X-Men Monday #205 – Steve Foxe Talks ‘Marvel’s Voices: Pride 2023’ & ‘Dark X-Men’

Steve: I’ve been really eager to contribute to a Pride issue since Marvel started publishing them and had emailed editor Sarah Brunstad last year about it, when my only Marvel work was Spider-Ham. (Preorder Vol. 3 now!) At the time, she was all set on stories, so I made sure to email her (on the same thread, to boot) about a month earlier this year. She replied right away that she was already planning to reach out to me that same day, so it was serendipitous! 

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One thing Sarah’s tried to do each year is debut new heroes and set up plots that will play into other books, like Escapade in New Mutants and Somnus in Marauders, so these specials feel like vital parts of the Marvel Universe. She knew, from our X-meetings, that Carmen Cruz was set to play a big role in Dark X-Men after a few years out of the spotlight and thought we had a chance to reintroduce and prop her up here.

AIPT: I had a chance to read the issue early, but for those who haven’t, what’s your elevator pitch for “Today’s Lesson,” your Gimmick-focused story?

Steve: With the disclaimer that I’m terrible at being brief: as we’ve seen elsewhere, Bishop has taken the initiative to train younger mutants on Krakoa. Carmen Cruz, a.k.a. Gimmick, idolized the X-Men long before she came to the island, but that doesn’t mean she’s a natural at field work — especially when placed in a bit of an oddball squad. But she’s got drive and passion, and when she sees an opportunity to prove that she and her teammates can work together and excel as X-Men-in-training, she takes it. 

While it helps reintroduce Gimmick and set her up for Dark X-Men, this Pride story is totally standalone — you’ll get a complete young-mutant adventure in 15 pages!

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AIPT: Let’s talk a bit about that oddball squad. For a short story, you managed to pack it with more than a few cameos, including Graymalkin, one of Cyclops’ former Corsairs, one of the Five Lights, and quite possibly the grossest mutant of all time. I’m tip-toeing here to avoid spoilers, but what can you share about your process for integrating these “deep cuts” from past and pretty recent X-Men history? Are you flipping through Marvel Handbooks or are these inclusions automatic no-brainers?

Steve: I can guarantee you I’m never flipping through handbooks — my brain is just a sieve when it comes to practical, real-world information and an adamantium trap for Marvel ephemera. I love the generational aspect of the X-Men — New Mutants to Generation X, Academy X to Wolverine and the X-Men. So Carmen’s crew of five mutants is meant to reflect this moment in time: three members are entirely new from House of X and Powers of X onward, one is a deep cut who had been depowered and went through the Crucible, and then Graymalkin is the experienced member by comparison. His inclusion is partially inspired by J. Holtham’s squad in Bishop: War College, where Armor and Surge are matched up with total newbies, but also because this is Pride and I always appreciate when teams don’t just have a sole queer member or a sole PoC or a sole mutant with visible mutations. 

For that deep cut, though — and I don’t think it’s the spoiler of the year to say it’s Specter from New X-Men: Academy X — I have to give a shout out to my good friend Josh Cornillon, who does extensive tribute art of Marvel and DC’s teen heroes, including the one-appearance weirdos everyone else forgets. One of his group shots reminded me of Specter, who I discovered had never actually used his powers on panel — powers that theoretically pair perfectly with a certain darkness-loving mutant I already had my eye on for this.

As for the gross-out antagonists of this short, they had actually already been drawn into a spread in Dark X-Men #1 as a background cameo, and I realized this was the perfect place to give them a moment of their own. They gross me out real bad too. Yuck.

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AIPT: In your story, Bishop sees Carmen’s potential, and he isn’t the only one. Outside the comic, you clearly see that potential as well. What is it about Gimmick that made you want to pick her up where Children of the Atom left off and further her story?

Steve: I’ve talked about it elsewhere, but I think a foundational element of the X-Men is the younger perspective character. Other teams and heroes have sidekicks or youthful members, but the X-Men have generations baked into the premise, and have almost always had someone in the Kitty Pryde tradition on the team, whether that’s Jubilee or Marrow or Quentin Quire. 

On the flip-side, mutant resurrection meant that almost every mutant ever was suddenly back on the table, so there hasn’t necessarily been a new “class” of young mutants — characters like Fauna and Curse have been spread out among existing younger characters.

But Children of the Atom is the closest Krakoa’s had to a “traditional” new-class book, and Gimmick is the one cast member who actually turned out to be a mutant. CotA ends with Gimmick finally getting her dream of making it to the island and meeting her heroes and I thought we had a lot of interesting ground left to cover with her. 

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When I started putting together the cast for Dark X-Men, I knew I wanted this perverse and unlikely team to have its Kitty Pryde, and for that character to have a wide-eyed, optimistic perspective that could play against Maddie’s crew of misfits and freaks. Gerry Duggan actually suggested I use Curse, but I was like… Curse would LOVE tailing Maddie at the Limbo Embassy! She’s TOO good a fit for the team! Plus Gimmick’s original outfit is Gambit cosplay, and I couldn’t pass up the chance to have these characters together in a book for the first time. 

AIPT: What can you share about collaborating with Rosi Kampe and Kelly Fitzpatrick for this story?

Steve: Rosi and Kelly knocked this short out of the park. A young-mutant book has been a bucket-list item for me for ages, because those same sorts of books were huge to me growing up. Rosi’s fun, energetic storytelling and Kelly’s bright, expressive colors nailed the tone completely. We’re using young mutants from several distinct eras and these two made everyone look perfectly in sync.

AIPT: As a queer creator, what does the existence of a Marvel’s Voices: Pride comic — and the chance to be a part of it — mean to you?

Steve: I’ve always been conflicted when it comes to corporate Pride initiatives, but it’s undeniable — especially with some recent developments in the country — that it does matter to people when companies are willing to acknowledge marginalized creators and fans and celebrate us specifically. We see how quickly other companies have walked that celebration back this month. A Pride anthology is not going to single-handedly fix bigotry and discrimination, but it does show a commitment to including us at the table as both the folks who make these books and the ones who read them.

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What I love about this anthology, too, is that Sarah and the rest of the editorial team sought out a range of queer creators to tell stories of all different types with all varieties of queer representation. Some are fun, some are edgy, and some lead into books about evil Hell X-Men, which is the kind of range I want from my queer entertainment.

AIPT: I know this is X-Men Monday, but I’d be remiss not to ask what it’s like to be contributing a story to a one-shot that also features your co-creation Web-Weaver — and the story isn’t written by you!

Steve: It’s an honor and a relief! As much as you want some level of control over your creations, seeing them take on a life beyond you in a shared universe is how you know you’ve actually done your job. Especially for one not based in the 616, his opportunities to appear are a little narrower and I’m thrilled he’s featured in the first Pride after his debut, even if I’m over in the mutant corner of the issue. 

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I’m extremely grateful to have told three Web-Weaver stories so far (one of which won’t be announced for a bit… and won’t be where you expect it to be, either), and I’d love love LOVE to tell more, but I’m also excited to see where else he pops up without me. Even before that first story was out, Kris Anka’s costume design was really taking off online, so I knew Cooper Coen wasn’t going to be a one-appearance wonder just based on his look alone. This particular story also explores a side of Cooper I’m not really equipped to tell, so it all worked out perfectly. 

AIPT: In this story, we learn a bit more about New York’s Limbo Embassy and how it operates. Is it safe to assume we’ll learn even more about it in Dark X-Men?

Steve: That’s a very safe assumption, as I can use this question to break the news that Dark X-Men #1 includes, in addition to a 20-page main story illustrated by Jonas Scharf and Frank Martin, a 10-page backup with art by Nelson Daniel that takes a look at one of the first weeks of the Limbo Embassy’s operation. Zeb Wells and Adam Kubert gave us an incredibly fun setting to use coming out of Dark Web and we’ve been taking full advantage of it. Not to say we’re going to spend a lot of time on demon-dimension bureaucracy, though — mostly horrific maiming and whatnot. 

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AIPT: Love that. Finally, I feel like there’s a ton of buzz around Dark X-Men since it was announced in early April. Obviously, we still have to wait a bit before we can get our hands on the first issue, but how has it been witnessing the hype? I’ve come across more than a few pieces of Dark X-Men fan art in my online travels.

Steve: The good thing about announcing so early is that we’ve had time to really build excitement for the book. The bad thing is that I’ve seen extended speculation for intricate plots that bear absolutely no resemblance to what we’re actually doing, so there’s always the worry fans will get hype for plots they’ve made up in their heads and disappointed when the books aren’t actually that! If I could tell folks one thing, it would be to save any and all speculation until you’ve attended this year’s Hellfire Gala. It’s going to be a perfectly lovely time where absolutely no conflict occurs, I am sure!

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But seriously, it has been a very kind reception so far, which is very encouraging when we finish Dark X-Men and I work on other still-secret projects. For my own sanity, I don’t seek out the conversation, but I appreciate the kind words and hope folks enjoy the terrors we’re brewing up for the entire Fall of X initiative.