X-Men Monday at AIPT launched on February 25, 2019, with X-Men Senior Editor Jordan D. White discussing non-mutant sleeper agents, Sage’s whereabouts, the Wendy’s Baconator, and more. Five years later, your favorite weekly X-Men interview column’s still going strong… and is actually doing a lot better than the X-Men themselves right now! (At least until Orchis decides to start causing trouble for AIPT.)
As it’s X-Men Monday’s fifth anniversary, I thought it’d be fun to share one edition from each year of the column’s existence with a little behind-the-scenes commentary. And while this is a skip week for the column itself, I know X-Fans need their Monday morning fix, so don’t worry, there are some treats at the end. But first, let’s take a trip down memory lane, starting in 2019.
2019: X-Men Monday #32 – Jonathan Hickman Answers Your House of X and Powers of X Questions
X-Men Monday has largely covered the Krakoan era, so I’ve been fortunate to feature Jonathan Hickman, the elusive former Head of X, on numerous occasions. His second appearance, following the conclusion of the groundbreaking House of X and Powers of X series, was especially interesting. For pretty much every edition of X-Men Monday that accepts X-Fan questions, I’m the one sorting and selecting what gets asked. For X-Men Monday #32, Jonathan wanted to take on that uncanny responsibility. (Fine by me — shocking no one, he got a lot of questions!) It was a unique experience that somewhat carried over to Jonathan’s later X-Men Monday appearances — I got into the habit of always sending Jonathan more questions than I knew he’d answer. I was hoping Jonathan would return to the franchise to close out his Krakoa story, which would selfishly give me the opportunity to do one final X-Men Monday interview with him, but that doesn’t appear to be in the cards. Though, I still have hope he’ll be a part of the grand finale in some small part. If not, getting to read Ultimate Spider-Man every month isn’t too bad of a consolation prize.
2020: X-Men Monday #60 – Quarantine Interview With Jordan D. White
I’m very proud that I kept X-Men Monday going when the comics industry essentially shut down as COVID-19 spread around the globe. April 13th’s X-Men Monday #54 featured Jordan talking about alternate universe X-Men stories but had no eXclusive preview images as the future seemed so uncertain. While Marvel went dark and so many entertainment sites slowed down, I decided to keep going — basically finding new X-related interview subjects from one week to the next. Fortunately, wonderful creators — from David Nakayama and Jordan Blum to Peter Nguyen and Joshua Cassara — were game to chat X-Men and their craft. Keeping up with the weekly routine helped make the pandemic feel a little more normal, and getting to know these creators over weekend and evening video calls made those lockdown days a little less lonely. I’m singling out my quarantine interview with Jordan because it coincided with new Marvel comic books once again arriving on comic shop shelves. Boy did I miss that Wednesday routine. At the time of this interview, we were nowhere near out of the woods yet, but there was a sense of optimism in the air and it was just nice to connect with Jordan again over mutants, music, and the weird times we were living through. It felt so special, I even asked friend and artist Adam Reck to illustrate a feature image for it!
2021: X-Men Monday #102 – Louise Simonson and Walter Simonson Revisit X-Factor – Part 1 and Part 2
OK, I’m kind of cheating here as it’s two editions, but they’re both from the same lengthy conversation. Plus, it’s Louise and Walter Simonson — we can bend the rules, people! This was such a special memory for me. Louise was on my interview wishlist when I organized AIPT’s Cyclops Week in 2019 and then Jean Grey + Emma Frost Week in 2020, but I wasn’t sure how to get in touch with her. So as soon as Louise and Walter’s X-Men Legends arc was announced, I made it a priority to pull those Marvel press levers and get them into the X-Men Monday schedule. They’re comic book legends who also happen to be the loveliest couple and were so generous with their time. I’m an experienced interviewer who’s done this hundreds of times, but I’m still a fan at heart. So getting positive feedback from both Louise and Walter in my inbox after the interview had gone live was one of those moments where I reminded myself how lucky I am to have this gig.
2022: X-Men Monday #137 – The X-Office Makes Their 2022 X-Men Election Endorsements
I love surprising readers on Monday morning, so this was a fun one. In mid-December 2021, Jordan reached out to let me know the second X-Vote would launch on January 10, 2022 — and that he’d like the X-writers to endorse their preferred candidates in that day’s edition of X-Men Monday. (This one also marked Alyssa Wong’s first X-Men Monday appearance, before Deadpool was announced.) I picked this one for 2022 because it embodies what I believe comics and entertainment journalism should do more often: Have fun and do cool stuff. (Cue someone somewhere saying X-Men Monday has never been fun or cool.) There’s no money in this kind of work. X-Men Monday isn’t my full-time job (it’s my second full-time job, thank you very much!), and I’d be delusional if I ever expected it to pay for my comics (though wouldn’t that be nice). I certainly take it seriously, but we’re dealing with fictional characters who can shoot fireworks from their fingertips and blow up playing cards — it’s OK to loosen up now and then. And yes, I know some people take this stuff very seriously… but they’re also the types to record YouTube videos crying about how woke the X-Men have become. They’ve never been my audience, but I’ll happily accept their rage clicks.
2023: X-Men Monday #200 – Giant-Size Anniversary Spectacular
I’m writing an article to celebrate 5 years of X-Men Monday — clearly, I love a milestone. That’s why I always (try) to do something special every 25 editions. But those major milestones — those are when I really put myself through unnecessary stress. I’m especially proud of the giant-sized X-Men Monday #200, which I treated like an online magazine and broke into sections, with multiple topics and interview subjects. In an age when actual print magazines are going away and an increasing number of online articles are generated by AI, it’s more important than ever for sites like AIPT to give readers a reason to visit and come back for more. My hope is that X-Men Monday readers got to spend some quality time with this milestone edition, the same way cracking open the latest issue of Wizard was an event for me back in the day. Anyway, what the heck am I going to do for X-Men Monday #300? Cue the stress!
2024: X-Men Monday #239 – 2024 Valentine’s Day Special
Sex-Men Monday! In my head, this month’s Valentine’s Day Special concluded the very ridiculous X-Men Monday Valentine’s Day trilogy. I struggled with planning this final edition because I felt like I covered just about every question you could ask in a Valentine’s Day-themed interview in the 2022 and 2023 editions. But considering these always yield the occasional X-rated answer, I decided to just steer into that and ask about the X-Men’s sex lives. I mean, this is the stuff X-Fans have been discussing amongst themselves for decades — isn’t it about time the actual creators behind the characters weighed in? One fun behind-the-scenes story about this one: I created an online form with the questions and passed it along to Jordan so he could share with the X-Office. I did not expect incoming X-Men editor Tom Brevoort to participate, and when I saw him commenting on Beak’s sex life, I asked Jordan to confirm it was actually him and not one of the X-writers playing a prank. It was indeed the true Tom. If his answers are a sign of things to come in the next X-era, I might just have to kick off an all-new, all-different X-Men Monday Valentine’s Day trilogy in 2025 with the next administration.
Of course, there are so many other memorable editions of X-Men Monday, so if you’re new to the column, start scrolling through the archives!
As X-Men Monday enters its 5th year, I just want to thank everybody who has helped the column reach this milestone: My soon-to-be-departing partner in crime, Jordan D. White, the Marvel PR team, all the creators who take the time out of their busy schedules to answer questions, David Brooke and the team at AIPT, and, of course, all the X-Fans who read and submit questions.
Now, I mentioned treats, didn’t I? First, this eXclusive preview image Jordan passed along, featuring a Joshua Cassara-illustrated X-Men team uh… well, I’ll let you decide what’s happening to them!
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
And finally, how about a preview of next week’s X-Men Monday interview with Steve Foxe? Here, Steve sheds some light on the just-announced X-Men: Blood Hunt – Psylocke one-shot:
Steve Foxe: In our one-shot, Psylocke and Greycrow have gone to Japan for a chance to get away from it all for a little bit. But as the sky darkens, Kwannon has to take up her blade. Japan doesn’t actually have direct corollaries for vampire myths, but it does have a number of monsters and legends that make for interesting cousins to our traditional bloodsuckers. We’re playing with the dichotomy between old Japan and new Japan, vampire myth and urban legends, for a very action-forward — and dare I say, romantic? — one-shot of bloodsucker carnage.
Check back next week for more from Steve on this story, as well as X-Men ’97.
Until then, X-Fans, stay exceptional!
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