A lot of X-content in this week's newsletter so I'll post a few bits:
https://tombrevoort.substack.com/p/1...espectful-font
Elsewhere, along similar thematic lines, this past Friday we sent our very last AVENGERS-related title to the printer, AVENGERES TWILIGHT #6. So I have officially brought a close to 26 years as the AVENGERS editor.
From now on, it’s all mutants all the time, for good or ill (and likely a bit of both.)
And as I said above, we released a bunch more information about
the initial spear-tip of the titles we’ll be releasing. You really have no idea of what else is to come, nor the wide span of tones and styles and genres and approaches we’re going to attempt to cover. Every book different, for all that they all exist simultaneously in the same continuity! Every title its own thing! I know that it’s folly to fall in love with your own stuff, and that some of these projects are going to fail to find an audience and going to have to be suspended at some point. But right now, it feels like an unlimited vista opening up in front of us, brimming with possibility and purpose. I mean, just look at these cover mock-ups. We first set them up a few weeks ago, and I keep looking at them. Nothing against the past few years or anything, but these look like X-Books to me, in a primal and foundational way.
Joe West: Question: you said last year that there was a deficit of viable Black male characters in the X-line, and looking at the rosters of the three core X-Men books of From The Ashes, it doesn’t seem like much is being done to fix that. The Krakoan era gave such a major spotlight to so many Black male mutants, most notably Synch, Bishop, Sunspot and Manifold. Will we see any Black male mutants in the other announced books like X-Force and X-Factor? Are unannounced books in the works featuring them?
Tom: You likely know a little bit more now than you did then, Joe. And my answer here is going to be Yes, but No. Which is to say that we’re certainly going to see more characters of color in the X-Titles, both those that have been announced already and the ones that haven’t. But that said, I do still think that we face a deficit of Black male characters within the line, and that’s something that we’ll be looking to address as we move forward. I’ve put that challenge to the X-Writers and it’s already resulted in some changes to our upcoming planning. But like with any other demographic you might mention, the difficulty is always that you can’t be all things to all people all the time. Our first and most important goal is to tell stories and entertain, and that’s always going to take the number one priority. So we still have work to do in this regard. But we’re aware of it and trying to take steps.
Mark: You probably won't want to answer this but all time great artist, Greg Capullo is heavily rumored to be drawing the wolverine book. Is there any truth to this?
Tom: Like I told Nick, Mark, I’m not going t be announcing anything before we’re ready. But I will tell you definitively that Greg isn’t drawing the regular WOLVERINE series.
Alex Dee (yay!): what brought about the recently-announced solo books for Storm and Phoenix? With the X-line usually focusing on team books aside from a select few characters who can carry a solo with a bit of longevity, I'm curious if Storm and Phoenix were something creators pitched or if you and your editorial team felt they were something the X-line was lacking maybe?
Tom: Both STORM and PHOENIX were my doing, Alex, at least in terms of them being put forward as projects that I wanted to do. And they’re only the tip of the iceberg in terms of stuff going forward. The X-Line has a huge diversity of characters, many of whom, I believe, should be able to headline a series. Plus, past a certain point a lot of the X-Team books have started to feel a bit like five random mutant characters who happened to be standing near one another thrown together as a team. It’s all inevitably going to come down to how well stuff sells, of course,
but I think i can confidently say that you’ll be seeing a lot more solo titles beyond STORM and PHOENIX in the new X-Line moving forward—certainly more than have been historically attempted.