This week, the X-Men universe begins a big relaunch in the wake of “Inhumans vs. X-Men.” A bunch of series will start from #1 again with brand new creative teams and new directions. Returning is the gold and blue designation from the 90’s and each of those books will feature very different teams. The first book to launch is this week’s “X-Men Gold,” a series that features the X-Men most fans know and love. Kitty Pryde, Nightcrawler, Colossus and Storm are all back together as a team trying to be heroes the world needs. We had a chance to chat with writer Marc Guggenheim about the series and what’s to come in this relaunch.
So, blue and gold are team designations we’ve seen before and it seems that the X-Men are returning to a kind of back-to-basics approach. Could you talk about this a bit and what stories may have inspired you as you began working on the series?
Marc Guggenheim: Yeah, absolutely. I would say that my two favorite eras of the X-Men were the Chris Claremont era and the Joss Whedon era. That said, I do have a great amount of affection for the Steve Seagal/Joe Kelly years as well as the Scott Lobdell years. But, certainly Claremont and Whedon, you know, especially Claremont who, you know, basically made me become an X-Man fan. Those years really cemented so much for me of what the X-Men are. And getting back to that is really exciting to me.
So, the X-Men in the first issue are trying to work as heroes again, and that has not always worked out for them in the past. What’s the difference between now and then? And what makes them believe now that they can make it work being heroes?
MG: I think for me what’s made the X-Men really cool is they’ve always tried to be heroes. But they’re trying to be heroes, basically, for a very unforgiving and unsympathetic world. For me, my north star, my compass, is that broad line of they are trying to save a world that hates and fears them. I always try to ground my approach to the X-Men in that very simple statement. It’s simplicity is a little deceiving; it’s actually incredibly complicated and I think it gives the X-Men this incredible nobility. It’s very easy for, you know, Superman to, save the world, but Superman is so beloved. It’s a lot easier to be a hero when you’re beloved. It’s very, very difficult – and I think very noble – to be a hero when all the people you’re saving, all the lives you’re saving, hate your guts.
And I think that’s one of the things that makes the X-Men so interesting to me. So, what maybe makes my approach right now feel a little different is the fact for the, really for the longest time, I feel like ever since “E is for Extinction,” the X-Men have been (with the deduction of really, Joss’s run) focused less on being heroes and more on dealing with the immediate problems of their own survival. Which, you know, makes for some really cool stories. Again, I really like Matt Fraction’s run in that era, but it’s a different log block. Instead of trying to save the world that hates and fears them, they’re trying to just survive. It’s all about species survival, which was cool and interesting, but it’s fun, I think, to get the X-Men sort of back to their roots of being superheroes.
For your series, you’re going to be using a lot of the characters with longevity, like Nightcrawler, Storm abd Kitty Pryde. Has it proven to be difficult to add your own spin on them or find new ways to use them to make people excited about them again?
MG: It’s a good question. You know, the first issue comes out on Wednesday, and my sort of prediction is that it’s a comic book, so everyone’s mileage may vary. I think there’ll be some people who are really glad to get back to the basics. There’ll be some people who are like, “well, that’s all well and good, but where’s the new stuff? Where’s the new spin?”
Continued belowMy take is little bit of a Trojan horse in the sense that the first issue really presents as just a throw back to the basics; an “everything old is new again” approach. But then I think as you start to get deeper and deeper into my run, you’ll start to see that I am changing the characters up in some subtle and not so subtle ways. It was very important to me, especially with the first arc, to just sort of reset the table. Again, it’s not like “E for Extinction,” where Grant came in with all these great new ideas and really, sort of reinvented the whole franchise from jump – that wasn’t my intention here.
My intention was really, back to the basics, and I took the title back to the basics from John Byrne’s run on “Fantastic Four.” That’s not to say that I could even come close to the brilliance of John’s writing of that run, cause it’s one of the all time classics, but I think what John did is something I’m trying to do, which is, he took the Fantastic Four back to the basics. But then, if you look over his run, he also introduced a whole lot of new concepts and a whole lot of new characters. In many ways, I think his approach is the same as mine. Which is, in some ways you have to go back to go forward.
The X-Men are kind of notorious for alternate timelines, time travel and retcons, so it can be a little confusing to the casual fan. So coming into this, what would you tell a potential new reader? Is this something that they’ll be able to jump right into?
MG: It really is designed as much for new readers as long time fans of the series. I’m also assuming that there are a lot of lapsed readers as well. So, the book is really written to appeal to all, to readers of all colors. There’s no retconning, there’s no time travel, there’s no alternate reality. It’s pretty simple, and I think you get what you need to know in the first few pages, which is, the X-Men are a team of mutant superheroes who are based in Central Park, New York City. They are trying to do their best to be heroes to a world that hates and fears them because they’re mutants. And it’s really that simple; if you’re familiar with the X-Men, you’ll see lots of little references, to past continuity, but kinda like the adult jokes in a Pixar movie, or, you know, those references, those deep cuts, will just go over the heads of people who are coming to the X-Men clean for the first time.
And, finally, with so many X-Men books getting ready to launch, what’s going to make your book stand out the most?
MG: That’s a great question. You know, it’s funny, I don’t (laughing). I think with, I think the things about all the different X-Men books is that they’re all different, you know? I think in the past, there have been, you know, sometimes the X-Men books have been a little conflicting of each other. But what we’re doing with “X-Men Gold” is very different from what they’re doing in “X-Men Blue,” which is very different from “Astonishing,” which is very different from “Jean Grey” and “Iceman” and “Weapon X.” You know, with “X-Men Gold,” it’s really designed to be the quick, essential X-Men run. Which is, you know, the team of longstanding members of the X-Men mixed with high drama, some soap opera and major threats – some of a mutant variety and others that are less mutant related. Really just to highlight the idea that it’s very difficult to be a hero when the people that you’re trying to save hate you for no reason other than you have a different genome than they do.
