While I have respected his work on Iron Fist, totally dig his writing on Iron Man and look forward to seeing what he can manage with the mighty Thor, Matt Fraction’s X-Men series has been hit and miss with me, largely due to the fluctuation in artists. Additionally, it can’t be an easy task to plot such a convoluted team book that hinges on a family of similar books written by other creators all interlocking in a cohesive universe while maintaining a certain level of quality control. The past few years must have been interminable for Fraction as he piloted the good ship X through the Messiah CompleX, Manifest Destiny, Dark Reign and all of the many other events.
I just wish Terry Dodson would come back!
The recent addition of Kieron Gillen to the writer’s chair promises to enhance the already great series. For those not familiar with Gillen’s previous work for Marvel, S.W.O.R.D. is a fan favorite and his current run on Thor is nearing legendary as he sets the thunder god against the entirety of Hell.
Uncanny X-Men #504- by Terry Dodson
Gillen spoke to the folks at Digital Spy about his new appointment and the importance of late night gaming to his career (so listen up!):
How did you get involved with Uncanny X-Men and Generation Hope?
“I’d done previous work with the X-office before on the five issues of S.W.O.R.D. It didn’t quite get the readership but they were obviously happy with what I’d done with it, and they said, ‘We want to do something else with you’, and suggested Generation Hope. That was spinning off of Uncanny X-Men – where the first four of the new mutants appear – into the first arc, which deals with the final one. Matt and I are friends anyway. We’ve known each other from before I was doing comics in the main market. He had a plan already and I came in and we worked through his list, removing and changing some characters and adding some of my ideas. Then the idea of Uncanny was put forward. Matt’s very busy at the moment and so they thought that since we had been working together they would extend that. In a weird way it felt like we had been co-writing already with ‘The Five Lights’ arc. It was just formalising that already fledgling relationship.”Which characters are you most looking forward to writing?
“One of the jokes that I used to say was that Emily Aster from Phonogram was my White Queen audition tape. The White Queen is an enormously arch, incredibly bitchy creature with great flaw running down the centre – that’s the sort of character I’m very comfortable with writing. The characters I gravitate towards are normally the flawed ones. And the X-Men are pretty much nothing but flawed people. They are outsiders by their nature. That makes them awkward. Even Cyclops, who is the closest thing to a ‘true hero’ figure, is not Steve Rogers. He’s awkward. He always has to try too hard. There’s that element to him. I’m lucky enough to find most of the characters interesting in that way. And I’m looking forward to Namor.”Generation Hope will begin in November. Gillen will debut as co-writer in December’s Uncanny X-Men #531.
Read the entire interview here.
Also by Kieron Gillen:
Dark Avengers: Ares
Phonogram: Rue Britannia
X-Men: S.W.O.R.D. - No Time to Breathe
Thor: Latverian Prometheus
