfect,” plus her blatant disregard for her original body that alarms me the most. She’s only joyful and confident once she’s inside Kwannon. That’s when she’s finally as dangerous, lethal, vicious, strong and sexual as the way she’s always dreamed of being. Closer to perfection. She outruns all of her insecurities inside Kwannon, and sure enough, whenever she’s presented with the option of reverting to her old self throughout the years, Betsy still consistently chooses to remain inside Kwannon. Betsy’s body issues have been in the canon for a very long time. I find them terrifying and sad.

AiPT!: While there have been many surprising relationships in Age of X-Man, Blob and Psylocke seemed to take many fans by surprise. But forget the fans–what was the initial reaction to Blobsy in the X-Office from the wider Age of X-Man team?

Williams: [X-Men Senior Editor] Jordan’s polite and professional no matter what canon shenanigans (cananigans) I propose. I pitched Blob/Psylocke on the phone to him when we were just tossing ideas back and forth about the cast as I learned who was still available, and I found out Blob still was. Betsy was already locked in as someone I definitely wanted by this point, so it was considering Blob as a possibility and then realizing how this world would affect him uniquely when I started to see the pieces fall into place. Betsy’s deep-seated body dysmorphia + the chance to give Fred an environment that loves and supports him regardless of his size and the resulting changes of who he’d be in this world. To me, it was just a natural alignment.

I made this connection instantly but internally, so what I blurted out on the phone to Jordan was more like, “Oh, Blob’s available!?” and then two seconds later “Blob/Psylocke romance!” I think his instinctive reaction a polite “????” but after hearing me out, he was just like “Sure!” and then I questioned him for months about whether or not he was still sure.