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Q: One of the next big pieces of Marvel that has been hitting hard on this week is the teaser for "Age of X." It's a book where you're keeping some things close to the vest, but from the characters involved, it seems like Mike Carey is running the show here, breaking out some characters and threads that have been building with "Legacy" for a while. Axel, how has this story been an outgrowth of Mike's work, and how will it hook up with the rest of the X-line?
Alonso: This is an instance where a writer – Mike Carey – had an idea big enough that his editor – Daniel Ketchum – thought we should huddle up to discuss it. Upon review, David Gabriel and I realized we were looking at a tight and focused event, more along the lines of "Curse of the Mutants" than, say, "Second Coming." It's a big story, but it doesn't cut across lot of titles and it definitely won't outstay its welcome.
Q: In terms of the characters that have been revealed, we see folks Mike has been playing with like Rogue, Gambit and Cannonball, but Magneto seems like he'll be a real key piece of that cast. The character has been around a lot of late, from "Uncanny" to "Children's Crusade," and he's not been filling his traditional villainous role in any of those books. Is there a key point in developing who he is for today's books, or is everyone having fun playing with his role where they can?
Alonso: I'll let Tom speak to the specific time line of "Children's Crusade." As for Magneto – about a year ago, he showed up in Utopia and took a knee in front of Scott. He recognized Cyclops had achieved something that neither he nor his rival, Xavier, had been able to achieve: he'd unified the mutant race under one flag. Magneto paid his respects, pledged his unity and, after demonstrating his commitment, became a consiglieri to Scott. This, of course, doesn't sit too well with certain X-Men who remember their past skirmishes with Magneto, but given the high stakes of the moment, Scott deemed Magneto a better ally than foe. So these days Magneto is playing less the role of a villain than a wild card. Oh – and it's not lost on us that Cyclops's inner circle consists of Emma Frost, Magneto and Namor, all of whom have played the role of villain in the Marvel Universe.
Brevoort: In terms of "Crusade," Allan [Heinberg] is taking his cues from what's been transpiring in the X-titles. He's involved in "Children's Crusade" for a very personal reason, which is uncovering the whereabouts of his daughter Wanda, the Scarlet Witch. And certainly, he's still a dangerous enemy should you get on the wrong side of him or stand between him and his goal. But in terms of his place in the world, it's right in step with the way he's been appearing in the core X-books, which Axel has been guiding.
Q: Another standout character from the "Age of X" cast is Hellion, whose inclusion reminded me how more often than almost any other characters, the cast of "New X-Men" get asked after on the boards. They're very popular with some fans, and I wondered, both in this case specifically and in general, how much that groundswell interest affects how you look at bringing back certain characters or ideas and how the writers decide who to play with.
Alonso: We pay close attention to the fact that there are people that want to see Hellion in his own series. It means there's passion for the character. That said, we don't want to trot something out there unless we think we can find an audience. I mean, there's a lot of folks out there that clamor for Westerns – myself, included – but that doesn't mean they burn up the sales charts. [Laughter] At the X-Men summits, Gambit, Hellion and my personal favorite Psylocke always come up in discussion. I mean, I love Psylocke and I love Mystique – I would love to do a substantial series featuring them as leads, but before I do, I've got to know I can really deliver the goods.
Brevoort: I think it's a real truism that there are fans of every single character – often very vocal fans. The character that I've seen a lot of chatter about over the last six months, which has put him even more on my radar than he had been, is Adam the Blue Marvel. Based on the chatter, you'd expect that the limited series we did with him would have been an extraordinary selling project, when in fact that was just not the case. However, the fact that there are a bunch of people interested in him means that when we're doing something like the "Age of Heroes" anthology, I'll go, "Let's do a short Blue Marvel story, put him back on the canvas and see if we can't spark something." I'm sure, too. that as our writers are looking around for characters to use, if there is a lot of chatter about a particular character, then they're more likely to have their interest piqued and see a role for that guy down the line. It's always good. It's just that the sad reality is that all the talking in the world doesn't always add up to people buying.
Alonso: One last point; Lots of chatter about a character minimally influences us to pump up their roles in ongoing series or feature them prominently in anthologies.