Will a “Superior” Spider-Man survive the Age of Ultron? The insane android takes over the Marvel Universe in an upcoming series by Brian Michael Bendis and Bryan Hitch. Spider-Man will be one of the few heroes left Continue reading Superior Spider-Man vs. Ultron
A brand new, old school adventure with Marvel’s mutants by a living legend. The First X-Men will be a new 5 part limited series written and drawn by Neal Adams with Christos Gage scripting. In today’s Next Big Thing event Marvel revealed the story behind last Friday’s The First X-Men teaser.
“You guys probably know I was at one time associated with X-Men…then they canceled the book. I had great fondness for the original X-Men, had the time of my life, then they canceled it,” said Adams referring to this era (1969-70.)
“At the beginning, Stan and Jack were experimenting. You had Professor X, bald and in a wheelchair. These strange kids already in costume. It seems to me like this was not the beginning of the story, but the middle.”
“Of all the mutants on Earth, Professor X could easily pass as a human. Why would he want to get involved in this? Maybe all this was going on before Professor X was Professor X…when Professor X was a teenager. Maybe mutant kids were getting abused by the military, by the government. Somebody would have been looking out for them, but maybe that person came to Charles Xavier, realizing he couldn’t protect these kids. That was my pitch,” Adams revealed.
“Marvel was very generous to provide Christos Gage to me, who is an expert in all this stuff. He’s taking my pitch and turning it into scripts that are in my opinion groundbreaking. It’s the X-Men before there were X-Men,” Adams said about his partner.
From the preview it appears Logan is the leader of this team before the team.
“How deeply is Wolverine entrenched in the X-Men? Why was this first team…maybe a failure? Lots of questions to answer.
It takes place before the original X-Men and at a time when the government was snatching mutants up and doing scary things to them. Logan notices this and thinks somebody needs to look out for them. He recruits Sabretooth, who asks ‘Why?’ and so he pays him. Professor Xavier is a young man studying at Oxford, who’s engaged and wants nothing to do with this,” Adams reveals about the lineup.
“In those early X-Men stories, everybody hates and fears them, but we never really know why. It’s so core to the concept, but it was there before the series started. Here we found out why mutants are so hated and feared in a way that is different from any other super heroes,” adds X-Men Editor Nick Lowe.
Wolverine targets the future master of magnetism for his team. Gage says “They recruit this guy Erik Lensherr who is out there killing Nazis…”
“The natural instinct is that this is like the ‘X-Men: First Class’ movie, but it’s not,” Adams states but adds, “We didn’t mind stealing the Nazi Hunter version of Magneto though.”
Gage calls Wolverine a soldier putting together a unit not a school in this series and Adams reveals more of Logan’s team.
“There’s a character who calls himself Bombastic Aghast, but they call him Bomb. Wolverine saves him from a cave-in then gives him a leather jacket that fits like a tent. He looks ridiculous, but he thinks it’s his costume. Later, Wolverine buys him a jacket that fits, but he throws it back in his face. That jacket means so much to him and represents his relationship with Wolverine. That’s the origin of his costume,” Adams confirms.
Fans may assume this retro tale is from an alternate timeline but the X-Office says this is not
“This is firmly set in continuity. This is not a What If. This is canon. This is key to Wolverine’s history and his relationships with other characters. This will answer questions that have been out there for decades,” says Lowe
“They do encounter ‘hobo’ Sub-Mariner at one point.” Christos Gage reveals. “He throws a car at Wolverine!” adds Adams
“We wanted this to be something you could hand to somebody who just saw the X-Men movies and they’d enjoy it as a good X-Men story. At the same time, for giant nerds like me, FBI agent Fred Duncan from the early stories is in there, and when Professor X talks about his brother you know it’s Juggernaut,” says Gage.
“There will be early versions of the Sentinels. I did the giant ones, now I’m getting to do different one,” revealed Adams
“Wolverine was a mercenary, and mercenaries make a lot of money. Wouldn’t it be interesting to find that Wolverine’s mercenary work funded…” Adams teased.
“The concept that Charles Xavier could pass for a human I don’t think has ever really been explored. At some point in his life, he made the difficult decision to step forward as leader of the X-Men and as a mutant. He could have wiped all of this out of the world’s collective mind. Why didn’t he? Stuff to think about,” Adams says of the mutant leader.
The First X-Men arrives this August. For the entire transcript here’s the Marvel.com link.
This is NOT what I expected. What do you think of the concept?
By Editor
Christos Gage answered fan questions about the future of X-Men Legacy and Avengers Academy revealing how both teams will be impacted by Avengers Vs. X-Men. The mutant kids of Utopia will be held at Avengers Academy leading to an odd reunion for X-23 and her former teammates.
“There are indeed scenes between X-23, Surge and Dust, and they were fun — for me, not for the characters involved! This storyline definitely looks at X-23 and how she has developed as a person since her days with the New X-Men, as well as how she is continuing to develop. As for the Westchester kids coming to break them out, they’re going to have their own problems…”
The situations are different. I can only say so much to avoid spoilers, but in Avengers Academy, what has happened is that various X-kids from Utopia end up in the custody of the Avengers, and it’s decided the best thing to do with them to keep them out of the conflict is to house them at Avengers Academy. It’s not an internment camp per se (the cover of Avengers Academy #29 is more symbolic of how the X-kids feel), it’s more like Child Protective Services, where kids who have nowhere else to go are placed — presumably for their own good.
I’m not saying it’s right — there’s a lot of debate about that in the book itself — but it’s with good intentions. As for the situation in X-Men Legacy, events there are more reaction to the larger conflict — the Avengers send a team to keep an eye on the X-Men and make sure they don’t escalate matters by joining the Utopia crew, but they are more watching from outside, like cops at a Mafia wedding. Oh, and don’t assume it was Cap who made the decision in all these cases!”
For the entire interview here’s the Comic Book Resources link.
I’ve enjoyed Gage taking the reigns of X-Men Legacy especially the brewing passion between Gambit and Frenzy. I hope this book survives the reboot that’s surely coming after AVX.
Following in the path of Rogue, Frenzy is a character searching for redemption. Joanna Cargill debuted as part of Apocalypse’s Alliance of Evil in the original X-Factor then joined Magneto’s Acolytes.
Mike Carey started evolving the ex-villain in Age of X. The heartbroken Frenzy awoke from that alternate world arc learning her passionate romance with Cyclops was lie. Christos Gage now has Joanna flirting with bad boy Gambit in X-Men Legacy. Gage told Comic Book Resources about Frenzy’s motivations and his plans for her.
“I’ve always been a sucker for characters who are seeking redemption, and Frenzy is most definitely one. I think her primary motivation right now is to be a hero, the kind of person she was in the world of “Age of X.” An interesting catch is that in “Age of X” she was protecting and defending mutants, not humans. As a former mutant supremacist, she hasn’t really addressed how she feels about protecting a world that hates and fears her. We’ll be exploring that coming up.
I think that her struggle after discovering her relationship with Cyclops, which meant so much to her in “Age of X,” was an illusion is the very reason she shared a kiss with Gambit. It was implied back in the ’90s that they had met before joining the X-Men, when both were freelance mercenaries and that they were both enemies and lovers. It’s not terribly uncommon for people who are emotionally vulnerable to turn to an old flame for comfort; even if they know there are probably pretty good reasons that old flame is not a current flame. I think she and Gambit are in a similar place emotionally, and it’ll be intriguing to see where it goes, if anywhere.”
For Gage’s entire interview here’s the Comic Book Resources link. I love David Baldeon’s art on X-Men Legacy especially Frenzy.
On a geek personal note:
I think Frenzy would make a perfect for Magneto’s Brotherhood in the X-Men: First Class sequel. A passionate and strong African-American woman like Joanna would be a great character to explore the turbulent 1960’s and the struggle for racial equality and mutant equality. Frenzy could become Erik’s love interest. Michael Fassbender could reunite with his Shame co-star, the stunning Nicole Beharie. The two had incredible chemistry in that film.
As a huge fan of Mike Carey’s X-Men Legacy run, Christos Gage had big shoes to fill, especially when it comes to writing Rogue. I’m thrilled to say that I’m really enjoying his initial issues. I wanted to share some highlights of Gage’s interview with Comic Book Resources.
I really like his take on why choosing between Cyclops and Wolverine (after Schism) was difficult for Rogue and why she’s so comfortable with new role at the Jean Grey School.
“I think Rogue’s struggle with the Schism wasn’t so much over what side to choose but rather the fact that it was happening at all. It hurt her to see two men she liked and respected so much in Cyclops and Wolverine disagreeing so strongly, and to see the X-Men divided. It was especially tough on her to leave Magneto in the early stages of their burgeoning yet largely undefined relationship, before she’d had a chance to sort out her feelings about him.
That said, I think she was always going to go to the Grey School. She had been working with the X-Men’s younger kids for a long time, and I think it gave her a feeling of doing something positive while at the same time giving kids in situations similar to hers when she was young — often confused and scared by their powers — opportunities she never had. It’s good for her and it’s good for the kids. I think she feels better about her role in the world — what she’s doing with her life — than maybe she ever has.”
X-Men Legacy #262 arrives February 22nd with a stunning Mark Brooks cover.
School’s in session for Christos Gage. He’s not just a popular writer he’s kind of like the Secretary of Education for Marvel’s next generation. The writer behind Avengers Academy and now X-Men: Legacy talked about the difference between attending the Academy and Wolverine’s Jean Grey School.
“Being an Avenger is a choice, being an X-Man is almost part and parcel of being a mutant,” says Gage.
“That wasn’t always the case, but now that there are so few mutants left, that’s how it is. So for the X-Men, it’s more about ‘This is the hand we’ve been dealt—what’s the best way to approach life?’ [where] with the Avengers it’s much more the traditional super hero philosophy of ‘Let’s use our talents to serve mankind.’ Not that the X-Men don’t care about that, but it’s just one part of a whole.
“Being an Avenger is a part-time thing, and when you’re not doing that, you’re being a billionaire industrialist or whatever. Being an X-Man is a full-time job.”
While Gage will focus on the staff (Rogue, Gambit, Frenzy) of the Jean Grey School, we’ve already seen intense interaction with the students. I really loved Rogue’s lesson that helped Rockslide reach a new level of his mutant power. I’m thrilled to see Gage using the Guthries (Cannonball and Husk) in the book too.
For his complete Marvel interview click here.
X-Men: Legacy #261 arrives in stores this week.
X-Men Legacy #260.1 arrived this week with a new creative team and direction for Rogue, Gambit and Frenzy as they joined the Jean Grey School. This is the first issue since Mike Carey left the book after 5 and a half years of excellence.
I’m excited to see where I think new writer Christos Gage will take us. Rogue has evolved into a confident mentor of young mutants and she quickly makes one junior X-Man reach a new level of power and potential during a football game.
There’s a new threat to rebuilt school from an ancient enemy that’s right out of Buffy, The Vampire Slayer’s Sunnydale. I actually forgot that the Xavier estate has some nightmarish neighbors down below. Gage writes a dynamic fight with the invaders that shows off Rogue’s mastery of her power and the potential in the new kids.
What’s really exciting is the slow burn then passionate ignition of a new love triangle among these X-Men and the return of Exodus. Given the villain’s history with the reforming Frenzy that should create a different kind of spark.
I absolutely loved David Baldeon’s art which reminded me of Gary Frank on The Incredible Hulk. The first issue is a winner and I’m excited to see how the legacy evolves.