Confirmed: Hickman is leaving the X-Men after Inferno

[Spiderfan001]

I'm sorry, but this is in no way comparable to the Clone Saga.
That was a dumpster fire because editorial wanted to prolong it and changes in management, plus no one knew how to end it or where it was going, so it was just storyline built on top of storyline until they just finished it.
This, writers know exactly what they are doing and are writing it.

Anyway, it sounds to me like plans changed since before the first issue of House of X came out, an era this big, the plans probably changed a lot.
I can't speak for Hickman, so maybe he is very annoyed by this. But from the sounds of it, he realised now is the time to leave. Instead of destroying other People's stories, he decided it was best to stop for now with the possibility of coming back again.

All of it sounds like he is leaving on good terms. He is bringing some writers over to substack with him, he is still going to be in on the X-Men plans and have helped them out with what they want to do for the next few years, he is still at Marvel planning something else. From the sounds of it, it looks like Hickman doesn't want to do another monthly "X-Men" book but would rather do minis and events. Maybe he will return, maybe he won't. The fact of the matter is, those plans are still around the X-Office, I'm sure someone else will pick up the Nimrod story. It doesn't have to be Hickman, he just set it up.

Anyway, we will know what he planned for X-Men, it'll be in his substack comic which will probably see print. So from what I can see, this is the best of the leaving outcome. We get Krakoa for some more time, Hickman is still at Marvel and we'll get a repurposed X-Men story. Even if you dislike X-Men going forward, you can just replace it with his "Three Worlds" comic where he'll have a lot more creative control. We can get his ideas unfiltered without editorial interference, that sounds like a good deal to me.
I'll pick that up when it becomes a comic I can buy on store shelves.

I'm not a big defender of some of the shit that Marvel do. What they did to Leah Williams was just scummy. At least let her know 5 or 6 issues in advance so she can finish her story and get ready to tell the next chapter of her book. And don't go behind her back to rewrite scenes, that's just horrible.
But here, it seems like there's a big shake-up at the X-Offices, it looks like they want to go in one direction and Hickman saw that he probably wasn't the best to take it there. That happens sometimes, it sucks, but that's creative industries for you.

Outside of HOXPOX, the best comics came from other writers. Now I loved Hickman's time on the main book, but it was a lot of set-up and one-off stories. In my opinion, the best books have been Way of X, which has dealt with some of the more uncomfortable ideas to come from this era, Ayla's New Mutants which has just been a fun little horror comic dealing with the young mutants not knowing who the Shadow King is and Ewing's Sword which has sadly become an event book, but Ewing is a professional and manages to make every issue feel big and knocks it out every time. Heck even X of Swords wasn't really Hickman's story, that was coming out of Excalibur and was essentially Howard's story with Hickman helping to fit it into his own book.

Reading Duggan's X-Men, I have faith that he can keep the momentum up.

Maybe going forward the X-Men will suck, but with the writers we have, I trust it's in safe hands.

Okay, gonna go para by para here.Just wanted to say I mean no disrespect and we all have our opinions.

You literally high light the problems and say they won't happen.Hickman has a plan and a direction, the writers in the X-office want to stay in phase one to milk it dry.The writers aren't doing this to change direction, they are doing this to keep milking this for as long as possible.And even if the have a way too end this(I doubt they have a good one) it will be nowhere near Hickman's own ending.This is exactly like clone saga.

Again other people destroyed his story, and he left because of it.They wouldn't even have the opportunity if not for him.Hickman's story should have been the number one priority but they sidelined it and now removed it.

Again he set them up with inferno for what they wanted, his story is long gone and is being replaced.I already pointed out he has shown frustration and joked about getting himself fired.He doesn't have much of an online presence, if he did we would have more to go off on.And Hickman build the foundation, none of the writers who work in X-office have come close to his level in both general writing and specially in the long term stuff.Stuff like X of swords and Hellfire gala isn't in the same tier as HOX/POX.They can do it, but it's gonna be much worse.

Again I don't know how much will be there of this idea, he won't exactly write HOX/POX, etc. again with different characters, would he?I'm gonna pick it up too.

Nah fam, Leah got f*cked over a mediocre run in quality(some say it's much worse, other say its better) and poor in sales.And she got Magneto and Trial to compensate for it(the entire reason it was cancelled).It was also only 10-12 issues of monthly.
Hickman's entire overarching story was slowed down and then cancelled.This story started with HOX/POX, it's only the series that sold phenomenal and revitalized the X-men.And they f*cked him over to the point he has to leave.What happened to Leah was bad, but Hickman's case is much much worse.Hickman got nothing in return as well.

It's like comparing loosing a wallet to having you life savings robbed.Hickman put in much more effort and that labor showed in quality and sales, and was f*cked over.Leah got a series that many more people will read as well so it's like loosing a wallet but winning a small lottery(Trial is worth much more than X-factor) while Hickman lost his entire life savings and got nothing back.

Again it was set-up.And as he says, he was asked to stay in phase one.He was forced to write filler to pass time.Every issue that had anything happen in it was far superior to anything the X-writers came up with.And his single issues(both X-men and new mutants) were far superior to any issues from others.Please mention what other issues you feel the others did better than his.
1)Ayla's new mutants <<< Hickman's new mutants.Is this even close?
2)Way of X is great, but is on the same tier as Hickman.And it's only 5 issues.Hickman's was an ongoing.
3)Ewing is on par in the single issues
4)X of swords was bad, when it was released many disliked it and still do.This isn't close.

And all this is comparing his filler work.HOX/POX and Nimord/Mystique/Moira stuff is far superior in every aspect.

His X-men is on par with Hickman's filler(I love both a lot) but Hickman's overarching story is far far superior to anything Duggan has come up with or can imo.

That's the main difference in our opinions.You think the writers can handle this, I don't.
One thing is Hickman's work made their's seem much better than it actually is, when these writers ill have to do the big overarching stuff that will be a true showing.

But I hope they can keep things fresh and quality up.

[Spiderfan001]

Dude you’ve posted this narrative of the writers being greedy a*holes that kicked Hickman out at least a dozen times. Then why the HELL is he working with some of them in Substack?

Also there would definitely be hype if Ewing or Wells was writing X-Men. You act like these writers, many of whom have gained critical acclaim before this, were supposed to act like Hickman’s gang of minions. He ASKED them if they were ready to move-on and they all said their stories were still ongoing. If that decision was so damaging then editorial should have come in and been like “all right guys let’s keep the plan going.”

I’m just as disappointed as the next guy about some great stories that we’re missing out on, but making the other writers out to be an evil gang of betrayers seems a little over the top to me.

Not a*sholes.They see Krakoa as a gold mine, they aren't wrong but Hickman's story needs to move on from this quick.They choose to stay and write their own stories at the cost of Hickman's.
I say greedy because it should be Hickman's choice, he came up with all this.

Editorial also wants whats gonna sell, at the cost of story.And Ewing and Wells are the 2 good ones, but if you think they are at Hickman's level you should check out more of his work.

Not evil, my pov is how Hickman must feel.Your's is more oriented towards the writers.Both are correct but this was Hickman's creation and his story should be given priority.That's why I feel for Hickman.

Writers keeping phase one means things will get stagnant.That's why Hickman wanted to move on, his story was suffering because of the pace.

[FFJamie94]

Okay, gonna go para by para here.Just wanted to say I mean no disrespect and we all have our opinions.

You literally high light the problems and say they won't happen.Hickman has a plan and a direction, the writers in the X-office want to stay in phase one to milk it dry.The writers aren't doing this to change direction, they are doing this to keep milking this for as long as possible.And even if the have a way too end this(I doubt they have a good one) it will be nowhere near Hickman's own ending.This is exactly like clone saga.

Again other people destroyed his story, and he left because of it.They wouldn't even have the opportunity if not for him.Hickman's story should have been the number one priority but they sidelined it and now removed it.

Again he set them up with inferno for what they wanted, his story is long gone and is being replaced.I already pointed out he has shown frustration and joked about getting himself fired.He doesn't have much of an online presence, if he did we would have more to go off on.And Hickman build the foundation, none of the writers who work in X-office have come close to his level in both general writing and specially in the long term stuff.Stuff like X of swords and Hellfire gala isn't in the same tier as HOX/POX.They can do it, but it's gonna be much worse.

Again I don't know how much will be there of this idea, he won't exactly write HOX/POX, etc. again with different characters, would he?I'm gonna pick it up too.

Nah fam, Leah got f*cked over a mediocre run in quality(some say it's much worse, other say its better) and poor in sales.And she got Magneto and Trial to compensate for it(the entire reason it was cancelled).It was also only 10-12 issues of monthly.
Hickman's entire overarching story was slowed down and then cancelled.This story started with HOX/POX, it's only the series that sold phenomenal and revitalized the X-men.And they f*cked him over to the point he has to leave.What happened to Leah was bad, but Hickman's case is much much worse.Hickman got nothing in return as well.

It's like comparing loosing a wallet to having you life savings robbed.Hickman put in much more effort and that labor showed in quality and sales, and was f*cked over.Leah got a series that many more people will read as well so it's like loosing a wallet but winning a small lottery(Trial is worth much more than X-factor) while Hickman lost his entire life savings and got nothing back.

Again it was set-up.And as he says, he was asked to stay in phase one.He was forced to write filler to pass time.Every issue that had anything happen in it was far superior to anything the X-writers came up with.And his single issues(both X-men and new mutants) were far superior to any issues from others.Please mention what other issues you feel the others did better than his.
1)Ayla's new mutants <<< Hickman's new mutants.Is this even close?
2)Way of X is great, but is on the same tier as Hickman.And it's only 5 issues.Hickman's was an ongoing.
3)Ewing is on par in the single issues
4)X of swords was bad, when it was released many disliked it and still do.This isn't close.

And all this is comparing his filler work.HOX/POX and Nimord/Mystique/Moira stuff is far superior in every aspect.

His X-men is on par with Hickman's filler(I love both a lot) but Hickman's overarching story is far far superior to anything Duggan has come up with or can imo.

That's the main difference in our opinions.You think the writers can handle this, I don't.
One thing is Hickman's work made their's seem much better than it actually is, when these writers ill have to do the big overarching stuff that will be a true showing.

But I hope they can keep things fresh and quality up.

Again, Hickman put a lot of trust in the writers and the story that was happening was bigger than him. He has stated how he likes to do indie stuff because there's less gears in the machine. My guess is he wanted to originally do the X-Men stuff, but saw so many People were also involved and he wanted to move on. To me it sounds like a change of pace for him rather than the X-Men story.

You keep saying Hickman has done the best in this era, really he had HOXPOX under he belt which in itself is a classic story. But then you talk about how Hickman's run has mostly been filler.

I feel instead of the story, it's Hickman you care about. And yeah, I'm disappointed too that he is off X-Men, but he'll still be around, He'll probably come back and write some more X-Events at some point or incoperate plots into future X-Titles

[Winter_fury]

Again, Hickman put a lot of trust in the writers and the story that was happening was bigger than him. He has stated how he likes to do indie stuff because there's less gears in the machine. My guess is he wanted to originally do the X-Men stuff, but saw so many People were also involved and he wanted to move on. To me it sounds like a change of pace for him rather than the X-Men story.

You keep saying Hickman has done the best in this era, really he had HOXPOX under he belt which in itself is a classic story. But then you talk about how Hickman's run has mostly been filler.

I feel instead of the story, it's Hickman you care about. And yeah, I'm disappointed too that he is off X-Men, but he'll still be around, He'll probably come back and write some more X-Events at some point or incoperate plots into future X-Titles

Hickman issue feel like filler because clearly he was ready to move on to act two. But I guess marvel and some fans just want to stagnate in the status-quo instead of reading a complete story krakoa is going to end up being the new x-mansion.

[FFJamie94]

Hickman issue feel like filler because clearly he was ready to move on to act two. But I guess marvel and some fans just want to stagnate in the status-quo instead of reading a complete story krakoa is going to end up being the new x-mansion.

If this Krakoa era lasted 10-15 years with no sign of change, I'll understand, but it's been less than 2 years, there's a lot more millage you can get out of this set-up. In fact, it's been about 20 months since DOX started. To try and end things in a year would feel more rushed in all honesty.
If Hickman was telling his own story that didn't go into any other comic, then fine, tell the story. But others relied on his story.

I don't feel like there's a lot of milking the idea here, it just looks like the other writers weren't ready to move on just yet. The readers also aren't ready to move on.

[Anchorsify]

This is awful and my day is ruined.

Everyone voted to stay in phase one' gag. Just absolutely Wful. What have any of the current stories amounted to? Next to nothing. Maybe they should have been weighed against one another: Hickman made the entire sandbox they are kicking up sand in doing nothing productive, so when the sandbox needs to move, it should be moved.

Not that I didn't see this coming, the absolutely glacial progression (much less mention or callback) to the original al metaplot was almost non-existant. Sucks that such a cool setup will most likely never see its potential realized though.. and all just so people can spin wheels with potato plots that have next to nothing going for them beyond financial incentives.. which will continue to dwindle.

Mind you I'm not some Stan of Hickman's but he clearly had a plan and a plot and a beginning middle and end and by his own words we never even got to the turn. Absolutely a waste to keep things in stasis and not let him at least advance the story at hand.

I probably will stop buying any x-men stuff for a while again. Marvel can not seem to ever figure out how to get out of its own way.

[Foon4000]

I hope this doesn't end up like the post-Claremont X-men, where nobody kept notes on CC's original intentions and they read all the wrong things into the unresolved stories.

I like Krakoa but Moira X needs a satisfying endgame.

[Kingdom X]

This is a pretty comprehensive list of dangling plot threads: https://www.houseofx.org/blog/dangling-plot-threads

I would probably add Phalanx stuff and the aliens that Cypher met in that one Giant size issue.

This quote also stuck out to me, “ so much of his X-Men series was meticulously arranging dominos that haven’t come close to falling.” At least half of that 21 issue run (plus the Giant size one-shots) was set-up. That’s not uncommon for Hickman because his Avengers run was similar in that way, but that means that a lot is riding on Inferno to make that all feel worth while.

[Devaishwarya]

I'll be riding that ship with you Duggan, i'll be riding it until the last Krakoan leaf falls, until Arrako falls out of orbit.

Yupp. Same here.

[Hizashi]

It's difficult to see how this could turn out well; I was hardly the biggest cheerleader for this era, but this kind of creative meddling rarely works out. Hickman was brought in to do his thing, he gave the X-Books a shot in the arm (HoX/PoX is still the best book of this era) and so Marvel decides... to stall and then move away from his plans? I didn't like a lot of what was going on, but the pacing was especially irksome to me and now we learn that Marvel deliberately slowed down. I have very little confidence that Marvel will knock this out of the park, more likely that they'll run this into the ground.

[bishop66]

so a few things im hearing for what happens after inferno for january/february for the relaunch duggan x-men book is staying percy on wolvie is staying ewing has his new x-book launching praying its uncanny , and looks like marauders is safe perhaps a new writer/co writer.....everything else is wrapping up including x-force and excalibur, new mutants and hellions thats been confirmed to me by a few people i really trust. way of x ,cota and xcorp and x-factor are never coming back at least for 2022 dont know whats replacing things on the scedule hell they could all relaunch with all new #1 in feb

[Gripstir]

This is a pretty comprehensive list of dangling plot threads: https://www.houseofx.org/blog/dangling-plot-threads

I would probably add Phalanx stuff and the aliens that Cypher met in that one Giant size issue.

This quote also stuck out to me, “ so much of his X-Men series was meticulously arranging dominos that haven’t come close to falling.” At least half of that 21 issue run (plus the Giant size one-shots) was set-up. That’s not uncommon for Hickman because his Avengers run was similar in that way, but that means that a lot is riding on Inferno to make that all feel worth while.

Thx for the link I was looking for something like that

[Devaishwarya]

This is a pretty comprehensive list of dangling plot threads: https://www.houseofx.org/blog/dangling-plot-threads

I would probably add Phalanx stuff and the aliens that Cypher met in that one Giant size issue.

This quote also stuck out to me, “ so much of his X-Men series was meticulously arranging dominos that haven’t come close to falling.” At least half of that 21 issue run (plus the Giant size one-shots) was set-up. That’s not uncommon for Hickman because his Avengers run was similar in that way, but that means that a lot is riding on Inferno to make that all feel worth while.

We can still possibly get those plot threads resolved...eventually.
It's not as though HiX-Man left with all his notes in a briefcase with a combination lock.
It's not as though the remaining writers aren't competent enough to keep things interesting going forward on their own...they've been doing for a while.

[Winter_fury]

We can still possibly get those plot threads resolved...eventually.
It's not as though HiX-Man left with all his notes in a briefcase with a combination lock.
It's not as though the remaining writers aren't competent enough to keep things interesting going forward on their own...they've been doing for a while.

Yeah nah. That’s like some else finishing asoiaf it will never be the same quality and most of these writers aren’t competent enough imo. Maybe ewing but even he doesn’t hit heights Hickman does.

[Gripstir]

so a few things im hearing for what happens after inferno for january/february for the relaunch duggan x-men book is staying percy on wolvie is staying ewing has his new x-book launching praying its uncanny , and looks like marauders is safe perhaps a new writer/co writer.....everything else is wrapping up including x-force and excalibur, new mutants and hellions thats been confirmed to me by a few people i really trust. way of x ,cota and xcorp and x-factor are never coming back at least for 2022 dont know whats replacing things on the scedule hell they could all relaunch with all new #1 in feb

IF this is true then I could see why Mauraders is safe it’s one of the more interesting books. With probably the best characters.

I think Magik is a great character but Hellions I think would be a good reboot.

Excalibur and new mutants I can believe as neither were all that great but Gambit finally had a good issue last time and I was excited he was going to get some burn. But if it just ends kinda feels like we wasted a lot of Gambit time for nothing. Maybe I can see Gambit and Magik in a book together now.

I hope whatever new books we get will have a bit better group composition. I never loved the groupings of mutants on these books so far.