Ask Gail Stuff!

[ComixGail]

This costume is fire, Gail! Can I ask who designed it? Was it David Marquez or someone else?



Such a rad, simple take on his old yellow and blue suit from the 90s. Whoever designed it improved upon a classic IMO.

Second question: Can you tell us anything about X-Force yet? Probably not much, but worth a shot to see if I can get a tease out of you. Will it be led by Cable, and thus a reversion to a more X-Force Classic model? Or led by Wolverine, which IMO is more X-Force 2.0 in that it marked a shift from the “Nathan mentoring child soldiers” model to more of a straight up black ops hit squad?

Just trying to get a feel for which model this incarnation of X-Force will employ… old school 90s paramilitary X-men or 00s black ops kill squad? The mutant CIA model most recently employed in my mind still follows the latter model. Led by Logan, doing wetworks stuff, just directed by an intel branch headed by first Beast then Sage. Still feels like X-Force 2.0 to me, versus the more classic “X-men with guns and swords” model.

That IS David!

I can't say anything about X-Force.

Except GLEE.

[Proxy]

Hi Gail, welcome!

I have a questions surrounding Nightcrawler:

1. Kurt didn’t have much opportunity to be his jovial acrobatic self the past couple of years, will he get the chance in this new adventure?

2. Can we expect more family bonding moments? (half of the Darkholme family line on the same team!)

3. While we don’t know the exact outcome of Krakoa yet, I’m curious if some story beats will carry over? (like Kurt’s hopesword and his connection to legion).

4. A more traditional team line up is upfront, so will the new characters introduced play a more dominant role in the future?

[DarkMagnus]

Hey, Gail! Excited for your Uncanny X-Men! Some questions:

1) How do you feel about Rogue's close friendship with Iceman and could we see it revisited?

2) Destiny is back but we barely saw her interacting with Rogue during the Krakoa era. The last time we saw them together in an emotional way was in Mike Carey's X-Men.





My question is: do you have any interest in setting up more interactions between the fam now that you have a hold over 3 of them (Rogue, Kurt, Gambit)? This lovely piece of art by our very own Fokken always reminds me of what we're missing.

keeping up with the Darkholmes

[Jackraow21]

That IS David!

I can't say anything about X-Force.

Except GLEE.

Nice. Well, buy him a beer from this longtime Wolverine fan! Job REALLY well done on that new costume. Hope it sticks around for a good long while. And I also hope it gets adopted in other media too… the cartoon at some point and the movies. Cheers.

[Gray Lensman]

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?

[AppleJ]

Hi Gail! I just have to say how thrilled and honored I am to see you back on the boards and how grateful I am for you doing this Q&A!

Rogue and Gambit are my OTP for life, so seeing them back together on a flagship team is a dream come true and I'm already blowing a gasket of excitement upon hearing that we can expect some steamy, sexy times. It's also a huge relief to hear you love Remy. We get a little overprotective of our guy. LOL

I think everyone else hit upon the questions I would love to know and they're probably all spoilers anyway. But hey, here goes a few random extras. Will we know where Gambit's cats are? Will we know where Shogo is?

I second all the enthusiasm and desire for Darkholme extended family hijinks. I also adore Jubilee and Kurt.

This team up sounds amazing!

[Pedro_b]

Hello Gail! Super excited to have you in the X world! Already loving the team...

As a HUGE Betsy Braddock fan... what are the chances of you having any good news about Bett? Would love to have you writing her... and that team seems to be missing a telepath. I think our purple haired supermodel might be free...

(and WELCOME!)

[ChronoRogue]

Hello Gail!

Very excited to see you on this project, welcome to the X-Men board and hope you survive the experience. I'm loving almost everything I'm hearing about the book, so already counting down the days to pick this up on August 7th.

Onto my questions and comments. I will third (or fourth?) wanting to see more Darkholme interactions.

But as a question form, I do wonder how close do you view Rogue and Kurt? Are they more co-workers, friends or step-siblings? They obviously didn't grow up together as siblings but he was one of her best men in her wedding and Nightcrawler has only more solidified his family connections with Destiny and Mystique recently, so it's a very up in the air interpretation I think.

Regarding some of the information I've seen floating around, I saw talk of possibly new mutants popping up in the book (around 4?). Apologies if I misunderstood but can you share if they'll be part of the actual team or considered more supporting cast?

Lastly, I love that you might be leaning into a Southern Gothic Horror vibe for the book. Films like the Skeleton Key (2005) and Angel Heart (1987) still unsettle me. So speaking of a dark and mysterious atmosphere with outlaws, hopefully not to spoiler-y, but can we expect the Thieves and Assassins Guilds to show up? It's where my mind goes when we have X-Men in New Orleans.

[captain Qball]

You've got lots of questions, and already talked about Gambit, so I'll just give one suggestion for Colossus to show up and one short question.

Shogo???

[Sisterhood Of Mutants]

Hey, Gail! Excited for your Uncanny X-Men! Some questions:

1) How do you feel about Rogue's close friendship with Iceman and could we see it revisited?

2) Destiny is back but we barely saw her interacting with Rogue during the Krakoa era. The last time we saw them together in an emotional way was in Mike Carey's X-Men.





My question is: do you have any interest in setting up more interactions between the fam now that you have a hold over 3 of them (Rogue, Kurt, Gambit)? This lovely piece of art by our very own Fokken always reminds me of what we're missing.

My wishlist in visual form.

(Also seconding the request for more spotlight on Bobby and Rogue’s friendship!)

[Jackraow21]

Gail:

Does this mean Dazzler is showing up in Uncanny X-men…

https://twitter.com/i/status/1768676017487380800

Rise of the Powers Of X #4
David Nakayama Foreshadow Variant

Also, what do you think about Ali and Logan as a couple? They hooked up in the “Wolverine: The Best There Is” mini and I’ve always thought they would be great together. Plus that would effectively end the (played out IMO) love triangle between Scott, Jean and Logan. At least for awhile.

[CGAR]

You know I was kind of annoyed with the new titles but now that I've had time to think on it its not as bad as people are saying.

I get the back to basics and the 90s nostalgia may be an issue BUT I will give you all the benefit of the doubt.

I'm still upset that Betsy Braddock is not around though. And that we arent elevating hispanic/latino characters like Wind Dancer, Magma, Skin or Rictor (please take this concern back to your office)

But my question will be regarding; I think I read 4 new mutants you may be introducing, how do you go about choosing what kind of powers they have? How do you make sure that they have the opportunity to thrive and grow? Do you partner them with A-list X-Men? Make sure they have good visuals for their powers and a good uniform? Would love to hear your perspective on this.

As we X-Men fans have come to understand a bunch of new mutants always get introduced and then get hung to dry and dont get developed.

Here's looking at Wind Dancer. Hellion. Mercury. Surge.

[Nox Noctes]

Hi, Gail!

Thank you for taking the time to answer some of our questions. Uncanny sounds like an amazing book and I can't wait to read it.

Here's my question (which you probably can't answer, but I'll ask it anyway): what are the chances Bella Donna makes an appearance?

[TOTALITY]

Hickman's opening salvo gave the Krakoan era a level of ambition and scope that every subsequent book for better or worse seemed to try to match or at least honor in its own way. Mileage may vary of how each book made use of it, but from the beginning there was a clear sense of potential, and direction -- the beginning felt like the beginning of an epic story, which seemed to promise a middle and an end.

So I'm curious about how, philosophically, one might approach following something like that. Do you want another bold shift of a premise that feels similarly vast and generative in its potential, or do you play by a different set of rules entirely, e.g. several small things to follow a very big thing? You mentioned starting with a tone for your respective books. Does that suggest a more open-ended status quo -- something each book can explore in its own space as long as it feels fresh and excites you and the readers, and figure out the next thing as you go? (Worked for Claremont!) Or is there a larger (if mutable) shape in mind? I realize though that none of the options I'm imagining are mutually exclusive, and it might be hard for you to discuss without being able to get into story specifics.

Also in terms of following Krakoa, I'm curious about the extent to which something like that can be put back in the box, so to speak. Unless the current story ends with Krakoa being erased from the timeline or all the characters' memories, I have to imagine that everything they had, lost, and might have again would weigh heavily on many characters' minds -- culture, community, solidarity, and the sense of manifest destiny for good and ill. But since that story has yet to play out and yours hasn't even started yet, one thing we can say is that the readers have now seen what mutants can accomplish together. In my mind that would seem to add a new dramatic irony to any future attempts at a 'classic' status quo in which isolated and scattered factions of mutants clash with each other and with humans; an irony which could be ripe with potential and also supremely frustrating (like watching a movie where a child doesn't know what to say to make the adults listen to them: the scenario is believable, true, and also maddening as an omniscient bystander, haha.) Is this something you're actively trying to navigate in this era, or am I maybe underestimating the pliability of this crazy patchwork story now in its 7th decade of "yes, and"'s?

Thanks for answering questions, and no worries if you can't speak to mine!

[Jwyatt]

FIRST QUESTION!

I am going to have to hold back about Rogue for a bit, I'm sorry. But I will say, she and Gambit, hot damn, they are the hottest couple to write, I'm telling you.

We actually all talk every day, the writers, artists and creators, and we all specifically started with a TONE, as far as I recall. Like, 'this is the tone I want to go for with this book,' because Tom Brevoort specifically wanted each book to have its own identity. So we all picked the teams we wanted from that starting point. There was a bit of, 'Is THIS character available?' but mostly, there were so many great ones to choose from, and so many new characters, that everyone was super generous about it. We all knew that if we couldn't have one character, there were ten more we loved just as much.
In Uncanny's case, a very specific story concept meant using a classic team upfront...but that's all I can say about that.

About connectedness, we absolutely all talk every day. If you are reading any two books, there will be a sense that they are in the same reality. But each book is meant to have a vibe of its own. We want the books to read like complete stories in a larger universe. Also, due to story elements, a LOT of the X-men are not picking up the phone when another mutant calls...which is a lot of fun to write, I won't lie!

Is there still an X-slack, or did you move to X-discord?