In the X-Men comics as of late, Wolverine has relocated his own team of mutant students to train on the East Coast. That isn't to say that no X-Adults followed their fearless, cantankerous leader.
Indeed, in novelist Marjorie Liu and artist Mike Perkins' upcoming run on Astonishing X-Men, we'll see those mutants under Wolverine's purview duke it out with some classic, deadly foes. But which X-Men made the cut?
In a conference call today with Liu, Perkins, and Marvel Comics editors Nick Lowe and Jeanine Schaefer, io9 learned about this new creative team and the new X-roster. Lowe began by mentioning that Marjorie was a natural choice because of her long-standing affinity for Marvel's merry mutants:
We at Marvel make it no secret that we love Marjorie. She was part one of putting this creative team together. We were looking for a new team to come on to Astonishing, and Marjorie has been aching to do some X-Men team action. She's been an X-Men fan since back in the day of the 90s cartoon.
Liu — who has penned runs on Dark Wolverine and X-23 — further elaborated why taking over a team book was easy, in light of her history of writing comics starring solo leads:
In my solo series, I feel like I've often dealt with groups of people. Black Widow versus Bucky and Wolverine, in Daken I had a chance to write the Dark Avengers as well as the Fantastic Four, and it's been sort of the same thing with X-23 [...] but the only difference now is that the main point of view is broader. In X-23, the main point of view was X-23, but now it's across all team members.
And just who's part of Wolverine's new Astonishing roster? The creators mentioned that Northstar, Gambit, Iceman, Cecelia Reyes, Karma, and Warbird — a new Shi'ar warrior introduced in Jason Aaron's Wolverine And The X-Men — would be joining the team.
It must be noted that Warbird is not Carol Danvers and that Liu promised, "She has such an amazing entrance in the first issue." The author also mentioned that the Marauders would be the villains of the piece. Here are some more interesting tidbits we learned about the new cast:
We've got Northstar moving back to New York and he's going to be living with his boyfriend, Kyle for the first time [...] Another side of it, we've got characters like Cecelia and Gambit circling around each other [...] I've added two characters to [the Marauders], one is the Vanisher and the other is the Chimera. She's a villainess who [harnesses] telekinetic dragons.
Liu also mentioned that we'd be seeing Gambit's new apartment in Astonishing. This prompted a question from yours truly, as I only ever remember seeing Gambit's apartment (left) pictured in the 1993 spiral-bound fan book titled the X-Men Survival Guide To The Mansion.
Naturally, I asked if Remy LeBeau's new digs will look like the kind of room where Chris Issak's "Wicked Game" blasts 24/7. Artist Mike Perkins assured us that Gambit's abode would scrap this Patrick-Nagel-infused-bordello look for something more "Pottery Barn," but Liu then gamely lobbied to make "the main part of the apartment like a mask [...] you open the door to the bedroom" only to find "mirrors on the ceiling and a vibrating bed." (Hopefully, there will at least be a bathroom.)
Speaking of Gambit, his ties with the Marauders during Mutant Massacre won't be overly explored — Liu implied that that story's been told already. Finally, Liu explained why X-23 — a character she's renowned for writing — won't be part of this team:
Originally, I did want to bring X-23 onto the book [...] but because Wolverine has his ideology, his mandate is that underage children are not able to fight [...] Having her on the team would've been a violation of his new mandate. Also, she's going to be a member of Avengers Academy and they're on the West Coast.
Liu and Perkins' run kicks off in Astonishing X-Men #48 this March.