Back to School with Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir [Archive]

Christina Weir

11-07-2004, 10:18 AM

Hey all! Thanks for making this thread, Brian.

I just want to know if there will be issues spotlighting the other teams at the school. Cyclops's StarJammers for example.

Cyclops' team is the Corsairs. And our hope is to show lots of other squads at the school. Cyclops' squad is near the top of the list of squads to show since he also plays a fairly large role in the book. But we want to show Northstar's squad as well as some others. Look for Rahne's squad to be introduced in Issue 12.

Well, here's a question:

Any chance of another Skinwalker series, or at least another story featuring the main characters?

That would be fun. We like Adakai and Haworth a lot. Nothing on our agenda at the moment, but we had talked about The Tomb being a sort of follow up to the events in Skinwalker. You'd have to read it to see how the two could be related. :)

Also, Three Strikes and The Tomb share a character. So we've had fun connecting the books in small ways.

Have Sofia put the smackdown on Mindee Cuckoo~!!!!

But why? Sofia likes everyone!

Wow, you gusy get around. There are three comic sites I regularly visit, UXN, Comixfan, and CBR. You guys have done interviews at UXN, and Nunzio comes in every once in a while to the New X-men and New Mutants threads. You guys have done some interviews at Comixfan, and now you guys are going to be doing this? Way to keep in touch with the fans. That's dedication, not only do you guys have time to regularly put out the second best x-title out there (Whedon's barely got you guys, sorry), but you can still do all this stuff with the fans of your works. Yeah... ...I'm rambling now...

What can I say? We're easy. As for Joss Whedon, second place to him is still high praise. I can live with that.

Anyway, please feel free to ask whatever questions you like. Our general rules are, be polite and we'll answer almost anything. ;) And please try to avoid bashing other creators as we really can't comment on that.

Flight

11-07-2004, 10:27 AM

But why? Sofia likes everyone! If Sofia is not careful, Mindee Cuckoo will make a play for Jay Guthrie thus leaving Sofia out in the cold

Sofia + Out in the cold = Hurricane Moonstar!

Ryan K

11-07-2004, 10:35 AM

I know this is a longshot, but I have to ask . . .

Any chance of ever seeing or mentioning Artie or Leech (or both) in the page of Academy X. Leech is still strung up in Neverland. It's so sad that none of the teachers know or even wonder where he is. :(

Love the book BTW. :)

The Fury

11-07-2004, 10:38 AM

Hey, cool thread.

Cyclops' team is the Corsairs. And our hope is to show lots of other squads at the school. Cyclops' squad is near the top of the list of squads to show since he also plays a fairly large role in the book. But we want to show Northstar's squad as well as some others. Look for Rahne's squad to be introduced in Issue 12.
I pressume we will also see more of Iceman's and Beast's teams as well then. As they were mentioned (if they were their teams) on the Score sheet.

Also, how many teams are planned, for now anyway?

Flight

11-07-2004, 10:42 AM

Ooh, if you have the chance to give Havok a team can you name one of the members Flight?
I will die a happy man then

atoningunifex

11-07-2004, 10:45 AM

Ooh, if you have the chance to give Havok a team can you name one of the members Flight?
I will die a happy man then

And then they can do that teenage gay stalker story........

Tre Styles

11-07-2004, 12:18 PM

Question:
I know this may seem far-fetched at this point, but with Wildstorm's new title "The Intimates" do you forsee a possible crossover with New X? They both essentially are dealing with kids with superpowers in school. I think it would be neat....it could be out of continuity like the ol' GENX/GEN13 crossovers from back in the day, or you could tie them together somehow. Or not. Just a thought that ran across my brain today. ;)

Sentinel Boy

11-07-2004, 12:23 PM

Are you guys allowed to confirm at this point wether or not the Cuckoos are one Scott's squad? There has been a lot of speculation about one of the girls we see when we get a glimpse of four of the members of his squad being one of the Cuckoos making to two unseen members be the other Cuckoos. Also, are there any plans to throw Specter on a squad, or will he just remain forgotten?

fishtaco

11-07-2004, 01:11 PM

delete post

Brandon Hanvey

11-07-2004, 01:16 PM

Here's a fun thread for all of you guys to interact with the writers of New X-Men: Academy X, Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir, be it about New X-Men, or really any questions you guys want to ask them (like maybe about their excellent Oni series Skinwalker or Three Strikes...hint hint...buy them, they're good ;)).

You know, we have an Indie/Small Press forum too? ;)
I would be honored to have Nunzio and Christina answer questions about their Oni Press work on the I/SP.

Jack Flash

11-07-2004, 04:11 PM

Christina and Nunzio,

Thanks for doing this! anychance that we'll see more of the original new mutants? I'd love for Sam, Roberto, Amara, and *Illyana* to return!!!

oh and any plans to have a gay student?

roguestorm

11-07-2004, 04:39 PM

nunzino is there any chance the cuckoos will be apart of your cast? i've always liked them and they are receiving poor development lately.

fishtaco

11-07-2004, 04:46 PM

delete post

Beast

11-07-2004, 05:09 PM

the cuckoos will be there soon in the spotlight. They are on Cyclops's squad.

By the way guys, shouldnt they be on Emma's team? It jsut seems kind of odd to me
The Cuckoos don't really like Emma, after what she did to Scott and Jean's relationship. As well as finding out some of her past. They had issues with her in New X-Men after they found out she was seducing Scott and making her cheat on Jean. Their distaste for Emma hasn't been mentioned since Reloaded, the last issue to feature it is the 'Bright New Mournings' issues of X-Men right after Morrison left.

Deathstroke

11-07-2004, 07:41 PM

Christina and Nunzio,

Thanks for doing this! anychance that we'll see more of the original new mutants? I'd love for Sam, Roberto, Amara, and *Illyana* to return!!!

Isn't Illyana dead?

Ryan K

11-07-2004, 07:47 PM

Isn't Illyana dead?

Well . . . yeah . . . if you want to be technical about it. ;)

Though she would probably be one of the easiest characters to bring back to life. With her time powers and Limbo, she's easy as hell to resurect. (hint hint hint)

Nocturne

11-08-2004, 03:12 AM

Well the next arc Haunted is about a ghost that's haunting the institue.
Magik's dead. which is generally a good starting point for a ghost. so maybe...

Jack Flash

11-08-2004, 05:52 AM

and her ghost's been spotted at the mansion b4 too.

fishtaco

11-08-2004, 11:34 AM

and her ghost's been spotted at the mansion b4 too.
WHAT??!?! whoa. When?

The Lucky One

11-08-2004, 12:47 PM

Isn't Illyana dead?

An alternate dimension Illyana is, yeah. Magik herself, though, is still alive. Unless she died of the Legacy Virus. But since she's in Limbo, where her will is absolute, she could cure it in about half a second.

-D

Nunzio DeFilippis

11-08-2004, 02:19 PM

If Sofia is not careful, Mindee Cuckoo will make a play for Jay Guthrie thus leaving Sofia out in the cold

Sofia hasn't really shown an interest in Jay. We've heard people vaguely mention Sofia and David (the co-leader thing, and an arm he had around her on the couch in Issue 7 of New Mutants, I think), and there's definitely a Sofia-Julian vibe that we're actively putting into the book.

But Sofia-Jay...? Haven't really touched on that pairing.

Yet.

Any chance of ever seeing or mentioning Artie or Leech (or both) in the page of Academy X. Leech is still strung up in Neverland. It's so sad that none of the teachers know or even wonder where he is.

I'd like to use Artie and Leech - two of my favorites when I was a kid.

But unless we get the go-ahead to do the story right - have our kids actually rescue Leech - it's not worth it to just drop a reference. It'd throw the newer readers and make the older ones resent the fact that we touch on it but don't follow up on it.

I pressume we will also see more of Iceman's and Beast's teams as well then. As they were mentioned (if they were their teams) on the Score sheet.

We haven't fleshed them out in full yet, and we've written all the way to #12, so don't expect them right away. But we were recently asked which squads and teachers we were going to focus on the most, and here was our answer, in order of prominence...

Dani/The New Mutants
Emma/The Hellions
Scott/The Corsairs
Rahne/(we're not telling yet)
Northstar/Alpha Squadron
Beast/The Exemplars
Iceman/The Excelsiors
plus Shan, whose squad situation you'll see in a couple of weeks.

Also, how many teams are planned, for now anyway?

Every kid at the school old enough to be in a training squad will eventually get a squad.

Figure that's between 75-100 kids who are eligible, which means 12-17 squads.

Every X-Man may be required to take a squad when this is done (except Wolverine, unless he seriously lightens his workload).

Ooh, if you have the chance to give Havok a team can you name one of the members Flight?

Um... maybe?

And then they can do that teenage gay stalker story........

Or... maybe not?

I know this may seem far-fetched at this point, but with Wildstorm's new title "The Intimates" do you forsee a possible crossover with New X?

I don't see that happening. Wildstorm is a DC company, and there was a much higher profile crossover that Bendis was shilling for, and we know how THAT turned out.

I'm thinking no crossovers for a while.

I'd love it if Geoff Johns' Teen Titans could kick our kids' butts, but I don't see that happeneing either.

Are you guys allowed to confirm at this point wether or not the Cuckoos are one Scott's squad? There has been a lot of speculation about one of the girls we see when we get a glimpse of four of the members of his squad being one of the Cuckoos making to two unseen members be the other Cuckoos.

Um... well... that speculation came from us, actually.

We mentioned on another site that the Cuckoos are on Scott's squad. So consider that confirmed.

As we see it, they still have Emma issues, but she still cares about them a lot, so she asked Scott to put them on his squad.

They're not happy with Scott, but he's not so bad that they'd leave the school (which they'd do if they were put under Emma's care).

With them on the Corsairs, Emma knows Scott will take care of them and she'll be very well informed of their progress.

Also, are there any plans to throw Specter on a squad, or will he just remain forgotten?

We've placed Specter on a squad. Expect to see him in Issue 12 (though he may be referred to as Dallas, his real name).

when will you bring in the remaining Special class characters? (like Angel Salvadore, Ernst, No-girl, and I think thats about it). Beak is in Exiles, Basilisk was killed, and Dust is already with the Hellions, right? Are they going to be on Wolfsbane's team? And are we going to see more of Karma soon? She's a great character.

Let's see...

No definite plans for Angel right now, but she's on our radar, so we'll see. Ernst and No-Girl aren't really on that radar. If we had a story for them, we'd use them, but otherwise, not really much chance of them in the book.

Wolfsbane's team... in the near future. We've named them, picked the kids, and written them into the book.

Shan will be in the next issue, and throughout the "Haunted" story. She's not central, but we got a chance to bring her back into the cast.

Also, besides Wolverine, are there any members of the X.S.E. that are teachers at the Institute, or did Cyclops want them kept away from the students?

To my knowledge, the XSE members are teachers. Chris may say otherwise, but we've already made use of one of them as a teacher in a classroom setting (haven't shown any of them with squads yet).

Years from now, are you planning to make any of the students X-men when they graduate?

I hope so. I'd like our kids to make it into the X-Men mainstream and become some of the regulars, and (wishful thinking) even become big draws for the books.

One more question. In X-men, if Austen keeps Annie around, will you bring Carter into one of the squads?

We had plans for Carter's placement and were told to scrub those for the time being, to let Chuck wrap up his story his way. So, we're assuming he's gone. But if he came back, we still have an idea of where to put him.

You know, we have an Indie/Small Press forum too? ;)
I would be honored to have Nunzio and Christina answer questions about their Oni Press work on the I/SP.

Go ahead and set it up. We'd love a chance to answer questions about our Oni (and eventually Seven Seas and hopefully other I/SP) work.

anychance that we'll see more of the original new mutants? I'd love for Sam, Roberto, Amara, and *Illyana* to return!!!

We had our reunion in NM #13. We had fun writing the old gang back together and even got praise from Chris Claremont on it. So we're hopeful we'll get to do it again and have even pushed Marvel to give us a mini to focus on that group. So far, they haven't bitten.

As for Illyana, we asked. Trust me, we asked.

oh and any plans to have a gay student?

Who's to say you haven't seen one already?

nunzino is there any chance the cuckoos will be apart of your cast? i've always liked them and they are receiving poor development lately.

Well, I won't comment on their current treatment, but Christina and I once had a couple of ideas on Cuckoos stories, but had to put them aside because they were going to be used elsewhere. We may ask again.

That's what I've got for now. Keep them coming and we'll keep answering.

For the Good of X

11-08-2004, 02:29 PM

You know, normally when creators reveal so much I'm of the mind that it spoils the anticipation...but Nunzio's post just makes me want to read NXM:AX all the more!

(Although I confess to waiting for the trade on this one....)

Flight

11-08-2004, 02:32 PM

Rahne's team must be something big...

The Fury

11-08-2004, 02:41 PM

Rahne's team must be something big...
Or have a member that is bigger than we thought, remember people, some X-men are still only youngsters (Jubalee). Or am I just speak crap?

But Sofia-Jay...? Haven't really touched on that pairing.
OK, what about a Laurie-Jay thing, although I maybe seeing things butwere there references in that direction early on?

Also, thank you Nunzio for all your responses, they were very much appreciated.

Ryan K

11-08-2004, 02:46 PM

I'd like to use Artie and Leech - two of my favorites when I was a kid.

But unless we get the go-ahead to do the story right - have our kids actually rescue Leech - it's not worth it to just drop a reference. It'd throw the newer readers and make the older ones resent the fact that we touch on it but don't follow up on it.

Very nice to hear.

Thank for answering all the questions.

This is the greatest thread ever!

Nocturne

11-08-2004, 04:05 PM

No definite plans for Angel right now, but she's on our radar, so we'll see.
Any chance you could kill her off? please. She's bugged me since she first arrived. I feel sorry for Laurie having too share a room with her.
Who's to say you haven't seen one already?
Is that Victor then? Most of his advisors have been gay.
Also, is there any chance of Hisako turning up at any point. She was really cool in AXM.

Deathstroke

11-08-2004, 04:38 PM

Wolfsbane's team... in the near future. We've named them, picked the kids, and written them into the book.

Shan will be in the next issue, and throughout the "Haunted" story. She's not central, but we got a chance to bring her back into the cast.

Yaay on Rahne's team getting set up. It's about time we have X'ian back in sight. She could be a kickass addition to the regular cast.

Go ahead and set it up. We'd love a chance to answer questions about our Oni (and eventually Seven Seas and hopefully other I/SP) work.

Keep this up and this time next year your Q & A threads may be up for Corrie Awards.

We had our reunion in NM #13. We had fun writing the old gang back together and even got praise from Chris Claremont on it. So we're hopeful we'll get to do it again and have even pushed Marvel to give us a mini to focus on that group. So far, they haven't bitten.

As for Illyana, we asked. Trust me, we asked.

Keep pushing and keep asking. Squeaky wheel gets the grease!

Who's to say you haven't seen one already?

I'm thinking Surge and her roommate. Too far opposite each other to not attract!

And here's my questions, will Elixir and Rahne's relationship be found out sooner or later? Do you plan for it to be a bad thing or a shoulder shrug thing when and if it gets found out?

Beast

11-08-2004, 04:53 PM

Any chance you could kill her off? please. She's bugged me since she first arrived. I feel sorry for Laurie having too share a room with her.
Angel doesn't share a room with Laurie.... :confused:

Angel lives in one of the guest houses by the mansion, with her and Beak's children. Beak was living there also, until he was snatched away to be a member of the Exiles. And I still think that there should be at least a passing refrence to Beak being missing. :mad:

Ryan K

11-08-2004, 04:58 PM

Ok I just have to ask.

Assuming the opportunity presents itself, is there any chance of seeing Jubilee in the book ever. You know, she's getting all sorts of experience counseling teenagers in her own book. It seems like her counseling teenage mutants (some of whom probably hope to one day follow her footsteps into the X-men) would be natural.

What about seeing any of the surviving members of the other former group of young mutants Generation X (Chamber, M, Penance, Husk).

Tag06

11-08-2004, 05:22 PM

I to hope to see more of the Cuckoos, I can't wait to see the Corsairs.

My Stepford Cuckoos website needs to be updated.

Brandon Hanvey

11-08-2004, 05:36 PM

Go ahead and set it up. We'd love a chance to answer questions about our Oni (and eventually Seven Seas and hopefully other I/SP) work.
Thanks. Here is the I/SP Q&A thread
http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=28217

fishtaco

11-08-2004, 06:36 PM

delete post

Sentinel Boy

11-08-2004, 07:09 PM

yay, answered questions! First off, I want to thank you guys for being so kind as to visit this thread every day and answer the questions we've thrown your way.

Now, I was wondering where you got the name for the Excelsior and Exemplar squads from? I'm especially wondering about the Exemplars becuase to me that name strongly implies Juggernaut, and I was wondering why Beast has that squad? Just curious, as I like how well the names connect to the advisors. Also, I was wondering if you guys will be digging deep with some of these students or if they are mostly original designs. For example, any chance of the teleporting kid from X-treme, or Wolf Cub from the Exiles/Uncanny crossover? I'd love to see them, that really shows how continuity does exist in the MU.

Jack Flash

11-08-2004, 07:10 PM

thanks so much for answering my questions Nunzio. Are there plans for a trade of New Mutants or AX? I'd love to buy some for some of my nephews.

Tag06

11-08-2004, 07:22 PM

you have a Stepford Cuckoos website???!

Throw me a link, dude.

It's not the best but here's the site, enjoy!: http://www.stepford-cuckoos.co.nr/

Beast

11-08-2004, 08:10 PM

Now, I was wondering where you got the name for the Excelsior and Exemplar squads from? I'm especially wondering about the Exemplars becuase to me that name strongly implies Juggernaut, and I was wondering why Beast has that squad? Just curious, as I like how well the names connect to the advisors.
I'm not Nunzio or Christina, but they commented on this before. They wanted one of the original five to have a squad named 'Excelsior', as that's Stan Lee's catch phrase. And he did create the X-Men, and so many more.

As for Beast, I don't get where you seem to think it implies Juggernaut. The very definition of the word just screams Beast's quirkyness. Just check out the definition entry from Merriam-Webster.
Main Entry: ex·em·plar
Pronunciation: ig-'zem-"plär, -pl&r, eg-
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin, from exemplum example
: one that serves as a model or example: as a : an ideal model b : a typical or standard specimen c : a copy of a book or writing d : IDEA 1a
synonym see MODEL

Quarterwolf

11-08-2004, 09:16 PM

Beast

11-08-2004, 09:23 PM

Ok. Now I am going to get pushy.

Is there any chance of having a Yearbook with the team/squads shown in full costume and names and powers and such? A Handbook type thing once you get things going?

I think it would be really great to see that happen.

Also there was a charcter called Primal introduced in X-Men Unlimited 16 (I believe) any chance of seeing him on a squad?
Great idea Quarterwolf. Marvel's been a huge fan of those Handbooks lately. So a 'Academy X' handbook would be great to see. Since most of them are pretty new characters, so wouldn't need a ton of room in book. Which means they could fit the 'Primary' members from the series in one easily. :)

PerfectBrak

11-08-2004, 09:57 PM

Rahne/(we're not telling yet)

The squads sounds very cool. I'd be pretty neat if Rhane's was X-Factor...

Shan's back! Very underutilized outside of Claremont, she deserves more time on panel. I'd love to see Artie and Leech too, gotta love 'em.

thanks so much for answering my questions Nunzio. Are there plans for a trade of New Mutants or AX? I'd love to buy some for some of my nephews.

Academy X Vol. 1 comes out soon, Amazon says Jan. 5th. I saw the New Mutants TPB scheduled for release next year, do you know if volume two will be released to complete the issues released before Academy X/New X-Men?

Any plans for a crossover with the core titles, or perhaps with next summers "The House of M"?

Nocturne

11-09-2004, 12:20 AM

Angel doesn't share a room with Laurie.... :confused:

When the book was still New Mutants, in issue 11 we're shown some of Lauries ex-roommates. Cessilly and Angel. Obviously she's now living with Sofia, but she had to put up with Angel for a while.

Actually, something i missed from that issue the first time round. Is Cessily immune to Laurie's powers?

Sentinel Boy

11-09-2004, 05:38 AM

Well, Beast, I guess if you want to be all literal about it that is what the word means, but in the X-Universe Juggernaut is powered by Cyoortak(sp?), one of the mighty Exemplars. Juggernaut has come into contact with the other avatars of these Exemplars in the past, so he does have knowledge of them. But, thank you for teachin me what the word means so I understand. I was just hopeful that one of my favorite X-men had a squad already even though most speculators had counted him out due to his temper...

Ryan K

11-11-2004, 03:05 PM

Nevermind.

Nunzio DeFilippis

11-11-2004, 03:07 PM

(Although I confess to waiting for the trade on this one....)

Well, the trades are coming, so that's cool by me. So long as people read it in some form, and Marvel notes the sales in some form, I'm happy.

Rahne's team must be something big...

Honestly? It's not a big deal. There's no surprise member or big reveal.

It's just that we want people to see Rahne as teacher and not just Rahne as teacher-fooling-around-with-student.

A lot of the kids on that squad are new creations, based on sketches Michael Ryan showed us at Comicon.

Or have a member that is bigger than we thought, remember people, some X-men are still only youngsters (Jubalee). Or am I just speak crap?

Jubilee has her own book now, so we can't use her. I'd love to put her in the book if she became available, but the cast is huge as is, so I'm glad that option hasn't opened itself up.

Plus, I like Kirkman and want his book to succeed.

But for now, no Jubilee.

Not sure we'd put her on a squad if she were around. She has field training that these kids do not.

Since she's in High School in her book, she clearly can't teach at Xavier's, so if she were back at the school she'd be in an odd limbo. She'd need to be on a field team.

OK, what about a Laurie-Jay thing, although I maybe seeing things butwere there references in that direction early on?

Jay and Laurie got along well early on, but the same could be said of Jay and Noriko and Jay and Sooraya.

Jay's quite the playa, isn't he?

Can't believe I just used "playa" in a sentence.

I feel old.

Any chance you could kill her off? please. She's bugged me since she first arrived. I feel sorry for Laurie having too share a room with her.

I think Angel was always supposed to rub some people the wrong way. The brash ones usually do.

We find, for example, that some people really dislike Josh and Noriko, our two brashest characters.

Of course, the difference is, if you dislike Josh, he'd be crushed and try really hard to make you see how cool he is. But if you dislike Noriko, she couldn't care less.

Is that Victor then? Most of his advisors have been gay.

They have, haven't they...?

Also, is there any chance of Hisako turning up at any point. She was really cool in AXM.

If Joss stops using those kids, or if they disappear after his stint on Astonishing is done, then yeah, expect us to have Hisako pop up from time to time.

But for now, we won't do anything of consequence with her because we don't want to contradict anything he's doing.

As we see it, Kitty has a squad, and that squad includes Hisako and Wing (though maybe not Wing anymore) and their friends.

But until Joss confirms that, I can't say anything for sure.

Yaay on Rahne's team getting set up. It's about time we have X'ian back in sight. She could be a kickass addition to the regular cast.

Shan won't be a full regular, honestly. There's just not room in the book for everyone we want to show.

The only true regulars are the New Mutants and Dani.

The rest are supporting players of varying importance.

And even that may not be forever, as we may do arcs that center on other squads someday (and if so, then that squad and their advisor would be the "regulars").

We hope to make Shan one of the more important supporting players, but space considerations have left her short-changed (again!) once "Haunted" is done.

Expect her to pop up some more after Issue 12.

I'm thinking Surge and her roommate. Too far opposite each other to not attract!

That would generate some drama, wouldn't it?

And here's my questions, will Elixir and Rahne's relationship be found out sooner or later? Do you plan for it to be a bad thing or a shoulder shrug thing when and if it gets found out?

You know I can't give away what's coming up, right?

But, rest assured... If it is found out, there's no way it can be a shoulder shrug thing. She's faculty and he's a student. That's big and that's bad.

Angel doesn't share a room with Laurie.... :confused:

Angel lives in one of the guest houses by the mansion, with her and Beak's children.

That's true now, but before the kids she lived with the other students in the dorms.

In New Mutants #11, we established via flashback that Angel was once Laurie's roommate, one of the several failed attempts by the school to get Laurie settled with a roommate. Another was Cessily, of the Hellions.

Beak was living there also, until he was snatched away to be a member of the Exiles. And I still think that there should be at least a passing refrence to Beak being missing. :mad:

Beak being missing is kind of like Leech. If we can't tell the whole story, it'd be hard to tell just part of it. We'd be setting up a "the kids' father is missing" story and never following up on the search for that father.

For the readers who don't know Angel and Beak, it'd be confusing, and for those who do, it'd feel half-done.

When we do show Angel, we may make reference to her having to raise her kids alone.

Assuming the opportunity presents itself, is there any chance of seeing Jubilee in the book ever. You know, she's getting all sorts of experience counseling teenagers in her own book. It seems like her counseling teenage mutants (some of whom probably hope to one day follow her footsteps into the X-men) would be natural.

I answered this above. I like Jubilee and would be happy to use her. But she's got her own book and would fall between the teacher and student role in ours. So it may be a while before she shows up.

What about seeing any of the surviving members of the other former group of young mutants Generation X (Chamber, M, Penance, Husk).

Husk is the most likely, as her brother is on our main squad.

But no plans for her just yet. I'm not even sure what's going on with her, continuity-wise.

Now, I was wondering where you got the name for the Excelsior and Exemplar squads from? I'm especially wondering about the Exemplars becuase to me that name strongly implies Juggernaut, and I was wondering why Beast has that squad? Just curious, as I like how well the names connect to the advisors.

Well, we picked Exemplars for Beast because, if you look at the definition, it seems the kind of name he'd give his kids. He's exactly the sort who'd want his kids to be the role models. Plus, he may be one of the only X-Men who knew what the word meant without looking it up.

As for Juggernaut, there is a continuity connection to the word/name Exemplar, but he's not getting a squad right now. And he's also not a big word kind of guy. He'd go for something simpler and more iconic, in my opinion.

Also, I was wondering if you guys will be digging deep with some of these students or if they are mostly original designs. For example, any chance of the teleporting kid from X-treme, or Wolf Cub from the Exiles/Uncanny crossover? I'd love to see them, that really shows how continuity does exist in the MU.

Both Nicholas Gleason and Jeffrey Garrett will be turning up eventually, I promise. We've already written them both into the book, but then again, we've written a ways in advance, so you may not see them for a while.

As a general rule, we try to use some of what's around us to tie into continuity, but keep enough new creations to satisfy our creative urges and to let our artists cut loose with character designs.

thanks so much for answering my questions Nunzio. Are there plans for a trade of New Mutants or AX? I'd love to buy some for some of my nephews.

Academy X's first trade (covering 1-6) is coming out in December, I think.

And New Mutants was just mentioned as coming out in February, though I'll know more when Feb's solicits are out (they're not, are they). New Mutants is the first 6 issues, don't know when or if they'll collect 7-13.

Is there any chance of having a Yearbook with the team/squads shown in full costume and names and powers and such? A Handbook type thing once you get things going?

God, I hope so. It'd be a great place to set up the school, the squads, who teaches what.

We've talked about it with Eric Moreels, who worked on some of the other X-related source books for Marvel. But I've never heard anything from Marvel, so I have to assume no plans are in place right now.

More to come in a moment...

Nunzio DeFilippis

11-11-2004, 03:08 PM

Hey, here's the rest. Sorry to double post, but I ran into a post size limit.

Also there was a charcter called Primal introduced in X-Men Unlimited 16 (I believe) any chance of seeing him on a squad?

Anything's possible. But unlike Nicholas or Jeffrey, we haven't made any plans for him at the moment, so I don't know when or if we'll do so.

The squads sounds very cool. I'd be pretty neat if Rhane's was X-Factor...

We asked about using X-Factor. In fact, we were told okay, then had to cut it at the lettering stage. They decided to reserve the name in case there was going to be a new book with that name. This is not to say a new one is coming, just that they wanted to keep their options open.

So X-Factor became the Corsairs.

As a result, we're reluctant to use existing team names, for fear the same would happen.

Any plans for a crossover with the core titles, or perhaps with next summers "The House of M"?

Um... don't know when I can talk about "House of M" and how/if it will affect our book.

But rest assured, we've been discussing that subject with Mike Marts, our editor.

I was just hopeful that one of my favorite X-men had a squad already even though most speculators had counted him out due to his temper...

Well, I think the Unlimited Issue made it clear that they were going to let Cain teach. But I think they were holding off on giving a squad until they saw how things went on that front. After all, organizing the squads was an ongoing process, as we established in Issue 2 of NXM:AX.

As you can guess, events in (adjectiveless) X-Men may shape Cain's standing with the team. Once that storyline is done, we'll see if setting him up with a squad is possible, and proceed from there.

The Fury

11-11-2004, 03:24 PM

Thanks Nunzio for answering all the questions.

And just out of personal interest, are there/are there going to be any British characters at the school? Doesn't have to be a main character.

I'm British and have a liking for all British characters. :)

Ryan K

11-11-2004, 03:28 PM

Thanks a lot Nunzio. All those little tidbits just make me want to read the book more.

Two questions.

1) There have been a number of comparisons made about Prodigy and Synch from Generation X (slight similarity in powers, race, attitude) on this and various other forums.

Was this on purpose in any way? A nod to the character of Synch (who is no longer with us) or anything like that?

Just curious.

2) You mention that you folks have all sorts of stuff planned out. Do you know about how far along you have the book planned out/written?

PerfectBrak

11-11-2004, 05:07 PM

Thanks for answering my questions, this thread has really got me pumped for upcoming issues :D

Deathstroke

11-11-2004, 05:18 PM

Thanks Nunzio for answering my questions, but damn the man!

X'ian only a supporting character! BOOOO!!!

zonzorp

11-12-2004, 10:02 AM

Every kid at the school old enough to be in a training squad will eventually get a squad.

Figure that's between 75-100 kids who are eligible, which means 12-17 squads.

Every X-Man may be required to take a squad when this is done (except Wolverine, unless he seriously lightens his workload).

To my knowledge, the XSE members are teachers. Chris may say otherwise, but we've already made use of one of them as a teacher in a classroom setting (haven't shown any of them with squads yet).

What about those X-Men who are not well suited to lead a training squad? Lorna and her mental health issues, or Rachel, who as currently written in UXM is more immature than most of the NXM: AX students.

Christina Weir

11-13-2004, 12:37 PM

And just out of personal interest, are there/are there going to be any British characters at the school? Doesn't have to be a main character.

I'm British and have a liking for all British characters. :)

We created a character based on a Michael Ryan sketch. She's from Wales. You may have noticed her in the background before - she's got butterfly/moth wings and two circles on her face. But she'll be introduced in an upcoming issue.

Don't know if that counts. Were you asking about England specifically or the British Isles?

There have been a number of comparisons made about Prodigy and Synch from Generation X (slight similarity in powers, race, attitude) on this and various other forums.

Was this on purpose in any way? A nod to the character of Synch (who is no longer with us) or anything like that?

We've heard this before. I don't personally think they're that alike. But yes, there are a few similarities. What Synch represented is something we wanted back with David. An African American teen who wasn't "street", who was level-headed and not trying to put on an aattitude.

So perhaps there was a slight nod, but David was meant to be a wholly original character, not mimic (pun intended) another one.

You mention that you folks have all sorts of stuff planned out. Do you know about how far along you have the book planned out/written?

We've written through Issue 12. But we're already planning through #18.

What about those X-Men who are not well suited to lead a training squad? Lorna and her mental health issues, or Rachel, who as currently written in UXM is more immature than most of the NXM: AX students.

Squads will be formed and filled out based on appropriate mentors. The people who have fallen into mentor roles will get squads first. Then the people who seem most suited for it willget squads next. Then those who aren't ill-suited will follow. The ones who need to be evaluated will be absolutely last and only if absolutely necessary. Right now Lorna is not fit for a squad.

mgs

11-13-2004, 12:51 PM

wow! I just found this too! :eek:

thanks Brian, and Nunzio and Christina for making one of the coolest q&a threads ever! :)

The Fury

11-13-2004, 01:07 PM

We created a character based on a Michael Ryan sketch. She's from Wales. You may have noticed her in the background before - she's got butterfly/moth wings and two circles on her face. But she'll be introduced in an upcoming issue.

Don't know if that counts. Were you asking about England specifically or the British Isles?

That's good enough for me, and I have seen her. The more, the better. :D

If you want to add some more feel free.

You could name one after me if you want (not my user name , my real name)......no, OK then.

Ryan K

11-13-2004, 02:14 PM

Thanks a lot Christina!!!

:)

DarkBlade

11-13-2004, 04:06 PM

Well, the trades are coming, so that's cool by me. So long as people read it in some form, and Marvel notes the sales in some form, I'm happy.

Academy X's first trade (covering 1-6) is coming out in December, I think.

And New Mutants was just mentioned as coming out in February, though I'll know more when Feb's solicits are out (they're not, are they). New Mutants is the first 6 issues, don't know when or if they'll collect 7-13.
Thank gods, I've been ready to scream over the NM trade, or lack thereof. No, we're not. Okay, yes we are. No... no we're not. Okay, we'll give you a digest with lower print quality. No... nevermind.

*throws Nerf balls at whoever keeps doing that.* Hopefully the NM trade will indeed come out, and Vol 2 will soon follow. I very much prefer to get things in trades, boxes of comics are very difficult for me to manage.

Sketches at Comic Con
AGH. How did I miss that you were there? *sigh* Thank you SO much for writing this. ^_^ Dani Moonstar is my favorite character, and she seemed to have been pretty much abandoned until your books.

Which reminds me, I need to try to track down Rebecca Woods again and see if she's got my Dani comission from Con...

Deathstroke

11-13-2004, 08:24 PM

AGH. How did I miss that you were there? *sigh* Thank you SO much for writing this. ^_^ Dani Moonstar is my favorite character, and she seemed to have been pretty much abandoned until your books.

Something we have sort of in common. Danielle Moonstar is my favorite X-character (particularly with Illyana being dead.)

Tre Styles

11-14-2004, 04:07 PM

Nunzio or Christina,

I've been wondering....is Xavier's the only mutant school in the country, or are there others? (You know like Emma used to have the Massachussett's Academy and the Hellions)If so, could we maybe see a mutant highschool football or basketball game, or even referred to? That would be cool.... :cool:

PhoenixBoyX

11-15-2004, 12:12 AM

I just want to thank you two for giving us the feel good book! It's the fun book for me, lot'sa smiles and kids about my age. One of my all time fav book is the original New Mutants and I wanna thank you guys for doing it as much justice in this new incarnation as possible. Illyana and Sam and Dani and Doug and Warlock...they were just all so special, and now we've got Sofia and Laurie (WHO I SO LOVE) and Josh (My future husband) and Jay. You guys are just making such a damn good book. I do though have a question:
I was wondering how much more actual field time these guys are gonna get? I love their personal lives and don't wanna see that aspect suffer, I was just wondering if we were gonna see some outside of the school stuff going on, against villians. Thanks in advance! And hey- props to the open mindedness of having a gay character. As a gay teen, I've had Northstar. Sometimes. It's been tough. You guys are neat.
-Phoenixboy

Jack Flash

11-18-2004, 06:13 AM

Couple of Questions...

Do you know if the Trades are going to be full sized or Digest?
How long is Michael Ryan going to be with you guys on the book? *Crossed fingers for a long run!!
Do you enjoy the marvel work as much as the creator owned stuff like Skin Walkers?(Great Read, what got me hooked on your work!)
Any plans to hook up Dani with anyone? She needs a love life already! :p

The Runaway

11-18-2004, 03:17 PM

I love nunzio and christina work and im just wondering if magma will come back. i was reading nm and all i remember was magma leaving the school. i would enjoy seeing her back again. and also out of all of the characters i think Laurie is the best. I just love how you make her character feel more alive then the others

The Runaway

11-18-2004, 03:50 PM

also is there any chance that molly from the runaway will be in the mix

Nunzio DeFilippis

11-18-2004, 06:35 PM

How did I miss that you were there?

We do Comic-con every year, so expect us there again this year. We also do Wizard World LA, and were possibly going to the Mighty Mini-Con in Syracuse before our schedule went crazy and then the con's schedule also (seperately, I assure you) went crazy.

Thank you SO much for writing this. ^_^ Dani Moonstar is my favorite character, and she seemed to have been pretty much abandoned until your books.

Dani's my favorite from the original New Mutants, too.

Which reminds me, I need to try to track down Rebecca Woods again and see if she's got my Dani comission from Con...

If you could scan that and post it, I'd be in heaven. Rebecca's a friend, and very talented, and I'd love to see that.

I've been wondering....is Xavier's the only mutant school in the country, or are there others? (You know like Emma used to have the Massachussett's Academy and the Hellions)If so, could we maybe see a mutant highschool football or basketball game, or even referred to? That would be cool.... :cool:

Xavier's is, to my knowledge, the only currently operating mutant school. And no non-mutant school would want to compete against kids with an "un-natural" advantage.

If another writer introduces another school, we'll deal with it accordingly in our book. But we like it that our school is unique.

I was wondering how much more actual field time these guys are gonna get? I love their personal lives and don't wanna see that aspect suffer, I was just wondering if we were gonna see some outside of the school stuff going on, against villians.

Not a lot of direct battle with villains. The school would never let it happen. And now that it's a full school, it would close down if our kids snuck out to do it and the faculty let them get away with that more than once.

However, we try to raise the stakes when we can in ways that stay true to the school angle.

We've got a very angry ghost in the next story, and then some REALLY surprising plot advancements in "Too Much Information." Stuff I can honestly say I don't think anyone will see coming.

So it won't just be the character and relationship beats, I promise.

And hey- props to the open mindedness of having a gay character. As a gay teen, I've had Northstar. Sometimes. It's been tough. You guys are neat.

My brother read comics as a teen, and had no real gay characters to identify with. I'd like to make sure that today's teen readers don't have that problem.

So we will try to feature a gay character, even if we don't make the fact that he or she is gay the actual central part of any story.

Plus, we intend to develop Shan's love life somewhere down the line. We started to work on that in New Mutants, and hope to get back to that.

Do you know if the Trades are going to be full sized or Digest?

Digest, I think. But honestly, I'm not sure.

How long is Michael Ryan going to be with you guys on the book? *Crossed fingers for a long run!!

If you've seen the solicits, you've noticed that we have a fill-in already.

This is to free up Michael's schedule and get him working on issues down the line.

It is not a reflection on his job status. We love him, Marvel loves him, and he seems very happy on the book.

Unfortunately, we'll have to spell him for a bit with fill in artists, but we've got some genuine talent lined up, so that's good.

Do you enjoy the marvel work as much as the creator owned stuff like Skin Walkers?(Great Read, what got me hooked on your work!)

Different joys.

Skinwalker - and our other Oni work (Three Strikes, Maria's Wedding, Once In A Blue Moon, and The Tomb - just trying to plug our stuff like the shameless whore I am!) - is 100% us. That's a great feeling.

Along with the artist, we create a story, create a world, create characters. And we own it, we control it, and we are connected to it very strongly. We also don't have anyone setting boundaries for us.

But there's a joy in adding your mark to an ongoing saga, one as popular and important to the comics industry as the X-Men.

I love that we get to make up the rules of Xavier's as a school.

That's a thrill unique to playing with someone else's toys, so I'm glad we can do both.

Any plans to hook up Dani with anyone? She needs a love life already!

You've read number 6, right? We have romantic plans for Dani. But since it's a book about the kids, they will develop slowly.

im just wondering if magma will come back.

No plans right now, but only because the book is pretty full character-wise. We like her and wish we could have told a Nova Roma story with her like we originally intended.

out of all of the characters i think Laurie is the best. I just love how you make her character feel more alive then the others

That's good to hear. Since she's the quiet one, we always worry she makes the lightest impression.

also is there any chance that molly from the runaway will be in the mix

She's gonna be in Runaways Season 2, so don't expect to see her in our book in the near future.

If Brian Vaughn decides to send her to our school, we'd be happy to show her in our book as appropriate to story and space considerations.

But we'd never want to change her status quo without his blessing. Right now, she's on the run, and she'll probably stay that way for a while.

roguestorm

11-18-2004, 08:37 PM

We created a character based on a Michael Ryan sketch. She's from Wales. You may have noticed her in the background before - she's got butterfly/moth wings and two circles on her face. But she'll be introduced in an upcoming issue.
.

great, like we didn't have enough winged mutants. :rolleyes: atleast tell me she has a unique ability added to her. i honestly think your backround characters would be more appealing if they all didn't look like mutants with powers we've seen bilions of times. the only mutant who remotely looks intresting/cool in the backround is the one that rides on clouds, will he be appearing in any issues where we learn about his character?

Jack Flash

11-19-2004, 09:12 AM

Thanks for the responses Nunzio! I appreciate that loads. I personally hope it's a digest sized trade. I am liking those better and better. As far as Dani's love life goes, I assumed the FBI agent was exiting after this arc, I am glad he'll be developed, even if slowly! I like the idea of her with a normal joe.

North

11-19-2004, 10:51 PM

Nunzio and Christina thanks for the awesome job you guys are doing.

The only thing I wanted to ask was how much will you be showing the teacher xmen like Iceman, Beast and Northstar in the book?

fishtaco

11-20-2004, 09:23 AM

delete post

Tre Styles

11-21-2004, 10:31 AM

I'm loving this cover for Feb's issue!!! :cool:
http://www.popcultureshock.com/view.php?type=features&id=863&p=NEWXAX010er.jpg

Fede

11-21-2004, 10:47 AM

i'd be really happy with syrin joining the team :D

fishtaco

11-22-2004, 03:27 PM

Now that X-23 is a student at the Institute, will you be putting her in a squad? Like Rahne's maybe? That would be fun/

Nunzio DeFilippis

11-22-2004, 05:40 PM

great, like we didn't have enough winged mutants. :rolleyes:

As in, two?

We have how many clawed characters?

Wings are way cooler than claws. I don't think it's a big deal.

i honestly think your backround characters would be more appealing if they all didn't look like mutants with powers we've seen bilions of times. the only mutant who remotely looks intresting/cool in the backround is the one that rides on clouds, will he be appearing in any issues where we learn about his character?

No plans to develop that kid at this time. He was a Carlo Barberi creation, if I remember correctly. With Carlo not on the book, we're more inclined to focus on Michael Ryan's creations.

This girl is different in that she has a very pixie look to her, and her wings are more like butterfly wings. We developed her accordingly. Her powers will be revealed down the line.

Sorry to hear you think the characters in the background don't "remotely look interesting." I think they do, honestly. I think many of them seem very intriguing.

I personally hope it's a digest sized trade. I am liking those better and better.

I think they may be standard TPB size. That seems to be the latest impression I get (I had thought otherwise before).

As far as Dani's love life goes, I assumed the FBI agent was exiting after this arc, I am glad he'll be developed, even if slowly! I like the idea of her with a normal joe.

He won't be back for a while, but he will be back.

The only thing I wanted to ask was how much will you be showing the teacher xmen like Iceman, Beast and Northstar in the book?

Cameos for most of them. Our hope is to do something more substantial with Northstar, but that hasn't happened yet.

Unfortunately, Siryn is not appearing in the new X-Force series. So, is there any chance that you can bring her back as a teacher? She seems like she would be a good teacher and shes just a great character that I think she should be appearing in at least one book.

No plans right now. The cast is pretty big.

If she were to ever appear, it'd likely be in an aside, establishing her as teaching there and quickly moving on. I'd rather find room to use Karma well, and then maybe room for Northstar. Adding to the cast in any large way would make it even harder.

And if that cant happen, then can ya bring back Banshee? That would be perfect because he was the GenerationX guy, and I would like to see a reunion between him and Emma and how that would affect her and Scott. He is another great character that shouldnt go to waste. And he has been in the hospital in Paris since Uncanny X-men #406 when Mystique slit his throat. Thats long enough.

No plans for Banshee either. Sorry.

Now that X-23 is a student at the Institute, will you be putting her in a squad? Like Rahne's maybe? That would be fun/

Nope. If ever a character were primed for over-exposure, it'd be her.

If Marvel asked us to use her, we'd find a way to do so and tell fun stories with her.

But they haven't and we prefer it that way. Like I said, big cast already, and I suspect people will be complaining about oversaturation of X-23 like they do with her "dad."

Joey

11-22-2004, 06:10 PM

Nope. If ever a character were primed for over-exposure, it'd be her.

If Marvel asked us to use her, we'd find a way to do so and tell fun stories with her.

But they haven't and we prefer it that way. Like I said, big cast already, and I suspect people will be complaining about oversaturation of X-23 like they do with her "dad."

THANK YOU :D :D

fishtaco

11-23-2004, 05:09 AM

delete post

Lady Obie

11-23-2004, 02:00 PM

Hey Nunzio & Christina

Glad to see you posting here. New X-Men is one of my fave comics :)

But one thing I'm wondering is when we'll see more focus on Laurie.

For such a shy bird, she seems to be becoming quite a catch even without using her pheromone powers to lure guys :D

As I wrote in a review of an earlier issue of this series, I've noticed she's interested in Josh, Kevin's interested in her & I too have noticed a slight rapport between her & Jay.

I especially like the way you made her personality the exact opposite of her wayward father, who had used (or perhaps I should say abused) his powers regularly to get the attention of the fairer sex.

LoneWolf21

11-24-2004, 03:23 PM

Hi Nunzio and Christina,

I jut had a simple question, Marvel just releaed a 2004 oliday comic, and among it's short stories was one centered on Kevin Ford. I noticed that neither of you were listed in the credits, and I was just wondering how much input you had dealing with the story.

roguestorm

11-24-2004, 09:58 PM

As in, two?

We have how many clawed characters?

Wings are way cooler than claws. I don't think it's a big deal.."

let us count shall we? josh, warren, angel, angels kids,the winged butterfly mutants in morrisons run. there is more but its 1am now and i'm tired, and having many mutants with claws is hardly an excuse for laziness in creating unique powers for characters.

This girl is different in that she has a very pixie look to her, and her wings are more like butterfly wings. We developed her accordingly. Her powers will be revealed down the line..."

well for powers may i offer the suggestion of perhaps. the ability to see the kindness or evil in others? it would go along very well with her pixie look.

Nunzio DeFilippis

11-25-2004, 07:32 AM

let us count shall we? josh, warren, angel, angels kids,the winged butterfly mutants in morrisons run.

Well, of the ones you mentioned, the only one that has weight is Angel. I should have said 3, not 2. 3 significant winged characters. The others have not had any real speaking parts and likely never will.

How many telepaths in the X-verse? How many energy projection specialists?

Flight is quite possibly the most popular superpower. Certainly, any poll of the general public asking "what power would you most want to have?" would put flight at or near the top.

If humans did evolve (and this is X-men, so evolving is a factor) to flight, it would undoubtedly involve wings. Northstar's wingless flight has little precendent in nature and evolution. Naturally speaking, from insects to birds to dinosaurs, if you're going to fly, you need wings.

So, in the X-books, most fliers should have wings.

If this is some "Chuck Austen ruined Josh Guthrie by making him just like Warren" complaint, then call it for what it is.

But 3 winged mutants with a significant role in the X-verse is hardly the end of the world. And us picking Michael Ryan's cute design of a butterfly girl to get a codename and speaking lines isn't really a problem either.

there is more but its 1am now and i'm tired, and having many mutants with claws is hardly an excuse for laziness in creating unique powers for characters

well for powers may i offer the suggestion of perhaps. the ability to see the kindness or evil in others? it would go along very well with her pixie look.

Oh by all means... call us lazy and say our characters aren't remotely interesting and then expect us to take your suggestions.

Where I come from, if you want people to interact with you, you generally AVOID being rude.

It's your opinion, so you're entitled to it. It's a message board, so you have every right to express those opinions.

But I'm not under any obligation to respond or (even less likely) take suggestions. I've got questions from people who are far more polite. Those are the questions and suggestions that I choose to deal with.

But one thing I'm wondering is when we'll see more focus on Laurie.

For such a shy bird, she seems to be becoming quite a catch even without using her pheromone powers to lure guys :D

As I wrote in a review of an earlier issue of this series, I've noticed she's interested in Josh, Kevin's interested in her & I too have noticed a slight rapport between her & Jay.

I especially like the way you made her personality the exact opposite of her wayward father, who had used (or perhaps I should say abused) his powers regularly to get the attention of the fairer sex.

We'll see more on Laurie as the next few stories progress. The tangled romantic mess involving her, Josh, Rahne, Kevin and Cessily will get some more attention over the next couple of arcs.

Jay does not play a role in that, however.

Then, there will be even more Laurie focus when that ne'er-do-well father you mentioned starts casting a long shadow on the book. He becomes a factor in her relationship with her mom.

I jut had a simple question, Marvel just releaed a 2004 oliday comic, and among it's short stories was one centered on Kevin Ford. I noticed that neither of you were listed in the credits, and I was just wondering how much input you had dealing with the story.

Honestly? We just found out about that yesterday - your post and a post on Comix-Fan tipped us off.

Not something we're upset about - they're Marvel's characters to do with as they please, and we're always happy when characters we create get use from other creators - it makes them bigger parts of the X-verse.

But in the past we'd known about such things. Our editor told us that Elixir was appearing in Astonishing and Chris Claremont himself told us Prodigy was going to be in The End.

So it was odd that no-one passed the good news to us before it came out.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving to all the posters in the U.S.

Tag06

11-25-2004, 09:01 AM

Happy Thanks Giving to you Nunzio and Christina!

roguestorm

11-25-2004, 05:06 PM

Well, of the ones you mentioned, the only one that has weight is Angel. I should have said 3, not 2. 3 significant winged characters. The others have not had any real speaking parts and likely never will.

How many telepaths in the X-verse? How many energy projection specialists?

Flight is quite possibly the most popular superpower. Certainly, any poll of the general public asking "what power would you most want to have?" would put flight at or near the top.

If humans did evolve (and this is X-men, so evolving is a factor) to flight, it would undoubtedly involve wings. Northstar's wingless flight has little precendent in nature and evolution. Naturally speaking, from insects to birds to dinosaurs, if you're going to fly, you need wings.

So, in the X-books, most fliers should have wings.

If this is some "Chuck Austen ruined Josh Guthrie by making him just like Warren" complaint, then call it for what it is.

But 3 winged mutants with a significant role in the X-verse is hardly the end of the world. And us picking Michael Ryan's cute design of a butterfly girl to get a codename and speaking lines isn't really a problem either..

so just because there were millions of winged mutants on morrisons run that had no lines, that makes it exceptable for you to add more? all i am telling you, is that a character with wings is over done, even austen created two in the draco, jill and that other warren wannabe.

Oh by all means... call us lazy and say our characters aren't remotely interesting and then expect us to take your suggestions.

Where I come from, if you want people to interact with you, you generally AVOID being rude.

It's your opinion, so you're entitled to it. It's a message board, so you have every right to express those opinions.

But I'm not under any obligation to respond or (even less likely) take suggestions. I've got questions from people who are far more polite. Those are the questions and suggestions that I choose to deal with.

i didn't say you were lazy, i was refering to other writers who purposely create characters with un unique powers because they could careless. you don't have to take my suggestion, all i was trying to do was to help make a bland mutation into a unique one.

Beast

11-25-2004, 05:37 PM

Roguestorm, you're coming off as really kind of rude to Nunzio and Christina. Especially when they're taking time out to actually answer peoples questions about the book. You've come off as nothing but critical about the book since the first review threads, we get the fact you're not a fan. Why stress so much over something you clearly don't enjoy. Especially when it bugs you so much that you start more or less insulting the writers.

Cayman

11-25-2004, 09:01 PM

Personally, I like wings. I find it kind of disappointing that Hawkman and Hawkgirl have wings that are just props. Jay is a good-looking character.

Cay

The_15th_Sven

11-25-2004, 09:27 PM

Hey, first off this book, is my #1 favorite. Not ONE of my favorite, my favorite. Even Astonishing comes in #2 for me (and i was very excited to see Josh in Astonishing, and i know you don't have any control over astonishing, but if he gave rhane back her powers, couldn't he give wing back his powers?) but i'm geting of subject. What i wanted to say, nay plead with you is that I hope that Julian NEVER wins over Sofia. Everyone knows that he likes her (I appologize for suddenly transfering to JH mode there for a second) and i can see that she will flirt back, but please don't let her go any further with it. I just don't like Julian that much.

And BTW on the subject of wings, yes alot of mutants can fly, but not neccesarly w/ wings. I think wings are cool. If i could fly under my own power, I would want wings not just something like rogue, jean, or northstar.

Thanks for the book
God Bless

Fede

11-26-2004, 04:04 AM

dunno if someone cares, but this is my opinion bout the characters:

i really like julian, i hope he gets involved with something big soon..
i like sofia, she has pretty cool powers and attitude
i like laurie, but her powers dont seem that interesting for me, i hope she dont uses them twice, just like stacy-x
noriko...i'm not quite sure bout her...why did you call her surge?? reminds me of someone..
josh is not my favourite, but i'm sure he will develope soon
david, cess and dust...i really enjoy them, they're very misterious. i loved the scene in wich cess looks like the robot from terminator, i got scared :p
i like jay, he's just a normal guy, although i think we'll get surprised in "haunted"..
there's kevin, wich i dont like, i think hes not a very good person
tag and santo...well, i think they're supporting characters, so its normal i havent seen much of them. anyway, i dont like santo very much, hes a copy from that one from ff.

the teachers...i'm enjoying very much danielle, although i didnt like her before appearing in academy x. emma has always been one of my favourites, although she's not gettin too much attention here, and that's good, lately she's everywhere!

btw, i always look to those characters who appear at the back, and i'm very glad that all of them appear once and once again, cause in new x-men (morrison run) it looked like when there was a new artist, we would have new background mutants.

so far i've seen the butterfly-winged girl, wich looks great, dallas, the "elf" girl, the boy that has thorns, the astronaut (i dont like him very much), the blue guy with big ears (i'm wondering wich might be his power...: D ), the transparent one (btw, wasnt he at jail?he should've stayed |o|), victor (the lizard-like guy), one that looks like a manthis, i think he looks great. or maybe is a she, then it would be way cooler (they like devouring the male when they're finished), ben, and a red-guy
is there any way to see the sketches you had to make this characters? it would be really interesting

another question. will you give an explanation about rahnne's attitude with storm when they last saw each other?, i dont remember the issue, sorry

and that's all, thanks for creating this thread, i think u guys are really talented. i love the art too, i hope you dont change the artist! :D

The_15th_Sven

11-26-2004, 08:16 AM

noriko...i'm not quite sure bout her...why did you call her surge?? reminds me of someone..
Are you talking about Mistique (sp?), I remember hearing that once she had posed someone with the name surge. but i think norico is just a runaway japanise girl. From what i can remember, Mistique cant mimic powers like that, just looks. I may be wrong.[/QUOTE]

there's kevin, wich i dont like, i think hes not a very good person
What do you mean he's not a very good person? Is it because of how he treats Dani? He only does that because she mentally scarred him and then didn't follow up on it, and her stance on him being arrested by the feds. I do think that he could have acted beter in both situations, but I feel he is a kind, carring person that has death touch. Anyone with death touch is going to be screwd up at least allitle
btw, i always look to those characters who appear at the back, and i'm very glad that all of them appear once and once again, cause in new x-men (morrison run) it looked like when there was a new artist, we would have new background mutants.

[QUOTE=fede_bc]so far i've seen the butterfly-winged girl, wich looks great, dallas, victor, the "elf" girl, the boy that has thorns, the astronaut (i dont like him very much), the blue guy with big ears (i'm wondering wich might be his power...: D ), the transparent one (btw, wasnt he at jail?he should've stayed |o|), victor (the lizard-like guy), one that looks like a manthis, i think he looks great. or maybe is a she, then it would be way cooler (they like devouring the male when they're finished), ben, and a red-guy
is there any way to see the sketches you had to make this characters? it would be really interesting

I would also like to learn more about these background mutants. like the "elf" girl. Are her looks the only mutation she has?

God Bless
Love the thread

Fede

11-26-2004, 10:13 AM

What do you mean he's not a very good person? Is it because of how he treats Dani?

maybe, i dunno, i'm just suspicious about him. i'm not saying he's a traitor or smth like that. just questioning his ethics. remember that issue (#3) when dani and emma ask him to come back. the lines "kevin, what happened here? ..."lumber. i was practising on lumber"...at least he's a liar (he can touch lumber as it's organic)

roguestorm

11-26-2004, 11:23 AM

The_15th_Sven

11-26-2004, 07:15 PM

remember that issue (#3) when dani and emma ask him to come back. the lines "kevin, what happened here? ..."lumber. i was practising on lumber"...at least he's a liar (he can touch lumber as it's organic)
Yeah i remember that, and i realize he can't (I assume when you wrote 'can' you ment 'can't' and it was just a typo) touch wood, and emma had suggested that he practiced on wood he said that he hadn't thought about it, so obviously he's lieing. But a few mistakes doen't make him a bad person. Oh well, it's your oppion and your intitled to not like him. I do think that had he stayed on dani's team, he could have worked out some of his issues that he had, better then he could have on emma's team.

God bless

Sentinel Boy

11-28-2004, 04:29 AM

I had a few questions regarding the preview pages for issue 7 i've seen.

Was it you guys' choice to have Gambit not blind? If so, is this supposed to take place before his injury?

Can you give any hints as to what classes any of the other X-men teach? Other than those you have revealed of course.

Archer

11-28-2004, 11:47 PM

Hey, just came across this thread, it's a great read. I've only recently started reading New Mutants/New X-Men, still looking for a few New Mutants back issues, and I'm loving it so far.

We've placed Specter on a squad. Expect to see him in Issue 12 (though he may be referred to as Dallas, his real name).

I was actually going to ask that myself :D I love the idea of a mutant with the power to turn into some kind of shadow-creature, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of Dallas/Specter.

On British students at the school - there have been English mutants, Scottish mutants, there's going to be a Welsh pupil, and Banshee of course is Irish - how about adding to that set with a Northern Irish pupil? Even just as a walk-on, it would really give me a kick.

Vegetarian Goat

11-29-2004, 12:34 PM

i can't really remember.. who is laurie's father?

Gaveedra 6

11-29-2004, 01:29 PM

Hi Nunzio and Christina-
Thanks again for participating in this thread. I've really been enjoying your X-book. It keeps getting better and better. It really does feel like you're shaping a new generation of X-Men. Esp with characters like Josh and David already showing up in other books. The addition of Icarus is a big plus too. He's bound to be a big hearthrob. And I'd really like to see more of his relationship with Dust.

My one critique is that the kids look too normal. The only outward physical mutations among the 6 of them are Josh's skin (which is very cool) and Jay's wings, which although they look great, they are sort of standard. And Nori has her gauntlets, which make her really the only one who looks at all "freaky".

In the background there are all these characters- the spiky kid, the butterfly girl, the vaporous guy... Even the Hellions are alot more diverse in terms of ther physical appearances. I's a weird statement to focus on the "normal-looking" kids in a mutant school. That's why I originally shied away from the book. When Josh turned gold I came back for a second look and have been onboard since.

I know looks aren't everything, but think of the lineup original X-Men: They were all pretty weird-looking for the times. Only Jean was completely normal looking (and Bobby when he wasn't using his powers). The second generation too. Storm was so exotic, Nightcrawler, Colossus, even Wolverine... Their mutations had physical aspects. If you saw the X-Men coming at you, you knew they weren't just a bunch of kids in spandex.

I don't want to suggest anything specific happen. David doesn't need to grow a grotesque giant brain like Dr. Boiffard... I'm sure you already have lots of great ideas. Just in my opinion, having an unpredictable physiology would be a big part of the craziness of being a mutant kid.

Keep up the good work!

For the Good of X

11-29-2004, 04:05 PM

Quick question: Is Michael Ryan on for the long haul?

I avoided buying the monthlies on the relaunch of this because I don't like Randy Green's art AT ALL. Ryan I like.

Nunzio DeFilippis

11-29-2004, 04:49 PM

Hey all,

More answers! And again, two posts' worth...

Roguestorm, you're coming off as really kind of rude to Nunzio and Christina. Especially when they're taking time out to actually answer peoples questions about the book.

Thanks for stepping in, but it's honestly not neccessary. People are free to be as negative as they like. If they like the book or if they don't, they can say so. And if they want to constantly phrase things in ways that are insulting to me, they shouldn't expect me to respond.

But that's the internet. My experience has been that 9 out of 10 posters on a well-run site like this are a pleasure to deal with. If every so often, the other 1 out of 10 rubs me the the wrong way, well, that's hardly crisis-worthy.

I can respond with equal snarkiness (and have done so in the past) or I can ignore (as I have also done). Either way, I can deal.

Hey, first off this book, is my #1 favorite. Not ONE of my favorite, my favorite. Even Astonishing comes in #2 for me

That's very cool to hear. Joss Whedon is my idol. Even I prefer his book to ours. So your comment makes me very happy.

i know you don't have any control over astonishing, but if he gave rhane back her powers, couldn't he give wing back his powers?

Well, it depends on what the "Cure" really did. Josh healed Rahne because Forge's gun effectively cuts off access to the powers while the powers still remain in the genetic code. So it damages your body's ability to use the powers. Damage, Josh can fix.

But if the Cure rewrites the DNA and wipes the mutation out... well, Josh would then have to re-write the DNA back.

And Josh is nowhere near that powerful.

Yet.

As an Omega Class mutant, that may be within his potential. But it is definitely not within his current ability.

What i wanted to say, nay plead with you is that I hope that Julian NEVER wins over Sofia. Everyone knows that he likes her (I appologize for suddenly transfering to JH mode there for a second) and i can see that she will flirt back, but please don't let her go any further with it. I just don't like Julian that much.

Shame you don't like Julian. He's one of my favorites to write. We try to keep it so that just when you hate him, you see something good. And just when you think he might be not so bad, he acts like a schmuck.

Julian's never gonna be easy to like, but we try to keep him interesting.

As for Julian and Sofia, well... he may not stay interested forever. He is a popular guy, and he does have other options.

But we make no promises about that cross-squad couple one way or another.

And BTW on the subject of wings, yes alot of mutants can fly, but not neccesarly w/ wings. I think wings are cool. If i could fly under my own power, I would want wings not just something like rogue, jean, or northstar.

Yeah, more flying mutants are wingless than winged. But I was merely saying that in nature, flight tends to come with wings, so it seems all right by me to have a few winged mutants. The fact that some have birdlike wings (Warren, Jay) some have fly wings (Angel) and some have butterfly wings (the new kid we've put on a squad from Michael's designs) only serves to point out the diversity of wings in nature.

I'm with you. I think if I could fly I'd want the whole wing package.

Though it'd make getting a new suit a real bitch.

i really like julian, i hope he gets involved with something big soon..

Marvel likes Julian, so expect us to keep using him. And we hope to put him in some big things down the line.

noriko...i'm not quite sure bout her...why did you call her surge?? reminds me of someone..

Surge is a play on both parts of her power. Electric blasts are a form of power surge. And when she channels the electricity to give her super-speed, she surges forward.

Mystique once used that guise, but it was very brief and she's not using it now. So there's no sense letting a good codename go to waste.

there's kevin, wich i dont like, i think hes not a very good person

Kevin has tried to be a good person. But his very nature compels him to kill. That's tough to fight. That's part of why he pulled off the glove and thought about killing the agents in the restroom in Issue 6. But his better instincts won out and he put the glove back on and went with them.

i dont like santo very much, hes a copy from that one from ff.

By mixing up Santo's powers a bit and making him projetc parts of his rocky body, we tried to move him away from being Thing Jr. Hopefully that'll help. Plus, Michael Ryan is drawing him without the eyebrow ridge of rocks and less stocky and more plain old tall. These changes should help too.

so far i've seen the butterfly-winged girl, wich looks great, dallas, the "elf" girl, the boy that has thorns, the astronaut (i dont like him very much), the blue guy with big ears (i'm wondering wich might be his power...: D ), the transparent one (btw, wasnt he at jail?he should've stayed |o|), victor (the lizard-like guy), one that looks like a manthis, i think he looks great. or maybe is a she, then it would be way cooler (they like devouring the male when they're finished), ben, and a red-guy

So far, we have placed Dallas, elf-girl, Victor, and the kid with the quills on squads. They all have names now, too.

The others we may or may not get around to.

We had a big Pink Blob Guy in our New Mutants series backgrounds. We asked for Randy Green to draw him. Randy instead drew a guy with a visible skeleton, who looked like a fatter version of Glob from the Omega Gang. We don't expect that design to return, but hope we'll get Michael to add Pink Blob Guy (who we sometimes call "Squishy") to the backgrounds.

is there any way to see the sketches you had to make this characters? it would be really interesting

Michael Ryan keeps a sketchbook of background kids. He sent us a couple of scans. But we wouldn't want to publicize those without his permission.

The best bet is to ask him at a convention. Though we'll see what he (and Marvel) think of those designs hitting the internet.

another question. will you give an explanation about rahnne's attitude with storm when they last saw each other?, i dont remember the issue, sorry

That was X-Treme 46, I believe - the last issue of that book. Chris Claremont wrote the scene, not us. But Chris did tell us about it before he wrote it.

That scene was more about Storm and how she'd changed recently than it was about Rahne. It worked with our version of Rahne in that Rahne responded almost instinctively as a beast. But what it was really about was the fact that Storm is so wild and primal now, that she scares the animals much in the way a hurricane or an eathquake would.

I would also like to learn more about these background mutants. like the "elf" girl. Are her looks the only mutation she has?

You will, if you pay careful attention, learn the elf-girl's name between 2 scenes in Issues 7 & 8. But it's hidden in there, and you'll need to connect the dots.

As to her powers, she will have abilities beyond the elfen appearance. But we ain't saying what just yet.

Yeah i remember that, and i realize he can't (I assume when you wrote 'can' you ment 'can't' and it was just a typo) touch wood,

Actually, he _can_ wither wood, and Emma suggested he use it to practice turning off his powers. He told her he hadn't thought of it, then told Dani the ashes she saw were from wood. Clearly he lied there, meaning he practiced on something else (since he'd thought he could only practice on animals, one has to assume that was a rat's ashes).

Emma hasn't forgotten that incident. Expect it to be referenced in the next issue or two.

Kevin is troubled. This will remain a factor for a while.

Was it you guys' choice to have Gambit not blind? If so, is this supposed to take place before his injury?

Well, the issue has been rewritten to reference events in recent X-Men issues. So, it takes place after Gambit's blindness. But the rewrite didn't include keeping Gambit blind because when we made the changes, the art was already done.

We didn't call for him to be blind or not blind. We called for Gambit to teach the class, way back when we first wrote the issue, before we knew he'd be blind.

You can just assume he's teaching that class without his blindfold but still blind.

After all, who says blind people have to wear blindfolds all the time?

Can you give any hints as to what classes any of the other X-men teach? Other than those you have revealed of course.

We save some of that for other writers to establish. So we never want to commit to anything we haven't set down in a specific script.

Also, we like the idea of you guys piecing together a list as we go.

Maybe someday we'll put together a list, though.

I love the idea of a mutant with the power to turn into some kind of shadow-creature, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of Dallas/Specter.

Dallas' power doesn't get a lot of play when we show him down the line, sorry to say. But we do show what squad he's on.

We figure he's got a shadow form that has powers far greater than his normal form, but the longer he's in that form, the greater the chance he'll go completely dark - as in crazy and evil. So he doesn't stay in the form very long.

More too come. My post was too big again.

Nunzio DeFilippis

11-29-2004, 04:50 PM

And here's the second batch...

how about adding to that set with a Northern Irish pupil? Even just as a walk-on, it would really give me a kick.

No plans at this time, but we'll certainly keep it in mind.

i can't really remember.. who is laurie's father?

In New Mutants #11, we reference Laurie's father and how he used his powers to make Gail Collins (Laurie's mom) love him. We never revealed his name.

Laurie explains this to Josh in Issue 5 of New X-Men, and we'll be going into more detail about it in later issues. But Laurie's mom never told Laurie her father's name, either. Not so far, anyway.

The addition of Icarus is a big plus too. He's bound to be a big hearthrob. And I'd really like to see more of his relationship with Dust.

It won't be for a while (no Sooraya for a few issues, I'm afraid), but enough people have asked for more Jay/Sooraya scenes that we know we have a solid dynamic on our hands. Expect us to put those two in some scenes together down the line.

My one critique is that the kids look too normal.

We've heard that one before. Remember, this book was in some ways trying to counterpoint what Grant did on his book. His kids were outcasts because they were so freakish.

We wanted normal looking kids who were set apart because they were mutants, not because being mutants made them visually stand apart.

But people wanted more obvious mutations, so we changed Josh's skin tone and added Jay.

The only outward physical mutations among the 6 of them are Josh's skin (which is very cool) and Jay's wings, which although they look great, they are sort of standard. And Nori has her gauntlets, which make her really the only one who looks at all "freaky".

Well, that's 2 obvious mutations and one physical awkwardness required by mutation out of 6 kids. That's a better ratio than some of the teams you cite below.

I know looks aren't everything, but think of the lineup original X-Men: They were all pretty weird-looking for the times. Only Jean was completely normal looking (and Bobby when he wasn't using his powers).

You lost me there. The original 5 were very normal looking. Only Beast looked odd and only in that he was stumpy with big feet. Warren had wings, but like Jay, he was quite a handsome guy. So Warren and Jay balance out.

Even Cyclops looked like a normal guy with funny headgear. He could also take off the headgear and pass for a normal guy with either really cool or really lame sunglasses.

I really don't see the Fab Five as being 'freaky' by comparison to our kids. It basically comes down to Josh being freaky as was Beast, Jay and Warren being similar, and Noriko and Scott both having odd accesories to control their power. Pretty much even, to me.

The second generation too. Storm was so exotic, Nightcrawler, Colossus, even Wolverine... Their mutations had physical aspects. If you saw the X-Men coming at you, you knew they weren't just a bunch of kids in spandex.

Also, I think, not 100% accurate.

Storm was exotic primarily by virtue of skin tone, hair color and a skimpy costume. None of that is mutant power related. Noriko's got odd hair color and is non-white, is she exotic as well?

Wolverine was just short, really, and Colossus tall. Sure Colossus could turn to metal, but in everyday life, he was just a really big guy.

Nightcrawler was the only real "freak" among them.

Also remember, this crew was established for the new New Mutants. They were successors to the New Mutants - and that group had no "freaky" mutants at all (not the initial batch, nor even the classic group - which only had Warlock). Just racial diversity, which we tried to bring to our book.

I only counter your arguments because I really don't think the X-verse has a long history of freaky mutants that our book is working against. It wasn't until recently that freaky mutants were so common. That's part of what Grant brought to the book.

And we know that a lot of readers liked that. But to us, it undercut part of the mutant fear. They could be anyone. But if they looked so different, knowing them on sight would be easy and the fear would be a little less pervasive.

So we wanted to restore some balance to the student body.

Quick question: Is Michael Ryan on for the long haul?

I avoided buying the monthlies on the relaunch of this because I don't like Randy Green's art AT ALL. Ryan I like.

Yes, Michael Ryan is on for the long haul. But there will be a few issues with fill in artists to buy him some extra lead time.

That's a temporary thing. Marvel's happy with Michael, we love him, and he seems happy on the book.

Anyway, that's what I've got for now. Keep the questions coming!

For the Good of X

11-29-2004, 05:41 PM

Yes, Michael Ryan is on for the long haul. But there will be a few issues with fill in artists to buy him some extra lead time.

Yeeeeeehaw!

Now pass the grits!

Fede

11-30-2004, 02:54 AM

hi! thanks for answering! :)

The others we may or may not get around to..
:( i loved the manthis :p

We don't expect that design to return, but hope we'll get Michael to add Pink Blob Guy (who we sometimes call "Squishy") to the backgrounds
thats a funny codename, u could call him that way hahaha

The best bet is to ask him at a convention. Though we'll see what he (and Marvel) think of those designs hitting the internet.

Thanks!!

Emma hasn't forgotten that incident. Expect it to be referenced in the next issue or two.

good to hear, i thought about it, emma should've read his mind when dani asked kevin, but "apparently" she didn't

btw, i'm so glad that michael ryan has signed a contract with marvel for 3 years, he's a great artist, i'm loving so much his work in this tittle

fishtaco

11-30-2004, 07:06 AM

delete post

Lady Obie

12-01-2004, 06:09 AM

Dallas' power doesn't get a lot of play when we show him down the line, sorry to say. But we do show what squad he's on.

We figure he's got a shadow form that has powers far greater than his normal form, but the longer he's in that form, the greater the chance he'll go completely dark - as in crazy and evil. So he doesn't stay in the form very long.

That reminds me more than a little of my fave DC character Obsidian, who's pictured in my avatar.

DC frequently stumbled with Obie (after his creator Roy Thomas left them in the early 90's) because they could never strike the right balance of darkness & light for his personality or enable him to grow into a strong competent person & hero in any other way :mad:.

I hope you & Christina will be careful with Dallas to make sure he does not become a victim of his life & powers like Todd (Obie's real first name) did.

I still have some hope DC will something cool with Obie but I've been following the character for 14 years & have seen very little that has impressed me.

Don't worry! I'm not asking you to slam DC or anything like that.

I just wanted to relate this story to you so you could understand how easy it is for mistakes to be made with this kind of character should not enough care & consistency be put into him.

Sadly heroes with this kind of power tend to be easy marks for corruption & villiany which is the last thing I like seeing :eek:.

Vegetarian Goat

12-01-2004, 07:14 AM

I found myself wondering today if any of the New kids have any musical or artisitc abilities? Maybe Colossus or... (dare i ask? :D) Dazzler... might show up to teach a class?

LoneWolf21

12-01-2004, 10:57 AM

Sadly heroes with this kind of power tend to be easy marks for corruption & villiany which is the last thing I like seeing :eek:.

Yea, I'm kind of worred the same thing might happen to one of my favorites on the book, Kevin. It would just be too easy to give him one look and say "Oh, he has a villian's power, so let's make him eeeeviiil", you know what I mean?

Lady Obie

12-01-2004, 06:19 PM

Yea, I'm kind of worred the same thing might happen to one of my favorites on the book, Kevin. It would just be too easy to give him one look and say "Oh, he has a villian's power, so let's make him eeeeviiil", you know what I mean?

Absolutely! As it is, Kev's probably going to have quite a challenge learning how to control his powers. He still has the potential to develop into a cool heroic character or even an intriguing gray character. It's all up to what writers do with him.

But it's tough that sometimes comic companies will take the more realistic characters they have (the ones who aren't always happy or sad) & try to stuff them in one box, saying they're good or evil, ecstatic or miserable, but not both, despite the fact the real human condition often has those of us on this side of the 4th wall going thru various extremes.

fishtaco

12-01-2004, 07:04 PM

delete post

roguestorm

12-01-2004, 07:42 PM

wat i've always wondered is that with all the fallen x-men does the xavier institute have a grave yard? and willl the kids be visiting it? and if i came off as rude nunzino i do apologise that was not my intention i was up late at night and get quite cranky sometimes.

Lady Obie

12-02-2004, 05:46 AM

It wouldn't surprise me if some of the kids have performing & fine arts related talents.

Dull normal humans like us do & if they truly are the next step in human evolution I can't imagine them not having the same thing ;). I don't believe these gifts will ever evolve out of humanity because they're so important to our very being.

As for the graveyard, a visit to that would be a good idea for any students who are getting a little too cocky & need a reminder of the true price of heroism :cool:.

Vegetarian Goat

12-02-2004, 10:29 AM

well, weve got Icarus. He plays guitar and his singing voice has the same chorus effect on an amplifier that reroutes the signal and makes duplicates of it to make it sound like there are multiple people singing at the same time. I dont know about anything with art. I dont think that Colossus should teach for awhile. He needs to first get used to living life again.

It'd be cool if Icarus & Dazzler had a team up...not anything permanent, and not romantic in any way, but i bet they'd work well together. Maybe even have some interesting chemistry...

LoneWolf21

12-02-2004, 10:58 AM

It'd be cool if Icarus & Dazzler had a team up...not anything permanent, and not romantic in any way, but i bet they'd work well together. Maybe even have some interesting chemistry...

Well they sort of had one waaay back whenJosh/Jay first showed up in the first New Mutants series. He used his singing to power up Dazzler so she could use her powers. I think she was helping Sam rescu some people.

jeangreydp

12-02-2004, 02:20 PM

Well they sort of had one waaay back whenJosh/Jay first showed up in the first New Mutants series. He used his singing to power up Dazzler so she could use her powers. I think she was helping Sam rescu some people.

Power up? As in sing for her while she used her light effects? Because if he sat by and sang so she could lay the groove on some bad guys I will laugh for at least two hours. And that's a promise!

fishtaco

12-02-2004, 03:35 PM

delete post

The Runaway

12-02-2004, 06:09 PM

people say that pocy might be coming back. if he does will the new mutants be in the mix?

Jack Flash

12-03-2004, 11:30 AM

any plans to have an overweight kid join the mix? It just seems like that segment of our population doesn't exist in the comics world.

fishtaco

12-03-2004, 01:29 PM

delete post

Christina Weir

12-06-2004, 01:38 PM

The students all seem ignorant towards the X-men's history. Will they ever learn about some of the things that the X-men went through? Apcalypse and all that stuff, Cable and Stryfe, Legion and the AOA, X-Force, Onslaught, GenerationX, Krakoa, Psylcoke, Operation:Zero Tolerance, etc.

They're not all ignorant. In fact, in Issue 1, Josh of all people makes reference to having studied some of the X-Men's exploits when he comments on the Fastball Special.

And in New Mutants, Julian picked the name Hellion to try to connect with Emma Frost because he knew their history.

But also, remember that just because they're not shown discussing the events from continuity that you mentioned that doesn't mean they don't know about them.

In New X-men, the students all seemed to believe in Magneto's ideals. Is it still like that now? I see that Hellion is like that, but what about the New Mutants?

In the issue where Julian gave his speech, there was a major screw-up in the lettering. It was supposed to be Sofia who said that Julian was making a lot of sense. So she has at least and understanding and tolerance for Magneto's point of view. But in Issues 5 & 6, we see most of the New Mutants (however reluctantly) agreeing that Kevin needs to be arrested. That's hardly Magneto-esque. It varies from student to student.

That reminds me more than a little of my fave DC character Obsidian, who's pictured in my avatar.

DC frequently stumbled with Obie (after his creator Roy Thomas left them in the early 90's) because they could never strike the right balance of darkness & light for his personality or enable him to grow into a strong competent person & hero in any other way :mad:.

I hope you & Christina will be careful with Dallas to make sure he does not become a victim of his life & powers like Todd (Obie's real first name) did.

Nunzio was a fan of Infinity Inc and liked Obsidian. I was not familar with that book, but know a little about that character through Nunzio.

Rest assured that neither of us believe that just because your powers are dark in nature, your path is unchangeable. Or that you as a character should somehow be one-dimensional. As you can see with Kevin, we do like to explore the way dark power will pull at an otherwise good person. But if it was a forgone conclusion that Kevin or Dallas would go dark, they'd be no fun to write.

I found myself wondering today if any of the New kids have any musical or artisitc abilities? Maybe Colossus or... (dare i ask? :D) Dazzler... might show up to teach a class?

Jay clearly has musical ability.
Kevin does industrial art and is quite accomplished at it.
Sofia is a skilled dancer, though we've only begun to hint at that.

wat i've always wondered is that with all the fallen x-men does the xavier institute have a grave yard? and willl the kids be visiting it?

Yes and yes.

#7 was great, Nunzio. I thought that the ghost was Emplate. Will we ever see Emplate and DOA, or is that someone the X-men should deal with. ?

No plans for Emplate.

people say that pocy might be coming back. if he does will the new mutants be in the mix?

We know of no plans involving Apocalypse and we haven't been asked to take part in anything like that.

any plans to have an overweight kid join the mix? It just seems like that segment of our population doesn't exist in the comics world.

It's hard to picture with all the Danger Room training sessions that any kid could get too overweight at Xavier's unless it's a glandular thing.

are there any plans to throw Hisako in the mix? or Wing, if he somehow gets his powers back?

Not as long as Joss is writing them. We don't want to step on his toes.