I believe it was Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock who said, “It takes two to make a thing go right.” While this situation may be different from what they were alluding to, it’s hard to say that the dynamic writing duo of Craig Kyle and Chris Yost have done anything but make things go right. Both writers found their way into Marvel comics through Marvel’s Hollywood office after working together on the “X-Men: Evolution” animated series where X-23 made her debut. Drafted to further explore the Wolverine clone’s story after her debut in NYX, the writing team jumped aboard New X-Men shortly after dishing out the first X-23 mini-series. With a new X-23 series as well as their second year on New X-Men set to begin December 13, I grabbed the boys to talk comics, Hollywood and video games.

Agent M: Alright, what brought you guys together as a writing team?
Craig Kyle: Chris, you want to start?
Chris Yost: Uh...no.
Kyle: [Laughs] Well, I was working at Marvel at the time in the animation division and Chris came to work for us while he was finishing up Grad school. So how long were you here for, about six months?
Yost: Yeah, six months.
Kyle: He did a lot of work while he was here, researching and whatnot, but Chris was already focusing on his writing. That's why he was in Grad school; he's very talented. We're both very creative people and hit it off. It was right around that time that I sent the pitch to New York for X-23.
I was doing "X-Men Evolution," and I needed Joe [Quesada's] if I was going to monkey with Wolverine's history like that. Fortunately, he was very cool and very supportive of it and really liked the idea. Greg Johnson, our Story Editor, liked the character and the idea so much, he thought it would be great to do an episode focused on her and bring her into the series.
I definitely wasn't a polished writer at the time and Chris has serious chops, so he and I sat down and said this was something we would like to do together. The X-23 origin in "X-Men Evolution" was the first project he and I ever wrote together.
Yost: That's exactly what happened. [Laughs]
AM: So Craig, you created X-23 before Chris came along?
Kyle: Yeah, I had to write up a page and a half pitch document to express what the idea was. She was kind of a solution to a problem. We were getting a lot of heat from the network to try and find a way to incorporate Wolverine in a bigger way, but the way "Evolution" was structured, he was an adult and the kids we were focused on were much younger. You couldn't just start the next season with him just being a kid all of a sudden. The more you think about trying to reinvent Wolverine, what you figure out is he's so successful because he's such a perfect idea. He's been fine-tuned over the years, but he started out at an amazing place.
So the solution for me was looking back at his past and trying to remake him in a way that was interesting, compelling and--when you step back and look at it--it's the equal and opposite of him. If you look at her, she's a young little girl. He's older than we know. She knows all of the evils she's committed. He, at the time, was unaware of them. She is trying to move forward in her life after committing all these evil acts. She got to answer the question, at the time, which was if Wolverine knew everything that he did during that time, would he have been a hero. And that's how Chris and I approached her storyline. If you were shackled with all those deeds and all you thought about when you looked at your past were the people you've killed and that's all you know, how do you grow beyond that? How do you become a real, living person when all you've known is death and murder? So, then we had to find the Saturday morning version. [Laughs]. Not an easy task.
AM: So you had the comic version down before you had the animated version?
Kyle: When he and I create--we've done quite a few animated episodes together, of X-Men and otherwise--we always think of the most emotional, the most compelling, the most exciting version, which is normally the one you'd find in a comic book. You don't have as many rules and regulations to get in your way, so you can tell the purest story possible. And then you've gotta find that way to translate it to the proper audience. So with Saturday morning, you've gotta watch the violence, the sensuality, the romance and all that stuff. But I think that episode really stands up. I think it didn't lose much of the heart or the trauma that we ended up telling in the first X-23 mini-series.
Yost: I think it's really a testament to the character that she's still around years later. People love her.
Kyle: It surprised both of us. We never expected her popularity, but, again, when she's based on Wolverine, that gives her a huge leg up. And when you have someone like [Josh] Middleton drawing her in her first comic book appearance and Quesada did a beautiful job conveying her character, she was given a fair shake when she first hit. Which is great for Chris and I, because it gave us a chance to tell the proper origin in the comics.
Yost: That's the great thing about the two mini-series. That is really the pure vision of X-23. People will be able to go back and look at these 12 issues and know who that character is.
Kyle: I think she was really in the right place. I think the issue is, "Was she a prostitute or was she not?" It's kind of been a back and forth issue. But as the person who thought her up and then with Chris brought her to everybody in "X-Men Evolution," I think that's such an obvious place she could have gone because she has no ties, she has no understanding of the world. And sexuality's a part of being a human being. If this is a character trying to find out what it is to be human, that's one more step in her evolution. She can't be victimized. No one's going to abuse her. They're gonna end up dead if they try it. [Laughs] It's not like you're looking at a character who can be abused and mistreated in that way. She won't allow that, and physically, it can't happen. The physical and mental torment she went through happened in our series, our mini-series, which was a very tragic story for her. I think the events that unfolded in NYX were a much brighter chapter in her life.
AM: And things are brighter for her in New X-Men, where she's starting to build a family.
Yost: With New X-Men, for the first year she was very much in the background. There were few moments where she really shined. But in the new arc, you're gonna see the New X-Men characters start to realize that they have no idea who X-23 is. And they're about to learn, kind of the hard way.
AM: The New X-Men arc you're about to start with #32 and X-23: Target X are connected, correct?
Yost: I would say that the New X-Men story is almost like a sequel to Target X where you're going to see characters from Target X showing up in New X-Men. Target X takes place probably two years before New X-Men and it's the continuing story of her origin and what she did after the first mini-series. It really picks up right from there. It gives you more of her horrific upbringing. It really was about as bad as you can imagine.
Kyle: And as much as people saw in that Innocence Lost mini, that was really her mother's story. How a scientist became a mother...or a monster became a mother. X-23's story really happens after that. She didn't make any choices until the last issue or so and you can't have a hero or protagonist who's not making their own choices.
AM: What's the thrust of Target X and how is it connected to New X-Men?
Kyle: [Target X] is the two missing years. We intentionally left that open because there's still too much to cover and there were all these events that we planned to show. Fortunately, Axel Alonso has been such a supporter of ours. He was really pushing to get this out and he knows that people want to see it. Now you're going to see what she went through from her point of view; what she went through and how she felt about it. Whereas before, it was everyone else's reaction to her and what they experienced on her life. If you want to get a sense of who she is and how she came to be the character in NYX and in New X-Men, this will answer all those questions.
The point has always been to tell the origin, express her beginnings completely which we think Target X will help us do and really connect it to NYX where we think she came into the world in the right place and the right way. Sooner or later we're going to stop working with this character. We're just trying to give her a good enough base so whoever handles her next knows who she is and are inspired to tell great stories for her.
AM: She’s a relatively new character, but she has deep ties to the Marvel U. Can you explain that a bit?
Yost: This series is what kind of creates those ties. In the first series, X-23 was killing, professionally. That kind of action has consequences. She killed a vice presidential candidate, ya know? That's not going to go unnoticed. Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. say, "Oh. Well, we should probably do something." You'll see exactly what they do about it.
Kyle: Chris put it perfectly. You take that many lives and you become the enemy and ally of many. This is definitely going to explore that.
AM: Aside from Captain America and Daredevil, do any other characters show up in Target X?
Yost: Kingpin, Nick Fury.
Kyle: The Kingpin part of this saga is something that I think Chris and I are both really proud of. I think it really speaks great to his character and we love the way these two lives have come in contact with one another. It was something that was seeded in the very first mini-series. He was one of the guys who was bidding on her services. It's very cool to see how these lives connected.
AM: How about that Wolverine fella?
Yost: Yes, Issues #1-#5 of Target X build up to their very first meeting in issue #6, and it's all out claw on claw fighting, healing factor vs. healing factor, to the death.
There's another character who's going to be in both Target X and New X-Men named Kimura. She's going to be a pretty major part of both stories.
Kyle: She was just introduced in [New X-Men] #31.
Yost: The epilogue to #31 where the Purifiers are contacting Kimura and the scientist from the facility. The Purifiers have a job for them.
Kyle: She and X-23 have a huge history.
Yost: It's nasty.
AM: It's gonna be bloody?
Kyle: [Laughs] As it appears that most things Chris and I do are, yes.
Yost: [Laughs] We're not violent people, it just comes out that way.
AM: So going back to New X-Men, are you guys killing off the rest of the team in Year 2?
Kyle: [Laughs] Could we? Probably.
Yost: There's 17 other kids there. [Laughs] Any one of them could step up at any time.
Kyle: God forbid they take a carpool somewhere.
AM: You guys just don't like buses. Seriously, though, how have you guys reacted to the fans who’ve been upset with so many characters dying?
Yost: You know, my reaction is: 42 characters died on that bus. Name 10 of them. [Laughs] Grant Morrison killed 16 million people. After "Decimation," the mandate was to show that the world has changed. Mutants are screwed and I think we showed that.
Kyle: That really was our job and Chris put it very politely. Here's the deal. Somebody comes in and kills a character, years from now someone will come in and bring them back to life. This is comics. People walk off death like a charlie horse. For Chris and I, we had a very specific plan. We didn't take one more life than we intended to. We didn't save one more than we planned.
...Well, that's not true. Rockslide was going to die and I pushed for him to live. That is a big reveal. Chris was going to kill him and I said, "No, we need him." What's crazy about that is Chris does a lot of his dialogue, which is really funny, and he's gonna kill the guy who's all the comedy relief. That's why Chris is an enigma.
But the people who are upset about it aren't focused on the one's we've kept or how we're doing our best to elevate them to the ranks of the A-team. We want these guys to be the greats. We want these characters to succeed and we want other writers and creative teams to be excited to write them, not just have them be the ones who get their asses kicked on page six for a joke. We can only do that if we're given the page space and the time to focus on a select few.
So yes, we killed what we feel was very much fat and we're proud of that. We don't make any apologies for it. Why would we make these choices then be like, "You're right, that was stupid." We don't feel that way. We're very happy with our choices and we think we've done great justice to the characters that remain. And yeah, life's gonna be miserable for these kids next year. Chris and I are not kind and loving gods, but we think that every time they survive one of our issues, they become that much closer to what they've always meant to be. That's our journey for them. Sitting around and attending prom is not gonna make them the next Wolverine. As much as people say, "I don't like him," we would all be lucky if our characters were loved as much as that guy.
AM: I think the passion people have for the book speaks to how well you guys are doing on it.
Kyle: If you go by the people who b***h about us, we're the top one book. But it's great. People are reading it. They say they're not, but from what we understand, most people have hung in there and are giving us a chance. We really only want the book to be great. Whatever we can bring to it to get it where it needs to be, we'll keep trying.
AM: Speaking of things you're going to bring, you brought back Stryker and Nimrod in the first year. Who or what’s on tap this year--Gateway?
Yost: Uh-huh.
Kyle: The little aborigine guy who opens the gates? I know a few guys here and there, sure. [Laughs] Chris is like the Encyclopedia of the Marvel Universe, but after the '90s, I'm like, "What happened?"
Yost: There's two characters I want to bring back. But that's totally outside of year two, that'd be in year three.
Kyle: Year three? You're killin' me.
Yost: Well, obviously, in issue #32, Selene the Black Queen came back onto the scene and absconded with young Wither. Then in the "Mercury Falling" arc, there's the facility we created in X-23 and the new entity that we've created for this arc. That will be pretty rough.
After that, it cannot be said. It's major and it's something that'll get pretty much everybody's attention. Sadly, my lips are sealed. Craig?
Kyle: We're trying to tell stories that we think the current fans love, but we always speak to what we love. It's more looking back into the past and seeing what things are unresolved or waiting to be continued. We're trying to bring back what we love about previous teams and previous villains and just carry that torch.
Yost: The great thing about the story is that not only does it have everything to do with X-Men history, it actually has an amazing amount to do with the run previous to ours, Academy X.
AM: I dunno if you can talk about this either. Your intro to the X-verse came through "Decimation," a crossover of sorts. There’re rumblings of a big X-event coming in ’07. Will we see the New X-Men kids embroiled in that?
Kyle: You bet your ass they will.
Yost: They'll be right in the middle of it.
Kyle: They're not getting left home to wait for the adults to come back. They're gonna kick some ass on their own. To keep these kids out there and give them a fair chance, they've gotta be in the fight. They can't be waiting for their rides out into the middle of the battlefield.
We're thrilled to be a part of this and it's exciting. It's not like these kids don't screw up. We love that they're the unpolished heroes and do make a lot of mistakes, but they've gotta be in there swinging with the best of them. Otherwise, they're just sidekicks.
Yost: It's a huge story and the kids are gonna be in over their heads and that's just the way we like it.
AM: Now changing gears, you guys’ve lucked out with great artists on both X-23 and New X-Men--Billy Tan, Mike Choi and Sandra Obeck, Mark Brooks and Paco Medina. Who else do you want to work with?
Kyle: [Laughs] Lemme just say that your'e right. We have been so fortunate. The guys and gals we've had the pleasure to work with has been beyond our wildest dreams.
Yost: I've got a Christmas list of who I'd like to work with. Sienkiewicz, obviously, would make me explode. I'm a big fan of Jae Lee. McNiven is on fire. Cassaday is always amazing. I could go on forever.
Kyle: Yeah, I agree. I met McNiven one time at a show and he's just so talented. He was talking about some big event that marvel had offered him to keep close to home and he was so excited about it. Who knew that he'd be talking about Civil War a year ago. [Laughs] It's wonderful to see how that panned out. he's such a great guy, I would have loved to have worked with him. It seems like we just missed each other when we were starting the X-23 mini-series. Billy did such a fantastic job. I actually have the cover to #3; I'm staring at it right now. It's a prized possession. And next to that is the Josh Middleton NYX #3 cover.
There's two people who I really want to work with. And let me add Joe Quesada to that list. I keep wanting him to do a variant for us, but it just hasn't happened. If Joe's reading--what's up. he just did some work on the Iron Man direct to DVD and he does such kickass work, we'd love to see him grace one of our books. He's got a full slate and we know, but maybe someday he'll stop in and give us a little New X-Men or X-23 love.
The two fanboy ones for me, aside from the list that Chris gave, are Arthur Adams. He's just so talented and I would do anything to see him draw X-23. There's a part of me that knows she'll really be real when he's drawn her once.
The last one is kinda weird, but it's James Jean. I think Fables is a great book and his covers are some of the most mind-bending pieces I've ever seen. Just the way he can construct a story in such bizarre and wonderful imagery. I'd love to see him do a translation of the two mini-series we're working on right now. To see him capture X-23's origin story in a two page piece would be spectacular.
AM: Now Chris, you’ve dabbled in a few books outside of X-23 and New X-Men. Can we expect more of that in 2007?
Yost: Nope! [Laughs] Between New X-Men and X-23 and the animation, that's about all I've got time for.
AM: What about you, Craig?
Kyle: Yeah, that's the funny thing. Without Chris, none of this would be possible for me. We do creative work together and we each have our strengths. The guy can chrew through pages. He's just a machine, whereas I am a miserable, tragic character. [Writing] is like pooping knives for me. It's ugly and I don't want to be near anybody. Together, we deliver what we think is quality work and we're cautious to try and spend as much time as we can on these projects.
We really never wanted to carry two projects at once. We were offered another big title last year and we turned it down. Bigger than New X-Men at the time. We made a commitment. We said we were gonna do [the New X-Men] run for a year and we knew if we took on the title at the time, we would've been overwhelmed and couldn't meet the quality demands being asked of us. We scratch our heads now: Should we have taken it or not? It would've still been going now and I think it would've been too much.
Doing the X-23 mini-series and New X-Men--pretty difficult, especially for me. Chris is doing a great job just maintaining the thrust of work. We're managing. There's a few more things planned out.
Thngs keep coming up to us and we just can't turn them down. We're fanboys and we love the stuff and it's just so hard to say no when all you want to do is more, more more.
Yost: Oh, that's right. There's another mini-series coming out.
Kyle: If it all shakes out, it should be a really fun, short mini. Overwhelming to even think about it. [Laughs]
AM: And what are you each working on, as far as your animation projects go?
Kyle: Ugh. [Laughs]
Yost: He's working on everything. [Laughs]
Kyle: I'll do my day job quick, but Chris can't really talk about what he's working on. My job--and it is a wondrous job--allows me to oversee all the creative on all the Marvel animation. We're just locking up "Dr. Strange"--it'll be completed in the next two weeks. The animation is beautiful, done by a Japanese animation studio. The story is moving. Frank Paur did such a beautiful job on it and "Iron Man." I think both of these films really speak to why we got into this business in the first place. Greg Johnson did a great job telling the stories and finding a way to tell the origins in a new way without losing sight with what was important to the fans.
We're working on movie five right now, which is "Teen Avengers." That's not Young Avengers in a new way, it's kind of a second generation Avengers story that we're just about to hand in the first draft on and we're working on the development artworks--very exciting stuff there. We're in post on "Fantastic Four." We're working on the bible for the "Iron Man" animated series. We're in pre-production and development--somewhere between those two phases--on "Wolverine and the X-Men." Spider-Man is always circling somewhere in the distance and it looks like it's getting closer every day. And we're in talks right now on two other potential series that are at rough idea phase, not even at a development place. I think by the first of the year we'll be in full swing development on those.
And I think we're going to be going out to writers on the very unannounced movie six. So...that's my stuff.
AM: You're not wanting for anything, huh?
Kyle: No. [Laughs] I'm a little overwhelmed. And I'm the father of a six-month-old that my wife is doing her best to raise by herself.
AM: Oh that's nice! [Laughs] Chris?
Yost: I do a little of this and a little of that. All of my stuff is upcoming and I can't really talk about it yet.
Kyle: Chris will definitely be involved in some of the upcoming projects that we're working on, but to what extent we just can't say yet. He just wrapped up being story editor on "FF." He did a great job on that. And he's written some episodes from "Wolverine and the X-Men." You can talk about that, Chris.
Yost: Yeah, there's gonna be a new "Wolverine and the X-Men" series and I think it's gonna be pretty darn amazing. As a comic book fan, it's gonna be pretty spectacular.
Kyle: How many episodes did you write?
Yost: Six so far?
Kyle: And you helped break some stories on the others.
AM: You guys do a good interview together.
Kyle: [Laughs] Yeah, we do our best. And it's so funny. We don't really spend much time in the same room, but we do a lot of phone calls.
AM: Before we sign off--I know you’re a big gamer, Craig. What about you, Chris?
Yost: Not yet.
AM: Okay. Craig, where do you stand on the next generation--360, PS3 or Wii?
Kyle: That's the thing man, I love my 360. I love it! And sadly, with work and family, I get very little time to play. I only get to play maybe two hours a week if I'm lucky and that's usually between the hours of midnight and two on a weekend. But I love it. I love the online community; I love to game. Chris is finally getting off his ass to get his own 360, so we're very excited about that.
If Wii is as fun as it seems it is, that seems like a great thing that I could actually get my wife to play again. That would be wonderful. PS3--really expensive. I don't really care about HD DVD yet and I think by the time I do, it'll be download anyway. PS3 is gonna have to have some really kickass content for me to get excited about it.
But right now, I have all the systems that are out, so I wouldn't be shocked, down the road, getting them all.
Sony does a beautiful job with their systems and they do make great games, but right now looking at what's out there and Xbox obviously has the lead. And I'm a Halo whore. That's what I live for.
We need some new first person shooters. What happens is all the good players, fun guys and educated people move onto the next game and then you get stuck with the bottom feeders. It's a real drag to play with a bunch of jerks. You can give out my gamertag if you want to. What I need to find are people who like comics and are decent and not inbred racist. I'm hoping that the Marvel fanbase are a cut above the casual gamer I run into at 2am on Xbox Live. It's MrWaltDisney. Even if they hate New X-Men and X-23, it's fine. As long as they're good comic book folk, just have them send me a message and I'll put 'em on my friends list so I have good options to play with.
AM: Will they find you playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance?
Kyle: Oh yeah. I was lucky enough to play it a month before it got released, so I've played the hell out of that game. It's spectacular. I love that game. Ames Kirshen on [the Marvel] side and the folks who put that game together did a beautiful job. To me, that's your first real step into the Marvel Universe. On the Studios side, we're just making stuff move. He's letting you jump inside the skins of these characters. It just doesn't get any better than that.
Yost: That's the game that's forcing me to buy an Xbox 360.
Klye: It's great. And it's so gorgeous. When my wife stops and says, "That looks sweet," that's something. Yeah, I play that. Can't put Halo down. Burnout Revenge--love it. I like a lot of the popular games. And sometimes I'll be playing Uno. I'm not on all the time, but I just need some fun people to play with. Thankfully, Chris will be joining us soon. So if our books run late, now you know.
Yost: Or, we might get more done because we can just chat online about the books. [Laughs]

Five from the Fans: Five questions pulled straight from the Marvel.com message boards.

When will they stop dying? - comixkid2099
Yost: They stopped dying in issue 28, five months ago.
Kyle: What he said.

It is my feeling and concern that X-23 is being portrayed in an unsavoury light. I feel that her physical appearance and feminine charms are being used to sell the character - and you can understand that my concern is directly related to the fact that she is an underage minor. I do not want this to start a trend in comics where youths are portrayed as their much older and mature counterparts in a gratuitous light. I feel that she should have moved forward from the life of teenage prostitution she had to endure before - and I use that term here now since it is a theme in the comic you are selling.
My question is why does Target-X need to be told as a story? Why do we need to have X-23 returned to such degradation in a comic book? Why is it needed to extrapolate on an origin story that is already much too gritty for mainstream comics? If this is indeed a great story - and I know you both are talented creators - do the ends justify the means of presenting such subject matter simply to tell a comic book story? – excelsiorii
Yost: I'll be more than happy to respond to this after you've read the book, which comes out in a few weeks. Until then, there's no point. The image on the cover of two is a relevant story point, and not necessarily what you think it is.
Kyle: As writers, it's our job to create worlds, characters and events that are truthful to the story being told. We will at times create admirable and honorable characters, while at others we'll craft the most despicable and horrifying. We will delve into each of these characters as if we are them and embrace what needs to be present in their hearts, minds, souls to make them honest to themselves and to the audience...Because that is our job. The only thing we cannot do is sanitize the dress, direction or life of character just to make a reader more comfortable. That goes against everything good storytelling is and should be. X-23's story is being told truthfully. How she dresses applies directly to the life she has been given and the story we are telling. To change her for you or anyone else for that matter, would betray the character and the fans who have invested their time, money and passion into her story. As for this specific cover, I think people see what they want in this image. Some see a samurai sword trying to be a little girl, while others simply see cheesecake. You've made your choice as to what this cover is, now please let everyone else make theirs. Mahalo.

Will the Cuckoos status in Warsong have any effect on New X-Men? - ExodusCloak
Yost: Absolutely.
Kyle: Agreed!

You've been teasing us with cameos by "2nd-tier" students like Anole, Match and Pixie. Any chance any of them (or some of the students that appear elsewhere, like the girl from Astonishing) will be joining the New X-Men anytime soon in the aftermath of the death and debris you left for us over the past year? (I say that in a good way, and THANK YOU for being some of the few creators today making consistent nods to continuity/the past, especially that final Nimrod twist. Sweet maple syrup!) - moj8681
Yost: Look for more students to be involved in a major way very soon. And yes--new team members.
Kyle: Chris and I worked hard to dust off the A team we’re working with so now it’s time we set our sights on those hiding in the background. And that’s “sights,” like the sight of a loaded gun. :)

Until my cover’s blown…

Agent M -Your Spy inside the House of Ideas