Greg Pak’s Dazzling New X-Treme X-Men

X-Treme X-Men #2 courtesy Marvel.com

  The X-Men’s rock n roller shines in a brand new ongoing X-Treme X-Men debuting this July 25th by Greg Pak. The new book spins out of Pak’s Astonishing X-Men run and features a team of X-Men from various timelines. The versatile writer tells Marvel.com why this new mutant book will shine among a crowd of X-titles.

“Dazzler, baby! We’re taking our universe’s Dazzler, the Alison Blaire you know and love, and throwing her into a series of mind-blowing, life-and-death, cross-dimensional, alternate universe adventures that will eventually result in a massive threat to our own reality.

  Dazzler’s a phenomenal lead character for a book like this; she’s funny and wry and irreverent, but she’s also a massively powerful mutant warrior and a leader-in-the-making who’s about to be tested to the extreme. So she’s completely down to earth and accessible, which makes her the perfect kind of character to undertake a huge hero’s journey like this. She’s long been due for a story that brings her to the forefront of the mutantverse like this, and I’m thrilled to be along for the ride.”

 

X-Treme X-Men #1 courtesy Marvel

Pak has assembled (sorry Avengers) a team of mutant heroes from various dimensions and goes into the pros and cons of taking on alternate versions of established favorites.

  “Dazzler’s team consists of surprising alternate versions of Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and Emma Frost. Working with alternate versions of characters is a blast because you have the opportunity to really crystallize some of the things that really work about the character while trying some shocking new ideas that you’d never be able to do with our universe’s version. The extra bonus here is that although these characters are from alternate realities, they’re all absolutely in continuity—and we’ll eventually see their impact on our universe.

  For his entire interview here’s the Marvel.com link. 

 I’m thrilled to see Dazzler back on the front burner. Anyone remember when she faced off against an obsessive fan named…The Juggernaut? That was a great Claremont issue.

Updated: X-Treme X-Men Wondercon Reveal

 Updated with quotes from writer Greg Pak!

X-Treme X-Men #1 courtesy Marvel.com

   Marvel revealed a new X-treme X-Men title at the Talk to the Hat Wondercon pan. The new series by Greg Pak and Stephen Segovia debuts this July. This spins out of Pak’s Astonishing X-Men run in an alternate reality. The cover by Julian Totino Tedesco shows the Logan (with a serious stache) from that storyline. The release says Dazzler and a team of mutants from various worlds will team up for reality bending missions.

Update:

  “We’re going all new, all the time,” Pak tells Marvel.com, “The joy of a book like X-TREME X-MEN is that literally anything can happen—we’re running wild, pressing all the danger buttons, and pushing our characters to their limits. So as much as I love so many of the existing alternate Marvel realities, we’re going to cut loose as creators as well and dream up new worlds that feed our big storyline and create the right kind of crises for our characters’ emotional arcs.”

Astonishing X-Men #46 courtesy Marvel.com

  Pak’s starting lineup will be Howlett and Kid Nightcrawler from this recent Astonishing run and Emma Frost and Armor from Warren Ellis’s Ghost Boxes.

“There’s always something fun about the curmudgeon and the smart alec running around together,” he says. “And visually, the contrasts between the silhouettes just works—a bear and an elf, right.”

“With Howlett and Kid Kurt, we have the chance to explore that relationship and push those great visual and dramatic contrasts even more. Howlett’s the old, experienced adventurer who’s seen everything; Kid Kurt is the fresh-faced grade-schooler who’s seeing everything for the first time.”

  But the team member Pak is most excited about?

“Oh, man, Dazzler, I’m a believer, y’all,” Pak exclaims. “When I sat down with the X-Office editors to brainstorm ideas for the book, we all agreed that we wanted a big character from the mainstream Marvel Universe to play a key role. And our conversations kept circling back around to Dazzler. And the more I thought about it, the more sense it started to make. She’s wry and tough and vulnerable and very, very funny. And she’s a straight up hero who will save the world through rock and roll.”

  This Geek’s Opinion: Like Captain Marvel this is a another surprise. I didn’t think the Claremont/Larroca book would be reborn. I didn’t know what to expect. This has been done before with Exiles. And most of the X-books dive into alternate realities: Uncanny X-Men, Age of Apocalypse.

No disrespect to fans that enjoy the alternate takes but I think it’s been done and the focus should be on the X-Men of this universe. I do enjoy Greg Pak’s writing so maybe I’ll be wrong. I’ll give it a try. And I’m a Dazzler fan.