New Mutants? Check. X-Force? Check. Legacy? Check. Writer Kieron Gillen is set to begin his run as the solo writer of Uncanny X-Men in the next few weeks, having debuted as a co-writer at the start of the current story arc, succeeding Matt Fraction on the book as the former scribe moves on to write Fear Itself, Marvel’s next big event.
The X-Men have a long established history involving fear, as they were ‘hated and feared’ by the world around them as a definitive part of who they were for decades, until recently not only finding a home in San Francisco, but a city that isn’t afraid of them. The fears will be lower key to start with, picking up on seeds sewn into the title over the last few years. Just because the X-Men have won the war does not mean that there is an end to their conflict.
The Juggernaut is one of the “Worthy”, according to teasers for Fear Itself, and Xavier’s half brother, the former X-Men villain as well as former X-Man, will be returning with his new power. “We kind of open with the X-Men in quite a peaceful situation. In relative terms of the X-Men. Juggernaut is basically the big thing that comes hammering at the door.”, according to the writer, as Juggernaut provides a “Disaster movie situation. Juggernaut is absolutely a force of nature, he might as well be a volcano.”
“I wanted to make him scary. Villains tend not to be as scary as I think they should be. I want him to be really, really scary.” Gillen continued.
When asked about the teaser with Colossus putting on the helmet of Juggernaut, Gillen made a few jokes about characters trying new looks, before saying to focus on the quote in the image, “I will do what needs to be done.”
Generation Hope is also put over, Gillen’s other X-Men title featuring Hope Summers and her band of newly created mutants. Editor Nick Lowe had a lot to say on it, including “We’re getting stories that look at what being a mutant is in a very different way,” and that it will “chill you to the bone and really make you look at mutants in a different way.” He then goes on to say that two members of the group wil be going on to be huge players in an upcoming X-Men event, and that one will be a huge player in a Marvel event withing the next sixteen months.
They went on to reaffirm that alienation is still a big theme with X-Men, as well as that Uncanny is, has been, and always will be the core title in the line. On top of that, they also make it clear that even with the other alpha personalities on Utopia, Cyclops is the big man on the mountain, as well as Nick Lowe having this to say about a resurrection happy red head, “I will reiterate, no joking there, Hope is not Jean Grey.”
In fact, if there are any complaints to be made, it would be that Greg Land remains in the artistic rotation.
