Welcome, X-Fans, to another uncanny edition of X-Men Monday at AIPT!
The beginning of the end of the Krakoan era has kept us very busy this January! We broke down Fall of the House of X #1 with X-Men Senior Editor Jordan D. White. Then, we discussed Rise of the Powers of X #1 with its writer Kieron Gillen. Now it’s time to break down Resurrection of Magneto #1 with writer Al Ewing. X-Fans had a lot of questions (and praise) for this visually stunning Storm-focused debut issue, so let’s see what Al has to say.
AIPT: Welcome back to X-Men Monday, Al! Let’s kick things off with a question from X-Fan Sam, who’s writing in for the first time because you’re one of his favorite comic writers! Sam wanted to know what inspired the romance between Storm and Craig.
Al: A mix of things — I’d introduced Craig as a human voice on Arakko, because I thought it was important that Arakko was a more complex place than people expected. At the same time, two things occurred to me — firstly, that I miss the days when superheroes had more relationships with non-super supporting cast members. These days superheroes tend to date each other, which is very efficient — it’s two heroes getting romance beats for the price of one, very useful space-wise especially given how comics storytelling has decompressed over the past 30 years — but at the same time, it makes the superhero world feel a little closed off and incestuous, and also it means the hero’s never really off the clock. Now even love is work-related.
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
And the second thing was that Storm needed to relax a bit and I thought a fun thing to do would be to have her go on a date, maybe mirroring the “dinner with Doom” scene from S.W.O.R.D. but kind of showing how that’d go if she actually wanted to be there. And hey, here’s this eligible bachelor in her orbit… at a certain point all this is like snooker, or cooking — you’ve set the balls in motion and then they just naturally bang into each other and careen off the table and you see what ends up where and then work from that. You have a recipe in your head, but at the same time, you suddenly decide to add a bit more spice. And so on.
AIPT: Well, now I’m hungry. Another Storm relationship question. X-Fan DeerGod loves your work and noticed some nods to Storm’s time with Yukio throughout the issue (“My rooftop in Japan,” for example). How you would define their relationship?
Al: I mean, it’s all there in the Claremont. It’s right on the page — Yukio appealed to a part of Storm she hadn’t, until that point, allowed herself or been allowed by others to fully express. She associates those rooftops with freedom — freedom from expectations, freedom from her own self-imposed restrictions. Yukio will always be that person who opened the door, who showed her another way to be — so comparing what she’s got with Craig to that other great relationship is both a big compliment to him and also a signifier of sorts, that she’s letting herself go again, that this particular person gives her the freedom to just be.
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
But Yukio’s also relevant to the story because of her relationship with death, to that leap into the unknown that she chooses over a path that’s safer but less true to her spirit. So though Storm starts in that safe zone with Craig, she has to leave that place of safety he represents to follow Yukio’s example — she’s got to be true to who she is. I’m breaking it down more than I did when I wrote it — explaining a gut decision with the head — but it makes a nice little buried nugget for old heads to put together.
AIPT: X-Fan Richard Chatham was curious how long Enigma/the Crown Above All Things’ inclusion in the Krakoan era has been in the works. Kieron Gillen recently spoke about this in X-Men Monday, saying, “I don’t want to talk specifics about Al and Javier’s second masterwork — that’s for them to share.” So it’s only fair you get a chance to give your side!
Al: Here’s the timeline from my POV as I remember it: Defenders Beyond was roughly plotted out, and the idea was that it’d be a journey for knowledge, and though the real lesson Adam comes to understand is that the journey for knowledge is infinite and never-ending, I wanted to have a real nugget of future knowledge of a real upcoming threat as something satisfying for the reader. Now, I had plans at the time for two things this could be — something from a third Defenders series (having been renewed once, we thought we’d push for a second comeback) and, if we didn’t get that, I had a big villain for [REDACTED PITCH THAT FELL THROUGH].
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
And if both of those fell through, well, I’m also in the X-Office and I know that there’s that big cosmic threat from outside of space and time that Kieron’s putting together, and that’s going to be a big climactic thing that’ll shake up at least the X-Books and hopefully the entire 616… so if Defenders Beyond ends up foreshadowing that, it’s not short-changing the readership at the end. I was talking to Kieron a lot anyway to make sure we were both using the White Hot Room in non-contradictory ways, so around the same time I asked if it’d be okay to drop some hints at Enigma, and worked out a bunch of stuff with a fifth tarot suit, the “fifth business” from Robertson Davies’ Deptford Trilogy, and so on.
AIPT: X-Fan Avery said that when you reintroduced Tarn in this story, he seemed to be extremely powerful and determined to return to life. Even with Krakoan resurrection out of the question, would it still be possible for a mutant as powerful as Tarn to bring himself back from the dead?
Al: Yeah, I’ve hinted in one or two places that that’s his plan — he’s just too good a villain to leave dead forever, and he surely doesn’t feel beholden to custom. Imagine him bursting out of a toxic egg, what a great visual. So if I’d had a little more room, I’d definitely have brought in the Spire Vile and brought him back to life, but I’m happy leaving that as a landmine for future writers to detonate if they want to.
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
AIPT: X-Fan @ororoswind first would like to congratulate you on a monumental first issue and thank you for this fantastic ride for Storm. What was the thought process behind wanting to include Ashake in this story? Can we look forward to this side of Ororo’s character being explored a bit further in the mini-series or was that all there was space for?
Al: This whole journey is very magical and metaphorical, and Storm gets another POV issue in #3 — the even numbers belong to Magneto — so we can expect a bit more. Ashake’s kind of done her bit at this point — I included her because I did some research for a bit that’s coming up and found that mini from a while back that featured her very heavily while exploring Ororo’s magical side, which led me down a quick research rabbit hole into her whole deal. She’s sort of “up to something” in her first appearance in New Mutants and we never really find out what — I like the idea that she’s doing all this stuff in her time period that’s reaching all the way forward to now, and maybe one day we’ll find out what that is, and maybe we won’t. Anyway, Ashake seemed like a useful ingredient.
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
AIPT: This issue features a terrific splash page that highlights Storm and Magneto’s long history. X-Fan MunchkinMarauder wanted to know what it is about the Storm and Magneto’s dynamic you enjoy writing about.
Al: It’s honestly quite vibes-based at this point. I do have this tendency to use the metatext of these characters that’s built up over 60 years as a kind of subtext of their fictional lives, and there’s something in the way they both evolved from their initial characterizations to something more complex and multi-faceted at roughly the same time, under the same writer, maybe more than any other X-character barring Wolverine. (Who Storm also has a hard-to-define relationship with, but that’s a whole other topic.)
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
The Magneto and Storm of the mid-70s are not the Storm and Magneto of the late ’80s, which was when my formative X-memories were. Both characters are moving towards each other, they’re both getting a rep for cold, practical decisions that maybe look a bit villain-y from the outside, Storm by hardening her outlook and Magneto by softening his (and then firming it up a bit as it turns out he’s bad at being Charles). So there was a brief moment there where these two characters made this connection and attempted this difficult project together that fell through but maybe could have worked. And that’s a really hard connection to describe, but it’s one that remains.
AIPT: X-Fan \\ororosfire has less of a question and more of a moment of appreciation (which I’m sure many Storm fans would co-sign): “For many, including myself, you’ve set a new bar when it comes to writing Ororo. The respect and detail and intentionality in every word is much appreciated and what a character of her stature and history deserves, and I hope we’ll see more in the future, but if not what a great ride!”
Al, is there anything you’d like to share in response or say about writing Storm these past few years?
Al: Thank you! I’m very happy when my work goes down well, and I very much appreciate the kind words.
AIPT: X-Fan Grey said Resurrection of Magneto is the greatest comic he’s ever read. Were you as blown away by Luciano Vecchio’s art as the rest of us?
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Al: Luciano deserves all the praise for this. He was absolutely picking up everything I was trying clumsily to lay down — he grokked the tarot stuff right from the start — and every page he’s delivered has been absolutely phenomenal. I can’t thank him enough, and I really hope this brings more eyes on him as one of the great artistic talents of the current era in comics.
AIPT: A throwback question before we wrap — X-Fan KingdomX asked if there were any storylines or characters from S.W.O.R.D. that you wish you got to spend more time with.
Al: All of them. I’d love to spend more time with Wiz-Kid and Frenzy, with all the different divisions, do more with that giant org chart, those amazing uniforms Valerio Schiti designed… really, the truth is that I miss Valerio and Marte. We were a good team — I just wish we’d had less tie-in stuff and more space for the pure original idea while we were still together, but so it sometimes goes.
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
AIPT: Finally, what can you tease about the next issue of Resurrection of Magneto?
Al: It’s from Magneto’s POV and it’s called “The Weight Of The World” — it’s about the weight of the world on him, the weight of him upon the world, whether he can or should bear either of those things again… oh, and there’s a cool key we haven’t seen for a while.
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
AIPT: Key hype has never been higher. But on that note, thanks for stopping by X-Men Monday, Al! And remember, X-Fans, Resurrection of Magneto #2 goes on sale February 28, 2024.
For something a little more immediate, how about a few eXclusive preview images, courtesy of X-Men Senior Editor Jordan D. White?
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Until next time, X-Fans, stay exceptional!
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