By Frank DeAngelo IV & Marc Strom
Divided they…speak?
The first of two X-MEN: DIVIDED WE STAND anthologies hits stands April 16,
catching you up with some of your favorite merry mutants and what they've been up to since the end of "Messiah CompleX" found them homeless and without a team to call their own. The first book, with stories starring Nightcrawler, Anole, Nehzno, and the Guthrie siblings, Cannonball and Husk, also features some of Marvel's top talent in writers Matt Fraction, Mike Carey, Skottie Young and the team of Craig Kyle and Chris Yost.
To warm you up for the main event, Marvel.com sat down with each of the writers to discuss their own stories…so really, you could say that we've "divided" your regular Tuesday Q&A into four smaller ones. Like how that mimesis works? We know you do. So buckle up, True Believer, because once this train gets going, it doesn't stop for anyone!
Matt Fraction on Nightcrawler
Marvel.com: In a nutshell, what is your Nightcrawler story about?
Matt Fraction: Looking for god in places that god doesn't necessarily lend him/her/itself to being found. And hunting the kinds of monsters that could execute a holocaust. And finding god in those monsters, and embracing both sides. Finding the divinity in forgiveness, and the righteousness in vengeance. Oh! And how to make the best migas in the world.
Man, that's an awful lot for just eight pages!
Marvel.com: Have the events of "Messiah CompleX" hit Kurt harder than those of previous X-events? How is he dealing with the post-"CompleX" world?
Matt Fraction: On the contrary, I think Kurt's dove deep into his faith and spirituality. I think the Nightcrawler we see here is really quite close to divine. In the face of a profound crisis of faith, he has somehow found the will and the belief to make that faith even stronger.
Marvel.com: Your artist on this story is Jamie McKelvie of Phonogram fame—what was it like working with him?
Matt Fraction: He's welsh, apparently, so, y'know how that goes.
Actually, it was great. I love Jamie's stuff, Phonogram was my favorite book last year, Suburban Glamour is surely in the running this year, and the idea of sneaking him in to Marvel was profoundly awesome to both of us. We batted characters around and came to Nightcrawler, both of us loving him and wanting very much to play with that particular toy. So it was a blast all around.
Marvel.com: Can we expect this story to set up any threads for your UNCANNY X-MEN run?
Matt Fraction: It shines a light on where Kurt's at in his head and his heart, and takes a very crucial piece of the [X-Men universe] off the board for a while. "Set up" might be overstating it some, but it definitely gives you an immediate glimpse at two of the extended cast...
Mike Carey on Cannonball & Husk
Marvel.com: What makes Cannonball's view of the fall out from "Messiah CompleX" unique and interesting to explore that other characters can't or don't offer?
Mike Carey: Well, what the story is exploring is the impact these events have had on him. He came into the crossover already pretty bruised from things that had happened to him in the months when he was a member of Rogue's team, and then he was almost brain-wiped by Sinister in "Blinded by the Light," which resulted in him being hospitalized for most of "Messiah CompleX." It's the psychological effects of those things on Sam that we're most interested in here, although obviously his feelings about the destruction of the mansion and the scattering of the X-Men surface too.
Marvel.com: Can you give us a little insight about the relationship between Paige and Sam?
Mike Carey: In the past it's been intensely competitive. Here we see the best side of Paige: she knows some of what Sam is going through, guesses at the rest of it, and wants to help him through it. That's easier said than done, though.
Marvel.com: What's it been like working with artist Brandon Peterson on this chapter of DIVIDED WE STAND?
Mike Carey: Working with Brando is always unmixed pleasure. You could have a story with two X-Men waiting for a bus, and he'd find a way to make it look dynamic and compelling. I've been itching to do another story with him ever since ULTIMATE VISION.
Chris Yost on Nehzno
Marvel.com: The ramifications of "Messiah CompleX" have hit all the X-Men differently—what has Nehzno lost that he could only find at the Xavier Institute?
Chris Yost: Nehzno has lost something he's never had, something that he pushed away while he was at the Institute...friends. People who are like him, who accepted him as he is. As you'll see, his return to Wakanda is not necessarily a welcome one, and not for the reasons you might think.
Marvel.com: Nehzno's powers have long been known to be a threat to his health—any chance we'll see the consequences here of the decisions he made during "Messiah CompleX?"
Chris Yost: You do, actually. One of the few things we
did learn about Nehzno in NEW X-MEN was that the more he uses his powers, the faster they'll consume him. A doctor has a scathing conversation and indictment of the X-Men for putting him in that position, and Nehzno's actions have consequences. He's in treatment, you could say.
Marvel.com: What can you tell us about Nehzno's decision to return to Wakanda after the dissolution of the X-Men?
Chris Yost: It wasn't his decision. He didn't want to come to the Institute, but he doesn't necessarily want to go home.
Marvel.com: Can you expand on the relationship Storm and Black Panther have with Nehzno and how they play into the story?
Chris Yost: You see snippets of interaction between Storm and Nehzno, who was largely absent during his time at the Institute, and you see the Panther greet him, when he arrives home. Both scenes are pretty telling; Storm knows what Nehzno did during "Messiah CompleX," and respects him. And Nehzno is a ward of the Wakandan government. Panther treats him as such, almost by necessity. We'll find out more about Nehzno's family in this story.
Nehzno's got a lot going on, and the X-Men may mean more to him than he even realized.
Skottie Young on Anole
Marvel.com: How has the X-Men falling apart hit Anole specifically?
Skottie Young: I don't think Anole is dealing with this very well at all. He was just starting to really fit in with his mates and finding his place at school and now it's all over. The kids always get a raw deal when these big events come along, don't they? It's all good and well for the X-Men to say "no more X-men" but then they still form groups...because what else would they do. But the kids just get thrown to the side and Anole isn't happy about that.
Marvel.com: You've drawn Anole before during your stint on NEW X-MEN—what was it like to have the opportunity to write him, as well?
Skottie Young: I had a blast drawing him and when [editor] Nick [Lowe] gave me a long list of characters to pick from, I just went straight for Anole. I like the teen
characters and started to feel close [to them throughout] my run. One of my fanboy complaints has always been that the teen characters always seem to look 30 years old. Pixie is like 12 or 13 and you'd never know that from some of the shots of her. Drawing these characters, and now writing them, I get to pacify my need to keep them feeling their actual age.
Anole is dealing with the X break up like a 16-year old would...hurt, angry, confused, etc. He's not going to go home and find himself in some random fight with some bad guy. He's going to home and [realize] that being apart of [the X-Men's world] has changed him in many ways. Some good and some not so much. I would love to write more [about] Anole and the others that got tossed out of school.
Marvel.com: How do you decide on an artistic style for any given story, and what can we expect for this one in particular?
Skottie Young: Lately I've really tried to push myself in new directions with my art and my writing. With writing I can craft the kind of story that I want to draw and not the story some think I might fit on. It's easy to get typecast with your art style and now that I've written a few of my own projects, I've gotten the chance to write two stories that have been very different than most of my previous scripts.
The art itself really depends on the tone of the story. I've tried to loosen up a bit lately and I think it fits well with this story. Anole is angry and confused a little, and the loose line style helps keep you off balance a bit while reading. Anole's life is a mess and unfinished at the moment, and that's the kind of lines I tried to apply here. An unfinished mess of a style.
X-MEN: DIVIDED WE STAND BOOK ONE comes to stores on April 16. While you wait, you can read more X-Men with Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited.
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