One of my favorite writers Matt Fraction was a special guest on the Axel-in-Charge column this week on Comic Book Resources – a Friday must for all Marvel fans. I really excited by his response to the question of what elements he will tap into for the upcoming Avengers Vs X-Men epic.
“Not to put too fine a point on it, the Phoenix! I put a lot of my back into growing Hope as a character. I was very present in those early conversations figuring out what this little girl’s destiny was going to be — who she was and who she was going to become. And I became quite fond of her and what she represents. I have a daughter and we don’t have enough girl-heroes to go around. So the idea of being a part of telling this story where Hope and the Phoenix would encounter each other at long last? That was a huge payoff.
The Phoenix stuff, with the exception of being a red herring in one story arc, largely went untouched when I was on Uncanny [X-Men]. I just used it to kind of foreshadow that this was coming, though at the time I didn’t know when or how it would play out. Even though the plans have changed, you can see foreshadowing for this back in the early #500s. In my first four or five issues of “Uncanny,” we were foreshadowing “Second Coming” and “AvX.” And then I left the book, but to be back and now be a part of it is like having my cake and eating it too. And there’s a bunch of other stuff. There’s another big location that the gang goes to that I don’t want to spoil, but in issue #7, I got to do a real big piece of the Marvel puzzle that I hadn’t had a chance to touch otherwise. The whole event has been a chance to play with all the toys at once in all these fun, new combinations.”
For the entire interview click here.
Fraction continues writing The Mighty Thor, Invincible Iron Man and The Defenders and his creator owned epic Casanova. It will be great to see him write with the X-Men again in AVX. I was a huge fan of his run. This is just speculation but I wonder if Matt might be a front-runner to take over the Avengers franchise after Bendis?