Steve Ekstrom @ Newsarama

 

Flashback to the summer of 1991—older readers remember that summer well—every time they look at their five copies of X-Men #1. It wasn’t long after the launch of Marvel’s second X-Men title that Chris Claremont left his tenured 16 year position as writer of the X-Men for unknown pastures...

...but What If he hadn’t?

That’s a big “What If?” - so big, in fact, that Marvel is giving Claremont a new monthly title to pick up where he left off at the end of X-Men #3. This weekend at the New York Comic Con—Marvel announced its plans for X-Men: Forever. Written by Claremont and drawn by Tom Grummett, X-Men Forever allows Claremont to pick up where he left off...18 years ago—just minutes after the Children of the Atom believed they had destroyed Magneto once and for all.

Newarama contacted Claremont and Grummett to discuss what’s in store for the X-Men of 1992 again...but like never before.

Newsarama: Have these plans for the X-Men been laying in wait for 18 years? Or are these all new?

Chris Claremont: Plans never “lie” in wait; they go out for strolls, they get into arguments, they strike up a conversation with other ideas and the next thing you know, they have grandchildren you never saw coming. Sometimes, they find themselves attracted to a different project and make a new life for themselves, while other ideas wander in from parts unknown and take up permanent residence. Sorta like Wisteria Lane. It would be a sad thing if these ideas had been sitting in limbo for 18 years. The world that they—and we—inhabit today is far different from the one that existed in 1991-92. Can you imagine what it would be like if we were all still listening to Marky Mark and watching Kevin Costner run around in green tights? Seriously, though, there are some touchstones with these characters than remain true, regardless. That’s the foundation on which we build.

NRAMA: Looking back at your body of work on the X-Men--was this concept difficult to come back to? How hard is it to ignore nearly 20 years of continuity?

CC: Coming back to the X-Men is never difficult. Quite the contrary, it’s a true pleasure, like visiting old and dear friends. [X-Men] Forever allows me not just to pick up where I left off, but to show the reader the unexpected. Forever allows me to pick up where I left off with the freedom to take the series in whole new—and unfettered—directions. The characters here are totally up for grabs. All of the presumptions that we’ve gotten used to over time no longer apply; relationships that we’ve come to take for granted are suddenly cast in question.

Think about that a moment—say we’re used to a romantic relationship between a couple of characters. But suppose that applecart gets overturned, suppose one of the characters finds themselves attracted to someone new and unexpected, what then? Suppose we go down that road, where might it lead?

Readers will discover right from the start, in the on-line preview, the events of the “Magneto” trilogy which appeared to bring that story to its conclusion, burst open a door on a whole new world. I put it to readers who think they know me and the X-Canon—to guess correctly where I’m taking you from here—you have no idea.

NRAMA: What can readers expect initially from X-Men Forever? Will various aspects of both the old-school "adjectiveless" X-Men and Uncanny X-Men be addressed in a single title?

CC: The readers should take nothing for granted. This iteration of X-Men is different, nothing is guaranteed, their lives are at risk. Actions—decisions, choices—have consequences and those consequences can’t simply be erased. This series will be defined by such an event, and that event will have immediate and profound—and lasting—ramifications on the X-Men as a whole. It’ll strike at the very foundation of their lives, both as superheroes and as human beings. The thing I want readers to be aware of from the start is that they should not expect anything approaching the “same-old, same-old.” I am blazing new trails, I mean to catch the readers by surprise.

NRAMA: Tom, is it a little strange drawing older versions of modern characters?

Tom Grummett: I never really thought of it as strange... I was too busy having fun with it! Admittedly, it's a unique concept we're playing with, but the X-Men are iconic heroes, whatever incarnation you choose. I just sit back and enjoy the experience of drawing these great characters.

NRAMA: Have you been allowed to revise or create new concepts for these characters?

TG: My first task on joining the team was to come up with new costume designs for the cast...a nice way to ease into a project like this. It gave me a chance to get over a touch of stage fright, and get a handle on each character—to acknowledge that they are the X-Men—not 'the Alternate X-Men', or 'the X-Men re-imagined'. Some of the new designs are a real departure from what fans have been used to, so reactions should be interesting.

NRAMA: Tom, how different are the comics of today in comparison to the comics of 1991?

TG: Comics have evolved, certainly...just as every other creative medium—television, film, and books—have changed over time. What hasn't changed is our mandate: to entertain our audience.

NRAMA: Chris, the X-Men were probably at their largest number when X-Men started in 1991—will you be thinning the ranks somewhat?

CC: The preview sets the stage: this is X-Men honed down to its essence.

NRAMA: How does the continuity of this book exist in terms of the standard 616 Marvel Universe? Is there now a "Claremont-universe"?

CC: In both form and substance, the world of this series is very much like that of the standard 616 Marvel Universe. The setting is contemporary. The year is 2009. The original trilogy that frames the start of this series occurs just prior to the events of Forever. From that point on, anything goes. Everything is up for grabs.

NRAMA: What sorts of threats will these X-Men be facing initially?

CC: For years, the X-Men think they have it covered. They think, with Magneto defeated, they’ve won. Their world is secure. They are so very, very wrong. There is a threat out there that even Charles Xavier knows nothing about—and a threat within the X-Community that is barely a glimmering thought.

I may be picking up numerically where I left off but this series is very much about characters facing the challenges of the early 21st century. What hasn’t changed—will never change—is that this book is the story of a group of gifted, haunted people, trying to live their lives as best they can while facing threats both to their own future and that of the world around them. They face choices, and those choices will always have consequences. Nothing can be taken for granted. Especially survival.

NRAMA: Are there any plot points from 1991 that you are not going to be carrying out that you wanted to address before? And if so, can you tell readers some of your discarded plans from before...

CC: Why not simply read the book and then tell me?

Quote:

 

Plans never “lie” in wait; they go out for strolls, they get into arguments, they strike up a conversation with other ideas and the next thing you know, they have grandchildren you never saw coming.

Anne

Feb 6 2009, 08:18 PM

Super cool! When does this come out? Did I miss that part?

Jesse Schedeen @ IGN

 

IGN Comics: This is definitely a unique concept. Can you talk about how X-Forever came about? Was it something Marvel editorial pitched to you, or was it an idea you had been working on for a while?

Chris Claremont: It was an idea I had some years ago. Mark Paniccia had the thought of giving it a try in the context of modern publishing. I'd put it to bed a while ago, simply because the X-Men had moved on. The reality that I was playing with when I first came up with the idea has no relationship whatsoever to the X-Men world as it exists today. Mark found a way to marry the two elements together, to find a way to present the story in a context that makes it exciting and relevant to the modern reader. Once that happened it's just a matter of rolling the ball down hill and watching it gather speed and enthusiasm as it goes.

The most enticing and intriguing aspect of X-Men Forever from my point of view is that it gives me a chance to go back to a time when conceptually the characters were fresh. Bear in mind that in the world as it's being presented in Forever, Gambit has only been on the stage for maybe a half dozen issues. Certainly not more than ten. Rogue is a very young character. Relationships are very much up in the air. Nothing is anywhere near as defined as it has become in the run of comics in general and with the X-Men in specific. So to me as a writer, there is a tremendous amount of potential and flexibility and, in real terms, excitement tied in with the characters and the lives they're living. So I suppose, in a sense, you have the best of both worlds. You're dealing with an established world and established characters, but at the same time blazing new and exciting trails.

IGN Comics: When you say this is an idea you've had for years, are you basically working from the same plot outlines and ideas you would have used if you had continued beyond X-Men #3?

Claremont: As with any series - as with any group of characters, especially when you're working from a foundation that is as rich and varied as the X-Men – the minute you start kicking things back and forth and mixing things up, new inspirations pop out of nowhere. New directions visit themselves. Mark and I both think that the one significant advantage to all of this is that, unlike X-Men or Uncanny, we're not restricted by the need to keep the characters intact for the corporation. We are actually free to present a world where everyone is at risk.

The thing with X-Men, the thing with Uncanny, the thing with Superman, the thing with Batman, the thing with Spider-Man is that no matter what adversary they come up against, no matter what threat or challenge, deep down inside you know that nothing really is going to happen. Spidey will always survive. The devil will find a way to split him and Mary Jane up, and who knows, God will find a way to bring them back together again. Anything is possible. But the one truth is that no one is going to kill off Lois Lane, no one is going to kill off Superman, no one is going to kill Batman. The thing with Forever is we don't have that restriction. If a character is at risk and that character dies, that character is dead, now and forever. And we make that clear right off the bat, if for no other reason than that the preview begins with a memorial service for Magneto.

He is indeed dead. I killed him – he stays dead. If I want to bring him back, I just have to tell myself "Tough s—t. Find something better." And oddly enough, the search for something better could lead to something altogether different and quite exciting. As a matter of fact, the process of creating the first arc of stories led us to a situation with one of the major characters where a completely unexpected story direction presented itself. In conversation Mark and I batted the idea back and forth, and we found ourselves with a whole new presentation for that character and the story as a whole which, to our minds, feels extremely cool. We're both intrigued to see how it's going to turn out.

What very much differentiates this series from other series is that consequences are real and lasting, and possibilities are, for want of a better term, limited. We are not locked into the existing continuity of the last 40 years. We can play. We can come up with ideas that are totally different and yet, totally logical, and see where it turns out. Ideally the readers will enjoy the ride and keep it going for quite a while.

IGN Comics: One of the elements you introduced back in those three issues of X-Men was the concept of the Blue and Gold teams. That incarnation of the X-Men is still one of the most popular. Are you keeping the roster basically the same, or are you going to be making changes right off the bat?

Claremont: That was in a world where we had two separate and different books. We had X-Men and Uncanny. We don't have X-Men and Uncanny now, we just have Forever. Actually, in a very real sense, what we are in the process of doing is focusing in on those characters we think are fun and essential and readers might not be able to get along without. Others are left to the background for future reference, but our focus is on a specific team that is going to be different from anything we've seen before.

IGN Comics: In terms of villains and side characters, Omega Red is an example of a character who was introduced shortly after you left the series. Are you reserving the right to use characters like Omega Red that were created after your run, or are you sticking to your own original creations?

Claremont: Actually, our feeling is that we're taking it as completely fresh and original as possible. We're not going to use anyone who's been established, except maybe the Sentinels. If you want to read the X-Men from a totally new and different perspective with original adversaries and original circumstances, that's what Forever is for.

IGN Comics: I wanted to ask you a couple questions about the art. Particularly with the Alpha issue reprinting those three Jim Lee issues, are you and Tom trying to maintain a similar look and feel with Forever?

Claremont: Well, we're trying to create art from an extraordinarily talented penciler, you know? In 1991 it was Jim Lee, and in 2009 it's Tom Grummet. It's always a case of going with the best, and we're very fortunate that Tom is the best. He's a great storyteller and a superb draftsman, and the pencils thus far look absolutely great. It's not a matter of comparing A to B. It's a matter of presentation of the characters, of the eloquence of their expressions and physicality, and the quality of the stories that we're telling. In those regards, Tom is exceptional. I don't think anybody will be disappointed in what he's producing. We should have pencils on display at the convention this weekend.

IGN Comics: I'll be looking forward to those.

Claremont: Me too.

IGN Comics: What about in terms of costumes? Are you sticking with the Jim Lee designs, or are you moving away from those?

Claremont: The first issue picks up picks up right where X-Men #3 left off. It's very much the fourth issue, and the story is the search for Fabian Cortez. As we move through deeper into the saga, the benchmark phrase is "anything goes". You'll see change and evolution. This isn't a historical saga. It is not set in 1991. It's set in 2009. The characters themselves will reflect the reality we live in and the tastes that exist in terms of presentation today. And again, this isn't a matter of reproducing what Jim did, it's giving Tom a chance to really kick ass and take names. And he's doing a wonderful, wonderful job.

IGN Comics: Is it true the two of you have already been working on this book for a long time now?

Claremont: Yes. Probably about a year now that I think about it. But what matters is not necessarily how long you've been working on it but what emerges in the end. And what has been emerging so far is really choice.

IGN Comics: I assume there's going to be a very instant appeal with X-Men Forever to the readers who were enjoying the X-books back in the late '80s and early '90s. But what about those that came into he franchise with something like Grant Morrison's New X-Men or Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men? Will they be able to approach Forever as easily as the more long-term readers?

Claremont: I would hope so. That's our job isn't it? It's not simply a matter of appealing to so-called Claremont fans or so-called fans of the X-Men in 1991 or fans today. Hopefully people who have never read comics at all will show enthusiasm, take advantage of the commercial opportunity, and pick up the first issue and like it and want to see what happens next. The story of the X-Men is a very real thing.

The advantage of Forever is that it is presenting the X-Men at a specific point in their lives when they haven't been around as long as the characters have been in Uncanny or Astonishing. It's a younger, fresher sweep of characters. Bear in mind, the world of 1991 in those first three issues was not a world that had gone through Grant's "millions of mutants". This is a world where mutants are very few and far between, where the realities of their lives are very different from what we're used to seeing these days.

One of the surprise benefits that came out of rethinking the concept was a realization and an inspiration that, quite frankly, has revolutionized the way Mark and I are looking at it. It's taking an approach to these characters and their lives that is totally different – fundamentally different – from any that has been presented before at Marvel, and definitely in the X-Men. It pretty much changes the whole game as far as the X-Men are concerned. It freed us to take the events of the first three issues and apply real-world standards.

As an example, imagine what would happen if a private individual took control of two dozen thermonuclear missiles, removed them to a launching point in mid-Earth orbit, 100 miles up, and basically said, "Hi. I'm my own independent planetoid. Leave me alone." Okay, well, let's say the Navy SEALS took care of that. But imagine how the great powers below feel about that – the Russians, the Chinese, the Indians, the Americans. Suddenly you had a guy who took control of nuclear weapons, who threatened to use them, and it was only through a miracle that we saved the day. But what could prevent the next guy from doing it? How do we deal with this threat? How do we face this group of people who have superpowers and have the capability to lay waste to Earth, but they're not under anybody's control? They're not the Avengers. They're not the Justice League. They're a school just outside of New York. Can we leave them alone any longer? Can we let them remain independent, unsupervised, uncontrolled? What happens if next time they decide they're not going to stop the bad guy and they take control of the weapons themselves?

Suddenly the real world has popped up and is now going to step into the X-Men's lives big time. They're going to have to deal with the consequences of who they are and what they are and what they do. The challenge of this title is that we do it from the perspective that there are no rules anymore, that we don't have to keep everybody necessarily intact 50 issues down the line. When I was doing the X-Men last time, as I said in an interview back in the day, my vision of the book was that if you came back for issue #100 the team would consist of one group of people. If you came back for issue #200, there would be an evolution. Some characters would have moved on. In my vision of the book, Cyclops had gotten married, had a kid, and was going to go off to Alaska and that was it. He would start living the rest of his life. If you came back 100 issues later, other characters would have moved on. Other characters would have come in to take their place. Some might have been better, some might have been worse. But the whole idea is that there is change and there is growth with these young people. As the readers grow and evolve, so too should the characters. Nothing should stay static.

When I started on the X-Men, Storm was about 26. She was born in 1950. I never imagined I would still be writing the book in 2009, but hey. By those those rules, Storm would be pushing 60, but there would be whole new generations of mutants who followed. The same might apply here. You're starting with a team, but the team doesn't have to be frozen in place. There is a risk. Things can happen to these characters – lasting things – some good, some horrifically bad. Being a hero and an X-Man has benefits, but it also has a price. And coming to terms with that price, discovering whether you have the guts to pay it is a very significant part of what the series is all about.

The hope is that we're creating this exciting and dynamic world – any other cliches I can come up with? - and that the readers will like what they see and come back for more. Hopefully we can offer something that very few other books do these days, which is – fingers crossed – something truly unexpected. And more importantly – consequences. That if something tragic happens, it doesn't get fixed six months later. This is something they're going to have to deal with – the characters and the creators. Hopefully the readers will like that. Nothing like a challenge.

IGN Comics: Well, I'm looking forward to seeing how it all turns out. Thanks for taking the time to talk.

Claremont: It was good talking to you, Jesse.

Anne

Feb 6 2009, 08:45 PM

May would be nice. The Wolverine movie and this? What a month, huh?

Jeffrey Renaud @ CBR

 

CBR News: First off, it was announced today that “X-Men Forever” picks up from where “X-Men” #3 left off and Jean is still alive. So is “X-Men Forever” set in the 1990s out of regular Marvel U. continuity? Or is the team active in current continuity?

Chris Claremont: “X-Men Forever” is set in 2009, which means that the first three issues, regardless of when they were originally published, are likewise set in early 2009 or possibly late 2008. It isn’t set in regular continuity. The intent here is to blaze wholly new trails across the landscape of our heroes’ lives and the world they inhabit.

You moved to “X-Men” from “Uncanny X-Men” for what was expected to be a landmark run with Jim Lee in 1991 but stayed for only three issues. Is “X-Men Forever” allowing you to revisit some ideas you had planned for that initial run but were never able to use?

“X-Men Forever” allows me to play with ideas and concepts I had back then and also to incorporate fresh and original concepts that grow out of the challenges facing our world in this opening decade of the 21st century. The great advantage of “Forever” is that, being set in its own universe, we’re actually freed from the most primary of publishing tropes, the editorial requirement that characters cannot be killed or otherwise damaged.

For the first time, we have a book where the benchmark cast can actually find themselves at risk. Happy endings are not guaranteed, life is not a guarantee, people can die and if they die they won’t get better. Stories – and characters – can actually have endings, perhaps then allowing for the introduction of new concepts that might well cast the series off in wholly different directions. This isn’t a matter of ‘revisiting,’ but of truly seeing what happens next.

What do you have planned for the team in the first big arc? Who is the villain?

The first arc throws open the door to those first three issues. We learn that what seems like a minor inconvenience by a small-time player is just the tip of the iceberg. No one can play the I-know-what-happens-next guessing game. This series is not a case of revisiting old favorites, no matter how much we might have adored them; frankly, there are books galore that can provide that particular satisfaction. We want to go exploring through uncharted, undiscovered country, to shake up the very foundation premises upon which the X-Men saga has rested for all these decades.

From those first three issues, that so many have read, a door will open into the X-Men universe that none of you has foreseen. I’m not talking about just another villain. I’m talking what it means to carry that genetic marker and how it scars you – forever.

Can you run down the lineup for us, please?

Charles Xavier, Nicholas Fury, Scott Summers, Jean Grey, Hank McCoy, Kurt Wagner, Kitty Pryde, Anna Raven, Remy LeBeau and two characters who must, for the present, remain surprises.

Do you have one or two favorite characters on the team?

The basic problem with a question like this is that there have never been just ‘one or two’ favorite characters for me on this team. In a sense, they’re all favorites, including the two who must remain unnamed. What I love about them is that, to me, they’ve always been people. That writing the X-Men is, in large measure, telling the story of their lives and events both good and bad. And one of the never-ending challenges is the fact that while a major part of me hungers to give them all the happiest of endings, events don’t always turn out that way. Occasionally, as with Jean Grey, stories – and characters – take on a momentum of their own. The writer then faces the inexorable choice between yielding to his deepest wishes or staying true to the world that’s been created. You may not like the ending, because it costs you a character you dearly care for, but at the same time it presents the others in the book the challenge of living their lives to the fullest because there is a risk, and a potential cost, that has to be faced. And, at the same time, it also opens the way for someone altogether new and different to enter the cast and perhaps reshape the series dynamic along radically different lines.

What can you say about the work of “X-Men Forever” artist Tom Grummett? How would you describe his take on the X-Men?

Marvelous, to put it bluntly. Not to mention just plain lovely.

Finally, tell us one thing your long-time fans will love to hear about your return to “X-Men.”

We’re in this for the long haul. This is a very rich tapestry. There are so many questions that have never even been raised, let alone answered. Ever wonder why there are no old mutants? Try that one, for starters. One of the great frustrations about leaving the series was my own sense that too much of the X-Men’s story had been left untold. With “Forever” comes the chance to finish that tapestry.

Congo Jack

Feb 7 2009, 04:41 PM

Hope you peeps don't mind if I keep throwing up these Claremont interviews.

Quote:

 

From those first three issues, that so many have read, a door will open into the X-Men universe that none of you has foreseen. I’m not talking about just another villain. I’m talking what it means to carry that genetic marker and how it scars you – forever.

Brett White @ Wizard

 

How did X-Men Forever become a series?
CHRIS CLAREMONT: [X-Men Forever editor] Mark Paniccia sat down with [Marvel Editor-in-Chief] Joe Quesada and [Marvel Publisher] Dan Buckley, ideas were passed around and they made a decision. That's management, not execution. Having [New Exiles collaborator] Tom Grummet on art, actually, went much the same as what happened with Salvador Larroca back when I returned to Uncanny X-Men back in 2000. Salva and I were working on Fantastic Four and we were a good team. Marvel wanted us to keep going and it made perfect sense to slide him over to X-Men, which turned out to be the perfect thing for his career. So for all I know, this time next year Tom will end up doing Fantastic Four or Uncanny.

How close is this X-Men story to what you had actually intended to write over 17 years ago? Have you replaced those plots with newer ideas?
CLAREMONT: It's very much an evolution of the story elements and structural elements that I had in mind but, as often is the case, the devil is in the details. The fact is that the characters have changed and evolved since then and the world has changed and evolved significantly since then. X-Men Forever is presenting what Mark and I visualized as the next step in the mutant saga.

The one significant difference and advantage that Forever has over Uncanny is that we don't have to worry about corporate needs. The one great disadvantage with Fantastic Four or with X-Men or with Spider-Man or with any book in the mainstream Marvel line is that the characters must be preserved for Marvel's sake. But since these characters are being preserved in Uncanny, they can be altogether frighteningly mortal in Forever, as we'll be demonstrating fairly early on. The fact is, if a character is unlucky enough to die, it's a real thing and it isn't corrected a week later. They won't come back. There are consequences and from that basis everything proceeds.

Is X-Men Forever going to focus on solely the Blue Team of characters depicted in those first three issues of X-Men?
CLAREMONT: There is no Blue Team and no Gold Team. We are focusing in on a group of characters who are defined by the circumstances and situation that the X-Men find themselves in. They are getting a new regular member of the team, a sort of quasi-government figure by the name of Fury.

Wow! He was actually in the first three issues of X-Men when they came out.
CLAREMONT: And, oddly enough, he's sticking around! A guy that looks like he's going to live forever could be considered a quasi-mutant. But, the point is that the X-Men's relationship with the world is about to change markedly. The X-Men got involved in a situation where Magneto became a nuclear power and threatened to use those nukes from orbit. The reality exists that if he could do it, anyone else could do it. One might be able to fudge things in the world of 1991 and say that terrorists that threaten the safety of the world don't get away with it...but they do. That's no longer a valid argument today. You have a world which has just seen Magneto and a team of mutants steal an entire nuclear submarine's payload of nuclear missiles, establish himself as an orbital nuclear power, threaten to use those missiles and then get defeated by the X-Men. The premise that we're starting with is that the great powers of the world are probably not going to stand for that anymore.

The other significant thing about Forever is that Mark and I feel that traditional conflicts, traditional adversaries and traditional circumstances are the province of Uncanny and X-Men: Legacy. We're not interested in that. The thought, goal and ambition here is to present what we hope will be totally new and original adversaries, circumstances and characters...except for Sentinels. No more fantasies, no more switching genders, no more extreme curses, no more "darns" and "goodness graciouses." We're trying to eliminate all the Claremont clichés in one fell swoop and see what happens next.

A couple of characters you created towards the end of your original run on Uncanny, like Gambit, have had origins implemented that differ from your original intentions. Are these original back stories going to appear now?
CLAREMONT: The Gambit in X-Men Forever is the Gambit who was in Uncanny up to #278 and X-Men #1 through #3. He's technically not even an official X-Man. He's just been hanging around for a bunch of weeks and, as we establish in the preview, he's not even sure he wants to stay. He's playing it by ear. Circumstances will arise that may make up his mind for him, but everything is considerably more fungible. Nothing in this is going to be like what you're used to seeing.

Kiel Phegley @ Marvel

 

Chris Claremont never runs out of ideas.

As Marvel assistant editor Jordan D. White attests, the legendary writer carries new stories for the Marvel characters he's help craft for over 30 years with him wherever he goes—literally.

"Whenever I see him, he's got notebook after notebook, filled with thoughts and concepts for things," White explains as he discusses… all-new ongoing X-MEN FOREVER.

… FOREVER brings Claremont and artist Tom Grummett back to some very iconic versions of Marvel's mutants. The unique hook for the book revolves around the idea that Claremont pick right up where he left off the first time: 1991's X-MEN v2 #3.

"I don't think it's any secret that his epic run on X-Men is the work Chris is most associated with, and one of the best parts of that run was seeing how those characters grew as he fleshed out their lives and stories," White says. "In X-MEN FOREVER, Chris can continue shaping those characters again, as though he never left. Everything revealed since X-MEN #3 is fair game again. James Howlett? Never heard of him. Our Wolverine is called Logan."

The series will debut with a special one-shot comic, X-MEN FOREVER ALPHA which reprints Claremont's original three issues of X-MEN with artist Jim Lee and presents an all-new eight-page backup prelude to the new ongoing which will also debut on Marvel's Digital Comics Unlimited. As some readers will recall, Claremont's original plan involved making the death of Magneto a permanent change to X-canon, and in X-MEN FOREVER, that shocking point remains intact.

"If there is one thing you can count on for sure, it's that things are going to be very different in this series," promises White. "Both the world and Chris have changed since the '90s so he's not going to be doing the exact same things he would have back then. He's using the books he did back then as a launching point, to be sure, and will be touching on story points and ideas from back then, but he's going to be sending our favorite mutants off on all-new stories, and he's playing rough. Not all the toys are going to make it through these games. Here, the death of Magneto changes things for the X-Men more than it did in [norman continuity]. The team we end up with is one born out of the circumstances thrust upon them. You'll see what I mean when things ramp up."

Indeed fans can expect a shakeup across the board. "In issue #1, the team will still be dealing with fallout of the Asteroid M debacle, and the one villain who got away, but then they'll be rocketed off in a new direction. I'll give you a hint: Magneto won't be the only classic X-Character they'll be mourning," White promises.