Tom Brevoort to become X-Men's Senior Editor

[Devaishwarya]

Was story direction of a line always so dictated by who was editing? It just seems so odd to me to be talking about “Brevoort’s X-Men” or “White’s X-Men” when they aren’t actually the creatives doing the writing.

I don't think Editors "dictate" story direction per se but they do have an overall direction and vision for the line of books they're editing that they keep in mind when approving story pitches and such. That's one of the main reasons why they were hired. In essence it's their vision everyone else is adding to thus the possessive.

[JB]

I think it's different depending on the project. We know Jonathan Hickman was very publicly the mastermind behind the Krakoan era and worked closely with Jordan White to spearhead storylines, pick creative teams for the ancillary books, etc. It was obviously a collaboration but it was also clearly a very creator-driven approach.

With Tom Brevoort, as no creatives have been named yet it's hard to tell anything at this stage however from bits and pieces from his newsletter, it sounds like it's Brevoort and his editorial team who picked the direction of the line, decided what books and what characters go where and THEN assigned those to a writer. It doesn't necessarily mean creators didn't have any input however it sounds like the new direction of the X-line came more from editorial this time around.

Yeah and since Tom was approached to take over and remedy the line, his influence is going to be a big part of the direction at least in the beginning.

[ARkadelphia]

Attachment 136114

From Tom's substack:

Your thoughts?

I’m hopeful… for The Avengers

[JB]

From Tom's substack this week. Nothing in terms of news but I always find these kind of questions and answers interesting.
https://tombrevoort.substack.com/p/8...s-are-too-long

JV: I always wonder was one of the success factors of the CC X-men the fact that it 'stood alone' - you felt it was connected but it was in its own corner of the Marvel U (ironically I felt the X- movies also benefitted by being in their own Fox movie Universe for 2 decades).

CC was smart to bring in comic and pop culture tropes that made X-men feel relevant (Aliens is a hit movie so we get the Brood, Simonson's Thor is popular so the teams go to Asgard, etc), but still having it feel like it was standing on its own.

Do you think the X-Titles benefit from tying into the larger Marvel U or being off on their own with more tangential links to the rest of the lines (Avengers, Spidey, etc)?

Tom: I think the only correct answer here is yes and yes, JV. Which is to say, there were benefits to being able to stand a bit off to the side, and there were also benefits to being able to interact with the greater Marvel Universe. In those early days especially, there weren’t whole franchises worth of titles, nor specific editorial offices dedicated to same. So while you would get crossovers and eventually big Event series, on a month-by-month basis, everything was a bit looser overall. Which is to say that, for most of that time, FANTASTIC FOUR was just as siloed as X-MEN was, in its own way. And so were DAREDEVIL and HULK and a lot of the other books. The exceptions tended to be Avengers-related titles, since you’d have characters appearing in two or more titles simultaneously. So if something big was going on in your book, you might cut away to a panel or two of the Avengers and the FF and whomever not being able to get there for some reasons. Or, often, you wouldn’t, you simply wouldn’t worry about it. There wasn’t the kind of expectation among the audience that exists today where if some super hero has some problem to face, why doesn’t he call up the other forty super heroes he has on speed dial for some help?

Joseph Ruiz: Hi Tom! When a new writer is brought to a series, does the editorial team give them an idea for a new direction, or is it expected that the writer bring an idea with them? Thanks!

Tom: It depends, Joseph. In just about any case, even if a writer is given some starting point or a vector, it is up to them to come up with the actual story. But I’ve made no secret of the fact that, when I go to cast somebody on a new series, I tend to first organize my thoughts on approach and tone and direction in a document that I’ll write up and send to anyone who wants to pitch me for the book. This way, that writer in question has a clear idea of what I’m thinking about and what I’m looking for. From there, it’s up to them to deliver a story that fulfills whatever objectives I may have laid out—or which is so good that I don’t really care about the objectives left unachieved. For example, we printed my document on the Hulk in the first IMMORTAL HULK hardcover, so it’s relatively easy to find. And from that, you can see that I had a particular tone that I wanted to achieve, something leaning more towards horror than straight up super heroics. What Al Ewing did in response to that outline was very different and a lot more involved than what I laid out. So it isn’t in any way my story. But it did grow from some of the seeds that I scattered in front of him.

[Kitty&Piotr<3]

I'm scared of his "objectives."

Objectives are how Remender ended up demutating SW & QS, not that that directive originated with Brevoort.

[Uncanny X-Man]

From Tom's substack this week. Nothing in terms of news but I always find these kind of questions and answers interesting.
https://tombrevoort.substack.com/p/8...s-are-too-long

JV: I always wonder was one of the success factors of the CC X-men the fact that it 'stood alone' - you felt it was connected but it was in its own corner of the Marvel U (ironically I felt the X- movies also benefitted by being in their own Fox movie Universe for 2 decades).

CC was smart to bring in comic and pop culture tropes that made X-men feel relevant (Aliens is a hit movie so we get the Brood, Simonson's Thor is popular so the teams go to Asgard, etc), but still having it feel like it was standing on its own.

Do you think the X-Titles benefit from tying into the larger Marvel U or being off on their own with more tangential links to the rest of the lines (Avengers, Spidey, etc)?

Tom: I think the only correct answer here is yes and yes, JV. Which is to say, there were benefits to being able to stand a bit off to the side, and there were also benefits to being able to interact with the greater Marvel Universe. In those early days especially, there weren’t whole franchises worth of titles, nor specific editorial offices dedicated to same. So while you would get crossovers and eventually big Event series, on a month-by-month basis, everything was a bit looser overall. Which is to say that, for most of that time, FANTASTIC FOUR was just as siloed as X-MEN was, in its own way. And so were DAREDEVIL and HULK and a lot of the other books. The exceptions tended to be Avengers-related titles, since you’d have characters appearing in two or more titles simultaneously. So if something big was going on in your book, you might cut away to a panel or two of the Avengers and the FF and whomever not being able to get there for some reasons. Or, often, you wouldn’t, you simply wouldn’t worry about it. There wasn’t the kind of expectation among the audience that exists today where if some super hero has some problem to face, why doesn’t he call up the other forty super heroes he has on speed dial for some help?

Joseph Ruiz: Hi Tom! When a new writer is brought to a series, does the editorial team give them an idea for a new direction, or is it expected that the writer bring an idea with them? Thanks!

Tom: It depends, Joseph. In just about any case, even if a writer is given some starting point or a vector, it is up to them to come up with the actual story. But I’ve made no secret of the fact that, when I go to cast somebody on a new series, I tend to first organize my thoughts on approach and tone and direction in a document that I’ll write up and send to anyone who wants to pitch me for the book. This way, that writer in question has a clear idea of what I’m thinking about and what I’m looking for. From there, it’s up to them to deliver a story that fulfills whatever objectives I may have laid out—or which is so good that I don’t really care about the objectives left unachieved. For example, we printed my document on the Hulk in the first IMMORTAL HULK hardcover, so it’s relatively easy to find. And from that, you can see that I had a particular tone that I wanted to achieve, something leaning more towards horror than straight up super heroics. What Al Ewing did in response to that outline was very different and a lot more involved than what I laid out. So it isn’t in any way my story. But it did grow from some of the seeds that I scattered in front of him.

This is all very interesting indeed and, thinking especially about the second question, I'm sure there's a very detailed document with Brevoort's thoughts about the X-franchise, what works/doesn't, what books should exist and which characters should go where which will one day make for a fun reading on the back of an Omnibus volume.

[Digifiend]

Just seen these rumours on another forum, don't know what the original source was. Pinch of salt.

spoilers:

Magik will turn heel and be a new Big Bad. A reformed Beast reopens the school. Scott and Jean are "parked". Laura takes over Wolverine's solo book, while Logan co-stars in Deadpool's - movie synergy. Iron Man and Ms. Marvel remain involved in X storylines. Xavier, Moira, Sinister, Apocalypse, and Emma are gone.

end of spoilers

[bigstupidjellyfish]

Just seen these rumours on another forum, don't know what the original source was. Pinch of salt.

spoilers:

Magik will turn heel and be a new Big Bad. A reformed Beast reopens the school. Scott and Jean are "parked". Laura takes over Wolverine's solo book, while Logan co-stars in Deadpool's - movie synergy. Iron Man and Ms. Marvel remain involved in X storylines. Xavier, Moira, Sinister, Apocalypse, and Emma are gone.

end of spoilers

At this point I don’t buy any leaks other than like production leaks (ie creative teams, when the line is getting reset, etc.). It’s too early for story stuff to come out.

That said, I feel like people might be reading into the spoilers:

Brevoort not liking Magik thing a bit too much. His job is to edit books and provide some direction (not all the directions and say “this character I don’t like is evil now.”

end of spoilers

As for the rest of it, a lot of it makes sense to do but I don’t get why spoilers:

Apocalypse and Emma have to be gone. We just got Apocalypse back and if there’s a school let’s be real Emma should be involved.

end of spoilers

[Devaishwarya]

A pinch? That needs a whole bag full of salt.

[The Thunderbird]

Just seen these rumours on another forum, don't know what the original source was. Pinch of salt.

spoilers:

Magik will turn heel and be a new Big Bad. A reformed Beast reopens the school. Scott and Jean are "parked". Laura takes over Wolverine's solo book, while Logan co-stars in Deadpool's - movie synergy. Iron Man and Ms. Marvel remain involved in X storylines. Xavier, Moira, Sinister, Apocalypse, and Emma are gone.

end of spoilers

spoilers:

If this rumor is true I'm not going to like that Jean will get benched but at least it looks like she lives.

end of spoilers

[Dthirds3]

Just seen these rumours on another forum, don't know what the original source was. Pinch of salt.

spoilers:

Magik will turn heel and be a new Big Bad. A reformed Beast reopens the school. Scott and Jean are "parked". Laura takes over Wolverine's solo book, while Logan co-stars in Deadpool's - movie synergy. Iron Man and Ms. Marvel remain involved in X storylines. Xavier, Moira, Sinister, Apocalypse, and Emma are gone.

end of spoilers

Laura and magic will be written horribly out of character if this is true

[Kitty&Piotr<3]

Some true stuff has come out of 4chan posts before in the history of the world, but I am doubting these.
Here's the link: https://boards.4channel.org/co/thread/141129941

Warning, 4chan is unmoderated and someone is probably posting something mean about your favorite character in the linked thread right now. It will be OK.

The 4chan thread will likely disappear in a day or less, just because that's how 4chan works.

[Jackraow21]

I don’t hate any of that honestly. Feels very Claremont-ian to me. To let some characters progress out of the books for awhile and lead normal lives, or branch out in different directions in some cases.

[DarkMagnus]

Just seen these rumours on another forum, don't know what the original source was. Pinch of salt.

spoilers:

Magik will turn heel and be a new Big Bad. A reformed Beast reopens the school. Scott and Jean are "parked". Laura takes over Wolverine's solo book, while Logan co-stars in Deadpool's - movie synergy. Iron Man and Ms. Marvel remain involved in X storylines. Xavier, Moira, Sinister, Apocalypse, and Emma are gone.

end of spoilers

This is a lie. or at last incorrect.

[Jackraow21]

Unfortunately I see no reference to Cable. Unsurprising, though.