Cyclops-intoxicated

Two important details came out at the very end of the fifth and final of this week's "MMXI: Year of the X-Men" Marvel Comics conference calls with the press: the fact that the full title of the four-issue, Paul Jenkins-written miniseries starting in May is X-Men: Prelude to Schism. It was previously solicited as just X-Men: Prelude.

The second is the Greg Land-illustrated X-Men: Schism teaser image attached to this article, which strongly suggests the two main players behind the titular divide — Cyclops and Wolverine. (It's a ruby quartz visor cut in three places, after all.)

Rich Johnston of Bleeding Cool reported word from an anonymous source last month that the X-Men were heading towards a split, with one team led by Cyclops and one team led by Wolverine.

Marvel Comics wrapped its week of X-Men MMXI press calls today with a call featuring senior editor Nick Lowe covering everything X-Men from this week's previous announcements on through ongoing series like "Astonishing X-Men" and the announcement of the "Schism" event. CBR News was on hand with full coverage of the call.

Lowe started off by talking about his personal favorite era of "X-Men" comics. "My sentimental favorite will always be 'X-Ecutioenrs Song,'" he said. "That's what got me hooked on X-Men...I haven't gone back to it recently because I want to save my young vision of what it was." The artists were a major factor of his appreciation (particularly Greg Capullo on "X-Force"), and the story of Cable and Stryfe carried him through as an X-Reader for years to where he got very into Grant Morrison's "New X-Men."

The adjective-less "X-Men" title became a topic of talk. "There's a different big bad that's going to be involved soon," he said, praising Victor Gischler's work while noting that an upcoming arc will be written by Chris Yost who will be introducing a new X-Villain along with artist Paco Medina. "After that Victor's going to be returning, and that arc will be equally exciting."

Daniel Way and Jason Pearson will kick off new issues of "Astonishing X-Men" soon. "One thing we want to focus on is that this is taking place in current X-Men continuity," he explained, speaking of the second arc which will trade off teams both in the X-Men and with the creators. "What hits the X-Men [while one team is gone to Japan] and Beast can be summed up in one word: Brood." The characters involved with the Brood arc will include Beast, Storm and Kitty Pryde as created by Chris Gage and Juan Bobillo.

In "X-Factor," Peter David will continue to grow his cast with new characters, and Lowe noted that Wolfsbane's pregnancy will play a central role very, very soon. "There's heavy, heavy stuff coming up for Strong Guy," the editor added when asked what characters would be worth keeping an eye on. The list also included Archangel, Idie of "Generation Hope" who will play a central role in the next X-event and X-Man who will not be going away during the months after his return in "New Mutants."

"One cool thing Axel did was [make] the importance level of the books equal," he said, noting that after "Messiah CompleX" the books "each beacme important in their own way...I love where the X-books are right now and where we're heading, and that's Axel's doing. If one thing changes from me taking the wheel, I'm a bit more in love with the X-Characters than Axel was. I'm a huge fan of long story arcs and characters getting involved with soap opera plots."

Lowe noted that he's been reading a lot of prose fiction of late including George RR Martin's Song of Fire and Ice and "The Hunger Games" which track characters and their changes over years, and he hopes to inject some of that plotting style back into the X-Men books.

The editors explained that to him, the core of the X-Franchise is "people who are born different."

Speaking again on villains as a central focus of the next year, Lowe said his favorite kinds of villains are like Magneto – characters who come to stories with a purpose and a goal. "To me, the key is understanding what characters want," he said. "We've got one villain I've never been able to crack in 'New Mutants,' and I think we've finally got a handle on the character...the thing I love is when you can draw similarities between yourself and the villain. That's what makes them truly scary."

Unsurprisingly, Lowe pointed readers interested in walking into the line to start with "Uncanny X-Men" 534.1 which ships soon.

Classic villains return soon in the pages of "X-Men" as well as other places, and to keep fans interested, the editor said "Hellfire" will be a major key in 2011. Asked as a follow up what was in store for the X-Event of 2011, Lowe said that info would be revealed at the end of the call.

The idea of having long-running plot threads and the danger of making them work without becoming overwhelming as with past stories surrounding the Legacy Virus came up. "It's definitely a tough balance to reach," he said. "We've tried to keep from introducing too many overarching mysteries...one we've had is 'What's up with Hope and the Phoenix?' But we know how that ends and generally where that ends. In the next couple of years it'll happen. On the other side, there's the dark side of Gambit, and Mike knows where that's going.

"I depend on the team in a very big way, not only my writers but my editorial group," he added, noting how Marvel's editors have now taken specific parts of the X-line including Wolverine titles, Deadpool titles and more under specific umbrellas to keep coordination tight.

Personal relationships on the books will be a particular focus as the editor and his staff look to complicate the romantic triangle between Cyclops, Emma Frost and Namor, however the "X-Men: First Class" movie plot of Xavier Vs. Magneto won't play too strong a role, though both characters will interact in "X-Men Legacy."

Asked about some fan favorite characters, Lowe said Hellion continues to appear in "Age of X" and "X-Men Legacy" after that while "Sage won't be showing up in X-Men for a while. She's still dancing out in the multiverse. I do like Sage, but we have no current plans for her." Domino is in "Age of X" in a minor role, but not too many plans lie ahead for her in the future. Elixir is still out in Genosha/Necrosha, and "He won't be returning to Utopia in the future."

Finally, the editor revealed "Dr. Nemesis is our main science character...he'll be popping up in all of our X-Books," laughed Lowe, saying he hopes to get that character into his own mini series some day.

As for the incoming "X-Men Prelude" series, writer Paul Jenkins will bring his own voice to the lead in to the next X-event. "When we started talking with Paul about doing something, it wasn't what you're about to see," said Lowe. "Paul pulled something out of the air that tied in with what we were planning...what Paul is doing is for the fans. He's digging into the four main X-Dudes: Xavier, Magneto, Cyclops and Wolverine and each of their point of views. It really focuses on Cyclops and how everyone sees him.

"Paul comes at these stories from such interesting angles, so it was one of those nice miracles," he said, adding that the books will dig into why Cyclops is the leader of mutants while also revealing new details about the past of each of the other characters. "It definitely deals with the characters and where they are now."

Asked about more fan favorite characters, Lockheed will play a large role in the Storm/Kitty/Beast thread of "Astonishing X-Men" while Pixie will remain in the X-books but not in a major way for the next six months. Mystique continues her core role in Jason Aaron's "Wolverine" series, and Prodigy has nothing major coming up, but he will appear in the "Uncanny X-Men" Annual.

The title of "X-Men Legacy" came up in terms of how the word Legacy really connected with the title. Lowe said that the book would deal with what it means to be an X-Man and take part in the history of the X-Men for the current team. The book will also focus on longtime members of the team, particularly Rogue.

To wrap the call, Lowe revealed that "X-Men Prelude" will have the full title "X-Men: Prelude to Schism" – news that came with a new teaser by Greg Land. It appears likely that "Schism" is the title of the incoming event.

From new mutants to X-Forces and everywhere in between, Marvel Comics has spent the week unveiling its future plans for the franchise famous for fighting against a world that fears and hates it. And today, the cornerstone comic of the line comes into focus as the publisher hosted a press conference on "Uncanny X-Men." Featuring series writer Kieron Gillen and the always available senior editor Nick Lowe, the call covered all things ahead from May and beyond, and CBR News was on hand for all the action!

The discussion started with a hint that the writer's big plans would soon tie into Marvel's "Fear Itself" event. "The X-Men have always been feared. Fear is one of the key pieces of the concept," Gillen said adding that for now the X-Men are not too fearful for the first time in their existence since they're accepted in San Francisco. "Oh course, then everything goes wrong."

Gillen will play with each of the character's fears from Emma Frost's fears over her relationship to Namor's role on the team and in the world through to Cyclops' fears about where to go with the community of mutants after winning the war for survival. "This comes from the strife and constant worry that's been there all along."

Cain Marko will play a central role in the story as he will also become on the "Worth" of the event's storyline. "Juggernaut is the avatar of a guy, and now he's essentially an avatar twice," he said. "I wanted to build the idea of this unstoppable thing that's scary...it's like a disaster movie situation. It's a tidal wave It's an earthquake...we go to the incredibly macro scale stuff of the unstoppable Juggernaut bearing down on everyone." The writer compared the character to a moving volcano. "Villains tend to not be as scary as they should be, and I want to make him really, really scary. He's a meaty fella."

And as shown in the recent teaser image, Colossus may be coming across the power of Cyttorak as he takes the helm of Juggernaut at some point through 2011. "Colossus is almost the guy who's happy to sacrifice himself...he's the white knight personified," he said, adding that the character's journey will build off his first arc where the team traveled to the Breakworld to reunite with Kitty Pryde.

Skeletons from the closets of all the X-Men will rear their heads from Magick on through Cyclops as the writer promised plenty of simmering conflicts to come to life.

On the flipside, Gillen continues on the "Generation Hope" series. "The fact that they are a team that quickly...becoming a team is easy, and so questioning why they are a team is what's up for the next five issues," he said, saying the goal across the book is to dig into the character. "I don't think we've ever seen superhero stories like what Kieron is doing in 'Generation Hope,'" said Lowe. "We'll be looking at what being a superhero or being a mutant is in a really different way...reading the scripts I get shaken to my core. It's a feeling I felt when Mark Millar took over 'The Authority.' It's a totally new look at what mutant superheroes are...the stories we've got coming up will chill you to the bone.

"A lot of these characters will take a central role in the coming year," the editor added, saying that two of the characters will be major players in the next X-event while one will play a huge role in a major Marvel event planned for the next 16 months.

Gillen explained that on the whole, one of the metaphors the X-Men represents that he's tapped strongly into is the age metaphor. "It's the established power versus people come into their own identity. I think that resonates with a lot of things I see in the world today."

As far as what characters would play a role, the writer said that his Breakworld arc will feature Magneto in some unexpected ways while the "Fear Itself" arc will include many, many guest stars, however Namor and Magick will both play central roles. He'll also write a special issue in between focusing on the relationship between Wolverine and Hope. "That's how I see the future of 'Uncanny' going, a big arc...and then [a stand alone.]"

The ongoing soap opera nature of "Uncanny" will recede a bit in future issues as the major story becomes "small p political" while asking "What does it really mean to be a mutant?" Once the mutants win a peace, how they make their way in society and find their place in a world will drive things. "The first arc is essentially about foreign policy...which is the least exciting way to say it," he laughed before stressing that said arc – "Breakworld" – will include lots of battles and stabbing.

The writer spoke to the role of the team's formerly greatest foe in the book. "Magneto claims 'I want to support Scott,'" since Cyclops saved the mutant race. Gillen described the master of magnetism as "possibly Scott's most fanatical follower."

Overall, "Uncanny" will continue to be the core X-Men title even though Gillen will play with a somewhat smaller team, but with characters like Magick and Magneto, the stories of "New Mutants" and "Legacy" will thread in and out of "Uncanny." Gillen described the series as the crossroads for all X-books.

Fans online asking after Jean Grey prompted Lowe to say that despite seeing "the foggy specter of a redhead in the White Room" in recent issues, he has no idea why anyone would expect Jean in the book before saying "Hope is not Jean Grey...take that for what you will."

Both editor and writer said that "Uncanny" is playing with tighter continuity with other X-books than it has in a while as the latter promised that his writing of two books makes things flow much more naturally. "Kitty has an important role to play in the next several issues of 'Generation Hope,'" Gillen said. "I think the fact that [these characters] are all in the same universe is important."

Asked after whether Juggernaut had returned to being a full-time villain after years slightly on the side of the angels, Gillen said he couldn't say just yet, but those are important questions for readers to be asking. Lowe added that in the most recent X-retreat the topic of villains became important including Juggernaut. "Villains are something we're wanting to play with in the X-Books...we really want to amp them up, certainly."

"I think villains are incredibly important to superhero fiction," Gillen said.

Asked whether or not the upcoming "X-Men Prelude" series and the event that it comes in advance of will effect "Uncanny" at all, Gillen said that a key factor in his book will be the fact that in wartime, the mutants were happy to hand power over to one leader. "It's no longer wartime," he said. "In building societies and nations, questions of leadership are incredibly important things."

As for the art teams coming up, the #534.1 issue will be drawn by Carlos Pacheco which will be followed by Terry Dodson on "Breaking Point" which is the four-issue Breakworld story. The single Wolverine/Hope issue has a mystery artist until Greg Land comes on for the "Fear Itself" tie-in.

Gillen said that while there are no plans right now, he would love to get the young cast of "New X-Men" on the page to mix it up with the "Generation Hope" cast. Lowe added that for all the fans of the "New X-Men" cast, they'd be hard pressed to find a bigger fan of characters like Hellion, Surge and Rockslide than him. "All those kids are some of my favorite characters of all time," he said. "Young mutant characters will be coming up, just not in the next few months."

Gillen teased that there's some chance for Rockslide in the "Fear Itslef" arc, but he hadn't actually ran that past Lowe yet.