#we marvel x men kids know how protective logan can get over his students

[brainrotcharacters]

deadclaws badassery where it's revealed Wade and Logan tested the distance on Logan's hearing.

Watch them hundreds of feet away from each other in the battlefield and all it takes to set Wolverine loose is for Deadpool to mutter "Logan."

gif credits to original owners!

[kurtty-drabbles]

You´re a witchy Kitty au (part4)

N/A: merciful short and straight to the point. I hope.

@djinmer4 @dannybagpipesarecalling @bamfoftheundead

The mansion of the X-men is in the usual state as the students`  own laughter can be heard as well with screams of teenagers having fun, indeed, it is a safe haven for those who seek protection and Logan wasn´t lying when describing the house as huge. The wizard did saw big houses in his country, of course, but, nothing as a mansion.

“Wow” Kurt Szardos begins as his etiquette for such situations is almost non-existent.

“Yeah, is a big house, fancy on the outside, but, deadly on the inside” Logan promises in his grumpy voice. There´s a woman in the main entrance who has her arms crossed and looks bemused at Logan.

“Storm!” Logan begins but the woman walks over him and manages to make the mighty Wolverine silent with her blue eyes.

“You run away like a wild animal, you prick all the photos with Jean and Scott, which for your information, those pictures have other people there who didn´t like to see the photo torn apart ” Ororo´s eyes indicates that she may be one of those peoples. Kurt watches as the once sunny day is getting cloudy.

“And then you take the car without saying anything but ’‘JEAN” and now…you´re back with a complete stranger and expect things to be the same?“ Storm concludes her speech and Kurt marvels at the weather who is matching Ororo´s temperament.

A weather sorceress? Amazing.

Logan gulps hard as suddenly, as if a pass of magic, the man realizes that his past actions weren´t very nice and Storm is not a woman to put up with bad behaviour. "Ro, I´m sorry, for real, but…knowing that Jean pick Scott ….broke my heart” Kurt and Storm aren´t impressed. “my heart is still broken, but, I´m an X-men and I came here with a solution” and now his eyes are on Kurt Szardos.

“Ro, in our last conversation, as X-men, you mentioned how is troublesome to only have to count with Dr Stranger who is siding more and more with the Avengers. So, here´s my solution, this is Kurt Szardos, a great sorcerer I know and he is willing to help us…plus…” Logan trails off and Kurt gets the gist as the glamour is off showing his blue self.

Ororo seems to analyse Kurt and then Logan. “As the leader of the X-men I must ask you, do you trust him?”

Logan nods.

“Then welcome to the X-men, Kurt, hope you can survive the experience”

_________________________________________________________________________

A man enters a pub looking for someone in the crow of people. The pub is having more clients than normal, maybe, is because of the holiday it always increases the job market of this area. The said man finally spot the lonely table of the south part of the pub and the guest who was waiting for him nods in affirmation.

“Steffan” the guest replies with a crooked smile, wearing a brown coat that is a hand me down and finally stop breaking the knife to give his total attention to Steffan. “I did what you asked me to. It was really easy, a stupid tourist having fun at the wrong time and place”

Steffan nods and remembers his mission. “I need a piece of her, take me to the body”

The two men walk to the background of the pub, to where a small stair leading to the basement is visible. The men went down and saw the corpses waiting for confirmation.

“This is your Kitty Pryde” the killer points to the victim number 3333 and Steffan notices the hair, but, by curiosity decides to see her face (is this Kurt´s soulmate? Oh he needs to see her face) and is taken back by this.

The fingers are holding the sheet strongly as Steffan is staring at the face of the woman beneath him. “IS. NOT. HER” the hair is similar, but, now under the dim light is possible to see the differences, as well her face. IS NOT HER.

_________________________________________________________________________

Agatha is doing potions. Stirring on her cauldron until the green mass becomes completely uniform and the ingredients are properly absorbed (she can still see some herbs in the mass) and is waiting. Waiting for the right moment.

“Another victim of the Szardos` crazy schemes is located” Wanda explains once her eyes are no longer crimson. Her powers are expanding each day.

“Yes, I had figured it out as much…You saw the image of the poor woman, didn´t you?” Agatha asked and Wanda pales a little as she did nod. “They are getting sloppier, and we get an advantage as Kitty is here and safer” and Wanda looks at the wall for a moment and her eyes side with Agatha.

“You can come out now, invisible spells are hard to do it, but, they aren´t powerful from those who have the sighting” Agatha speaks and Kitty Pryde, having 16 years old now, reveals herself.

“Spying on us?” Wanda asked trying to sound intimidating.

“Only because there´s a killer going after me…I saw the victims…they look a bit like me”

“Yes, they look like you, and it was a mistake on my part to try to leave you in the dark, however, now you´re here is time to explain the situation” Agatha begins and conjure a new chair so Kitty could sit among the witches.

“A woman named Margalia Szardos wants to kill you” Wanda states knowing full well that there´s no way one could deliver such information in a graceful way.

“Why she wants to kill me?” Kitty asked holding the Davi Star tightly in her hands now.

“Margalia…used to be one of my students, one that I sincerely regret, she was …insane, to put in simple terms, she wanted power for the sake of power and to get such power she killed children. Remember when I told you some witches can be bad?” Kitty nods now for the first time believing this. “Margalia sell her soul to a demon in exchange for power, however, to pay her magic she must sacrifice kids with the right magic core…and is rare for her to spot a magical child”

Wanda looks uncomfortable for a moment and Agatha gives her a kind smile. “Kitty, Margalia tried to recruit me and thank Hecate Agatha saved me in the last minute…let me tell you this, Margalia as much evil of person you can imagine and more”

“Why me?”

“We don´t know exactly, but, we do know that you´ll be safe as we´ll deal with her and stop that madwoman” and Wanda adds “I know you like fiction where kids face bad guys and win, but, this is reality and I ask you, please, stay here and don´t try to be Harry Potter”

“Don´t worry, I don´t want to go after a woman who wants to kill me. I´m not Harry Potter”

__________________________________________________________________________

“My love, come here” Belasco orders as his Persephone approaches the trone to see the screen display in front of him. “Do you reconize that girl?”

“Of course, that´s our little Yana, although, she´s a bit older now”

“Correct, but, do you reconize the blue man here?”

“Ohhh” and she giggles.

______________________________________________________________________

Kurt Szardos is getting the gist of the X-men and has no problem in doing his part, however, as the man was walking down the halls it is impossible to not see two Russians fighting in their languages.

“Is demonic, no sister of mine will learn magic” Piotr screams like a wild animal, but, the teenager is not scared.

“You´re a mutant, you save people, what I supposed to do? Stay in the dark? I have a gift and I want to use it…and if you´re bonehead to see it” Yana teleport as Piotr´s fist hit the floor.

Piotr looks back to see Kurt Szardos looking at the scene. “WHAT?” and Kurt teleports away before the Russian could hit him. Kurt spot Yana crying (sad tears or anger tears? hard to tell) and remember his time as a small kid under Margalia.

What a terrible thought.

“Hello, do you want to learn magic?”

And Yana looks up at Kurt and nods.

(Everything in his vision is fitting in, everything but one crucial thing, but, Kurt has time)

[putris-et-mulier]

Those of you who want to start reading comics but don't know how to start

comixology is doing a BOGO sell on Marvel comics, specifically the most popular ones. Quick overview and recommendations for those who might be overwhelmed with the choices. But the word "Marvel" in your promotion code when you check out.

I'm going to try to just give you one sentence or a panel to recommend all the X-Men ones, because you know I'm recommending all of the X-Men ones. But I will let you know what's in it, vaguely.

I'll add more panel examples but I need to do something and the sale ends on the 13th

"Recent Jumping On Points!"  

Moon Knight Vol. 1: Lunatic – I love this series. Moon Knight is a lot like Deadpool and Legion in that they are all mentally ill characters that no one really seemed to know what to do with but Jeff Lemire got the series and he's been doing an amazing job. It will be confusing but it's confusing even if you have read the old comics, the whole thing is kind of his perception of reality so… If you like mentally ill Jewish male protagonists that need to be protected, you'll like this

Gwenpool, The Unbelievable Vol. 1: Believe It – she's a recent Deadpool spinoff I haven't really started to get but I will soon so if you do get this I'd like to hear your opinion

X-Men '92 Vol. 1: The World Is A V – this is a continuation of the 90s cartoon but it jumps ahead in the story so even people who have seen the cartoon know everything you and it's written with the expectation that you probably haven't seen the cartoon

and there is Jubilee

Spider-Man/Deadpool Vol. 1: Isn't It Bromantic – now everyone who says "I wanted to read that" can. It's as ridiculous as everyone says it is. More so, actually.

Deadpool: World's Greatest Vol. 1 – if you want to start reading the most recent Deadpool comics just start with this

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Vol. 1: BFF – it's comic book about a little girl and a dinosaur, it's adorable

Wolverine: Old Man Logan Vol. 1: Berzerker – this is what the movie Logan is based off of

Spider-Gwen Vol. 1: Greater Power – what if Peter Parker died and Gwen became a superhero and was in a punk band with Peter's ex girlfriends: best premise ever

All-New Wolverine Vol. 1: The Four Sisters – you might also want to check this out if you like Logan, currently the Wolverine in "old Man Logan" is in the 616 but Laura has just become the official Wolverine

All-New X-Men: Inevitable Vol. 1 – okay, so the original X-Men (Cyclops, Marvel Girl Jean Gray, Archangel, Iceman, Beast) travel forward in time so right now in the 616 we have adult versions of those characters, the ones we've always had, and now the teenage version of those characters which are technically the same characters but taken out of time when they were teenagers and just formed the X-Men, before everyone died a bunch of times. The book isn't as confusing as the explanation but I think some of you might like it because when Iceman traveled to the future he outed his older self as being in the closet and in this book we see his teenage self, straight from the 70s (pun intended,) try to figure out how to live like a gay guy in this century.

Also, baby Cyclops

Extraordinary X-Men Vol. 1: X-Haven – this is about the school refugee children in the X-Men put in Hell (Limbo) because the Earth is too dangerous. Also a genius premise

Uncanny Avengers: Unity Vol. 1: Lost Future – I've talked about this one a ton, it's the one where Rouge, Deadpool, Cable, and Quicksilver (and Captin  America, and blah blah blah) are working as Avengers

"Recent #1's"

Death Of X (2016) Issue #1 – Cyclops died (yes, he will be back eventually and there is still the teenage Cyclops running around hating himself)

IvX (2016-2017) Issue #1 – a lot about X-Men is about bigotry and eugenics and this one is another angle on that. What if two nearly extinct races have to exterminate the other to live?

Deadpool: Back In Black (2016) Issue #1 – this is about Deadpool and Venom hooking up for a while

Jessica Jones (2016-) Issue #1 – if you haven't seen the Netflix show, you should and if you have seen it and liked it you need to read this. Jessica just got released from prison and is separated from Luke and hiding their child and you have to read a few issues before they start to tell you why she went to prison and all that other stuff

and look at her shirt

Civil War II: X-Men (2016) Issue #1 – skip it. It's not bad, it's just boring

"Popular Marvel Collections"

Avengers vs. X-Men – the X-Men find a way to save their race and the Avengers try to exterminate them again. This is the series I always mentioned when people say that Captain America isn't a racist

House of M – what of Scarlet Wtich cast a spell that mutants should disappear and then Magneto becomes king and everyone was happy, kind of

X-Men: Days of Future Past – this is what the movie was based on but it's good and they didn't give all the leading roles to Wolverine. I love this book, a friend and I would act it out when we were kids which was probably pretty alarming for the adults

Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe – I'm the only one who didn't like this series so based on statistics you will like it. Eh it wasn't that bad. You get to see an alternate universe Deadpool shoot an alternate universe Spider-Man in the head and this was before he did it those last two times in the 616

Astonishing X-Men Vol. 1: Gifted – Cyclops tries to make the X-Men good guys again… With Emma Frost. She was that chick that always dressed in white in Days of Future Past but, again, she's actually cool in the comics. I think some of you would really like her, her character is like "what if a girl had the dream of becoming a school teacher but she was born as such a marginalized and targeted race so she grew up to teach in a segregated community in a school for child refugees of your race" and tack on "what if a girl was so conventionally attractive that no one took her serious despite her being very intelligent so she learns how to use her sexuality and her passing privilege to manipulate people"

Ultimate X-Men Vol. 1 – no unless you have nothing else to read

X-Men: Second Coming – it's about Deadpool's ex-husband's daughter that Cable kept strapped to his chest 

X-Men: Battle of the Atom – read this after all new X-Men, at least the first one. Now a mutant group from the future travels back in time to take out the teenage versions because every future is a dystopia and everyone believes the only way to is to murder yourself in the past

and we get a bunch of new teen mutants and their parentage… Is very X-Men. Look how cute Shogo is meeting his mother's teenage past self 

Guess who this dude belongs to

If you ship Xavierine you have to read this

X-Men: the Complete Age Of Apocalypse Epic Book 1 – this is an alternate universe story so I'm not sure if you want to read it but the art isn't as bad as the cover makes it seem

Hawkeye Vol. 1: My Life As A Weapon – this the series in which they actually keep Hawkeye deaf and integrated wonderfully into the story

All-New X-Men Vol. 1: Yesterday's X-Men – the teenage X-Men travel to the current timeline and meet their older selves.  

Runaways Vol. 1: Pride and Joy – Runaways is always cute. It's about a group of kids who all had evil villains for parents and they ran away from their homes and tried to be heroes 

"Marvel Women of Power"

I think you guys know what you want in this category but the Spider Woman one is the one in which she tries to fight crime while she's pregnant. Thor is Jane Foster (she is the current Thor because Thor is in a timeout) while she's at the last stages of terminal cancer. She Hulk is a lawyer. Ms. Marvel is the girl that was in the news for taking over the legacy name AND being Muslim and it's actually made by Muslim women.

X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga – everyone has read this. Even people who have never read comics. Through osmosis. Don't be the last one…

X-Treme X-Men Vol. 5: God Loves, Man Kills – Also read this

X-Men: The Complete Onslaught Epic - Book One – if it sounds good read it but I don't think is very applicable to anything that's going on right now in the comics or movie

Wolverine: Weapon X – if you can stand looking at Wolverine any longer

X-Men: Inferno – This one is going to be pretty confusing to be one of the first things you read but if you know about Jean Gray and Madeline Prior in all that you'll enjoy it 

New Mutants Epic Collection: Renewal – remember in Deadpool that character Negasonic Teenage Warhead? She is a new mutant, they are the mutant students that graduated and are trying to be X-Men. There's going to be a TV show based on this but I'm not sure if it's going be based on anything specific. The first members are Karma who is a psychic lesbian who eventually becomes an amputee raising her younger siblings as a kind of single mother, Sunspot is a Brazilian guy that kind of explodes a lot in all senses of the word, Moonstar is a young woman from the Cheyenne nation who is eventually a VIP and gets a flying horse, Cannonball is an innocent country boy that is "pretty much invulnerable when Ah'm blastin" 

It is like One Tree Hill if one tree Hill was about racism and general bigotry… and blastin'

Keep in mind that this is the beginning so these characters are adults now and the New Mutant lineup changes (obviously they have to eventually graduate to X-Men)

Wolverine By Claremont & Miller – this is what the movie "The Wolverine" was kind of based on so if you like it when Wolverine pretends to be Japanese you should pick this up 

Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 1 – if you want to start from beginning but want the ease of reading the collections

the Max stuff is the 616 Marvel characters in an R-rated universe

Journey Into Mystery Vol. 1: Fear Itself – this is when Loki was a teenager and they don't usually read these books but I really got hooked because they were better than I thought they would be 

Substance"> Young Avengers Vol. 1: Style > Substance – remember the series about a teenage Avenger group and no one turned out to be straight? This is the beginning of that

no to all the Ultimate stuff

Read all the X Factor and X Force! Uncanny X Force is the one with Deadpool and it's my favorite Deadpool of all time. I've talked about X Factor little before, that's when Rictor and Shatterstar finally get together. If you saw Logan you saw the first appearance of Rictor who is going to be in new mutants

this is the kid that plays him, Jason Genao

he is the kid at the table and this is from a Law and Order because I thought maybe it would be more familiar to everyone. So since we are starting with him as a kid I really hope if/when we see Shatterstar they do a throwback to his old hair and make a kid wear an extremely long blonde mullet wig on

[xavierfiles-blog]

Entry 🕷️👨 - Spider-Man

Art by Paco Medina

Name: Peter Palmer

Code Names: Spider Man

First Appearance: X-Men #35 (Aug ‘67)

Powers: Does whatever a spider can

Teams Affiliation: The Amazing Friends

About

With great power comes great merchandising potential. There are more toys, wrapping paper tubes, sippy cups, and bags of confetti with the Spider Man logo on it than all other superheroes combined. Turns out kids love a man in a skin tight red jumper. Pete’s sweet uncle Ben getting killed might have been the best thing for him because now he gets all that good good synergy. And you know the only thing more synergistic than a movie/comic/toy/cartoon universe? Tying all of that in with the X-Men.

Portrayed by Tobey Maguire

Peter was a loner who was a bit of a jerk to literally everyone. They didn’t care about science or wheat cakes or sweater vests and were therefore beneath him. He got bit by a spider, got spider powers, and did whatevery teen would do, become a professional wrestler. Spidey, finally having a reason for being so arrogant, decided not to stop a robber because he just didn’t feel like it. That robber ended up vaporizing his sweet, perfect angel of an Uncle Ben and Spider Man decided he would commit his life to doing what Ben would have wanted, helping support his very poor Aunt who loved him and raised him dressing like a spider and punching animal and/or goblin themed bad guys.

Art by Joe Quinones, Joe Rivera, and Rico Renzi

He gained a motley crew of supporting characters like his best friend with stupid cornrows, his best friend’s evil dad, the perfect blonde woman who was secretly in love with his best friend’s evil dad, the red head who the internet just needs to get over, and the most perfect character in the world, John Jonah Jameson Jr. He met up with the WASP-iest mutants of them all, the original X-Men but they didn’t get along because Uncle Ben never taught him what consent was.

Art by Gil Kane and Steve Mitchell

When the SJW got ahold of the X-Men and made them “diverse”, Spider Man viewed Arcade abduct someone and decided to call the X-Men so they could handle it. He was tired of these illegals not pulling their own weight (and don’t try and tell me that the commie Colossus had a visa, he was just over here stealing our superhero jobs). They hung out a couple more times and Peter decided they couldn’t be trusted when they tried to help an old Holocaust victim survive on Battleworld. He stopped returning their phone calls, probably because Spider Man was just too busy teaching the Beyonder how to poop.

Art by Al Milgrom, Steve Leialoah, and M. Hands

Spider Man stopped doing stuff with the X-Men but X-Force was a whole other ball game. They decided to team up alongside two of the Image founders for a fun little jaunt where they didn’t stop the Juggernaut from destroying one of the World Trade Center towers in a story that is retroactively super insensitive. He spent the rest of the 90’s getting cloned and being upset that the X-Men were beating him in sales.

Art by The Rob

Spider Man avoided the X-Men as much as he could but as the 90’s ended he reclaimed his sales titles. As revenge, Teen Jean swapped Sinkt Bub’s mind with the human spider but wasn’t ready for all the nonconsensual actions Wolverine would take. Spider Man continued his bigotry towards mutants after that.

Art by Mark Bagley, Scott Hanna, and J.D. Smith

There was one mutant he respected, Wolverine. Wolverine was the only X-Men popular enough to sustain a solo ongoing and the two bonded when Brian Michael Bendis decided that the Avengers just needed to stop trying to make Wonder Man happen and only focus on the cool and interesting characters. Spidey grew to love Logan’s rough demeanor and Logan loved that fact the Peter never counted the cash in his wallet. The two became fast friends.

Art by Phil Jimenez, Andy Lanning, and Chris Chuckry

In a last-ditch effort to boost sales, Marvel killed off Wolverine, leaving a vacancy at his school. Instead of filling it with any of the X-Men on this list who weren’t being used, they decided that Spider Man should go to Westchester and teach these minority students. He decided to use this opportunity to take the students on dangerous trips to fight dinosaur men with bad intentions instead of, you know, math. Since then he has become a highly successful CEO and decided not to donate any of that money to the M-Pox crisis.

Art by Marco Failla and Ian Herring

Must Read

This is easy, One More Day is the touching story about a man sacrificing everything to protect the woman he loves. Spider Man goes to the depths of hell to save his sickly, geriatric aunt, giving up almost twenty years of character development so that she could have a few more months on this Earth. You can find it on Marvel Unlimited or at the end of several longboxes whose owners decided it was the perfect ending to their Spider Man collection.

Ranking

Spider Man is loved by babies everywhere. thinks things he is great and that one movies wasn’t so bad. He was a neat teacher and did some cool stuff I guess. I think the joke of this article has gotten stale and we can all accept that ranking him isn’t going actually happen so Happy April Fool’s and keep on swinging.

Spider-Man (who, yes, I know has a hyphen in his name nerds) was requested by /u/KookyGuy and /u/temporal712 from the /r/comicbooks Discord server. They are jerks and no one should be friends with them. If you have a request for someone who is actually related to the X-Men how about you send it below? If you want to cut to the front of the line, we have a Patreon you can support for just $1 to get a line cutting reward.

Make sure you check out Legion Quest a new podcast where me and Newsarama reviewer Matt Sibley talk about the FX show Legion. You can follow the show at any of these sources (iTunes | Google Play | Sticher | RSS).

Click here if you want to see the full ranked list, with links to every entry in the Xavier Files so far.

If you liked what you read be sure to follow Xavier Files on twitter, Tumblr, Facebook!

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Entry Key

Entry 🕷️👨 – Spider-Man was originally published on Xavier Files

[aion-rsa]

INTERVIEW: Marc Guggenheim Will Keep X-Men Gold ‘Light and Fun’

For the past several years, Marvel Comics’ X-Men have had their hands full combating large-scale threats to mutantkind’s very existence. When you’re battling those kinds of existential crises, it can be hard to focus on making the world a better place for the humans that fear and hate you. So the X-Men have frequently had to distance themselves from or temporarily set aside the dream of their founder Charles Xavier; proving that man and mutants can co-exist by using their powers to protect and defend the world.

That all changes this April with the launch of the “ResurrXion” line of books, including the new twice-monthly ongoing series “X-Men Gold,” by writer Marc Guggenheim — the executive producer of The CW’s “Arrow” and “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow,” and a comic book writer who made his Marvel debut back in 2006 with the “Civil War” arc of “Wolverine” — and artist Ardian Syaf, formerly of DC Comics titles including “Superman.” “X-Men Gold” finds Kitty Pryde returning to the team she grew up with, now as the group’s leader, as she works to mutantkind into an all-new age of high-profile superheroics.

CBR spoke with Guggenheim about the book’s direction and keeping things “relatively light and fun” (at least at first, Kitty’s leadership position, the initial threats his X-Men will face and how they’ll interact more with the larger Marvel Universe than they have in quite some time. Plus, CBR has the first look at the covers to May’s “X-Men Gold” #3 and #4, both by Syaf.

EXCLUSIVE: “X-Men Gold” #3 cover by Ardian Syaf.

CBR: Marc, looking at the line up for “X-Men Gold,” Kitty Pryde is on a team with her former best friend in Rachel Grey, an older version of a father figure from her youth in Old Man Logan, an ex-boyfriend in Colossus, and two close friends she pretty much grew up with in Nightcrawler and Storm. So at first glance it seems in terms of team dynamic this would be a nice homecoming for her, but is that necessarily the case?

Marc Guggenheim: It is. It’s certainly complicated particularly with respect to Peter, and some of my favorite moments from the first issue relate to their history together, but overall it’s a very empowering homecoming. Kitty is the “kid who made good.” She’s the apprentice who’s returning to become the master.

This relates to my goal of keeping the book — for the time being at least — relatively light and fun. The complexities that arise from the composition of the team aren’t dark and hand wringing-y. They’re meant to be really fun. If I can get you at least chuckling once an issue, that would be wonderful.

So, if you’ll pardon a bad joke, they’re the X-Men and not the Angst-Men?

Exactly. I think the X-Men have always had a certain amount of angst, but the thing that I’m trying to calibrate with “Gold” is not making the angst the driving force of the stories. I kind of feel like for the longest time — and I’m really using “E For Extinction” as the sort of jumping off point — that the X-Men have had a lot of angst, which was appropriate because ever since “E For Extinction,” the X-Men have been sort of fighting for their very existence, always facing some version of extinction.

I think one of the great things about ResurrXion — and one of the reasons it’s so aptly titled — is that the X-Men coming out of “IvX” have a new lease on life. The existential threats that they were facing have been tabled for the time being and that’s allowing the X-Men to look to the future in a way that they haven’t been able to in a very long time. We hit this point pretty hard in X-Men Prime.

Kitty Pryde is returning to the X-Men in a leadership role. What made you want to cast her in this position?

It started with a great love of Kitty. My first X-Men issue that I read was #139, which was the “Welcome to the X-Men, Kitty Pryde – Hope You Survive the Experience” issue. From the moment I was offered the gig, I knew I wanted to return Kitty to the team if the character was available. But then, the more I thought about it, the more I realized there was an opportunity to do more than scratch a nostalgic itch. I realized I had the chance to tell a very classic story: the story of the apprentice who becomes the master. To me, her becoming the leader of the team was the ultimate realization of that arc.

When I pitched it, I wasn’t so sure how people at Marvel would respond, and to my delight, that was the thing about my take that excited and energized everyone the most. It certainly energized me because it’s been a lot of fun to write Kitty as someone calling the shots. She’s really proving on the job that she’s learned a lot over her many years of being a member of the X-Men.

EXCLUSIVE: “X-Men Gold” #4 cover by Ardian Syaf

Is she going to feel some of the weight and darkness that some of the other prominent X-Men leaders have wrestled with like Cyclops and Storm?

Eventually I would love to get to that point. I’m intentionally avoiding that right now because, like I said, I tonally want to start the book off on a lighter and more hopeful note.

But you’re right: It is true that Storm and Cyclops have have met with very challenging moral ends. It’s something we’ll definitely be dealing a bit with when it comes to Storm, but it’s more on Storm’s side of the equation than on Kitty’s. It would be really nice to cast that particular shadow on Kitty eventually, but before I cast shadows, I want to get some sunlight in there.

Another interesting dynamic that occurred to while looking at your line up is you have two characters that hail from nightmarish possible futures in Old Man Logan and Rachel Grey. What’s it like bouncing those two characters off of each other?

I’ve got an idea for a really cool scene between Logan and Rachel, but the right moment to have that scene hasn’t happened yet. The scene I have in mind does speak directly to the fact they both come from futures that just happen to both be lousy. What is it about the future that in any iteration, it always looks crappy? I want to get a little meta (but not too meta) about it, but I haven’t had a chance to fit that in just yet.

Superheroics will be an essential part of “X-Men Gold,” but what about the training of the next generation of mutants? Will that be a part of your book as well?

Yeah, it happens in the background because the book is very much focused on the active X-Men. What I think is very critical about the X-Men’s new status quo is that the mansion is full with students, so the X-Men still have to be teachers as well as heroes. They have to continue to training the next generation of mutants.

So, yes, the younger X-Men will very much be a part of the book. In fact, the students have moments in each of the issues I’ve written so far. At the same time, it’s a little bit of a balancing act, because I want to maintain the focus on our core X-Men.

“X-Men Gold” #1 cover by Ardian Syaf

I think balancing between your core cast and all the fan-favorite supporting characters that are part of their world is sort of the main struggle for any X-Men writer. Because even the mutant characters that might be considered C-list by some are other readers’ favorites. So how has it been balancing all of those things?

I always try very hard to keep some space for non-action moments. I think when you’re able to spend time just with the characters it gives you opportunities to interact more with the students and more with the fan favorite characters.

At the same time, different stories are going to lend themselves to different kinds of characters. So while we’ll always have our core group, Kitty is smart: If she needs a particular power or skill set from other mutants she has no compunctions against bringing them into the field. For example, Rockslide and Armor will help the team in issue #3.

What’s your sense of the X-Men’s rogues’ gallery? Is “X-Men Gold” a book where we’ll see classic foes? New villains? Or both?

I would say both. The first arc features a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. One might think, “Jeez, another Brotherhood of Evil Mutants?” But hopefully I’ve come up with a twist that makes this Brotherhood different from all the other ones that came before it. That team will feature some familiar faces and some new characters.

There are a lot of different things I’m trying to balance in the book. One of them is having new characters and adding new toys to the toy box, while at the same time bringing back characters that people know and love. The Brotherhood is a good example of doing a mixture of those two things.

For me, one of the most interesting aspects about the Brotherhood is the word evil is in their name. A lot of villains see themselves as the heroes of their own story. So to have “evil” as part of their group moniker suggests you’re dealing with a group that wants to take ownership of that word and embrace it. Is that true with this group?

Yeah they really should be called, the Brotherhood of Self-Aware Mutants. No, the truth is in this particular instance the “evil” is very intentionally included. There’s a secret to the team that connects directly to the reason for the word “evil” being in the group’s name.

Ardian Syaf’s art has a feel and flavor that reminds me of some of the past heroic eras of the X-Men. So it seems like he’d be a good fit for what you want to do here. What’s it like working with him?

I’ve got to give all the credit in the world to [Marvel editor] Dan Ketchum. I said to him that putting Ardian on this book was the best bit of casting; of matching an artist to a book.

I think Ardian’s style tells you everything you need to know about what the book’s mission statement is. His art is new and fresh, but it also harkens back to John Byrne and Jim Lee. There’s even a bit of Arthur Adams in there. So his style is very modern, but it also speaks to an aesthetic that draws on the influence of the ’80s and the ’90s.

Ardian Syaf’s cover for March’s “X-Men” one-shot, written by Marc Guggenheim, illustrated by Ken Lashley and setting the stage for much of the “Resurrxion” status quo.

Any further hints and teases you can leave us with about the tone, scope, and scale of your initial stories?

Because we’re double-shipping I’m keeping the arcs pretty short. They’ll be about three to four issues long. I’m really excited about that actually, because it’s made the issues themselves very dense. We’re not really doing any sort of decompression here. We’re telling very tightly compacted and constructed stories, and I’m trying very hard to make sure that each issue has a handful of moments that make that issue really, really special. There’s no sort of filler issues. I want to make sure that with each issue everyone is getting a lot of bang for their buck; that in those 20 pages there’s a lot of great stuff going on.

That structure is also a lot of fun. We’re going to tell a Brotherhood of Evil Mutants story in the first arc and there’s going to be a brand new kind of threat in the second arc. You’re not going to have to wait six months to get a different story. You’ll be getting stories on a much more regular and consistent basis, which I think harkens back to the feel of reading these books back in the ’80s.

In recent years it tends to be very easy to have the X-Men exist in almost their own corner of the Marvel Universe. Will we see some of the larger outside MU trappings in “X-Men Gold?” Will groups like say, S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Avengers, pop up from time to time?

Yes. The whole raison d’etre of the book and the team is that throughout the X-Men’s history they’ve sort of segregated themselves. They were either up in Westchester, or they were on Utopia, or they were in Genosha, or Limbo. They were never in the middle of the action; they always segregated themselves from humankind. What’s so great about Kitty’s plan is that she wants to put the X-Men front and center. They’re going to have relationships and interactions with humans. That’s the only way they’re going to combat the prejudice against mutants. The only way you fight ignorance is with knowledge and interaction.

So, yes, the X-Men are going to be smack-dab in the middle of New York, and as we all know there’s a lot of superheroes and stuff going on in New York. We will be seeing S.H.I.E.L.D. As people who read my last comic know [Marvel’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” comic book], I have a great affection for S.H.I.E.L.D. We’ll also be seeing other superheroes as time goes on.

We’ll be crossing paths with some big things happening in the Marvel Universe, as well. That’s really important to what we’re trying to do with “X-Men Gold.” The big mission statement of the book and the team is that the X-Men are interacting with the rest of the Marvel Universe in a way that they really haven’t in a long time.

“X-Men Gold” #1 is scheduled for release on April 5, with “X-Men Gold” #2 following two weeks later.

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