Hey Guys and Dolls! EiC Matt and staff writer Josh were deep in discussion about the myriad of Age of X teasers and they decided their musings were worthwhile enough to post! Check out their thoughts on what we know about Marvel’s newest mutant event and the characters seen therein!
Joshua Mocle:How about those covers, Matts?
Matthew Meylikhov: Those covers are pretty damn awesome, Mr. Mocle. Very exciting, to say the least.
JM: It’s nice to see Chris Bachalo contributing given his connection to the Age of Apocalypse epic, but I think I can speak for many in saying the Coipel cover, and specifically the characters depicted on it, that will catch most people’s eyes. This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen his designs though, because we had that character collage by him posted last week. 
Starting off on the left, who do you recognize?
MM:Well, the first three are Gambit, Rogue, and Magneto. The fourth character is where I suppose we begin to start getting a bit confused. For my money, though, that looks like Psylocke to me.
JM: Could be, I can’t universally say it isn’t Pixie though. 
I recognize the next one though, that is definitely former X-Factor ward Berzerker. The mohawk and the power signature are a dead give away.
MM: Are you sure, though? The character is kind of … well, irrelevant in this day and age. No offense, but he hasn’t been touched since … I don’t know when.
JM: I do agree its a bit odd of a choice, but Carey did say he would be bringing in characters from throughout the X-Ages. He was also one of the resurrectees during Necrosha and was also featured a few times on the late, great X-Men Evolution cartoon. Plus who doesn’t like a good electromorph!
MM:I don’t remember him in Necrosha… and I also don’t remember anyone sticking around past the grave except Cypher. But I could be wrong! I’ve been known to be not as retentive when it comes to huge casts of mutants – and you’re right, this is an alternate universe story that could literally have any character from any time period. So I won’t rule it out. I originally thought it was Legion when I saw the hair, but upon closer inception I can assume I’m more than wrong on that one!
JM: Never know! Carey seems to be turning a lot of things on their heads, such as the arm-less Hellion we have next to Berzerker… and I can’t even begin to speculate who is next to HIM.
MM:Oh, for sure that is Hellion. No questions there, and I love the design. Next to him, though? I’m not entirely sure. The power set doesn’t look… well, familiar.
JM: My first inclination was to say Wicked, the young girl that could conjure “ghosts” to do her fighting…but she was very much not a red-head. 
Next to her though, I could very easily see that being Sunspot, possibly locked in his solar powered form.
MM: You know, I had thought that originally when I saw the Coipel cover… but when looking at the designs, I was wondering if him being placed next to that other character (who we’ll discuss next) makes him actually a new form of Cloak? I admit – that’s just WILD speculation, and the grounds for belief on this is thin at best. My first thought WAS Sunspot – but… I mean, you never know, right? Then again, the more I look at that next character, the more I ONLY see Dazzler.
JM: Unquestionably, that is definitely that world’s Alison Blaire.
MM:Now I just feel silly for even remotely thinking otherwise. I can’t NOT see that as Dazzler, no matter how hard I try and pretend.
Continued belowJM: Next one is tricky though. The original teaser image had HIM named Berserker, but the native american slant plus the, well…Thunderbird, on his chest lead me to believe thats one of the Proudstar brothers.
MM:I’m guessing Warpath, honestly. IF only because Thunderbird is dead.
JM: New reality, new rules. I think that would make it MORE likely to be Thunderbird (or at the very least John Proudstar, since some code names seem to differ from their 616 distinctions.) And after all, John Proudstar died in our universe BECAUSE he was an X-Man. With no X-Men, would he still have died?
MM:….I suppose. I mean, your logic is sound. My head is kind of stuck in the “use characters still alive” logic, which isn’t very sound. I would imagine that Warparth would take up Thunderbird’s role to honor him, but it’s really more likely you’re right. I am clearly terrible at arguing today! It is DEFINITELY a Proudstar though. No doubt.
JM: Thats okay, we have a few more mysteries that I am completely stumped on…though not Jubilee and Chamber right next to our mystery Proudstar. Those are two more we can file into the obvious category. And on top of that, I absolutely love seeing Jon Starsmore with a hole for a face again. Next to them though might be one of the bigger mysteries of the bunch. The character was revealed with the name Frenzy in the original teaser, but that doesn’t look all that much like Johanna Cargill, the 616 member of the Acolytes.
MM:Not really. She doesn’t look too familiar at all, really. She’s got Power Girl’s costume designer, if not a bit more militant.
JM: True say. The only logic I have for thinking it actually IS the same Frenzy is the fact that Carey has used her before and showed quite an affinity for her, but thats just complete speculation.
MM:I suppose anything’s plausible and possible. New universe, new rules!
JM: Speaking of new universe, new rules, next to her we have Basilisk, who USED to be a pretty big mystery until Carey himself spoiled it, revealing him to be this universe’s Cyclops. Though the reasoning behind this change in look and code name should be pretty interesting. I also like that, from everything seen so far, the character is NOT a central character to the store and does not exist in a leadership position. It’ll be nice to see Scott Summers as just another part of the group and not the head.
MM:You know me – I love Cyclops. He’s my favorite X-Man. When I found out he was Basilisk, I thought that was pretty damn awesome. I actually really love the redesign here. That’s a WAY cooler mask than his silly visor. Way to get some cajones, Scott! What, did Jean die on you again? Oh… she did? …. Oh…. uhm, moving on.
JM: …to our good ol’ pal Colossus!
MM:Mocle, that is clearly Pixie.
JM: My bad, though I could also see the character next to him, the one revealed by the name Nightmare, to also be Pixie. Pixie is just all over the Age of X!!
MM:Everyone knows Pixie is a big Russian dude made of metal. Learn your comic books. …though I guess the big metal dude could be Colossus, and Nightmare next to him could be Pixie.
JM: Could be! Which brings us to a very sexually posed Storm and Namor. Though what brought these two together in this timeline remains to be seen.
MM:They are clearly bumping and grinding. I am going to assume that in the Age Of X, the mutants pass the evenings by dancing. Though, I will note – in these alternate reality stories, characters often have very different relationships. Look at Age of Apocalypse – Magneto and Rogue were the big relationship in that, and they were heroes while Cyclops was a villain. It seems to make sense to me that in this alternate universe, Storm and Namor could get together. Although, on the Coipel cover, they’re not even near each other, so who knows.
Continued belowJM: True. Moving on to our final three…we obviously have Avalanche next to Namor. There are fewer distinct helmets in all of comics! And on the end we have who is confirmed to be Cannonball. The one in the middle though… Could that be this universe’s Cypher? Or Douglock?
MM:I was actually wondering about helmet head (whose body is screwed up in the concept art). The Helmet does look like Avalanche, but … well, doesn’t that seem like an odd casting choice? I mean, in all of this, NO Wolverine? And I was thinking about it in terms of the Coipel cover – the pose is something you’d expect from Wolverine. The costume is also similar to Daken’s new digs… but I could just be splitting hairs to justify why the most recognizable mutant character in the Marvel U isn’t here. It just seems odd to me. The character in the middle is DEFINITELY Cypher though. The costume design, the way it looks like little circuits, is very reminiscent of Warlock, so it could be “Douglock”… but yeah, definitely Cypher there.
JM: Interesting point on “Avalanche’s” stance…although, I should point out that Wolverine did appear (much to my particular chagrin) on the Bachalo cover.
MM:Did he? Well, then I’m just not attentive.
Oh, hey! Look at that.
JM: Frankly, I’d like to have seen a take on the X-Men done without him…or even with Daken in place of him, but either way. Given all these characters, how excited are you for this puppy?
MM:I don’t think excited really covers it. I need a better word.
JM: I’m inclined to agree…stoked? Pee-Pants level anticipation?
MM:I’m in a tizzy over it.
JM: Nice choice. And I have to agree.
