Comics The '07 X-Event: Endangered Species, Messiah Complex, & Disassembled

[Kevin]

lol. Guys, seriously, I'm all talk. But I really do "think" i should take a break.

 

[OutcryX]

Quick X-Forcers...lets go and take down Exodus and Galactus!!

 

[Specter313]

[BCC] FROM ‘MESSIAH COMPLEX,’ A TRINITY BORN
Marvel editor Nick Lowe reveals that October’s crossover will launch 3 new X-titles—and says of the existing series, ‘No book is safe’
By Matt Powell

Posted September 10, 2007 9:10 PM​

October’s X-Men event, “Messiah Complex,” is going to shake Marvel’s mutants all the way to their DNA.

Not only does the crossover hint at a possible savior for the future of mutantkind, but it’s also the harbinger of the end of a few X-titles, as announced at this past weekend’s Baltimore Comic-Con. The X-Men are all about evolving, and while some titles from the old guard will end, Marvel editor Nick Lowe reveals that beginning in February, three new X-Men series will debut from Messiah Complex.
To get word on the X-Men, Wizard caught up with Lowe to chat talk about which books will end, which teams may not survive, and who to watch in Messiah Complex!

WIZARD: First off, why is there a need to end any X-titles? What about Messiah Complex will make the X-Men universe evolve that way?

LOWE: Messiah Complex is changing everything. I know you hear that a lot in comics press—too much. But this is for real, and so I’ll try and cut out any marketing speak. Looking at the X-Men line leading up to Messiah Complex and the X-Men line after, there’s not a single book coming out of it untouched. In fact, looking at X-Men past, it’s the biggest fundamental change in about 20 years. Bigger than X-Men: Reload, bigger than the start of New X-Men, bigger than X-Men #1.

Bigger?! That’s a tall order. Where will the X-Men stand as a team coming out of Messiah Complex?

LOWE: Well, I’m not sure that the X-Men as a team will exist after this event. And I don’t mean Mike Carey’s X-Men team. I mean the Astonishing X-Men. I mean the Uncanny X-Men. I mean New X-Men.

I guess if those teams’ fates are questionable, then their series’ fates are too, right?

LOWE: The only one we’ve solidly announced after February is Astonishing X-Men. No book is safe.

With the restructuring of the X-Men Universe after Messiah Complex, can we expect X-characters we know to switch rosters on teams, or create totally new ones?

LOWE: The books that will still exist after the crossover will have some shake-ups, some additions. There will be some characters who will not be appearing in February. There will be at least one big character in February who isn’t around right now. How are those for teases?

You had me hooked from “shake-ups.” Can we expect the new X-teams to have more specific roles? For example: a global threat assault team, the school team, a new Mutant Town team, etc.?

LOWE: Well, one of the best things [about] having [Marvel Executive Editor] Axel Alonso come in as group editor was his philosophy that he drove home with us. If a book doesn’t have a clear reason for existing, something that makes it distinctively and understandably different from the other books, it will not be an X-Men book. We don’t want a ton of X-Men books without clear reasons for having them. And this isn’t just “one of the teams wears gray swim-trunks and the other wears jeans.”

Can you give a rundown of which characters will be affected the most in Messiah Complex?

LOWE: We wanted to make sure that they all will be affected, but here’s a few you can focus in on: Layla Miller, Nightcrawler, Mystique, Cyclops, Jamie Madrox, Archangel.

http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazine/wizard/005914864.cfm

 

[Kevin]

They better not **** with Kurt!!

 

[Specter313]

Wait, what happened to my official X-Force thread?

 

[Havok83]

Why is it that every other year they have a big shakeup in the books? Seriously, it always shuffles the team lineups, cancels books, creates new ones and promises to change the X-men forever. Yawn, this is really nothing new. We just had it with deciMation and before that ReLoad and before that the New, X-treme, Unc-X-men shuffle and before that Revolution

 

[El Bastardo]

Yeah, okay. Decimation really canceled a ton of books and affected line-ups. Right? Because I'm pretty sure just about every writer other than Peter David and Mike Carey (now) ignored it.

Reload affected line-ups, sure, but didn't really affect characters. They just got rid of X-Treme and shuffled those characters to Uncanny and made room for Astonishing and blah.

This shake-up looks promising.

 

[Havok83]

Yeah, okay. Decimation really canceled a ton of books and affected line-ups. Right? Because I'm pretty sure just about every writer other than Peter David and Mike Carey (now) ignored it.

Reload affected line-ups, sure, but didn't really affect characters. They just got rid of X-Treme and shuffled those characters to Uncanny and made room for Astonishing and blah.

This shake-up looks promising.

decImation created New Excalibur , Wolverine Origins and X-factor. The lineup on New X-men was shuffled. And not too long after the same happened with UXM and X-men.

As far as Reload, and I guess deciMation and the other events, you are missing my point. Marvel hypes this big book changing events and many times they dont deliver. It gets old bc its pretty much the same thing every other year. I dont see a need for a constant reshuffling of things

 

[UraniaChang]

LOWE: The books that will still exist after the crossover will have some shake-ups, some additions. There will be some characters who will not be appearing in February. There will be at least one big character in February who isn’t around right now. How are those for teases?

I hope it's one of those villains he was hinting, sincerely hope it's not...Phoenix.

Can you give a rundown of which characters will be affected the most in Messiah Complex?

LOWE: We wanted to make sure that they all will be affected, but here’s a few you can focus in on: Layla Miller, Nightcrawler, Mystique, Cyclops, Jamie Madrox, Archangel.

This is the only part really worth my attention, not interested in all those canceling titles and shake-ups, just give me good line-ups with good characterisation and well-written plot, not the titles.

 

[Jennifer Walters]

Layla getting more focus. Ugh.

 

[Specter313]

Anyone thinking that Layla might come out of this a little more "grown up"?

 

[spideyboy_1111]

Anyone thinking that Layla might come out of this a little more "grown up"?

hope so, i like layla..

 

[Specter313]

hope so, i like layla..

I'm thinkin with that one X-Factor cover that looks like she and Madrox are being sucked through a portal, they might somehow come out more aged and in love, leading to the marriage she's always seen them having.

 

[El Bastardo]

decImation created New Excalibur , Wolverine Origins and X-factor. The lineup on New X-men was shuffled. And not too long after the same happened with UXM and X-men.

As far as Reload, and I guess deciMation and the other events, you are missing my point. Marvel hypes this big book changing events and many times they dont deliver. It gets old bc its pretty much the same thing every other year. I dont see a need for a constant reshuffling of things

New Excalibur is marginally related to the X-line as far as the universe and setting goes (seriously, when do we see spill-over?), but fine. While X-Factor started coming out during Decimation, I still credit the success of Madrox and fans for that series, not Decimation.

Sure, sure, hype's a terrible problem and what not. Which is why Lowe in the interview said he'd cut the marketing speech. The X-line has been horribly stagnant despite their attempts to jump-start it. The difference is that Messiah Complex and everything that's being/been planned will probably work, because, with the possible exception of Brubaker, we have guys writing the titles who appreciate the mythos.

I hope it's one of those villains he was hinting, sincerely hope it's not...Phoenix.

I'm figuring he was meaning Cable, given the reveals yesterday.

 

[Specter313]

Why do you not include Bru in with the others? He may not have had the greatest execution, but I think him going back to some of the areas that have shown great success and/or fan recognition with the Shi'ar and the Morlocks show that he knows what he's writing about and cares enough to try and flesh them out. Just because not everyone may not have felt that he executed them in the best way, doesn't mean that he doesn't respect the franchise.

 

[El Bastardo]

That's certainly true. He's definitely not a Milligan.

And I agree with you. I was mostly putting it like that to cut down on some of the whining in replies, since at least they wouldn't be talking about how crappy Bru is and this and that, but you just had to go and spoil that, didn't you?

Is this the payback from beating you with the pic?

 

[Havok83]

Sure, sure, hype's a terrible problem and what not. Which is why Lowe in the interview said he'd cut the marketing speech. The X-line has been horribly stagnant despite their attempts to jump-start it. The difference is that Messiah Complex and everything that's being/been planned will probably work, because, with the possible exception of Brubaker, we have guys writing the titles who appreciate the mythos.

well IDA. I think the X-men franchise as a whole over the past year has been in the best position its been in a long time. Its far from stagnant

 

[Specter313]

That's certainly true. He's definitely not a Milligan.

And I agree with you. I was mostly putting it like that to cut down on some of the whining in replies, since at least they wouldn't be talking about how crappy Bru is and this and that, but you just had to go and spoil that, didn't you?

Is this the payback from beating you with the pic?

Mebbe.

And if comparisons to Milligan can be drawn to anyone, and I know I'm probably going to be shot at for this, then it would be Carey. Lemme explain.

Look at what Milligan did when he started out his run. He threw out original idea and new character and original idea after new character in things like Golgotha, The Boy, Pulse, the mutant animals in Africa, the Leper Queen, etc. And the few times he went back to the old X-well to dig out some older characters and things (Mystique, Apocalypse and his horsemen, Doop/Daap, Sentinels, etc.) he totally missed the mark.

Now look at what Carey has done. His first few arcs, he introduced original ideas and characters after original ideas and characters with The Children, Pan, The Hecatomb, etc, and for the most part, managed to make them work. And when he had gone back to bring up stuff that we've deal with before (mainly the Marauders so far), he's still managed to make them work while still adding in new layers.

So essentially, Carey is the new Milligan, he just a good version of him.

 

[Jennifer Walters]

Carey is overrated.

 

[El Bastardo]

well IDA. I think the X-men franchise as a whole over the past year has been in the best position its been in a long time. Its far from stagnant

The X-franchise has been pretty stagnant over the past years, and Marvel's attempts to revitalize haven't done that great a job. Until now. In a way, all their attempts along the way have proven to be seeds.

But the company-wide line has been floundering quite a bit. Go find some Bought/Thought threads on the Marvel forum for weeks when WWH: X-Men came out. Dread basically writes theses on the subject.

And considering the past years have been home to stories that just about everyone considers terrible, at least that's what they say (but considering it's coming from posters here, who seem to hate everything, well, I suppose that's not surprising), how is that not stagnant?

And yes, it has been at its best this past year. And since Brubaker and Carey have come on, they've been aiming to deal with the leftover stuff from House of M, and have been building toward Messiah Complex. But the "in a long time" is the stagnation I've been talking about. See above. And the X-franchise still isn't among the best-selling books, not counting Astonishing, which... well, I don't even have to go there.

Mebbe.

And if comparisons to Milligan can be drawn to anyone, and I know I'm probably going to be shot at for this, then it would be Carey. Lemme explain.

Look at what Milligan did when he started out his run. He threw out original idea and new character and original idea after new character in things like Golgotha, The Boy, Pulse, the mutant animals in Africa, the Leper Queen, etc. And the few times he went back to the old X-well to dig out some older characters and things (Mystique, Apocalypse and his horsemen, Doop/Daap, Sentinels, etc.) he totally missed the mark.

Now look at what Carey has done. His first few arcs, he introduced original ideas and characters after original ideas and characters with The Children, Pan, The Hecatomb, etc, and for the most part, managed to make them work. And when he had gone back to bring up stuff that we've deal with before (mainly the Marauders so far), he's still managed to make them work while still adding in new layers.

So essentially, Carey is the new Milligan, he just a good version of him.

Fair enough. Except, really, Milligan should be more famous for his splendid ability to not write characters as they should be written. He even screwed up in the latest Batman Annual, where he had Ra's Al Ghul in Napoleonic times talking "Man, what's with you?" Yes, that's historical European speech.

Carey gets it all right. But sure, bringing in new ideas the way Milligan did, yes.

Brubaker had some new ideas too. I don't want to compare him to Milligan! I don't want to compare Carey to Milligan! Stop the evil wordplay, Spec!

 

[squeekness]

Anyone thinking that Layla might come out of this a little more "grown up"?

hope so, i like layla..

Yeah, me too.

I even like Molly from Runaways. *ducks*

 

[Canemacar]

So do I:

http://community.livejournal.com/scans_daily/3426084.html

 

[The Englishman]

So when do they announce the new Lineups for X-Men?, Astonishing,Uncanny,X-Factor and Excalibur??

 

[Valechan]

So Far, all the Books that we know will be around after MC are:

Astonishing X-Men
X-Force
Excalibur
Cable

We can deduce Exiles will continue seeing as Claremont is staying on that book and leaving Excalibur, and quite probably at least one Wolverine book will continue. We don't know what else will happen

 

[squeekness]

So Far, all the Books that we know will be around after MC are:

Astonishing X-Men
X-Force
Excalibur
Cable

We can deduce Exiles will continue seeing as Claremont is staying on that book and leaving Excalibur, and quite probably at least one Wolverine book will continue. We don't know what else will happen

CC is leaving Excalibur? I might have to pick that one back up again when he's gone.