Leah Williams reveals changes made in X-Factor #10

[KylunFan]

Leah was on Battle of the Atom podcast advertising Trial of Magneto in the episode released today. A substantial amount of the episode was Leah giving lots of details about interference and changes being made to issue #10 of X-Factor.

Sounds like a number of panels from #10 were not written by her, and storylines were changed without her knowing (Prodigy's death & some stuff with Shatterstar) and she only found out these changes around the time readers bought the issue.

The art in David's death will be changed for future printings/digital versions of the issue.

Really sounds like we were robbed of a more coherent and interesting last issue.

[Fokken]

Yeah I just got finished listening to this and wow. X-Factor was my favorite post Hox/Pox book and the shenanigans around its cancellation are really tragic for me. Listening to the pod and learning everything left me with mixed emotions. Relief to get answers but also the answers further fueled my disappointment at its loss. I'm very hopeful for what Leah brings in the Trial mini.

To think that the Trial pitch was such a big factor (pun intended?) in the book's cancellation. Also I love the proposals Leah had for Siryn's post Morrigan powers (being able to hear the dead)and becoming a Krakoan "god" of rebirth and Shatterstar's becoming a Krakoan "god" of battle. Leah drawing parallels to how these comics are like crafting grand mythologies was lovely. Such a tragedy hearing how devastating the cancellation was for she and David Baldeon. So much lost potential.

Empath Engine is my new favorite concept.

[NewMutant]

I would love to get more specific spoilers, as I likely won't listen to the pod. Feel free to DM.

[Luckystar.]

Is this why Baldeon had a writing credit in X-Force #10?

[Journey]

My biggest take away is that some editor completely threw out what she intended & wrote the whole rape thing instead & Leah got the backlash for it that's fucked up, it also seems like they were in a huge rush to cancel this series & legit makes no sense cause Marvel is producing a lot of garbage comics this was actually really good in short I'm very annoyed.

[Frobisher]

Christ. No wonder they’re all sodding off to take Substack’s sweet VC money.

[salarta]

Well, now I'm glad I didn't say much about X-Factor #10. Leads me to wonder how much other issues (e.g. X-Factor #4) were similarly affected, or conversely how Trial of Magneto might be affected.

[Grunty]

(...)

To think that the Trial pitch was such a big factor (pun intended?) in the book's cancellation. Also I love the proposals Leah had for Siryn's post Morrigan powers (being able to hear the dead)and becoming a Krakoan "god" of rebirth and Shatterstar's becoming a Krakoan "god" of battle. Leah drawing parallels to how these comics are like crafting grand mythologies was lovely. Such a tragedy hearing how devastating the cancellation was for she and David Baldeon. So much lost potential.

The important part about the "grand mythologies" in these super hero comics (or in general), is that they usualy required experienced writers years to craft them, by creating many smaller "folk tales" first, which would then serve as foundation on which these grander stories could stand securely and become remembered and retold.

However there is a limit to adding greater parts on top of them right away, without creating more foundation first.

Meanwhile trying to build grand mythologies from scratch usualy means they lack foundations and break appart quickly or remain forgotten ruins.

It feels like the common mistake of many writers these days, both experienced and inexperienced, is that they try to slap another "grand epic" on top of allready existing ones or trying to create brand new ones in a hurry, without securing or building foundations first. Only for it to crumble the moment it's finished and nobody cares to remember tham anymore right away.

Though editors and people in charge are equaly to blame for not allowing longterm creation of new "folk tales".

Still if Williams thought she could make underused characters conceptual "gods" of something from scratch, without barely even having written them in any way to create the foundation for that, sounds like she was way over her head in what she hoped to achieve vs. what she could have achieved in her time or should have aimed for.

But again, she is not the only one currently making that mistake and editorial is by what we can see not doing a good job either.

[Anduinel]

Well, now I'm glad I didn't say much about X-Factor #10. Leads me to wonder how much other issues (e.g. X-Factor #4) were similarly affected, or conversely how Trial of Magneto might be affected.

That's my concern. Wanda is a hot property for Disney/Marvel right now. There's no way any storyline possibly changing her status quo isn't being put under a magnifying glass.

And cripes, it's depressing to think I was too generous with my opinions re: the editing of issue #10. And infuriating to think how much flack the writer wound up taking for it and how much damage it probably did her reputation - a lot fewer people are going to listen to the podcast than who read the issue.

[DAHX]

Some important parts from the interview:

• X-Factor was canceled because Leah’s pitch for Magneto/Wanda story became very popular at Marvel but they thought the reader numbers for X-Factor wasn’t big enough for this story, so they wanted it as a separate comic.
• it was supposed to be X-Factor issue 15 originally.
• She only learned about the cancellation at issue 9 so as she had to finish the series quickly, issue 9 and 10 was rushed. (Basically it was a last minute sudden cancellation without the chance of finishing her plots properly and without giving her at least 12 issues like normally.) It was a difficult experience for her, she and David Baldeon both cried when they found out of the cancellation…
• “I hope it’s(Trial of Magneto) going to be worth it(the X-Factor cancellation?), it was explained to me as being the biggest thing I’ve participated in.” (So they took away her first ongoing series from her and changed all of her plans to make one big Magneto story…) She can tell already a difference because she never had so much attention before.
• She realized how little control the writers have, she didn't know what the final result would be as there were several artists on the last issue and apparently other writers/editors(?) making changes - there were pages in the final issue she didn’t know about, her dialogues changed, art she didn’t scripted and she only found out about it when the issue was released.
• She had to change her letter at the end of the last issue 3 times, because she was giving away too much of what the previous plans had been and Marvel didn’t want to reflect poorly on this being a last minute decision and wanted to make it look like it was planned all along…
  
  
• The team will stay together as Krakoa’s X-Factor investigation, they ‘just’ won’t have their own comic. (this is different what JDW said in X-Men Monday though? He said the characters have new places/plans separately in upcoming comics, and there might be a chance for having another X-Factor and them to be together again in the future)
  
  Some of the lost plans:
• Shatterstar was supposed to become Krakoa’s God of Battle by defeating the Morrigan and Morrigan become a God of Rebirth and Healing. we saw Shatterstar defeating Morrigan in the comic,but the line that would’ve explained it was taken out (if I understood it correctly)
• Syrin’s new power was gonna be that she could talk to the dead. It was gonna be huge for the investigations.
• Lorna was gonna do a one woman prison breakout at some point.
• Prodigy was gonna ruin that man’s life
  
  
• The Title ‘Trial of Magneto’ wasn’t Leah’s idea, it was a marketing choice.
• The first issue is an oversized issue, 40+ pages
• Leah wants to rehabilitate Wanda’s image with mutants bring her powers into a place of being empowering rather than being a variable.
• Her goal is not to write the next defining Magneto story but to write an empathy engine, to authentically tell a story that’s going to be about healing and catharsis.
  
  
• she’s also transitioning to substack

This changes a few things. basically Marvel screwed her over badly… I feel bad for her, her first ongoing was ruined and the ending was a big mess.

Edit: I should add that she wasn’t talking badly about Marvel. It felt like she wanted to give an explanation about how things work in the business, about the cancellation and the rushed final issue (probably because the mess it was and the backlash it received). She said it is business, it’s Marvel’s IP after all and they can do this(changing things without the writer being involved) and the decisions are theirs. She was talking respectfully the whole time.

[AJpyro]

So once again Marketing was given control of a comic?

Sounds like a bad deal.

[Kingdom X]

This changes a few things. basically Marvel screwed her over badly… I feel bad for her, her first ongoing was ruined and the ending was a big mess.

The part where she said that she found out about the image of Prodigy’s naked corpse at the same time as readers was so disheartening and honestly somewhat sickening.

I’m also questioning why Marvel was so pressed to have the Trial come out directly after the Gala. Two other line changing events already occurred at the Gala and now it’s releasing at the same time as (the obviously more important) Inferno. They honestly could have let X-Factor reach 15 issues and then transitioned to this mini-series.

[CoCoBandz]

And with this I WILL NOT be purchasing Trial of Magneto.

[Nyssane]

So is Leah leaving Marvel after Trial of Magneto?

[scouse mouse]

I feel terrible for her, this was such a lousy way for Marvel to treat her. I'd say after Trial of Magneto she is definitely gone from the company or she wouldn't have revealed all of this in the podcast. I I think her revealing this gives more credence to Hickman bailing early if editorial are carrying on like this. And its not just the X Office because there is definitely something suspect about Spencer rushing to finish his Spidey run.