The Uncanny Avengers become targets of the classic X-Men villain Apocalypse in the next arc. The immortal mutant played a huge role in Rick Remender’s Uncanny X-Force run even though he didn’t appear in his iconic form. Remender tells Marvel.com how Apocalypse factors into the next arc Ragnarok Now.
“Well the important thing was to find a way to mix the A and the X. And that was a lot of work. So I threw out most of my outline for the sequel to the Dark Angel Saga. And I kept the four most important things that I was excited about and the things that most closely tie in to characters like Wolverine or Sunfire, characters that have been tainted by this and manipulated by [Apocalypse]. So as I was building [the story], it was important to find how it was an X-Men story and also an Avengers story. And that’s where Kang grew out of. Kang’s favorite thing is to set himself up with a giant puzzle or challenge so that he can actually earn his victory as a warrior and an intellectual champion.
So it presents a lot of really fun opportunities and then I started tying in the Rama Tut/Apocalypse of it all, and then I thought “oh, Rama Tut is Kang.” And I was like, “Yaaaay!” And then I threw my arms in the air and said, I am a genius, and then got hit by a truck [Laughs]. So that’s how that went down.”
Apocalypse’s origin is tied to Kang. Apocalypse has turned Wolverine, Sunfire and Gambit into his Horsemen in the past. Remender says he will explore the ancient mutant’s ties to the God of Thunder.
“Well one thing new when Jason Aaron was building Young Thor, and I was putting these pieces together, was, I was actually on the phone with Dan Slott, and I had the X, and he kept reminding me that you need to make sure that the A and the X meet. And in building something like this, it’s never really been done, there’s never been an Avengers/X-Men book, so those are the kinds of things that have been very helpful for me, and have helped to keep me on track.
With Thor, we now see Thor in the tenth century; we now know what Thor was like, back in the day, with this weapon he’s got, this axe. So Jason and I spent a few afternoons on the phone talking about my plans and talking about how Thor could fit into [them], and more importantly, how that axe could be the most important relic in the Marvel Universe, and that’s something that will be buried in this interview and most people won’t pick up on.
But that axe becomes the new thing, and in issue #6, we see how the meeting of Thor and Apocalypse leads to that axe becoming one of the most powerful weapons in the Marvel Universe. So it was just hours and hours and hours of brainstorming and figuring out how does Thor connect to this, and how does young Thor connect to this, and how does Apocalypse, and Rama Tut and Kang—how does all this happen in the tenth century as the inciting incident for the biggest story I’ve ever written?
I knew where I wanted to get to and to act naturally and fit into a really big story slot that I needed and from there it just sort of built itself and it’s pretty perfect. It was also nice to take what Jason is setting up in THOR, and reflect on it in the modern Marvel Universe and see it have an effect on things in a huge huge way. You want to make sure these things connect, you want to make sure there are a lot of different personal reasons for the characters to want to take down the villains, and this was the inciting incident that got me all of that moving forward in a pretty perfect way.”
For the entire interview here’s the Marvel.com link.
This weekend at Emerald City Comicon I got to meet Rick Remender and this Kid Apocalypse cosplayer! I later found out from “Evan” that he met his creator at the con! For more ECCC stories click here.
By Editor