War comes to Utopia. Scott’s Extinction team faces the Avengers for custody of Hope as the Phoenix Force speeds towards Earth. How will Uncanny X-Men writer Kieron Gillen weave his title into the Avengers Vs. X-Men epic. I wanted to share part of a new interview from Marvel.com.
“The Marvel events are enormous landmarks in the topography of the Marvel Universe. With my Uncanny X-Men run, I’ve been building towards [Avengers Vs. X-Men] for as long as I’ve been doing the book. I’ve been making a situation where a confrontation between Avengers and X-men isn’t just logic, it’s kinda necessary. So, when I’m taking part of the event, this is basically lighting all the fuses to the fireworks I’ve been laying down, and sitting back and hoping everyone goes “cool!” at the explosions in the sky.”
Fights in AvX will spill into a second “all fights” book: AvX:VS. Gillen tells why and how we will chronicle Spider-Man vs. Colossus in AvX:Vs #2.
“The twist is really the opposite of that. There’s not an enormous amount of personal history between the pair. The history is between Spider-Man and Juggernaut, whose powers Colossus has borrowed. So the story’s emotional aspects are really about playing with that resonance. And “playing” is probably the word. I do a Colossus/Red Hulk brawl in Uncanny X-Men #11, which is dark, serious, character-motivated stuff. The VS [book is], as the preview art perhaps [tells], all about the spectacle of super beings going for each other.
Why did I pick it? Well, editor Nick Lowe called me up and asked if I’d be interested in writing it. And because I never wrote Spider-Man, I figured it could be fun to do. And it was. I immediately descended to walking around the house, improvising really bad Parker-esque wise-cracks.
During the Uncanny X-Men tie-in to Fear Itself Colossus became the Juggernaut and this will play into the showdown with Spidey.
“Peter actually talks about this mid-fight, in terms of the traditional axis. It’s a “What happens is I tire myself out punching you eight million of times, you get angry trying to hit me eight million times and never connecting and then I drop you into a concrete vat” situation. That’s how Juggernaut fights go. The difference is Piotr. He’s not exactly a superbrain, but he’s a damn sight smarter than Cain Marko. That nudges a traditional Spider-Man advantage away.”
How will AvX affect his Uncanny title and change the status quo of Utopia:
“Basically, Uncanny focuses in hard on the mutant-centric Utopia-focused side. While the core book will be about both Avengers and X-Men, mine is primarily interested in what this means to mutantkind, both now, and looking towards whatever comes next. The Avengers are antagonists in my book. I’m interested in them as enemies. I shamelessly don’t give them a fair shake. I get inside my characters’ heads. I write some secret history. I look at how the events of AvX shake up the already volatile internal politics of the Extinction Team.
I mean, you want some examples? For the former, you ever wondered why Namor’s on the mutants’ side? I do that in issue #11. For the middle aspect, the mystery of the Lights has been a bubbling plot for the mutants’ corner of the universe. I deal with it in #13. And for the latter…well, for that you’ll have to wait. Thinking about it, there is an exception to the “X-Men over Avengers” focus I mentioned above. That’s issue #12, where I go to Tabula Rasa. It’s ended up as something tonally separate to the vast majority of my X-Men run. Its primary focus is on Namor and The Thing, and it’s something of a diversion from my relatively serious approach. I mean, it’s still high stakes, but I think people will laugh a lot. It’s a return to the scene of Namor/Tapeworm Queen intimacy, after all.
Oh, I also throw some villains into the mix. Sinister returns in an enormous way. And, from his perspective, AvX is basically called “Mister Sinister presents…Avengers Vs. X-Men.” In fact, from Sinister’s perspective, it’s “Mister Sinister presents…the whole Marvel Universe, ever.” He’s nothing if not an egotist, as issue #14 will make clear.
And there’s more there too. I don’t want to say anything, but I manage to throw another curve ball into the whole mess with my last issue before AvX. It’s sneaksie, to say the least.”
For the entire interview here’s the Marvel.com link.
AvX Vs #2 will be Gillen’s first time working with Invincible Iron Man artist Salvador Larroca.
