Yesterday in one of Marvel’s Next Big Thing press conferences, it was announced that starting with issue #48, Marjorie Liu would be taking over Astonishing X-Men from writer Greg Pak with artist Mike Perkins.
Despite the current arc starring Cyclops’ portion of Regenesis, the book will switch from Cyclops’ side of the linewide relaunch over to Wolverine’s. Liu, currently known to fans as the writer of the recently cancelled X-23, will move the book across the country, and is bringing Gambit from X-23 with her to this title, which will also feature Warbird, Wolverine, Northstar, Gambit, Iceman, Karma and Cecelia Reyes. The line-up, which originaly had X-23 in it (until Liu realized it goes against Wolverine’s ideology to have a child in combat), is based on characters that Liu has been wanting to write for some time as well as those Perkins wanted to illustrate, such as Iceman.
Liu went on to explain that the book would feature Northstar moving back to New York with his boyfriend Kyle (assumedly after the events of Pak, Van Lente and Eaglesham’s Alpha Flight), Gambit moving into his own place in Westchester and Cecelia also returning to New York, where they run into the villains of the title: the new Marauders, featuring Vanisher and Chimera now. No other Marauders were revealed at this time, however it is notable that the traditional leader of the Marauders, Mr. Sinister, is on the other side of the country pissing off Celestials and fighting Cyclops’ merry band of mutants. Whether there is still a connection between Sinister and the group is yet to be revealed.
Unlike recent runs, it does not appear that Liu is joining the book simply to tell a story and leave, but rather to be the new ongoing writer of the title. Astonishing had been pegged as a book to tell side-continuity stories that “become canon” but don’t interfere with the main stories in other books, but as Regenesis moves throughout 2012, that status quo will change quite a bit for Astonishing. Astonishing will also be more of a regular superhero title than a book like Wolverine and the X-Men, as Wolverine and the X-Men is “centered around the student/teacher dynamic” and Astonishing is “the instructors as superheroes” with an adult skew, according to editor Nick Lowe.
Look for the official solicit for the issue soon in Marvel’s March 2012 solicits.
(via source)
