The X-Men Are On The Way
2021 Is Half Over...wait, what?
The Summer Solstice approaches and after 2020 lasted eleventeen years, the first half of 2021 has just flown by.
I’m working hard on a bunch of secret projects, and some you know about. Planet Size X-Men arrives on 6.16. We’re all very proud of it. It’s an immortal comic because of what Pepe accomplished, and what Marte did atop those lines. I just tried to throw fastballs down the middle and let then duck so they didn’t knock my head off. It’s over 30 pages and each page is a dinger. We like big swings in the X-Office.
Jonathan’s ideas for X-Men remains brilliant. It wasn’t just a great story with amazing art, it was also a tale that demanded more story. Moira X was an operating system for this line of books, and our love for the mutants is true. Hopefully our aim is as true as our love. I was so grateful for the chance to play on Krakoa with Marauders. If that had been the end of the road for my collaborations in X-Men I could have left the X-Office happy. I owe Jonathan Hickman a special thank you. He’s as generous a collaborator as I could wish for, making us all look very good. You can count on him to blow your hair back again this autumn with Inferno. Thanks to everyone at Marvel, and to CB Cebulski & Jordan D White for the opportunity to write my favorite comic ever.
Next month, I have the privilege of being entrusted with The X-Men. It’s a big, bold plan we cooked up, and because we expect you to pay for story, we won’t give up anything, but in a few weeks the first issue drops and you’ll be able to tell which threads we’re pulling on in the first year. There’ll be lots of action because it’s superhero book, but I hope you’ll find joy in some of the other flavors we’re baking in. Mysteries are introduced, and others will be revealed. Each of the X-Men communicated something that earned enough support from their fellow mutants to land them in New York. We’ll discover as we go what made these characters the inaugural Krakoan team of superheroes.
Here’s the process of the second issue cover from Pepe Larraz. It was an idea I think I might have had for the first issue? We got to exploit in for the second, and Pepe obviously crushed it. The outstretched pinky, shades and coffee are all from Pepe’s mind. Those kinds of details feed right back into the writing, and that image became as important for me as any comic that Polaris has appeared in. Pepe shared this process on his own instagram, and if you’re not following him, that’s an easy mistake to correct.
Marte Gracia Enters the chat and kind enough to share two grabs from his process:
If memory serves, this was a tight weekend deadline for Marte, and he worked without a flatter. That’s what happens when you have over 60 pages from this dynamic duo in June & July. We hope you have as much fun reading them as we had cooking them. Please pre-order these comics. You’ll yake the guesswork out of our retail partners, and you’ll be sure to have a copy waiting for you at the shop.
I’ll have a larger update about some creator-owned news in the coming days, and more exciting news about my photo book Kickstarter. Some friends are going to help me with a few choice incentives.
Final thoughts this week: my son and I are absolutely loving Star Trek: Lower Decks. If you need something absolutely hilarious, with some heart then look no further than this show. Worth subscribing to Paramount+ for. As a fan of Trek, I say this is exactly what the franchise needed. So much fun.
Last night I watched Bo Burnham: Inside on Netflix. I won’t link to the trailer because I went in cold, and I think you should, too. It gets my highest possible recommendation. It’s the first great art from the lost year. It’s absolutely wild to see him master everything he needs to do to make this film solo. Most people would be incredibly lucky to do one thing as well as he does by the end of the film. I watched it last night, but it’s been at the front of my mind since.
More soon.
Gerry Duggan
I just can't wait. Polaris is my favorite.
I just got a copy of Planet-Size X-Men #1. Fantastic work! I love that you have started spotlighting the scope of Jean's telekinetic power. (I am of the opinion that she is still, in addition to an Omega-level telepath, an Omega-level telekinetic, but that she is unaware of it. Perhaps this is due to her rebirth on Krakoa as an earlier version of herself, which would make the costume and code name reversions make total sense.) In either case, I look forward to more Jean and Polaris (such an underrated character) feats!