From twitter...
Tini Howard: Betsy and Apocalypse have new status quos that have been made clear in marketing materials so I can talk about them without revealing things that I am trying to keep secret about the book. Those characters just have story arcs I want to keep secret til you read it.
Marcus To: Trust me when I say this. I'd love to talk more about Rictor and Gambit if I could 🙏🙏🙏 I love their dynamic together in this book.
Gambictor confirmed.
Yes! To all the people who keeps assuming this will be a team book disguised as a Betsy and/or Apocalypse solo.
“Have courage and be kind. Where there is kindness there is goodness, and where there is goodness there is magic.” ― Cinderella
I like what I've seen from this (and Marauders) so far. Hope they don't get cancelled abruptly. These concepts should have at least 30 issues in them.
Tini Howard: When Hickman reached out to me, I had just started having a lot of Marvel work come out and I remember Ed and some people I talked to about it were like, “sometimes when that happens you'll start getting people who will like email you their story ideas and stuff.” So I got an email from an address that I didn't recognize. It was like titled like “X-Men Ideas” or something like that. It was a wall of text. I was like, “who is this lunatic?” I read it and I was like, “Oh, I've been reading this lunatic's work for years. Oh my God.” It was very exciting.
I read the take and I was like, “yeah, I'm all in.” Instantly, I knew where my story would fit in and what I wanted to do. It didn't spring from my head fully formed. But Jonathan asked me to bring in a pitch and I didn't really. I brought in an essay where I was like, “I don't really know what I want to do, but here's what this makes me feel. And here's where I think this can go and here's who I want to do it.” Apocalypse was the person that was really centered on originally.
And the other really cool thing was that when I came in like that, Jonathan responded to that. He wasn't like, “nice essay, but where's the punching?” It was like, “here's my essay about this culture you've built.” And he was like, “yeah, cool. Okay.” And we built it from my favorite place to build stories, which is a philosophical question of “what do we do with them now.” Not just “what would be cool to see them do,” but “what do they need? What do they archetypally do for people and how do we manipulate that as storytellers?” Those big storytelling questions are all stuff I've really gotten to do here in this iteration of the X-Men.
Nrama: Plus, Hickman seems like a guy that loves an essay.
Howard: Yeah. He doesn't mind essays.
Nrama: So to build on that, Tini, Betsy's taking over the Captain Britain mantle with Excalibur and it's finally happening in main continuity. What's the throughline you found for it to be a legitimate progression for the Betsy Braddock we first met in those old Captain Britain UK stories?
Howard: I think the Braddocks are an awesome family. I have really built a lot of the story around the Braddocks as a unit.
So it's not just the Betsy show, we're not ignoring who Brian is and who Brian has been and some other members of the Braddock family. In a real way, the Braddocks are like the Starks of this story. They're a family unit and we'll see them and follow them. And that's part of the story. It is not the story of shoving Brian Braddock in a drawer, getting Betsy the amulet, and putting them on stage. It is the story of a family, some of whom are mutant and some of whom are not, during a time of mutant ascension. And I think people will be really pleased. This is a story that elevates and celebrates the entire Braddock family.
The Captain Britain mythos, themes and the long history of Excalibur as a book of magic and light and love.
https://www.newsarama.com/47484-dawn...rcy-x-men.html
Loving all this new info. Thanks friends!
"Danielle... I intend to do something rash and violent." - Betsy Braddock
Krakoa, Arakko, and Otherworld forever!
I get she doesn't want to spoil stuff but she could always say in her interviews stuff like "you guys have no idea what we've got in store for Rictor" or "I never imagined writing Jubilee would be this much fun", anything along those lines.
As small as that is, it can generate some kind of excitement for the fans of the other characters that are not named Betsy or Apocalypse, in the Newsarama interview once again she only talks about those two like the rest of the cast doesn't even exist.
Better something than literally nothing.
I can't accept the excuse that there's pretty much nothing she can say in her interviews about Gambit, Rogue, Jubilee or Rictor without getting into spoilers.
The idea of doing interviews is to attract customers and ignoring two thirds of your cast is not a very smart move to make, so unless you are a fan of Betsy or Apocalypse there is very little to be excited about at this point.
That said, I hope Tini proves me wrong and that this book won't end being a duo book advertised as team book.
Yeah can't say I will rush out and buy this as a Gambit fan. I suspect the first arc or two will be Betsy and Apocalypse show which means probably not worth it to pick up until sometime Next summer if she ever gets around to Gambit. At least she is being upfront about it so can't knock her like I can a certain Mr. and Mrs. X writer who waited until the last 2 issues of that book to do anything with Gambit. Dude can't get shine in a book with only one other co-star so can only imagine how this will go with a whole team that he has to compete with for story time.
It's hard for me to listen to someone not in my position. A caterpillar can't relate to what an eagle envisions.
I totally agree with you and I did mention the same thing to the writer as well. She wrote and I quote "Betsy and Apocalypse have new status quos that have been made clear in marketing materials so I can talk about them without revealing things that I am trying to keep secret about the book. Those characters just have story arcs I want to keep secret til you read it."