AiPT!: Welcome to the all-new, all-different X-Men Monday at AiPT!–just in time for the column’s 25th edition! Hey, comics love to celebrate those milestone issues, so you better believe a column about comics on a comic book website’s going to do the same. It’s our milestone 25th X-Men Monday, with special guests Gerry Duggan, Benjamin Percy, Bryan Edward Hill and Tini Howard!
AiPT!: Such eclectic picks–love it! Now, who is your favorite X-Men character and why?
Tini: Half of my brain is like ‘how dare you choose’ and the other half is like ‘Rictor.’ Part of why I love him is because he’s spent an extended period of time without his powers, where he became sort of the audience-viewpoint of what it was like to be a de-powered mutant during that time. I love that his powers are simple, but vague and fun to play with–his connection to the Earth can be very scientific or very mystical. I like that Rictor is someone we’ve seen as super vulnerable–on the page we’ve seen him go through breakups, a coming out, a passionate reunion or two, possible fatherhood, losing his powers, depression, a crisis of faith… Maybe it’s ’cause I was raised Catholic and also had a coming-out story, but he’s always been my #1.
AiPT!: What X-Character are you currently having the most fun writing?
Tini: I’m not regularly writing Kitty Pryde, but I wrote her for a few sentences, and maybe it’s the amazing work Gerry is doing in Marauders, but she just sings right now. It’s hard to not have a blast writing Kitty. Currently, at this very moment, I am writing a very fun Rogue scene. Betsy is my favorite to write but I wouldn’t describe her as fun right now. We’re working through some stuff. She’ll be OK.
AiPT!: Why should X-Fans and non-X-Fans give your new Dawn of X series a shot?
Tini: It’s hard to read House of X and Powers of X and look at the Excalibur cover and mission statement and wonder how it’s gonna fit in. But it does–pretty beautifully if I say so myself. We’re merging the spirit of Excalibur with the Dawn of X. There are swords and kissing and a lighthouse and the legacy of the Braddocks–who are, person for person, one of Marvel’s most powerful families, I said one of, settle down, Summers fans–carries on.
AiPT!: Working on an X-Men comic is something many of comics’ greatest writers and artists have done. What does working in the X-Men universe–with these iconic characters–mean to you?
Tini: We’re getting to establish a new status quo for the X-Men. We’re building a nation, a culture and an entirely non-human way of life. That’s honestly my favorite stuff–when we’re all together brainstorming: what is human and what is mutant? What can the superior shed and leave behind, and how can they improve, not just genetically, but culturally, spiritually. That’s what I’m about.
“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.
7 comments:
The most important question is; where is Angel in all of this? You can't have Elizabeth with Apocalypse and Warren nowhere to be seen.
I wish we had Angel and Nightcrawler in Excalibur. Nightcrawler is essential for the book and sadly Kurt will end up somewhere totally out of place. Archangel and Nightcrawler are an inverse duality which we never had the joy to read on a team book.
@Jaime, we briefly has Kurt and Warren together back during the Claremont/Byrne days when Angel rejoined the team for Dark Phoenix Saga and if I recall when Ororo led the team after Scott's departure when the Morlocks captured him for the wretched Callisto and Ororo has to check that *itch in a knife fight. LOL.
Warren and Kurt never had meaningful and deep interactions when Claremont was writing them or Chuck Austen used both in his X-Men team. Now is the perfect time to bring back into Excalibur Nightcrawler. Kurt and Betsy slowly developed a strong dynamic and friendship through their mutual Rachel so it's a shame to let it go to waste. Archangel is an essential part of the Betsy-Apocalypse-Archangel triangle.
Callisto is misunderstood. She is dark and hardcore but has other properties that make her likable like her honesty and anti-hero sentiment. She encouraged Marrow to go back to the Xavier school and learn to be a better person. I miss Callisto's tentacle hands and I'm the only one.
Chuck Austen tried to make a war of angels and demons in the early 00s focusing on Angel's and Nightcrawler's blood. It was lame that's why Marvel scrapped the idea. It's true that Angel and Nightcrawler haven't had any communication. I've never seen them have a heart to heart or time together either.
The good news arrived folks! I'm more than excited and overjoyed a little ashamed at the same time for questioning my faith on Hickman.
It is official the creation of Krakoan Strike Force. The absences of Archangel and Nightcrawler were part of Hickman's plan because those two are founding members of this team!
Now we can finally have meaningful interactions between Warren and Kurt even a budding friendship.
The Krakoan Strike Force is led by Cyclops and includes Archangel, Marvel Girl, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Monet, Husk and Mystique.
That is groundbreaking news as Monet and Husk at last graduate into the big team like Cannonball in the 90s.
Mystique isn't a heroine per se but her shape shifting abilities are stealth bonus for the team like Monet's investigative skills earned in X-Factor.
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