X-Men #15 Art

X-Men #13 Art

Uncanny X-Force #15 Art

 

Uncanny X-Force #15 Preview

Uncanny X-Force #15

Writer: Sam Humphries

Art by: Phil Briones

Cover by: Ramon Perez

The Story:

• THE GREAT CORRUPTION reaches its conclusion!

• One of the X-Men’s greatest foes is rampaging through Los Angeles in the guise of the Revenant Queen. What sacrifice will one member of Uncanny X-Force make to stop her and her army?

Uncanny X-Force #14 Art

Uncanny X-Force #14 Preview

Uncanny X-Force #14

Writer: Sam Humphries

Art by: Phil Briones

Cover by: Kris Anka

The Story:

- The Revenant War kicks into high gear as the Uncanny X-Force must battle their fiercest enemies yet!

- The truth about the revenant Owl Queen is revealed – and she’s even more dangerous than any of our heroes expected!

- Meanwhile, Storm has been keeping her cards close to her chest – but the one she finally plays is out of this world!

Also in stores next week, Uncanny Avengers #14. Rick Remender and Steve McNiven bring Magistrate Braddock back to the fold.

Uncanny X-Force #13 Art

Uncanny X-Force #13 Preview

Uncanny X-Force #13

Writer: Sam Humphries

Art by: Phil Briones, Angel Unzueta

Cover by: Kris Anka

The Story:

• Spotlight on Spiral!

• With the rest of the Uncanny X-Force in Madripoor, Spiral has devoted herself to finding new mutant Ginny.

• But is the cult Ginny belongs to more than meets the eye?

• Even six arms might not be enough to juggle all this trouble!

In Stores: October 30, 2013

X-Position: Sam Humphries

CBR: In order to shed some more light on "Vendetta" and the future direction of "Uncanny X-Force," Sam Humphries joined X-Position to discuss bringing the two X-Force teams together, the slow reveal of Cassandra Nova as the series' villain, and plans to help showcase the individual members of Psylocke's squad -- including a possible story for Puck.

Tell us a bit about how the first encounter between the X-Forces is going to go.

Sam Humphries: The first encounter between the two teams is going to be bathed in blood. The last time Hope and Cable saw Bishop, he had spent years trying to kill them both. He left Hope's childhood a smoking ruin. He ruthlessly murdered Cable's accomplices, friends and loves. Bishop back in the present is simultaneously their worst nightmare, and their darkest dream come true. They're going to have the opportunity to make Bishop pay for all the bad blood between them. And the ferocious fury of not one but two teams of X-Force may not be enough to stop them!!!

Which interaction have you been most excited to write between Cable's team and your team for "Vendetta?"

Sam Humphries: Forge and Storm. Instead of "Vendetta" I pitched "Lifedeath 3" as a steamy tale of tequila and jacuzzis. I was overruled.

Cassandra Nova has already established herself as a genuine threat -- even before she revealed herself to readers. How do you plan to ramp that up as Uncanny X-Force goes up against her?

Sam Humphries: Cassandra's been working and scheming across centuries to make her biggest wish come true: she's going to successfully trigger a revenant invasion of earth. It's Uncanny X-Force vs. a vicious torrent of billions of these psychic demons. Phil Briones is the artist on this arc -- and if you've seen his work before, get ready to see him level up. There's something about snarling, drooling goblins from the underworld that brings out the beast in him -- currently investigating to see if he is a revenant himself.

The most recent issue had some great background on Spiral with some gorgeous art by Adrian Alphona. You've covered quite a few of the squad in these one-shot issues -- when can readers expect to see a Puck-centric installment?

Sam Humphries: I have a story in mind about Puck from the perspective of his three ex-wives, and an axe. (Not a joke answer.)

I was really excited to see more about Spiral in the most recent issue. Will we find out more about her and her experience on Earth?

Sam Humphries: Hello, C.E. I would love to do an entire arc about Spiral slashing her way through life on earth, protecting lost lambs and destroying scumbags. That said, "Uncanny X-Force" is a team book, and Spiral just had her turn, so... probably not anytime soon. But I'd love to do another Spiral story with Adrian Alphona -- he really made her contradictions come alive in that issue.

You've expressed a deep love for mohawk Storm, and it's so cool to see her sporting that hairstyle again. When will we get to see her and Bishop have that clash everyone's hoping for? They were really good friends once and he clearly betrayed everything they believed in during "Messiah CompleX."

Sam Humphries: For Storm and Bishop, stay tuned for "Vendetta"...

So excited for "Vendetta!" How long have you been planning the clash of the teams with Dennis Hopeless?

Sam Humphries: This has been something that's been on our minds before our books were even announced. To me, the incendiary story has always been about Hope, Cable and Bishop. Hope is the product of two fathers -- Cable and Bishop. One has been a flawed but nurturing dad, and the other has been a flawed boogey man who cast a shadow of terror over her entire childhood. Now they have the opportunity to come face to face -- which father does Hope take after the most? That's the story I really wanted to tell with Dennis.

Villainous Return in This Week’s Uncanny X-Force #12

Newsarama: In today’s Uncanny X-Force #12, readers finally learned the true identity of the Revenant Queen that’s been wrecking havoc in the lives of Psylocke’s X-Force team and the larger west coast area. And it is... Cassandra Nova!

Last glimpsed five years ago, the long-lost evil sister of Professor Charles Xavier reared her head and unveiled herself as the person behind Bishop’s recent madness and the team’s problems over the past year. Just how does it all happen? We asked series writer (and the mastermind behind Nova’s return) Sam Humphries.

“Cassandra Nova is ambitious and immortal. Thousands of years in the future, she hijacks Bishop to come back to the present -- right at the moment when her brother is dead, and unable to stop her,” Humphries tells Newsarama. “She's an immensely powerful psychic with a huge axe to grind -- and an army of psychic demons to crush the world.”

Humphries explains that Nova has been hidden in the background of Uncanny X-Force since its first issue last year, although not physically.

“Technically, she appears in issue 1 -- well, Bishop appears in issue 1, and she was possessing Bishop,” says Humphries. “And we saw her jump to Ginny in issue 4. But the seeds were planted back in that first issue.”

This revelation was revealed as part of the larger story of this week’s Uncanny X-Force #12, which in effect was a solo story for the former Mojo pawn Spiral – the first, arguably, since her Ricochet Rita days. Although Psylocke is the centerpiece of the series, Humphries says that Spiral shares similar experiences as Betsy – although more intense.

“We've all got a lot of love for Psylocke -- she's a murderer, yes, but we give her and other characters like Wolverine a pass because of their tortured histories. Psylocke has been kidnapped, mutilated, and body swapped. But everything Betsy has been through, Spiral has been through ten-fold,” Humphries explains. “So I wanted to know, if we can have sympathy for Betsy, can we have sympathy for Spiral too? And Spiral is a cosmic ninja, which is pretty awesome.”

Best known as the multi-armed “cosmic ninja” of the classic X-Men villain Mojo, Spiral was born far different – Rita Wayword, professional stuntman. Created by Art Adams and Ann Nocenti back in 1985’s Longshot #1, Wayword was kidnapped and imprisoned by Mojo for years before being genetically modified – inside and out – to become a minion of Mojo. Humphries revealed in early issues of Uncanny X-Force that Spiral had been exiled to Earth and stripped of her teleportation abilities, resulting in Spiral turning over a new leaf as she looked after a homeless mutant named Ginny.

“Spiral used to be human, but she's had her humanity stripped away from her. I wanted to explore the feelings of someone like that trying to navigate a big city like Los Angeles. Someone powerful and dangerous barely holding it together on the streets,” says the writer. “Ginny was the first person not to treat her like a villain and a monster, and that changed Spiral's perception of herself -- awakened something within her she thought Mojo had killed years ago.”

Out from under Mojo’s thumb and looking for the whereabouts of Ginny, in Uncanny X-Force #12 Spiral follows the trail of the Revenants to try to suss out exactly what they are and who’s behind them. Along the way Spiral ended up torching one of Los Angeles’ famous landmarks if you’re a foodie – Donut Time. When asked about this culinary catastrophe, Humphries assured us Donut Time still exists – but offers up some additional recommendations when you’re out in L.A.

“Donut Time is infamous to residents of the area. And unfortunately, where Spiral goes, destruction follows,” Humphries says. “Nickel Diner and Umamicatessen downtown have some fancy bacon-and-whatnot-style donuts. But I always like SK Donuts on 3rd Street near La Brea for that authentic independent donut experience. The apple fritters are amazing.”

Getting into more serious matters, Spiral eventually follows the trail of the Revenants back to their home and reveals the return of Cassandra Nova. After glimpsing Revenant versions of Storm, Psylocke and Puck in the last issue, Nova explains that Revenants is the unbridled dark side inside every one – Nova herself being Professor X’s.

When Cassandra Nova was first introduced by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely in New X-Men, she was described as a “mummudrai,” a Shi’ar term for what is roughly equivalent to a spiritual evil twin born on the astral plane. Cassandra Nova was Xavier’s, but due to his immense telepathic abilities was able to take physical form. As revealed in this week’s Uncanny X-Force #12, these Revenants are mummudrai that Nova is able to bring to the physical word.

“The legend of the mummudrai -- the Sh'iar word for revenant -- states that everyone has a revenant when they're born,” elaborates Humphries. “That means there's about a hundred billion of these slathering, snarling goblins out there, waiting for an opportunity to experience the good life on this side of the psychic divide. If you open that door between our worlds, you'll never get it closed again.”

This all leads to an upcoming arc teased in the advance solicits for Uncanny X-Force called “Revenant War,” which will see Los Angeles being invaded by Nova’s Revenants.

“Cassandra Nova wants to rip down the barrier that keeps all revenants from our world, and create a revenant invasion,” says the writer. “The revenants have languished too long with the short end of the stick. They're envious, and hungry. Readers can expect a city on fire, a demon invasion, and Uncanny X-Force scrambling to turn the tide against one of the most powerful villains on the planet. And fantastic art by Phil Briones and Angel Unzueta -- they bring hell to Los Angeles.”