A-Force #5 Art & Spoilers

Spoilers: Enraged after her failed coup, Loki blasted a hole in the Shield, the wall that protected Arcadia from the zombies of the Deadlands. Now, the members of A-Force are all that stand between paradise and total destruction.

"Uncanny X-Men's" Bunn Addresses Psylocke's Racial Indentity

CBR: For the past 25 years, Psylocke has been one of the most prominent members of the X-Men -- and she's also been one of the most heavily discussed. In 1989's "Uncanny X-Men" #256, a new version of Psylocke was introduced when the white, British-born Betsy Braddock underwent a body swap with the Japanese assassin Kwannon. This iteration of the character, characterized as a psychic-knife wielding ninja, proved to be popular enough to become the default version of the character.

This hasn't set well with some fans who view the body swap, which switched the bodies of a white woman and Japanese woman, as plot device born of unintended ignorance at best or outright appropriate at worst. With Psylocke a mainstay in the X-Men, many readers wonder why the issue of Betsy's racial identity -- specifically the character's immediate appropriation of Asian culture following her body swap -- has never been thoroughly explored by an X-writer. Tumblr user tazirai posed this very question to Cullen Bunn, the writer responsible for writing Psylocke in this fall's new "Uncanny X-Men" series.

"I was wondering do you plan to ever address her 'problematics' with racial identity or lack thereof, or put her back in her original body, like some writers at Marvel have said they wanted to like GWW?" asked tazirai, referencing Marvel writer G. Willow Wilson. "Even if you don't I know she'll at least be written beyond the ninja trope, hopefully."

Bunn responded on his personal Tumblr: I’ll definitely do my best to write Psylocke as more than “just a ninja”. As to the “problematics” you mention, I’m torn. I would definitely like to address some of those notes. My X-Men notebook has pages dedicated to that idea. However, I also want the book to be accessible to new readers, so I don’t think it’s a good idea to hit that too heavily in early issues, you know? When it is the right time, I’ll tackle it.

Since it's been subjected to numerous retcons -- as well as one failed attempt by Psylocke co-creator Chris Claremont in 2001 to put her back in her original body -- Betsy Braddock's backstory has become one of the more convoluted in the X-canon. The new "Uncanny X-Men" series, written by Bunn with art by Greg Land, arrives this fall.

Note: G. Willow Wilson previously acknowledged Psylocke's racial problematics and desire to put her back in her original body here.

X-Men #26 Spoilers

Spoilers: Rachel, Pylocke and Monet manage to reach the surface, where they reunite with Storm. The rock monster wakes up and heads to the emergency response center. Gambit stops it from injuring the civilians nearby. Rachel tries to reason with the rock monster telepathically, but fails. Jubilee arrives aboard the X-jet in time to catch Rachel from falling. Psylocke uses her telekinesis to bring the X-jet to the ground safely. While Rachel links herself with the rock giant’s consciousness, Monet goes through it and Storm summons lightning to destroy it once and for all. Jubilee brings one piece of rock back to the school. Back at the school, Beast deduces Krakoa was sick because it was created in the same manner as the rock giant. Storm tells Jubilee she saw Wolverine down the caves and hugs her. Afterwards, Jubilee brings the piece of rock to Krakoa as a gift – an imprint of memory, life after death.

*This is the last issue featuring Earth 616 Psylocke for the time being.

X-Men #26 Preview

X-Men #26

Writer: G. Willow Wilson

Art by: Roland Boschi

Cover by: Terry Dodson

The Story:

Investigating mysterious natural phenomena in the Blackrock Desert, the X-Men have discovered something monstrous that has ties to their own past. Reliving history, can the X-Men find a way to win the day this time around or are they doomed to make the same painful mistakes?

In Stores: April 29, 2015

X-Position: G. Willow Wilson Illuminates "The Burning World" in "X-Men"

CBR: With "X-Men" #26 scheduled for release on April 29, G. Willow Wilson returns to X-POSITION to answer your questions on her problems with Psylocke's body-switching, the X-Men franchise's track record of depicting female superheroes, who she'd like to write in a solo series and what Dazzler will bring to "A-Force," set to debut in May and co-written by Wilson and Marguerite Bennett.

You've expressed in social media your desire to put Psylocke back in her original body. I've always felt uncomfortable watching a white woman wearing an Asian body and I'm glad a writer acknowledges it. Can you share your opinions on it and why do you feel it is important minority characters are represented accurately?

I think it's important to acknowledge that people's experiences are not interchangeable, especially when it comes to race and ethnicity. If you're going to drop a white character into an Asian body, I think it behooves you to explore how that character's life would change -- how she would be treated socially, how she would deal with microaggression, how this might alter her perceptions about the world. If you take a story in that direction, you've gotta do the work. Otherwise it's just tokenism. However, since I'm just here for four issues, I didn't feel I had the space or the prerogative to move things around significantly, so I didn't really touch on the Psylocke race issue. If I was the ongoing series writer, however, I would seriously consider making a change.

Now that your run on "X-Men" is coming to an end, why do you think the X-Men's female characters stand out in comic books as opposed to female characters in other franchises who just end up being female derivatives of their male counterparts?

The X Men have always led the field when it comes to the depiction of female superheroes. Maybe because it's a book about dealing with difference, and also breaking down difference -- the characters are united because they are all mutants in a world that hates them, but as individuals, they are profoundly different. That's fertile ground for great character work. Storm, Rogue, Jubilee, Jean Grey, Rachel Grey -- they've all historically had both very close friendships and very believable tension. I think that's why they resonate with so many people in a way that spin-off characters might not.

Was it difficult to write Psylocke, Rachel, and Monet due to their similar power sets? Was it a personal decision to show how different telepathy and telekinesis is based upon the user?

Yes, it was difficult. I really struggled with ways to make them all remain distinctive, power-wise. In the end, though, those similarities are going to help them out significantly -- I won't say how!

X-Men #25 Spoilers

Spoilers: Monet keeps fighting monster-like creatures within the cave, when Jubilee contacts her and tells about Beast's findings concerning the Kree. Monet orders Jubilee to head to New Attilan and seek Medusa for explanations. Monet tries to get back to Rachel and Psylocke but ends up slipping; rocks falling all over her. M daydreams of her family; her mother telling her words of strenght and encouragement. In New Attilan, Medusa tells Jubilee that the Kree haven't run any experiments in Earth in thousands of years. Monet manages to contact Rachel telepathically. Rachel tells her she needs to tap into both M and Psylocke's TK abilities to lift heavy stuff. While the three of them are connected, they realize the place has a memory: in 1944, a sort of detonation carried out by humans made that particular place as unstable as it is.

X-Men #25 Preview

X-Men #25

Writer: G. Willow Wilson

Art by: Roland Boschi

Cover by: Jorge Molina

The Story:

• As natural phenomena tear the Black Rock Desert apart—with Storm stuck deep in the Earth at the epicenter—the X-Men race to find answers and save their teammate!

• And while some of the team follow a lead that takes them to the Inhuman Queen MEDUSA, Psylocke makes an EXPLOSIVE discovery of her own…

In Stores: March 4, 2015

X-Men #24 Spoilers

Spoilers: Psylocke, Rachel and Monet climb down 40 feet underground and are ambushed by strange creatures. Rachel points out they’re linked like a hive mind. The X-Men fight the monster, but one of them hits Betsy’s arm pretty hard. Psylocke then raises a telekinetic shield around them. Betsy decides to psychically dampen her own pain receptors and tells the others they’ll fight their way to the opening on the other side of the cave. The girls manage to take down the creatures and reach the opening. Rachel senses everything in the cavern is connected, even the fungi. Suddenly, they are attacked by a much larger creature. Back at the Jean Grey School, Beast tells Jubilee that he found a certain amount of interstellar hydrogen in Krakoa’s sample. Jubilee thinks this is not a coincidence and leaves the school. Meanwhile, Storm is still struggling to find a way out, fighting with her claustrophobia. Back to the X-Men, Rachel senses the whole place is an experiment gone wrong while Psylocke comes across Kree armor. They deduce the aliens are to blame. Betsy’s condition worsens and Monet decides to take matters into her own hands.

X-Men #24 Preview

X-Men #24
Writer: G. Willow Wilson
Art by: Roland Boschi
Cover by: Terry Dodson

The Story:
• Trapped deep underground in the sinkhole that mysteriously appeared in the middle of the Black Rock Desert, STORM battles her claustrophobia while trying to find answers.
• Meanwhile, her teammates above ground discover that the phenomenon has ties to old enemies…

In Stores: February 11, 2015

Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men with G. Willow Wilson

Art by David Wynne. Prints available until 1/25/2015 in the shop, or contact David for the original.

X-Plain the X-Men: G. Willow Wilson joins Rachel and Miles' podcast to talk abour her new run on X-Men, comic books and writing. Listen and download the interview here.

Who else is on the team? Psylocke!

Wilson: Psylocke was one character I had to do a lot of background research on because I got into the X-Men at the end of the Claremont era… I religiously watched the Fox Kids cartoon…. So Psylocke was kind of a new one on me. I had to take a look at her history and get a sense of her. There’s opportunity there to do some really deep tissue massage. She’s one of these characters that occupy a body that is not her original body. There are some very interesting things that are kind of problematic to go along with that because her adopted body is of an Asian woman, but she’s originally British. She’s another one I went very conservative with. I didn’t really do anything to her, but if I was going to be on this book for longer, I might’ve put her back in her original body.

Do you see [Psylocke’s addiction to killing] as more of a flash in the pan that’s currently affecting her or something that’s becoming more core of who she is?

Wilson: Each of the four issues is more or less from the point of view of a single character. In Psylocke’s voice over issue, we get to see into her head and we watch her think about where she fits into the power dynamic and how she sees her role. Her powerset as it stands is one of the more destructive ones. Psylocke with her psy-blades not only has the most obviously violent powerset, but also the most disturbing because these are not real weapons. They’re specifically for the inflicting of pain. I don’t go too deep on the psychology, but I do look at what she sees the role of that with regard to her position in the X-Men. We see that she has a very good idea of what the frontlines are in the team and what she has to do in her mind to fill those in. I think you can do a really interesting Psylocke stand-alone book that is almost like Punisher and get really into that stuff.

X-Men #23 Spoilers

Spoilers: At the Burning Man-style festival in the Black Rock Desert, Gambit offers dubious massages to the girls when a supercell hits the place. Gambit calls the Jean Grey School and asks Jubilee to have Storm send all her team. Jubilee notices that Kid Krakoa seems sick. Afterwards, Storm’s team arrives in the desert and learns that 23 people were killed already. Storm orders the girls to scout the perimeter and decides to deal with the supercell on her own. Storm uses lightning to purify it, but charging the air with electricity set it on fire. Psylocke tries to reach Storm but it’s useless. Storm tells Rachel to lead the girls and reveals the supercell acts as if it is sentient. Ororo tries to smother the storm, but it backfires and she ends up in a hole deep underground. Storm has claustrophobia and hallucinates of Wolverine, who tells her to calm down and fix the storm the way it wants to be fixed, and not the way Ororo wants to fix it. With not enough room to fly and little air, Ororo starts climbing toward the light. Back at the School, Beast deduces that Krakoa is reacting something happening to the larger ecosystem as an illness. Meanwhile, Psylocke, Rachel and Monet notice that Storm funneled the supercell into the crater, which came down on top of her, leaving her trapped under the rubble and decide to go after her.

X-Position: G. Willow Wilson

CBR: G. Willow Wilson joins us for the first time here at X-Position and answers your questions about everything ranging from Storm's power set to Monet's religion and Rachel Grey's headspace.

Which relationships between Storm, Rachel, Psylocke, M and Jubilee do you find the most compelling to write?

Wilson: They're all so OP [overpowered] that it's actually quite difficult to find a balance between them. I say this with great affection. That's why I've essentially buried them underground -- put them in a place where their powers are of limited use. That way we get to focus on the relationships, the tensions -- which arise when you have several natural leaders in one group -- the affections, the physicality of a group of women who spend their time fighting side by side. I found the Rachel-Storm tension set up by [original "X-Men" writer] Brian Wood interesting, so I explore that a little. Also Monet's temper, her forthrightness, against Psylocke's natural tough aloofness. Lots of interesting stuff.

How long do you plan on staying on the book? Please let it be for a while!

Wilson: Aww! Only four issues. But then I move on to a brand new book that I can't talk about except to say that if you like this particular X-Team, you will like the new book. And if you don't like this particular X-Team, you will like the new book anyway.

X-Men #23 Preview

X-Men #23

Writer: G. Willow Wilson

Art by: Roland Boschi

Cover by: Terry Dodson

The Story:

"THE BURNING WORLD" PART 1!

• The start of a brand new story penned by MS. MARVEL creator G. WILLOW WILSON!

• When a sinkhole appears under mysterious circumstances in the middle of the Black Rock Desert, the X-Men go to investigate...

• But little do they suspect that the phenomenon has connections to old allies...and enemies!

In Stores: January 7, 2015

Wilson's"X-Men" Find Themselves Battling "The Burning World"

CBR: The stars of Marvel Comics' "X-Men" -- Storm, Psylocke, Rachel Grey, Monet and Jubilee -- possess a host of powers with which they prevent villains from carrying out their nefarious plans. But will their fantastic abilities prove as effective when battling a mysterious, but seemingly natural phenomenon?

That's one of the central questions in "The Burning World," a four-part story by writer G. Willow Wilson and Roland Boschi that kicks off in January's "X-Men" #23 when the book's cast finds itself investigating a mysterious sinkhole in the Black Rock Desert. We spoke with Wilson about the tale, its connection to larger X-Men lore, and her love for the X-characters and universe.

What do you find most interesting about this X-Team in particular?

Wilson: It's an interesting mix of characters. There are a lot of telepaths, there's Storm -- what's interesting to me as a writer is that when you've got a team book with characters that have been around for so long, and some of whom, like Storm, are these Omega mutants that are super-overpowered, it's really tough to put them in situations that are going to challenge them.

That's been the big thing with me for this arc. Let's put them somewhere new and give them something to fight that they haven't fought a million times before. That makes it so they can't just levitate a city or shoot something with lightning and be done with it. That's really challenging, because these characters have really been around. They've faced a huge number of threats, not only in this version of the book, but previous versions of the book. It's been a very interesting learning curve for me.

I understand the way you're telling this story allows it to be both character and plot driven.

I thought it would be fun to take four of the core members of this line-up -- Storm, Psylocke, Rachel Grey and Monet -- and kind of get inside their heads each issue. There's a bit of a hand off: The first issue is primarily from Storm's point of view, then it's handed off to Psylocke, handed off to Monet, and handed off to Rachel.

We really get to see the same story and the same mission unfold from these different points of view. That gets us into the group dynamic, the relationship between these characters, how they solve problems differently, and we really get to show off their power sets with these double-page splashes of things blowing up that we all know and love in superhero comics. [Laughs]

It's going to be a lot of fun, I hope. There are a lot of nods to X-Men lore, especially the old stuff that we all remember from when we were kids. I'm hoping it's going to be a good balance of fun and exciting, and story-driven.

I understand that Gambit will appear as well. What can you tell us about his role in the story?

He has a cameo at the beginning. This arc starts off at a Burning Man-style festival in the Black Rock Desert. I actually took to Twitter when I was planning out this story and asked people, "Who, out of all the X-Men, present or past, do you think is most likely to show up at Burning Man?"

The overwhelming consensus was Gambit. [Laughs] He'd be sort of the skeezy guy who goes around offering dubious massages, and stuff like that, so he does have a cameo at the beginning. It's a lot of fun. I hope people are as excited about this as I am.

What I've read about the story suggests that the story has an almost "Twilight Zone" style feel to it. Is that fair to guess?

Yes. I was thinking about Storm in particular, who's been a big hero of mine since I was a kid. I was thinking about her particular power set and what kind of effect, if any, there would be on her due to the fact that all over the world because of climate change, weather patterns are changing. Things are shifting. They're not as they were. Things are very unstable.

Then, I was reading about the gigantic sinkhole that appeared in Siberia. They couldn't figure out why it was there. It was huge and deep, almost like a bomb had gone off, and nobody could figure out what it was. Then another one appeared in a different part of Russia.

For a lot of my stories, I like to use real world touchstones as a jumping off point for the more fantastical adventures that the characters are having. In this story, there's a giant sinkhole in the Black Rock Desert like the one in Siberia, that has caused a huge amount of destruction and kind of changed the weather in that particular area.

Very quickly, the team finds out that there's more than meets the eye. This is not just about weird geological phenomenon. There's something more sinister going on that not only challenges their ability to make things right, but it also challenges their sense of what you fight. It's very easy to fight a bad guy. It's less easy to fight the Earth. So it's very interesting.

It sounds like a somewhat surreal story.

Yeah, it is. It will probably be more surreal to others than it is to me. [Laughs] I find that, inevitably, when I write comics, I'll write something that seems perfectly sensible to me and people will be like, "Wow! This is super weird!"

You mentioned that the sinkhole phenomenon would have a connection to X-Men lore of the past. Can you elaborate on that?

I wanted to pull in different people for different aspects of the story, so there's a bit of the B-story with Jubilee and Beast back at the Jean Grey School who are trying to unravel a different part of the mystery. It's going to touch on a slightly different part of the Marvel Universe in a way that I don't want to spoil.

Suffice to say, in their quest to discover whatever is causing this massive destruction in the Black Rock Desert, the X-Men are forced to go out of their comfort zone and call on characters from other segments of the MU. So it will be interesting to see how they resolve that.

So this is a story with a pretty big scope and scale?

Yeah. I take a lot of big ideas and boil them down into something really immediate, visceral and personal. So we'll see how it plays out.

"The Burning World" is a four-part story, but if the opportunity to do more work on "X-Men" or other X-titles presents itself, would you be interested?

Absolutely. This is a team book that I've really been invested in for a huge chunk of my life. It's been a lot of fun to see it unfold and take on so many different aspects and go through so many different iterations.

I hope people check out this story. It's very different from what I'm doing right now in "Ms. Marvel," but I hope I'm able to do as good a job and give people, especially long time X-Men fans, a story they can connect with.

G. Willow Wilson's run on "X-Men" starts with issue #23, scheduled to be released in January 2015.

NYCC 2014: X-Men

Marvel.com: Editor Daniel Ketchum talks about bringing G. Willow Wilson on board for the mutants' next saga!

By the time the ladies of X-MEN return to Earth, their series will just be getting fired up.

MS. MARVEL writer G. Willow Wilson steps onto X-MEN in January for a story titled “The Burning World.” Starting in January with issue #23, the four-part arc sends the team into a mystery involving an old villain and some new guest stars.

“I don't know if this is known, but Willow has an immense love for the X-Men characters,” editor Daniel Ketchum says. “She’s doing an amazing job.”

Wilson’s story begins with a new face to the all-female X-MEN cast: Remy LeBeau.

“Gambit's got to be in it; I think he’s—in the best way—a really good butt of jokes in an all-female X-MEN comic,” Ketchum laughs. “He’s such a caricature of himself, and there are so many ways he can be really funny. So this starts with Gambit at this kind of Burning Man festival. He’s the one who gets put on the track of this mystery when this giant sinkhole opens in the middle of the desert. Of course he calls in the X-Men and Storm notably because she has this connection to the environment.”

Though the Cajun X-Man won’t be the only guest star arriving in the series.

“There are a couple of cameos from outside the X-Men universe, which I’m really excited about,” Ketchum shares. “Whenever you can do that and broaden the scope of an X-Men story, it makes you feel like you’re not just in your own little pocket. We’re actually living in the same universe as Spider-Man or Captain America.”

As Storm, Psylocke and the rest of the team investigate, the story promises some secrets from the team's past to bubble up, mostly revolving around the book’s mystery villain.

“I don't want to give much away, but with the villains we’ll find out there’s much more going on here,” Ketchum teases. “It's a mystery/suspense story, which is great, but we want the reader to discover clues and try to solve the mystery before the characters do. The villain comes with some twists and turns along the way.”

Wilson’s arc follows the currently running “Exogenous” space saga of X-MEN, and Ketchum says the wide range of adventures for the team stands as part of his plan for the title’s future:

“I took over editing the book from Jeanine Schaefer and Tom Brennan when Brian Wood was writing, and it really was his vision. Brian gave the book a pretty strong direction and voice. When he decided he was going to move on to other projects, I was intimidated by who I’d find to write it because it was so much his baby.”

“So I ultimately decided to do a quick run of rotating arcs where creators could come on, tell their X-Men story and then drop the mic. Marc Guggenheim came first and told this awesome space sci-fi epic, of which I just sent the penultimate issue to the printer.”

“The Burning World” provides a good follow up to the sci-fi story, the editor explains:

“When it came to [whom] to go to next, Willow came to mind very quickly. She’s burning it up over on MS. MARVEL. But more than that, I feel she can get into the heads of characters and tell a story on that level in addition to the cool Marvel Universe stuff.”

But beyond crafting a more personal story for the team, Wilson will also chose a different character each issue to provide the point of view for readers.

“She has this wonderful gift for getting into the heads of characters.” says Ketchum. “And since this is the all-female X-Men book, she’ll be spending time with each of those characters in a way that Brian or Marc maybe didn’t get time for. We'll get into Storm and M—especially M because she’s been with the team for so little time. We’ll get to Psylocke and Rachel Grey so it’ll be really fun.”

NYCC: G. Willow Wilson Takes X-Men To The Burning World

ComicBook.com: At today’s “Women of Marvel” panel at New York Comic Con, Marvel Comics announced that Ms. Marvel writer G. Willow Wilson would be writing a 4-part story arc in X-Men, titled “The Burning World.”

This is partially significant in that Wilson will be the first female writer to work on X-Men sense it was relaunched with an all-female X-Men roster.

More significant is Wilson’s unique story structure. “The Burning World,” which begins with January’s X-Men #23, sees Gambit discovering a mysterious sinkhole outside a counter-cultural, Burning Man-like festival in the Black Rock Desert.

Each of the four issues of the story will be told from the perspective of a different X-Men character, with each issuing deepening the sinkhole’s mystery and revealing ties to enemies from the X-Men’s past.

“The Burning World” begins in January, and will run from X-Men #23-26.