Review: New X-Men (E is for Extinction storyarc)

Time for another review! And this time I’m going to be reviewing the first story arc of one of the most groundbreaking and popular arcs in recent X-Men history: the one that put the team of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely on the radars of mainstream comic book fans, the one the revitalised the X-Men after years of stagnation, the E is for Extinction storyarc in the pages of New X-Men #114-116.

The X-Men comic books had been going nowhere quickly for the last decade or so. The X-books were the best-selling comic books for years before that and had seen creators such as Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Marc Silvestri, Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, Andy Kubert and Joe Madureira cement their fame on the various X-titles.

However, the X-Men were victims of their own popularity, with seemingly spin-off title after spin-off title flooding the market only to succumb to cancellation after low sales numbers. While there were the two main X-books in Uncanny X-Men and X-Men, there were also a bevy of titles, some of which were a modicum more popular than the others: X-Force, X-Factor, Excalibur, X-Treme X-Men, X-Men Unlimited, Generation X, not to mention the many one-shots and mini-series of the X-characters.

The last big storyline that was successful in the X-Universe was the much loved “Age of Apocalypse”. The “Onslaught” storyline, for all the hype, fell short and was the last big X-story before 2006’s House of M put Marvel’s merry mutants on the map again.

But before House of M, two Scotsman named Morrison and Quitely revitalised the X-Men, bringing with them pathos, dark humour, adult-oriented themes and sweeping changes to the status quo. It was time for the X-books to step to the top of the sales charts again. The X-relaunch was so huge that they even changed X-Men to New X-Men.

Morrison and Quitely’s first arc, “E is for Extinction”, set the tone for what was to come in their 41-issue run.

They introduced a new uber-powerful villain, Cassandra Nova. She was as evil as evil gets and was the polar opposite of Magneto in terms of ideology. While Magneto wanted mutants to rule the world, Cassandra Nova wanted to kill all mutants!

She was evil and Quitely’s art made look extremely creepy. Sticking her fingers through one’s neck and having her fingers poke out through the orifices in one’s face…ouch! And why did she look so much like a female version of Charles Xavier? But more on that in another review…or you can always read the many TPBs and HCs that reprinted the legendary Morrison and Quitely run to find out for yourself.

Cassandra Nova didn’t just talk the talk, she walked the walk too. Her threats to kill mutantkind weren’t just idle threats. First she assimilates Donald Trask, heir to the Trask legacy of building the mutant-hunting Sentinels, then gets the Mastermold to build millions of sentinels to wipe out the mutant inhabitants of Genosha. Just look at how quickly the numbers fall in the mass-genocide from the panels below!

New, terrifying villain? Check. One ingredient of a successful run fulfilled. But Morrison doesn’t stop there. Oh no. He also radically changes everyone’s favourite X-Men by introducing a femme fatale to the team, the uber sexy Emma Frost.

How does Quitely draw her like that? It’s absolutely gravity-defying! Does she use double-sided tape to hold up those pieces of cloth to her boobs and sides of her body? And what a case of camel toe!

And once again, invisible gum-tape must be Emma Frost’s best friend. Emma Frost became one of the most popular X-Men as a result of Morrison and Quitely’s run. Yes, they gave her a British accent, which was completely unnecessary, but not did she know she was beautiful and her beauty to her advantage, she was also a A-grade 100% badass ultimate bitch.

In fact, she even ACKNOWLEDGES she’s a bitch in this little exchange with Jean Grey:

Another notion that Morrison introduces to the mutant-verse is that of secondary mutations. Mutants, which as a species, were far evolved from normal homo sapiens, could further evolve and develop new powers! As can be seen from the two panels above, Emma Frost, as drippingly sexy as she is, was obviously never a shiny-happy-people person. While she was still one of the world’s most powerful telepaths, Morrison gave her the secondary mutation (and power) of being able to harden her skin so that she became diamond-hard.

One of the more memorable (and perhaps controversial) secondary mutations was evolving Dr Henry McCoy from the ever-loving bouncing Beast to something you’d see out of a Disney cartoon…or horror movie, take your pick.

Beauty and the Beast? How apt. But no, really. It really WAS Beauty and the Beast.

Doesn’t Mrs McCoy’s bouncing baby boy look like he’s about to take Esmerelda out onto the ballroom floor, complete with clocks and candlesticks and dishes and cutlery all dancing and singing in tune?

Thankfully, despite Beast being subjected to a somewhat “hideous” cat-like transformation, he still retained his sense of humour.

In fact, one of the hallmarks of Morrison and Quitely’s run is the dark humour in the series, which was evident in the first storyarc. “Your dating days are over” indeed. Absolutely hilarious…it’d have been even more perfect if Beast had somehow quoted the bard, Shakespeare, with the classic line “Alas, poor Yorick” somewhere in the above panel.

And what happens when you ask a mutant who’s only power is to be hideously ugly if he was any good in a fight? You get the following panel:

But for all the humour in “E for Extinction”, we’re quickly reminded that the X-Men’s world has been given a healthy dose of adult-oriented reality and violence when Cassandra Nova “possesses” Charles Xavier. Charles surprises everyone by grabbing a gun he keeps close to him, pointing it to his temple and uttering:

Yeesh! Why does Charles even keep a gun there in the first place? He later explains that he knows he’s the most powerful telepath on the planet and needed to take precautions in case there were ever situations like what had happened, when his mind or body had been controlled by external sources.

Cassandra Nova almost wins the day though, when she infiltrates the X-mansion and wears the Cerebra (the telepathic-magnifying Cerebro’s more powerful sister) helmet and is about to snuff out all mutant life on the planet. In comes Emma to save the day in brutal fashion.

Omigod! An X-Men snapping someone’s neck in the comic books? What is this, R-Rated XXX-Men? Surely the X-Men’s boy scout, Scott Summers aka Cyclops, would NOT stand for this!

Well, uhm ok. If Scott’s ok with this. Must be another one of those Morrison-modifications. The old Scott Summers would never stand for this.

But that neck snap doesn’t kill Cassandra Nova! She still struggles on, despite having a couple of vertebrae snap into pieces. Just when the X-Men thought they had lost the day, in comes an unlikely “saviour”…

The gun that Charles used to earlier point at his own temple ends up being the gun that kills Cassandra Nova. So Scott Summers is okay with someone’s neck being snapped and now we’ve got Charles brandishing a gun and going all Punisher-like on an enemy mutant. Which brings me to my favourite panel and one-liner of the arc:

Hardcore indeed.

That would have been a fantastic end to the first story arc, but no, Morrison saves the best for last. He throws one more spanner into the works that brings down the axe on Xavier and his merry X-Men…Xavier, the world’s foremost expert in mutants and the champion for human-mutant relations, reveals why he has always been for the mutant cause:

And the house of cards all come crashing down.

Marvel’s merry mutants are back!

From comics to Hollywood

Would you pay to watch a movie which had its script written by your favourite comic book creator? I would. Just see how Sin City turned out!

Wizard Universe interviews five comic book creators who may be making the move to Hollywood!


FROM COMICS TO HOLLYWOOD
A quintet of comics’ biggest creators talk about making the move to Hollywood

By Ben Morse

Posted December 18, 2007 5:00 PM

ROBERT KIRKMAN
The writer of Marvel’s surprise hit Marvel Zombies as well as enduring cult favorite The Walking Dead from Image, Robert Kirkman signed the film rights to his self-created teen superhero comic Invincible to Paramount in 2005 and came on board to write the movie’s screenplay a year later. “Transformers” producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura has also signed on.

“I have turned in the second draft [of the ‘Invincible’ screenplay] and it’s being looked at right now. I haven’t really had to fight the studio or anything. So far any changes they’ve asked for have been minor things that make sense and that I agree with. It’s been a pretty good experience so far, but the movie hasn’t been made yet, so I’m sure it’s coming. So far, they haven’t wanted any talking dogs—and I already have one in the comic anyway. Either they come back and say, ‘Hey, this is awesome, we’re shooting it,’ or ‘Hey, this is awesome, but we’re getting somebody to rewrite it anyway,’ or even ‘Hey, this is awesome—so awesome we want you to write it again.’

“I think I’m pretty good at writing comics, but writing screenplays is new to me, so there’s definitely a learning curve. I didn’t read any screenplays growing up so it’s a completely alien art form. When I get to page 22, I’m usually done. There’s definitely something difficult psychologically about not being able to believe you just wrote 60 pages and then realizing you’re only halfway through.”

BRYAN HITCH
Best known for his collaborations with writer Mark Millar on Ultimates and their upcoming Fantastic Four run, artist Bryan Hitch has worked quietly behind the scenes in both Hollywood and for his native England’s BBC: He’s a designer for the pending “Star Trek” movie directed by J.J. Abrams and the “Dr. Who” television series, respectively.

“My first real design job was on ‘Dr. Who.’ I was musing with a journalist who had interviewed [series writer/producer] Russell Davies that I’d kill to design the TARDIS set, so I had him e-mail Russell assuming he’d have no idea who I was and then he sent back, ‘The Bryan Hitch? Oh, I love him!’ I had a hand in the redesign of the Daleks, though it was more just scribbling over other people’s designs. The last [‘Dr. Who’] work I did was a two-parter from series two because I owed the [executive producer] a favor after she got me tickets to a BBC concert series.
“[Producer] Damon Lindelof and I started talking about ‘Star Trek’ way back. I was involved in the early discussions and was going to get to do the fun stuff like the Enterprise, then Paramount pulled the plug temporarily. When it came back, there had been a script leak so nobody ‘off the lot’ was allowed to work on sensitive material.

“Mark Millar and I are working with Joe Ahearne, a highly respected writer/director, about developing a new BBC series. Joe would be the lead writer and director with Mark as a writer and me as lead designer. There’s been discussion of me directing as well. Stylistically, working on BBC shows is similar to American TV because stuff like ‘Dr. Who’ is an attempt to replicate what [America] is doing with genre family entertainment. The difference between comics and television or film is that while with comics Mark and I are lucky to be almost completely autonomous, the film stuff is about servicing somebody else’s vision. I can’t see why I can’t do both, do a six-issue comic and then direct some television or make a film. It’s all telling stories, and that’s what I want to do.”

GEOFF JOHNS
Before writing comics like Green Lantern, Geoff Johns earned his college degree in Media Arts with a minor in Film Theory from Michigan State University and spent four years working under legendary director and producer Richard Donner. Johns served as a writer on the “Blade” TV series and currently works alongside “Robot Chicken” creators Seth Green and Matt Seinreich as a producer, writer and director on their upcoming stop animation feature film “Naughty or Nice.” He also has a film based on DC’s Metal Men in development.

“It was a hard decision to leave Donner, but there was so much going on for me in comics. I could have spent another year at the company working in development, but I like being on set. Matt and I sold two pilots to Fox after I left and when the crew from ‘Robot Chicken’ wanted to do a movie, he and I pitched this idea for a Christmas movie we’ve had since 2002 and Dimension bought it. We’re in preproduction, we’ve got test puppets made and in a perfect world we’d like to see this movie out Christmas 2009. It’s a lot easier to get what you want out of a comic book since with a TV show or movie you’re limited by budget and by all the other people working on it. I remember my first episode of ‘Blade,’ I wrote this huge fight scene with vampires literally throwing cars around and being told, ‘You can’t do that.’ I had to cut it way back and even then they went ahead and choreographed their own fight. Donner, even with his status, had to go through that stuff. With movies or TV, there are a lot more people involved, a lot more money involved, and a lot more time involved than with a comic book. But it’s also fun! Hollywood isn’t some huge, crazy maze; it’s just a bunch of people trying to make movies.”

J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
A six-year veteran of Amazing Spider-Man and the current writer of Thor, Straczynski made a name for himself in television, most notably creating Emmy-award winning sci-fi series “Babylon 5,” before comic fans had any idea what the initials “JMS” stood for. At present, Straczynski has several film projects ongoing, including: a Silver Surfer feature spinning out of “Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer,” which he will write the screenplay for; “The Changeling,” a thriller directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Angelina Jolie; and “World War Z,” based on Max Brooks’ bestselling novel. He’s also developing a script for Paul Greengrass based on a story the director wrote called “They Marched Into Sunlight.”

“[Film] is a field I’d actually gone out of my way to avoid for 20 years since it’s so much of a crapshoot in terms of what gets made. But thanks to ‘Changeling,’ I’m working with directors and studios at a much higher level than a development deal, and the road to production is much shorter. I have to say there have been very few hurdles or problems. When you’re working with directors like Greengrass or Eastwood, or with Brad Pitt’s company, which is doing ‘World War Z,’ it makes all the difference in the world. The hardest thing for me to get past as far as writing comics was getting used to the fact that the pictures don’t move. Otherwise, consider everything else the same.”

GRANT MORRISON
One of the most well-respected comic book writers of the last 20 years, Grant Morrison’s credits range from seminal tales like Arkham Asylum to current works like All Star Superman. In 2006, New Line optioned We3, Morrison’s quirky miniseries about robotically enhanced killer animals with the creator attached as screenwriter. Paramount recently hired Morrison to adapt the “Area 51” video game into a film.

“I met [‘Transformers’ producer] Don Murphy back in the ’90s because his wife was a good friend of mine from Glasgow. He got me started with my first official work in Hollywood, which was a screenplay for a film called ‘Sleepless Nights,’ which is stuck in development somewhere. When New Line wanted to make ‘We3,’ they asked Don to produce since he knew me and asked me to do the script. I think what I turned in is better than the comic. I’m always the guy who is saying, ‘Don’t change my work, I’ll cut your head off.’ I like listening to people’s suggestions, but if I don’t agree with them, I’m quite boorish about it. They’re currently looking for a director and they’ve got one great name who I think would do a great job. I’m used to comic books that come out three months after you write them so I just want to see this movie now!

“Hollywood is worse than comics—they don’t want you to talk about anything. Comics are all about explanation and exposition. Movies are a lot more direct. They have to play to the audience in middle America as much as in China. I enjoy doing something I can focus on for 120 pages and craft into something great. There are all these rules and everything is very specific. Comics are much more seat-of-the-pants improvisation, which is fun as well. Movies are hardcore.”

The Wizard Conversation: Grant Morrison and Neal Adams

Ra's al Ghul is set to return to the Batman universe! Aside from the Joker, who's just such a brilliant foil to Batman, a insane clown to Batman's stoic dark knight, Ra's has been my favourite Batman villain.

Ra's rivals Batman for cunning and intelligence. Unlike other Bat-villains, Ra's actually shows Batman the respect he deserves, calling him "Detective" and acknowledging him as an equal. And Liam Neeson's portrayal of Ra's in "Batman Begins" was just brilliant. Oh, don't tell me you couldn't figure out that Henri Ducard was actually just an alias and Ken Watanabe was a fake Ra's?

Wizard Universe got Grant Morrison, the man who's bringing back Ra's in the current arc, to interview legendary artist Neal Adams. Doesn't Morrison (the bald dude on the left) look like some 80s pop singer? Moby! He looks like Moby!


THE WIZARD CONVERSATION: GRANT MORRISON AND NEAL ADAMS
As Ra’s al Ghul returns to face the Dark Knight, Morrison grills Ra’s co-creator Adams on the Bat-villain’s past

Posted November 13, 2007 3:40 PM

Grant Morrison admits he gave up a lot to start his Batman collection.

“I swapped all my old Steve Ditko Spider-Man comics for Neal Adams’ Batman,” says Morrison, clearly not regretting the decision a bit. “I loved that stuff.”

The best part about this confession? He gives it to Adams himself, chatting with the legendary artist about November’s reintroduction of the Adams-designed Batman rogue Ras’ al Ghul in Batman #670 and continuing across the Bat-books throughout the month and beyond.

Debuting in 1971’s Batman #232, with art by Adams and a script from equally acclaimed writer Dennis O’Neil, Ra’s left a lasting impression on the Batman mythos, from his bewitching daughter Talia, his death-defying Lazarus Pit and even his role in 2005’s “Batman Begins.” With Morrison giddy to talk to one of his comic book heroes and Adams as elegant a statesman for comics as the medium’s ever seen, the two spoke about every aspect of the master villain and what’s next for comics.—KIEL PHEGLEY

MORRISON: I first encountered Ra’s Al Ghul in those Denny O’Neil and [Adams] books, and that’s where I go, because that’s where the character was born and that’s where the heart and soul of it is. I think [writer] Greg Rucka killed him quite effectively [in Batman: Death and the Maidens]. He made it difficult for us to bring him back, but I came up with a really good take on how to bring him back, so that was fun.

ADAMS: [Laughs] That’s the job that they leave us. Somebody comes along and kills him. Isn’t that nice? I remember I did that with Professor X doing the X-Men. But if you have a good idea then it becomes fun.

MORRISON: It’s a challenge to bring the character back. I tied it into all the mythology, so to go back to it there’s no question. I looked again at the characters that I’m handling in the crossover—characters like the Sensei, who again is one of Neal’s I believe, and that Deadman mythology of Nanda Parbat. It was more going back to the source so I could do something that feels faithful to that.

ADAMS: I can’t wait to see it.

MORRISON: Did you expect [Ra’s Al Ghul] to survive this long, Neal, and make it into the movies and stuff?

ADAMS: No. And I never do. When you start that stuff, you never know what you’re going to do. My feeling about what my job is, is to do the best job I can, and if it turns into something, it turns into something. I’ve been very fortunate that the characters that I’ve done, either created or partially created or had a hand in, do seem to live on and really attract a lot of attention, even secondary characters.

MORRISON: That costume you did was the only reason people remembered Havok. [Laughs]

ADAMS: He’s got no highlights! But there is a tendency for somebody who has had a lot of experience and who really, really loves what they do to do things that people like. And I guess I’ve just been very lucky.

MORRISON: I wish I could take credit for [this upcoming story], but it wasn’t really me. It was [DC Executive Editor] Dan DiDio who wanted to make it into an event. He came to me, and he said, “Do you want to bring Ra’s Al Ghul back?” I said, “No! Don’t bring him back.” But then we talked about it and started to get into the whole story. I get to explain how he comes back without a Lazarus Pit. Also, [Batman and Talia’s son] Damian’s in there, and there’s a whole kind of fathers-and-sons thing going on.

ADAMS: That, by the way, is what you call underplaying what your role is. I’m sure it’ll be much more exciting and interesting than you indicate. From your record, [I know] that it’s going to be really powerful and terrific.

MORRISON: By the way, why does no one ever do Ra’s Al Ghul with no eyebrows? Because that’s the way you designed it.

ADAMS: Yeah, it’s funny. I want to take their fingers and break them when they come to the eyebrows. No eyebrows! Hello?

MORRISON: I always fancied how you drew that character. It drives me nuts because I always remember that being a feature on him.

ADAMS:: Sure. How many things can you identify Ra’s Al Ghul by? A receding hairline and no eyebrows and a thick brow, high cheekbones, and that’s pretty much it. There’s no big “S” on his chest. Maybe an “R-A-G” on his chest. That’s kind of a cool idea. [Laughs]

MORRISON: What were you thinking when you started drawing that? What was your visual model when it came to him?

ADAMS: First of all, Denny O’Neil started as a journalist, and so his experience with costume characters was always a forced experience. When the idea came to Julie Schwartz that “we’re kind of reviving old characters. What do we want to do for a new character?” Denny’s tendency—and I understood it totally—was not to go to a costume character with superpowers, but to go to a Moriarty type. When Denny presented it, here I was as a comic book artist who was used to doing fairly realistic stuff having to deal with, “Hey, no costume.” How do I make him unique? Because after all, we are pandering to our audience a little bit. How does he become unique? So I sort of went down the list of things that I could do that didn’t offend my sensibilities as an artist and as a person who lived in the world. How do you make a person unique? And then I realized there are people that look unique, that present their personality with their physiognomy—like Jack Palance, for example. Jack Palance is incredible to look at.

MORRISON: What did you focus on? The cheekbones, the eyes are really great on that character.

ADAMS: I don’t know what kind of fellow you are exactly, but I have a fairly high forehead, and I know that people with high foreheads will always complain about their forehead. You could say that it shows intelligence, but in fact it does set you apart to a certain extent. So I thought a high forehead and receding hairline…when viewed realistically in the world, if you look at famous people down through history, high forehead is a distinguishing trademark. So why not have a guy with a high forehead and in fact combs his hair back from his forehead to accentuate it?

MORRISON: Then there was Talia, who was always the best-looking girl in comics. [Laughs] Those are the drawings I grew up with.

ADAMS: I know. It’s terrible, isn’t it?

MORRISON: And again, no one’s ever captured the way, when she does that first appearance, and she’s just like the best-looking girl you’ve ever seen in a book.

ADAMS: If you have the ability to do that, and it’s all based on tricks and your research and history—if you study art without taking it seriously, but study it for its values, you learn how to do things like that. And so what you do is you consciously do that. You create a character or you create a thing that people will actually fall in love with. Nobody says that, and it’s one of the things that never really happens in comics.
And Talia was very much like that and continues to be like that if drawn better. You actually fall in love with her. She becomes one of those people that you have your little fantasies about.

MORRISON: Oh, believe me. Barbarella [or] Talia I could hook up with. [Laughs]

ADAMS: Send her my way. Honey, let me use the room.

MORRISON: And to me, that’s the kind of Batman I’m trying to bring back a little—that muscular, hairy, healthy Batman. That was a big influence on me. Batman on the ski slopes, climbing mountains. All that stuff was the Batman that resonates with me, rather than the tortured, twisted Batman.

ADAMS: I think that’s what happens—people start to move toward the Frank Miller Batman. He is a great Batman when he’s 55 years old and he’s got this sense of power and having gone through a really, really hard life [in 1986’s The Dark Knight Returns]. But the Batman that I like is a very athletic Batman, a guy who could do the decathlon and probably win, might walk away with Olympic medals and at the same time training his brain to be the best detective in the world. To me, it’s like Sherlock Holmes at the Olympics winning the decathlon.

MORRISON: I always felt that guy would be a healthy man. His mission is actually working out, so he’s psychologically healthy in the sense that he set out to achieve everything that he wanted to do. He is the man he created himself to be, and I find that a lot more interesting in these times—Batman who is sorted out, who’s been to the East and studied meditation methods.


ADAMS: In fact, I’ve spent a portion of my life doing a little bit of that studying, and you become, I don’t know if people understand this idea, but if you become physically aware and physically strong, you become mentally awake and alert. The two go together. You can pretend that’s not true, but it is true. The person who is physically capable and trains a lot is mentally awake and it doesn’t make him a genius, but it takes him to the top of his mental abilities. And somebody like Batman is at the peak of all of this stuff.

MORRISON: I don’t think [Ra’s and Batman] have much in common at all. I think he presumes that because Batman is something of a Nietzschean superman that he shares the same ideals as Ra’s Al Ghul, but he makes the mistake of not being able to understand Batman’s psychology. He sees Batman as a successor to him, and Talia as Batman’s perfect mate because Batman is basically the perfect man. He is what Ra’s Al Ghul would expect everyone to aspire to, to survive into his new world. He just would never understand Batman. It’s like in Lord of the Rings where Sauron cannot understand why anyone would want to destroy the ring. It’s that different.

ADAMS: The other thing is that some people will say of Batman that they don’t like his methods. He is, after all, a vigilante. So he steps far enough outside of what’s normal and what’s right, and in a way, he carries his own justice. Ra’s Al Ghul could very easily misinterpret that as being like him. Ra’s Al Ghul makes his own decisions for his own reasons. That’s not the way Batman thinks. Batman just thinks that there’s a certain uselessness to the way the criminal justice system is being done for the really bad criminals, the people who are stepping themselves outside of the law. So he acts as a vigilante. And he always questions it. He doesn’t do it like, “Oh, yeah, this is what I’m going to do and this is what I’m going to be.”

MORRISON: And it’s also that Batman puts that power to the service of other people, and Ra’s Al Ghul wants to use that power to control other people, to end people’s lives, to distort the world.

Staff Writer Kiel Phegley also uses a Lazarus Pit: It’s a bar between Houston and Prince and offers $2 PBRs to dorks.

Marvel Mondays: X-Men

I'm not one for the X-men and X-Universe anymore. While one of my favourite characters remains Deadpool and I've been following the X-titles faithfully for years, I stopped right as Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely were starting their run on the title they renamed as New X-Men.

How silly, as it was one of the best X-men arcs for years. I've got all the TPBs of their run though, so no worries there. However, I still haven't gotten back into the X-universe since I stopped buying the single issues. I purchased the House of M mini-series but that was more of a company-wide event that HAPPENED to have mutants at the core of the story.

The only X-title that I DO get is Astonishing X-Men, by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday. And that one is pretty much self-contained in itself anyway. And it's a brilliant must-get book that Marvel puts out. It's an X-title, but I don't see it as being one.

But the new Messiah Complex storyline seems interesting and though I know I won't really be purchasing it, if it's interesting enough, I might get the TPB!


MARVEL MONDAYS: X-MEN
With ‘Messiah Complex’ looming, writer Mike Carey gives six straight answers about X-Men #204 this week
By Brian Warmoth

Posted October 22, 2007 11:45 AM

Sinister and Exodus are both breathing down the necks of the X-Men with the clock counting down to the fall mega-event Messiah Complex. This week’s X-Men #204 sets the stage as “Endangered Species” careens toward a halt. Writer Mike Carey fielded six big questions about what’s going on in his X-books, as Marvel offers an exclusive glimpse of what will take place.

WIZARD: The story for issue #204 is titled as an epilogue. What’s going to be ending, and are the events in the story going to be setting any sort of tone for things to come?

CAREY: It’s an epilogue to the “Blinded By the Light” story arc, most obviously, but in another sense it’s an epilogue to everything we’ve been doing since “Supernovas.” Rogue’s team is in terminal disarray, the X-Men are reeling from the events of the past few days, and we all know something really big is about to hit the fan. So we take the opportunity to play out some of the emotional beats arising from the intense action of recent issues, touching base with Iceman, Cannonball, Cyclops, Rogue, Gambit, Mystique, Sinister and others. And yeah, it’s a prologue as well as an epilogue, because it ends with a very significant event which feeds straight into Ed’s Messiah Complex one-shot.

Who is a bigger threat right now, the Marauders or the Acolytes? And how do their plights compare to each other right now?

CAREY: Well, the scariest thing is that these two groups—each formidable in itself—have managed to join forces despite the different perspectives of their leaders and their not entirely compatible agendas. Are the Marauders or the Acolytes the bigger threat? Hard to say, but if I had to call it I’d say the Marauders: Exodus has more raw power, but Sinister is the deeper schemer, harder to read and harder to reason with. You just know that in his mind, everyone and everything is potentially expendable. There’s no safety net with this guy. And the Marauders now have Mystique in their ranks. Can you think of any female character in the X-verse who’d be more formidable or more terrifying to go up against? I can’t.

What is Blindfold’s status now? Is she totally healed and in the clear?

CAREY: She’s stable, and she’s no longer in any danger as far as her physical condition is concerned. She knew what she was doing, and although she cut it as close as it could be cut, she survived. There are a number of Blindfold beats in this issue, and again we see her looking forward to what’s about to happen. For more of Ruth’s own story, though, you’ll have to wait until next year: There are some major revelations in store there.

When are we going to find out what she woke up screaming about?

CAREY: Very soon. In fact, on Oct. 31...

Have we seen the last of Dark Beast in the “Endangered Species” storyline, or will he be showing up again in Chapter 17? If not, does he still have a role to play as things unfold?

CAREY: Dark Beast isn’t going to be playing any further role either in “Endangered Species” or in Messiah Complex. But you can bet we didn’t bring him in just for the sake of this one story: He’s back in play, and he’s got ideas of his own arising out of the little journey of discovery he’s just been on. Look to see the Doc in a major X-book in 2008.

How about Mystique and Iceman? After she spared his life with a sharp threat in #203, are the two of them going to be able to avoid one another with everything going on at the moment?

CAREY: No comment. But again, the way that relationship played out has left a number of things hanging. Mystique in particular showed an unaccustomed vulnerability at the moment when she was seeing the fulfillment of some very long-term schemes. The unfinished business will be finished, but I can’t say when or where.


For a sneak peek at the upcoming X-events, check out these pages from X-Men #204: