Ask Gail Stuff!

[Android 17]

I promise this bit.

SOME serious stuff is happening up front but I don't want to write miserable X-men every issue1

I trust you! Sounds interesting

[ComixGail]

Thanks for the answer. I'm anxious to see where Jean will end up in upcoming comics.

Now for another question. Will there be more human civilians who are willing to show sympathy for/and or aid the mutants? I know that one of the major themes of the X-Men tackles the prejudice mutants face from regular humans but I'd like to see plenty that are sympathetic too.

A family of 'em, in fact.

[ComixGail]

By the way, I want to say again, I am not reading the other threads here because I don't want posters to feel they have to be extra sweet or like they have to be careful what they post or anything. So if there are posts on other threads in this forum, I won't see them, just getting that out there.

I had message boards here at CBR and inevitably, I remember this feeling, I don't want long-time posters feeling like they have to watch what they say.

[Master of Sound]

Dear Gail,

You have missed my question, so let me be cheeky and ask again ;-)

Many of us feel the kids of New/Young X-Men are left in Limbo for way to long. Rogue used to coach many of them in Mike Carey's run like Hellion, Anole, Trance and Indra.

I understand you might not want to spoil names, but can you at least let us know if any of the former Academy X kids will have roles in your series?

[sunofdarkchild]

Also repeating.

How stable can we expect the core casts of the 3 main team books to be going forward? The yearly elections of the 2nd half of the Krakoa era seemed to end teams before they really had a chance to get started.

Many people are concerned that 'Mutants are more feared and hated than ever' has been the premise of every X-Men relaunch of the last 15 years with the exception of Krakoa. And a lot of the elements we seem to be seeing, Cyclops leading a revolutionary team based north of the continental US, Magneto seemingly taking Xavier's role, multiple teams split over different locations, have been well-worn concepts, some of which date back as far as the 80s. How is this era of stories new and different compared to the last 40 years of X-Men stories?

[ComixGail]

Dear Gail,

You have missed my question, so let me be cheeky and ask again ;-)

Many of us feel the kids of New/Young X-Men are left in Limbo for way to long. Rogue used to coach many of them in Mike Carey's run like Hellion, Anole, Trance and Indra.

I understand you might not want to spoil names, but can you at least let us know if any of the former Academy X kids will have roles in your series?

Not in my series, not immediately. That is not to say they won't show up. And I love Mike Carey's work!

[Jackraow21]

Gail:

We’re starting to see some teaser panels and art work trickle out from Ryan Stegman and Carmen Carnero via their social media accounts on X and Instagram. Greg Capullo has been posting some stuff from his upcoming as-yet-unannounced Marvel (X?) book too.

Can you nudge David Marquez and see if he might indulge us with some of his stuff too? Pretty please!

Also, is there any way he or Marvel could post some better quality images of the new costume designs? I’ve looked everywhere online and can’t find good high quality images of them. Especially interested in that rad Wolverine redesign.

Thanks for engaging with us. It’s a privilege.

[OldManLogan]

Hey Gail! Nice to see you on this side of the Marvel Universe!

Seeing you writing my boys Logan and Kurt will be a dream coming true, and I can't wait to see what you have in store for them.

Will the teams from the 3 X-Men books interact often? I feel kinda selfish for asking this, considering how many characters are still missing from the main rosters, but I can't help but wish you get to write Emma, Kate and Beast at some point.

[Su_Whisterfield]

By the way, I want to say again, I am not reading the other threads here because I don't want posters to feel they have to be extra sweet or like they have to be careful what they post or anything. So if there are posts on other threads in this forum, I won't see them, just getting that out there.

I had message boards here at CBR and inevitably, I remember this feeling, I don't want long-time posters feeling like they have to watch what they say.

Sensible move, our Nightcrawler thread is a well known den of iniquity…

[ChronoRogue]

By the way, I want to say again, I am not reading the other threads here because I don't want posters to feel they have to be extra sweet or like they have to be careful what they post or anything. So if there are posts on other threads in this forum, I won't see them, just getting that out there.

I had message boards here at CBR and inevitably, I remember this feeling, I don't want long-time posters feeling like they have to watch what they say.

Aww, a bit bummed about that but understandable. Would have loved to see you pop into the Rogue appreciation thread one day. (despite my long-winded ramblings and us nitpicking costumes, we're all very passionate about rogue)

On the topic of characters I hope to see though, I did have one villain archetype I wanted to talk about briefly and that I hope we see in this new era.

Related but what are your thoughts on Vargas? I know he's currently dead, but this is Marvel so lol. I find him such an interesting character; obsessed with knowing the future, portrayed as extremely dangerous and able to go 1 on 1 with powerful characters like Betsy and Rogue but still claiming to be only "peak human". I have to wonder if he wasn't a mutant in denial. Considering in real-life, we sadly have so, so many examples of minorities who ally with radicalized groups that seem to hate the group that they're apart of... it's interesting we haven't had more antagonists like this in the X-Men. It doesn't have to be Vargas, but I would love to read about a villain like this. (nightmares in real life, so not sure where this desire comes from, but maybe I just want to read the heroes win against them in fiction)

As much as it has been fun exploring a different setting with Krakoa, I feel like it sorta wiped away or removed more complex motivations for why potentially "good" people act in terrible ways due to lack of resources or pressure from the societies they are living in. So it will be nice to potentially read about that again with how the new era seems to be shaking out, as IMO it feels more like a realistic motivation for doing bad things than the mustache-twirling psychosis of Mr Sinister or mechanical coldness of Nimrod.

[marhawkman]

What sort of plans do you have for using the Acolytes?

[RadarBlackout]

Thanks for taking the time to doing this Gail, really appreciate!

So, fist question, how the cast get along, you choose all the members or some of them already comes in the pack?

Second, Academy X/New X-Men got lots of amazing mutants like Surge, Hellion, Mercury, Wind Dancer, Wallflower...somes like Elixir, Pixie, Prodigy, Rockslide already had/has some big roles, can we expect to see more of the Academy X kids? Can you please get the message along for Tom that we're pattially waiting their time to shine, and would be awesome if would be in From the Ashes

[ComixGail]

Sensible move, our Nightcrawler thread is a well known den of iniquity…

hahahaha, I can only imagine.

[ComixGail]

So many questions.

Will we ever get to see Cyclops use his pouches?

How will Beast handle the revelation of what he had become?

Any interesting secondary characters appearing in any of the books?

Will characters between books interact any? Will Emma ask Scott for a favor (besides keeping Quire as far as possible away from her daughters)? Will Yana pop over for a night on the town with Kate? Will Hank and Kurt try to have a fun night on the town of their own?

These are vital pouch questions! The answer is yes, but it's all Lik-M-Aid.

That is not my book, so I can't really say anything. But I love the way Jed writes Hank!

Oh, yeah. Yes, yes, yes. Watch, it's going to be cool.

I can only answer the first question with a big YES, BUT we also want people to be able to buy one book or three books or whatever and not feel like they are missing out.

[Mercury]

Gail, I'm not sure if anyone has asked this already, but what has been the most (1) surprising and (2) challenging thing about writing X-Men?