Welcome, X-Fans, to another uncanny edition of X-Men Monday at AIPT!
We’re officially in March, and that means the highly anticipated premiere of X-Men ’97 (March 20) is fast approaching. But Disney+ won’t be the only place you can find the beloved animated X-Men cast this month. One week after the new animated series debuts, head to your comic shop for the official X-Men ’97 prequel mini-series of the same name.
To learn what you can expect from the X-Men ’97 prelude, read on to hear directly from its writer Steve Foxe. And, as Steve always seems to be juggling more than one X-project at a time, of course we chat a bit about Dead X-Men and X-Men: Blood Hunt – Psylocke. Let’s get started.
Courtesy of stevefoxe.com
AIPT: Welcome back to X-Men Monday, Steve!
Steve Foxe: Thanks for having me, Chris! I feel like I’m the going-out-of-business sale right now. Fitting in as many X-Men Mondays as I can before my mutant runs wrap up!
AIPT: You joke… but you are back here next week, haha. But this week, we’re traveling back to the ‘90s to visit young Steve Foxe. What was his relationship with X-Men: The Animated Series?
Steve: I’ve spoken about it before and I always worry people will think I’m exaggerating for PR purposes, but X-Men: The Animated Series genuinely changed my life path. Between the Toy Biz action figure line, finding Pryde of the X-Men on VHS when I was about 4, and the cartoon every Saturday morning, I became hooked for life. There’s no guarantee I’d even be into comics as a whole without that triple hit of X-gene-related excitement.
I watched religiously, had every VHS (including the beloved Pizza Hut versions), owned every toy. Looking back, I think what made it SO impactful, beyond the underlying idea of “hated for being born different, but finding community and persevering,” is that X-Men: The Animated Series, while not 1:1 with the comics, was pretty darn close — certainly closer than most comic adaptations that followed. Beyond wondering why the heck no one ever used Morph in the comics, the leap from screen to the page was a very seamless experience.
AIPT: Who was your favorite character on the ‘90s cartoon? And did you have a favorite episode?
Steve: It’s no secret I was a Cyclops kid. I have a tattoo of him. I made sure to write him in the first Annual I did, in case I never got to do more. I always related more to Scott being a little fussy and driven and by-the-books than Wolverine’s more rebellious charm.
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
A big part of the appeal of the show for me, though, were the cameos. I have always been the kid scanning the background to spot characters who looked cool or familiar. The Genosha arc early in the series was a favorite for that reason, with Rictor and Sunfire making early impacts on me. Now I’ve gotten to write both for a bit!
As for episodes, “Weapon X, Lies, and Video Tape” was a favorite of mine for the black-ops vibe — still WILD that title got approved. I also vividly remember thinking the Nasty Boys were a MUCH bigger deal than they were because of Season 2’s Sinister stories. And “The Phoenix Saga” and “The Dark Phoenix Saga” were my Roman Empire as a kid — if I missed an episode while that was airing, I was DESPONDENT.
AIPT: Fast-forward to the not-too-distant past. How did the opportunity to reteam with your X-Men ‘92: House of XCII collaborator Salva Espin on an X-Men ‘97 prequel mini-series come about? And how would young Steve feel knowing he gets to bridge the gap between the two X-Men animated series?
Steve: I had such a blast working with Salva on House of XCII, which was a love letter to the ’90s animated show, if technically in its own distinct universe. As I understand it, Beau DeMayo and the X-Men ’97 team got a chance to check out House of XCII and asked for Salva and I to team up again for this official prequel. Obviously, that’s a huge honor and was a no-brainer HECK YEAH when our editor, Jordan D. White, reached out.
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Here’s the thing — I have been working in publishing for almost 15 years if you count my internships. I’ve been writing for over a decade. And my stance has never changed — I have things I hope to do, but I never expect anything that’s out of my direct control. So every X-Men project I’ve been able to touch has been its own little dream come true because the franchise meant so much to my life path. Knowing that I am now a tiny part of the fabric of the cartoon that set me on this journey in the first place is something I will always hold close to my heart.
AIPT: To write a prequel, you’ve got to know at least a few things about what comes next. So, have you been able to watch any of X-Men ‘97? Or were you just given scripts or key plot points? What can you share about the process?
Steve: Beau and his team were super collaborative and generous in giving us the tools we needed to tell a strong standalone story that feeds into the upcoming Marvel Animated series neatly. We had a few long calls where he laid out their plans, and I got to read several scripts to get a feel for where characters would be as the show opened, as well as where they were headed just after. It was great to have that sort of access, and for Beau to toss us additional plot beats we could fold in and help set up. But I’ll be watching for the first time next month, along with everyone else!
AIPT: And what can you share about the actual story that unfolds throughout your four-issue series? Is it safe to assume we see the beginnings of Jean Grey’s pregnancy? Bishop’s return to the X-Men? Maybe even Storm getting a haircut? Any special cameos?
Steve: The goal of our story is to bridge the ending of the original show with where things kick off in X-Men ’97, which will include a couple of the specifics you asked about above! Without giving too much away, we’re going to show a bit of where the world at large currently stands on mutants, as well as shadowy forces who may want to change that perception. Key villains of the cartoon will have their backstories fleshed out here, important team relationships get put under the microscope, and some of the small changes between the original show and X-Men ’97 get a little more explanation in the pages of our story. Plus we got to introduce a few of my FAVORITE ‘90s villains to the world of X-Men ’97. As for cameos — anyone who’s read House of XCII knows I can’t resist, but we are a bit more focused on the main cast here. The nods are there if you keep your eyes peeled!
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
AIPT: How does it feel to collaborate with Salva again and what can X-Fans look forward to in the visuals department?
Steve: Salva is one of the most exciting collaborators I’ve had during my Marvel career because he’s just game for ANYTHING. On House of XCII, he developed a style that pulled from the cartoon, yes, but also the Capcom Marvel games and other influences. Here, it’s been really fun to see him match the X-Men ’97 series style even more closely. Combined with Matt Milla’s excellent color work, the comic really reads like the cartoon transposed to the page, and it’s a testament to both of their skill levels that the result is still full of motion and life. It’s been especially fun to watch Salva tackle a key character who didn’t appear in House of XCII, but is a natural fit for Salva’s skills!
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
AIPT: Two quick X-Fan questions for you. First, X-Fan Frederico Nader pointed out that the animated X-Men have different histories than their comic book counterparts. What’s your process for writing and differentiating the current comic book X-Men (like Jubilee in Dead X-Men) and their X-Men ‘97 counterparts (like animated Jubilee)?
Steve: A huge, huge help in switching between character depictions is relying on the voice actors of the show, to be honest. The original animated cast is SO influential and impactful, hearing them in my head helps me lock into the specific depictions in the world of the cartoon. It also just comes down to doing the reading. I’ve been a fan since childhood and I also reread key runs before I take on a new project, so when I’m writing animated Jubilee, I’m hearing Alyson Court. When I’m writing Dead X-Men Jubes, I’m thinking about how much she matured over the years, from Generation X to vampirism to surrogate motherhood. In most cases, the cores of the characters are the same, but the animated versions are much closer to those cores and the 616 iterations have been through other formative experiences that readers will expect to see reflected in their current depictions.
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
AIPT: And X-Fan Sam Erin said that in your last X-Men Monday appearance, you mentioned writing four or five different X-books during the same time period. First of all, are you OK? (Sam was exhausted just reading that!) And second, why did the scheduling line up like that? It feels like SO MUCH all at once. Props to you for being able to handle all that!
Steve: I’m OK! I’m better than OK. Listen, being busy writing X-Men comics is a pretty darn fun way to be busy. And it lined up the way it did because sometimes these things just happen — you get asked to do something because you’re a good fit, and then another opportunity arises that you’re also a good fit for, and it just compounds. In this case, I have a co-writer on one project (Steve Orlando on X-Men Unlimited), and we’re in a transitional period with the line overall, so timing just gets a little funky sometimes.
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
That said, for any editors in the audience, that overlap period is well behind me and I am very available for new projects ;)
AIPT: Well, speaking of all those X-projects — Dead X-Men #2 came out last week. One of the coolest parts of the issue was finding out we were in Moira’s seventh life. It’s a known fact that early in the Krakoan era, there was a possibility of Al Ewing exploring Moira’s many lives in a series. So with that said, was Moira’s Ultron-filled seventh life a story nugget that had been kicking around the X-Slack or 100% Steve Foxe?
Steve: While I would have been FIRST in line to read an Al Ewing Moira book, everything we see of Moira’s lives in Dead X-Men, beyond what was already established in House of X and Powers of X, is a Foxe idea developed with my editors and artistic collaborators. Jonathan Hickman established that, when Moira killed off the Trask family, AI still rose anyway, so that was where I got the idea to show an Ultron-ified AI-pocalypse.
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
The only cousin of an idea that I picked up from the past was that Jordan D. White, my X-editor, mentioned that there were some early talks about exploring more of Roberto in space that didn’t progress the same way we saw in X-Men Red. That is NOT to say there’s some master document of unused story ideas out there — it’s really no more than what I just typed out. We have to be careful dropping these tidbits because fans like to imagine there’s a big storyboard somewhere with all the paths not taken, but 99% of the time, we’re referencing what amounts to a, “Wouldn’t it be cool if…” But that nugget helped inspire putting an older Roberto on the Starjammers in Dead X-Men #1.
AIPT: In the Krakoan era, we’ve seen Emma interact with Kate Pryde, Ms. Marvel, and, of course, Tony Stark. But Jubilee and the other Generation X students, not so much! And even though it wasn’t our Emma, it was touching to see an emotional interaction between her and Jubilee. Knowing how much of a Generation X fan you are, how excited were you to sneak this scene in?
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Steve: That scene with Jubilee and Emma was important to me for a few reasons. Admittedly, I am a mega-fan of Ms. Frost, and I’ve only ever written her in a handful of panels (including reaffirming the respect between her and fellow Gen-Xer Monet in the second Hellfire Gala Unlimited comic!). But it was also a good opportunity to keep the stakes grounded and personal. When you’re dealing with universe-spanning conflicts, it can be easy to lose that human (no pun intended) touch. And one of the most central elements of the five mutants on this team is that they never forget that aspect. This might not be Jubilee’s Emma, exactly, but that doesn’t make it any easier to (SPOILER) watch her die in Jubilee’s arms. The Dead X-Men aren’t part of this mission because they’re the strongest, they’re part of this mission because they care and never lose sight of why they’re doing what they’re doing.
AIPT: What can you tease about Dead X-Men #3, on sale March 13, 2024?
Steve: You’ll see we have four talented artists credited on this issue, with Lynne Yoshii, David Baldeon, and Javier Pina joining Bernard Chang for a whirlwind tour of, you guessed it — other past lives of Moira MacTaggert. And one of those lives might just involve a shocking twist on the sort of X-Men teams we’ve seen before. We’re also building toward a — dare I say it — betrayal.
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
AIPT: Finally — one more chance to tease! What can you share about the recently announced X-Men: Blood Hunt – Psylocke (featuring Greycrow)?
Steve: I’m so excited Psylocke is public knowledge now! While I never feel entitled to anything, I admittedly would have been bummed if I didn’t get to do anything Blood Hunt-related, since I keep a foot firmly planted in the horror world.
And while the full story will have to wait for a future X-Men Monday, Kwannon was at the top of my list of X-characters I wanted to write but never had a chance to tackle. And I absolutely loved the relationship she formed with John Greycrow in Hellions, so the first question I asked when approached for this was if I could borrow the former Marauder, too. I’m reuniting here with Lynne Yoshii, who drew the Sunfire arc of X-Men Unlimited and part of Dead X-Men #3, [as mentioned above], so it’s a big thrill to get to work together on a complete print issue.
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
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.
AIPT: X-Fans named Psylocke and Greycrow X-Men Monday’s favorite X-Couple of 2021, so I’m sure a lot of readers are excited to hear that. But on that note, thanks for stopping by X-Men Monday to chat about your various projects, Steve! Let’s do this again next week. Feel free to bring another Steve along.
Before we wrap, X-Fans, here are this week’s 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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