With Uncanny X-Force coming to an end with issue #35 and the recent announcement of Cable & X-Force it seemed as if the book was done. Well, don’t worry Uncanny X-Force fans because the title is returning with a new creative team and line-up! Sam Humphries (Ultimate Comics Ultimates) and artist Ron Garney (Ghost Rider) will be relaunching one of Marvel’s best titles. I am actually glad to hear this news because I was quite worried about who would taking over on this title if they relaunched it but have complete faith in Humphries writing this. Humphries recently spoke about taking over on the title with ComicsAlliance.
When asked where he would see his run fitting into the people who have worked on X-Force books into the past that seemed to be outside of the core X-titles:
Yeah, absolutely. One of my favorite things about this book, not just working on it but reading it over the years, is that it delivers a story that you can’t find in any other X-Book. Theres’s a combination of characters and character dynamics, and they go out and find and deal with situations and beings and all sorts of dark secrets that you can’t find anywhere else. Through the different incarnations, we’ve seen that implemented in different ways. You have the Rob Liefeld paramilitary extreme version, you have the wacked-out, nearly psychedelic Milligan/Allred version, you’ve got Rick Remender doing his thing with questions of killing and murder and when it’s okay and when it isn’t.
Even though it’s a definition, it gives you a lot of room to move within that definition. There’s a lot of different things that you can pick apart in the Marvel Universe, and specifically the mutant universe, that aren’t ever really addressed in the main book. It’s a huge opportunity to do some cool things, new things, to get people excited and present the whole mutant world in a new light.
When asked about the line-up and if it was going to be the same group in Remender’s run:
No, it’s not. This is not any cast that I think anyone can say they’ve ever seen before. This is not a classic Wolverine, Rogue, Colossus line-up. It’s definitely a new mix of characters thrown together in ways that they really have never encountered each other before.
The group that we start off with right off the bat is Psylocke, Storm, Puck and Spiral, and we have a few more characters joining the group in the first few issues. In my mind, all those characters are wild cards. They’re all strong personalities, they’re all strong in terms of their powers, they’ve all got dark secrets and they’ve all got a rebellious streak. That to me is a really attractive part of the book, being able to balance all those character dynamics at once.
On the topic of the focus of the title being on Psylocke:
She’s been through the machine in more ways than one, you know? In the comics, she’s been through a lot. In real life, she’s been handled by a bunch of different writers, some of whom take her in opposite directions. In both cases, I think it’s fair to say that Psylocke is a survivor. She’s someone who rises above her complicated past and the tragedy and figures out what’s best for Betsy.
I can’t spoil anything, but at the end of Rick’s run, we leave Betsy in one situation, and in the first issue of my run, we pick up six months later, and Betsey is definitely in a life transition point. It’s kind of being in that moment that kicks off the events of that first arc.
Regarding the pressure of doing this after how praised Remender’s work was:
Hell yeah there’s pressure. The other book I write for Marvel is following up Jonathan Hickman on the Ultimates, so it seems to be a pattern at this point that I just have to figure out how to fill pretty big shoes on really excellent titles. This is not a Jack Kirby walking into DC’s office and saying “give me your lowest selling title” situation. It’s intimidating.
X-Force has been one of my favorite books since before Marvel even knew my name. I’ve been loving the sh** out of Rick’s run, and Rick and I have known each other for years. He was very open, very generous with his notes and his thoughts about where to go, and his experiences writing the book. But the thing about Rick’s run, and I can say this because I know what happens, is that Rick nails the end of his run. Kills it. His whole run on Uncanny X-Force is a complete story, it has a beginning, a middle and an end. I love his run enough to respect that and acknowledge it, but I also love it enough to leave it alone.
Nobody wants to see me try and continue X-Force as a watered-down version of Rick Remender. Rick asked questions in the book and addressed them. There’s nothing left for me to continue, but it would not be an enjoyable experience for anyone involved, for the readers, for Rick, for me or for Marvel. No one would come out pleased. This spins directly out of the events of Rick’s run, but it takes the concept of X-Force, the mandate of the book and the characters down a new path with a new focus.
Why he decided he is going to stay away from plot elements such as Apocalypse and Otherworld:
I wouldn’t say it’s a conscious boycott by any means, but I read Rick’s stuff with Apocalypse and I’m like “Damn, he did it.” Slam dunk. I don’t really have anything to add to that right now, nor, I think, is anyone asking me to add to it right now. “The Dark Angel” saga f***in’ kicks ass, you know?
That’s not to say that if, down the road, I had an idea for a good Apocalypse story, I wouldn’t do it. It’s like the difference between having Bruce Springsteen onstage and a Bruce Springsteen marionette onstage. It makes everything look terrible. So right off the bat, I’m focused on a new status quo for this team, a new line-up. It’s a new #1, a new focus, and we have new things to address. The most important things I take from Rick’s legacy are just writing the hell out of the book.
I’m gonna write it like I stole it, basically.
Rick did not yield or stop at any stop signs in his run. It’s ruthless and compelling and exciting, and those are the things we’re going to take. That’s the kind of mandate you get when you hop on X-Force. They’ve got all the mainstream X-Men stuff handled, you know? You have Bendis and Jason Aaron steering the X-Men ship, they don’t need a knockoff of that or someone doing that with a different set of characters. My job is to deliver stories and surprises and excitement and experiences that you can’t get anywhere else.
Source: ComicsAlliance