X-FORCE is GO! - Q & A w/ Geoff Thorne

[Askani's Flame]

one thing I want to say before the books drop.

I am telling you a story. There will be ups and downs, wins and losses throughout. I will certainly put some characters through things that may piss you off in the moment. PLEASE, remember I'm telling you a story. What you see in a given moment is certainly connected to something that's coming and may not even be what you think it is as you see it.

it's going to be fun but it's going to be a bumpy ride.

I'm ok with all of this as long as Rachel isn't turned into a hound again. Characters need to go through it sometimes, but not the literal same thing every few years.

[DigiCom]

I only have one question (for now):

What's your elevator pitch for the book? For example, X-Factor's niche has been a "mutant detective book" since v2 (although it's apparently "celebrity mutants" now) and Marauders was "mutant pirates" so how would you sum up X-Force in one non-spoilery sentence?

[Hakka84]

I did pull the whole team but there were three characters I wanted who were unavailable by the time Tom accepted the pitch so I had to adjust the stories to work without them. It would have been a bigger team, in other words, with three more members. Turns out we don't need them and smaller team might actually be better.

I can't say who those characters are because it might spoil what someone else is doing in their book.

Hoping that, by the time no risk of spoiler is prevented (say, like, an year from now), you'll reveal us those names.
Glad that in the end the limitation worked out for the best!

[Redjack]

I only have one question (for now):

What's your elevator pitch for the book? For example, X-Factor's niche has been a "mutant detective book" since v2 (although it's apparently "celebrity mutants" now) and Marauders was "mutant pirates" so how would you sum up X-Force in one non-spoilery sentence?

Honestly, I don't do elevator pitches.

My initial pitch for "X-Force" had no title and it was basically what you read in the first post in this thread.

Remember, I am not inside the editorial loop when I'm coming up with pitches. I had no idea this would be called X-Force when I came in.

[Darth_Caedus]

I don't know if this has been asked before RJ, but what other characters you would've liked to write?

[Redjack]

I don't know if this has been asked before RJ, but what other characters you would've liked to write?

it's a long list.

I pitched a Lila Cheney mini series but it involved Dazzler so that was shot down.

I have an AWESOME Blue Marvel pitch involving the Shi'ar and the Imperial Guard but no one will hear it.

There are stacks of Marvel characters I have pitches for but, for different reasons, they don't make the cut. That's why you need to have lots of pitches.

[Hi-Fi]

Lila! I'd love to see her back in a recurring role. It's been too long.

[Technopriest]

Without obviously going into Spoiler territory, will there be an "updated" origin for Forge? What I mean by that is, originally, Forge was a Vietnam era veteran, and that obviously doesn't work anymore as it would age the character past his intended age. Claremont was pretty much writing the xmen in "real time" so it made sense for Forge to have been in the war and then spend years working for the government (as opposed to Thunderbird who was meant to have recently returned from the war). I know Marvel now has the Siangcong War as a stand-in for Vietnam so it works with their sliding timescale and has already been used with other characters. Will we see flashbacks to this to establish Forge's background?

[Redjack]

Without obviously going into Spoiler territory, will there be an "updated" origin for Forge? What I mean by that is, originally, Forge was a Vietnam era veteran, and that obviously doesn't work anymore as it would age the character past his intended age. Claremont was pretty much writing the xmen in "real time" so it made sense for Forge to have been in the war and then spend years working for the government (as opposed to Thunderbird who was meant to have recently returned from the war). I know Marvel now has the Siangcong War ad a stand in for Vietnam and so it works with their sliding timescale, and has already been used with other characters. We will see flashbacks to this to establish Forge background?

Flashbacks are always on the table. Obviously it can't be Vietnam so yeah, the Siangcong war is Forge's war. I would imagine SOME of that backstory will show up.

[CGAR]

I know you said we're moving on and the past is in the past but with Surge will we get some introspection on how her generation went through the decimation and now had Krakoa taken away from them. Although they did get a lot of friends back its still rough AF.

[Redjack]

I know you said we're moving on and the past is in the past but with Surge will we get some introspection on how her generation went through the decimation and now had Krakoa taken away from them. Although they did get a lot of friends back its still rough AF.

Nori is feeling the hit Krakoa took.

[Shadowcat]

Will we be seeing the return of Betsy’s precognitive abilities? We haven’t seen them since the body swap, and it’s something I’d like to see to help differentiate her from Kwannon.

[Redjack]

Will we be seeing the return of Betsy’s precognitive abilities? We haven’t seen them since the body swap, and it’s something I’d like to see to help differentiate her from Kwannon.

Nope. I don’t like precogs. Sorry.

[Psycwave]

I have an Blue Marvel pitch involving the Shi'ar and the Imperial Guard but no one will hear it.

I’m about to go knock on the Marvel doors to get this made. I need it.

[Thundershot]

With X-Force being more globetrotting, will we see more of the broader Marvel Universe (locales, heroes, villains) rather than sticking to more X-men adjacent ones?