With the current issue of Adjectiveless
X-Men (#202) currently on stands, readers indulge in the penultimate chapter of Mike Careys latest storyline Blinded by the Light. This story arc features the return of the Marauders and the revelation that someone sinister has had some very deep seated, long term plans in place that have the X-Men in all sorts of disarrayincluding the dissolution of Rogues team down to two functioning membersIceman and Cannonball.
With the threat of Sinisters developing machinations coming to fruition and the looming mystery of Marvels Messiah Complex event gaining momentum, Newsarama tracked down Mike Carey to see if he would care to guide us through this complex maze of stories that has readers anticipating bad things for Marvels mutants.
Newsarama: With all roads leading the X-books to the Messiah Complex event in the next few months, lets start by discussing the premise of the storythere is a new mutant birthis this story kind of like a race to see who gets to the child first?
Mike Carey: To some extent, yes, thats the initial scenario but it develops far beyond that. The mutant child is clearlydepending on which way you view ita potentially valuable resource in and of itself or potentially a key to resolving the problem of mutant extinction. There will be people who want to run tests on the babywho will want to exploit the babyits a very open ended scenario right out of the gate. But then the story expands very quickly into other areas.
NRAMA: Is there going to be an ethical dilemma that forms from within the various groups of X-Men? Will there be an internal split when it comes to how these people develop their approach to dealing with this new birth?
MC: Absolutely. There are definitely a lot of different ways of looking at this. Not all of the X-Men are going to agree about the best way forward.
NRAMA: Typically, the latent mutant gene would activate with the onset of puberty in sort of a symbolic fashionsignifying the difficulties of the transition from adolescence to adulthoodcan you elaborate on exactly how it is that this baby is born a mutant?
MC: Id rather duck that question for the time being. There is kind of an assumption built into that notion, isnt there? What we get here is a mutant birth that is detectedeven though its a newborn. You are absolutely right, in most cases, it would not be possible to tell; youd have to wait for the mutant power to manifest itself during pubertyso, what were dealing here is something already a little bit out of the ordinary and there are some other weird and anomalous aspects as well that will become increasingly apparent as the story goes on.
NRAMA: So does this baby have famous parents or is it from unknown origins?
MC: There is no particular mystery about this baby from that perspective; this baby is from out of left field. In other words, this baby does not belong to a famous bloodline.
NRAMA: You touched on this in a past interview, Sinister plays a pivotal role during the Messiah Complex along with the Marauders and the Purifiersalong with Ed Brubakers intentions of bringing Magneto backwill there be any other prominent villains lurking in this story?
MC: I guess it is certain that there will be one other villain figure if you want to call them thatthere is one other character who has a very important role to playyes, lets say there is one other major villain.
NRAMA: I didnt want to assume it was Dark Beast because of how youve featured him during the Endangered Species storylinehes become such a gray area character and not so much of a villain so to speak
MC: Its not Dark Beast. Dark Beast wont be coming back during Messiah Complex but he will be in another book shortly.
NRAMA: Is this event going to lead to shake up or shuffling of the line-ups of the books again?
MC: Yes. Its enormous. The landscape of the whole X-Men line will be completely different when we come out of this.
NRAMA: Does this involve the transition of Joss Whedons story arc in
Astonishing X-Men ending and Warren Ellis start on the title? Do all of you conform to a specific timeline for the purpose of a cohesive, linear set of stories?
MC: There is a timeline, yes
and I cant really talk about it beyond that. (laugh)
NRAMA: Based on some information released around the time of Heroes Con and through interviews with other creators involved with this storylinethe idea of a Messiah Complex occurring within the minds of certain X-characters seems a bit obviousguys like Xavier and Sinisterwill there be any unexpected characters falling under this delusional spell?
MC: It kind of refers to different characters in different ways. Its not any one character in particularits much more ambiguous than that. There are at least three people involved that you could apply that term to.
NRAMA: Looking at some of the initial artwork from Marc Silvestri coming out of the Marvel officethere is this particular image of Cyclops holding a flag with an X on it. A longstanding dangling plotline has been mentioned by a couple of time displaced characterssomething called The Summers Rebellionis this notion in any way involved with the Messiah Complex?
MC: Nonot at all and if you find out what that iswill you tell me? (laugh)
NRAMA: Recently, in the Endangered Species back-up story, youve sort of reversed engineered a new purpose for the time displaced character, Bishopindicating that his futuristic genetics may hold some important answers to the current dilemma. Will any or all of the time-skewed X-characters play a factor in the Messiah Complex?
MC: In different ways and to different extentsyes. Its clear from what is going on in Blinded by the Light that Sinister is trying to suppress knowledgehes trying to limit the X-Mens access to knowledge of the future that he presumably has. Hes killing off pre-cognitives; hes killing off characters that have come from the future timelines; and hes destroying artifacts that allow glimpses or revelations about the future apart from the Destiny Diaries, which hes trying to take possession of. Hes trying to deny the X-Men access to these resources. There is clearly something in the diaries that relates to his plans with direct bearing on the events in Messiah Complex. And so, yeah, the characters from the future potentially have valuable and relevant knowledge.
NRAMA: It seems like
Uncanny X-Men and
X-Men are both coming to the same focal point from different directions
MC: Thats kind of the beauty of the way this event has been plannedweve been talking about this for so longbecause weve known for so long what direction we needed to be going inyou do kind of get the sense that all of the plotlines of the last year or two are going to all reach a culmination of sorts and the Messiah Complex is going to be the pay off in so many different ways.
NRAMA: You and Brubaker have kind of found a way to semi-integrate the two books at least to the point that readers of one may consider events going on in the other
MC: Yeah
NRAMA:
and the Marauders, the Purifiers, and the Morlocks are all fundamentally different groups with different agendas
MC:
yes
and some of these groups are uncomfortably working together under the same banner.
NRAMA: Getting back to what you mentioned earlier with line-up changes, can you elaborate on any of the new members in the cast of your book?
MC: All I can say is that not only will there be different line-ups, there will be different books after the Messiah Complex. It's a whole new re-imagining of the line here will be new books launched and existing books dramatically retooled. It's going to be a radically different status quo and I can't say anymore beyond prepare to be surprised.
NRAMA: Will you be involved with any of the new X-titles being launched?
MC: I will be involved with one of the books that is kind of a solo bookI say kind of because although it will follow the fortunes of one particular character, the book will bring in longstanding characters from the X-Universe in significant ways so when you look at the whole thing it will look like less of a solo book and more like a loose team-up book which will resolve a lot of important stuff presented in Messiah Complex.
NRAMA: Is this a character thats never traditionally had a solo project before?
MC: Theyve never had a solo book before but has been a feature of the landscapepretty much since day oneso theyve been around for a very, very long time
NRAMA: Is that an ongoing?
MC: Its probably going to stand as a maxi-series but it might lead into an ongoingand thats about as much as I can talk about it at this point.
NRAMA: One last question, youve had the Endangered Species story which leads into the Messiah Complex with Guided by the Lightwill these events lead to another larger event after that?
MC: Only in the sense that it leads to the restructuring of the line of books. Yes, I can say that all of these events combined with Messiah Complex with lead to a spectacular culmination and there will be some new issues raised and some ongoing plot elements that will be revisited that will spin out into further storiesthings change so much after Messiah Complex that there will be elements that will have to be revisited. Ill tell you more when I can
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