Uncanny developments are afoot for Marvel’s mutant franchise flagship
of the X-line in 2009 and Matt Fraction is standing tall at the helm.
Since the titles 500th issue, the X-Men have set up shop in San
Francisco; they’ve added new members to the line-up; and some old
threats have seemed to appear from out of thin air. In January, Uncanny fans will get a double dosage of mutant mayhem with the release of the monthly issue, #505, as well as Uncanny X-Men Annual #2.
The annual, written by Fraction, with artwork from Mitch Breitweiser
and a cover by Yanick Paquette—features a solo story about Emma Frost
and her early years in the Hellfire Club as the White Queen.
Newsarama contacted Matt Fraction to talk about what sorts of changes were in store for the X-Men in 2009.
Newsarama: First off, let's talk about the upcoming Annual--what's the Uncanny X-Men Annual #2 got in store for the Children of the Atom?
Matt Fraction: Emma, Emma, and more Emma.
Coming very soon, to a major comic book event near you, the divine Ms.
Frost finds herself in a very intriguing room, full of very intriguing
people, making very intriguing plans. In Uncanny #505
we see how Emma got invited there. And the Annual adds a little bit of
backstory to how she ended up there... it interweaves a story of Emma
as the young White Queen, back in the glory days of the Hellfire Club
as Sebastian Shaw set out to form his Inner Circle, and, in the
present, how Emma navigates and negotiates her new status quo. It's a
great slab of Emma Frost at her catty, bitchy, scheming and fabulous
chaotic-neutral best. I've had a ridiculous amount of fun writing it.
It's been our plan for a while to start gently threading the X-Men back
into the tapestry of the Marvel U. again and these are those first few
delicate stitches.
NRAMA: Who are you working with on the Annual? Does the story in
the annual act as set-up for upcoming stories in 2009 or is it a
standalone story?
MF: Mitch Breitweiser, who I worked with on Iron Fist some and who just put out a brilliant Captain America special, is handling the present day bits. The amazing Daniel Acuña, fresh off the Knaufs’ new Eternals series, handles the flashbacks to Emma's youth.
And, as a story, it stands alone as a tale about Emma making deals with
devils both past and present; it works as a parenthetical that enriches
Emma's history and motivations, casting new light on old relationships
and revealing how past dalliances inform her character and -- at no added cost to you the reader-- the Uncanny Annual foreshadows not just where Uncanny is going, not just where the X-Universe is going, but where the whole freakin' Marvel Universe is going. You're welcome.
You can even cut a tin can with it. But you wouldn't want to.
NRAMA: As we saw at the end of #503, and it’s now clear,
Madelyne Pryor returns in #504. You've also got a Trask running around
in your book causing problems for the X-Men. Can things get any worse?
Any hints as to what sort of villains the X-Men will be facing in the
beginning of 2009?
MF: Things can get much, much, worse. Maddie's new Sisterhood
are up to something no good rotten crazy and insane. Ask yourself: why
do they want the X-Men out of San Francisco? What could be so huge that
they'd declare personal war on the X-Men? What are they protecting? Why?
What do the women Maddie's recruited all have in common?
And how is Maddie still alive? How can she be in three places at once?
NRAMA: What can you tell us about the Fringe Science Team that Beast and Angel are assembling?
MF: I wish I knew more about Fringe, the TV show, before
I had six damn scripts in the can, but oh well. Beast, as seen in Mike
Carey & Co.'s brilliant and heartbreaking Endangered Species
mini-event, tried the best he could to solve or undo the M-Day Working.
And he-- and science-- failed. So he's set his intellect to finding
guys that not only think outside of the box, but never actually worked
inside the box to begin with. He's going around the world to both
combat the mutant brain-drain and to gather some of the best and
brightest and weirdest thinkers around... as clearly you need to be the
best, the brightest, and at least a little bit weird to outthink a
chaos genocide spell...
One character is a very, very old Marvel character. And he might not be the first mutant, but maybe the second. We'll see.
One character is Canadian.
One character is Joss Whedon's. That's right-- Giles is now an X-Man. Okay not really. I wish.
One character has recently returned to print-- triumphantly! Although,
I think I was the only person who noticed. He's got former associations
with S.H.I.E.L.D., and he's been very, very busy with his pet lizards
and moths for the last thirty years.
NRAMA: Will the changes in Worthington's "demeanor" be addressed in upcoming issues of Uncanny?
MF: Yes.
Now you know how Warren single-handedly brought down a Sentinel in Uncanny #500.
He won't be able to keep it a secret from everyone for too much longer.
And when he does... well, you know the old saying "it's not the crime,
it's the cover-up?" Warren's going to have some explaining to do to
some of his best friends in the world.
NRAMA: With the additions of Karma, Dazzler, and Pixie to the
line-up, will there be any noteworthy subtractions in the months to
come? Can the sheer size of the cast of the X-Men become a bit of a
burden for your writing? Or does it have its advantages?
MF: Well, let's talk about line-up for a second. First, you'll
notice those're all female characters. The X-Men, we all sort of
agreed, had gotten a little too dude-y, so we wanted the fairer sex to
blast some fresh air into the place. Uncanny was starting to smell like a sweat sock. So: more women. Yes. Domino? Coming right up.
Second, I think "line-up," in the classic sense, is a bit outmoded and
old fashioned for the always-modern X-Men. The move to San Francisco,
the public awareness, all of the social changes the team has undergone
was, in part, designed to allow for floating membership. We didn't want
to be shoehorned into who was and wasn't a character; we didn't want to
get trapped in the old Blue and Gold team days. In a way, the entire
198* is the team line-up, y'know? A true ensemble team. Uncanny X-Men,
from a certain point of view, is about Scott's stewardship over
mutantkind and who he needs at his side on any given day to keep the
race alive and kicking for another day, so in a way the whole of
mutantkind makes up Scott's team. Somedays that means Karma, Beast,
Nightcrawler, Hepzibah, and a kindly old Chinese man that lost his
powers on M-Day. Some days it's Emma, Storm, Cannonball, Pixie,
Wolverine and Colossus.
We want Uncanny to really be about the whole mutant family-- the good eggs, the black sheep, and all points in-between.
NRAMA: "No More Mutants" and species endangerment are now in the
rearview mirror for the X-books. The line of books seems to be basking
in a—as one fan put it—“modern/ retro-classic feel” at the moment. Do
you think the X-Men are at their best when they can breathe a little or
do you think that they're at their best when their backs are against a
wall?
MF: What's past is prologue, m'friend, and there ain't no more
mutants coming down the pipe. That's framing the entire X-Reality right
now. It might not be on the tip of the tongue but it's in the back of
the mind--all of these adventures are about survival and propagation.
The X-Men are best when they're protecting a world that hates and
despises them--but that doesn't mean there's not breathing room there,
too.
I'm not sure how something can be both modern and retro/classic at the
same time, but man, I'll take it. I hope that the feel of the book
speaks more to... I dunno, I guess whatever my voice and style is: a
mix of science fiction and super heroes, sex and violence, angst and
hope--everything great pop art should be. From the sprawling cast,
weird new ideas and classic old ones polished and represented, the song
titles for story titles, the amazing artwork, and the macro-narrative
dictating flow from the very start... I'm trying my hardest to write
the X-book I want to read.
NRAMA: What sorts of issues from our reality lend to the shaping of the events in Uncanny?
MF: I tend to view the core X metaphor through a lens of sexual
orientation, rather than race, but I suspect that's a generational
response. Clearly you can't have the team move to San Francisco without
the metaphor rising to the surface some; that's why Ed and I thought SF
was so perfect a new home. But it's always about tolerance. The X-Men
are representative of whatever oppressed minority you yourself are a
part of. They're everybody's hero, they're every underdog's saviors.
They're the very best of who we are and what we can do because of their
intractable goodness in spite of a world that outright hates them.
The intersection of science and biology is on my mind a lot these days,
of taking the reigns of evolution in our own RFID-laden hands and
directing it where we wish. And faith vs. science. That's a huge one
right now. Scott's faith-- the faith of the mutant species-- tested
against cold and unflinching scientific reality. What does it meant to
have faith? Not religion-- faith.
Governmental legislation of sex and love bubbles up to the surface. I
didn't know about Prop. 8 when I started writing but I do now, and
we've got a kind of PROP 8 equivalent coming soon. What if there was a
law passed that said you couldn't breed...?
This kind of stuff is why the X line has lasted so long and has such a
robust history and devoted following-- there's always so much more
going on under the surface.
NRAMA: If you could perform a trade with any of the other
writers of the X-books--which characters would you want? Who would you
trade away--and why?
MF: I'd actually love to have Jason Aaron's talent for a day. Or
maybe Craig Kyle and Chris Yost's character instincts. Peter David's
longevity, gift with a hook, or snap. Mark Gugenheim's laser-keen story
sense. Dan Way's liver, just to prove it exists. Mike Carey's... Mike
Carey-ness.
The thing is, we all get along really well and everybody wants to make
the best X line we can so... so there's really any diva-ness happening.
We all share pretty well, I think. We're all aware of who's doing what,
when, with whom, and for how long, so I've not once had an issue with
character availability. Everybody shares when they can, and if they
can't it's for the story, and not to serve ego or anything. Hell, I'd
bet that I'm the problem child, just because there're so many
characters and threads happening in Uncanny.
That and I'm a total dick.
NRAMA: Four buzzwords for Uncanny in the upcoming months and the start of the new year.
MF: "Bendis" "Millar" "Loeb" and "Wolverine."
No, wait.
"Faustian."
"Corpses."
"Quitters."
and
"Secrets."
