Comic Books

X-Men Monday #291 – Gail Simone and Murewa Ayodele Reflect on ‘X-Manhunt Omega’

Plus, eXclusive looks at ‘Storm’ #10 and ‘Uncanny X-Men’ #13!

March 31, 2025

Welcome, X-Fans, to another uncanny edition of X-Men Monday at AIPT!

Charles Xavier is free! Lilandra Neramani, former Majestrix of the Shi’ar Empire, lives again! Cyclops and Rogue’s X-Men teams — on better terms! Clearly, a lot happened across the “X-Manhunt” crossover’s seven parts (so, if you missed it, you better catch up fast). But now that it’s in the rearview, there’s no better time to unpack a few of the final chapter’s most significant moments with X-Manhunt Omega‘s co-writers, Gail Simone and Murewa Ayodele. Let’s see what they have to say.

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

AIPT: Gail and Murewa, welcome back to X-Men Monday! Before we break down some of X-Manhunt Omega’s biggest moments, I have to ask: How much fun was it collaborating on this issue and co-writing it together?

Murewa Ayodele: Thanks for having us, it’s really good to be back. Even though we have several documents where we’ve outlined the main plotline of the “X-Manhunt” event and we’ve had meetings where we discussed the plot, there is an element of improvisation in this event that makes it so much fun to work on.

For example, there was no intention to use John Wraith in X-Manhunt: Omega #1, but after reading Geoffrey Thorne’s script for X-Force #9, I just had to borrow the character for the finale. The same thing happens in X-Manhunt: Omega #1 — getting to use things Gail set up in previous parts of the story and watching how she takes things I set up to greater emotional heights was a delight. Getting to see a master work at their craft will always be fun to me.

Gail Simone: I think anyone following me on social media knows my wild regard for Murewa, and the unbelievable things he’s achieved in Storm. It really has been my favorite of the X-books since issue one. We have very different styles and points of view, but I think that’s what made it fun. Murewa wrote a freight train carrying explosives with no brakes, and I thought the best possible response to that is quiet, almost a whisper. I love the way that contrast occurred.

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

AIPT: While this one-shot serves as the conclusion to “X-Manhunt,” it also feels like the end of the first phase of the post-Krakoa “From the Ashes” era. There’s a chance to set aside conflicts, a chance to say goodbye, a chance to find new purpose, and so on. Is this an accurate interpretation?

Murewa: Honestly, I didn’t intend to approach the event that way, but when I read the script for the closing pages of “X-Manhunt,” I found it so moving that I immediately emailed Tom Brevoort, Gail Simone, and I think Jed MacKay was already copied in the email thread. I told them this feels like the end of a phase – the way the previous era had Dawn of X, Reign of X, etc. I was like, we need to give a name to the phase after “X-Manhunt,” but my suggestion came in a bit too late – the marketing machine had already gone beyond that point.

But I have read the comics that will be coming out after “X-Manhunt,” and it’s like everyone got the memo – from the writing teams to the art teams – all the books really heat up. We get some Limbo politics, a massive ice dragon, a war of thunder gods, one of my favorite X-Men right now crying their hearts out in the snowy wilderness, and so much more. This phase also leads into a massive storyline that’ll tear down the entire line of X-books… in the most thrilling ways. We can’t wait to announce it in the coming months. History is about to be made.

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Gail: I don’t really think in ‘eras,’ not as beginnings and endings. It’s important to me that the story and characters are king, and my philosophy when I come on a new book is that all the stories happened, and this is a chapter, the best chapter we can do. That said, it’s nice when you can have actual movement, where you can draw a line and say this happened, and it changes things. That’s how I feel about the end, and also the thawing of coldness between Rogue and Cyclops. They were not meant to stay on opposite sides, I believe.

Murewa’s right, the upcoming stuff is killer. The next five issues of Uncanny X-Men are my favorite two stories so far. One with art by the beloved David Marquez, and the other with the incredible Luciano Vecchio. I’m in X-art heaven!

AIPT: Well, speaking of things that happened in “X-Manhunt,” after about 16 years, Lilandra has finally returned to the Marvel Universe. What made this the right time to bring back the former Majestrix of the Shi’ar Empire?

Murewa: Imperial by Jonathan Hickman, Iban Coello, and Federico Vicentini.

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Gail: That was definitely a thing, knowing the epic that the brilliant Jonathan Hickman has planned. But I also really find Lilandra and the Shi’ar fascinating. All that power and knowledge and they still have all our same foibles. Plus, her love for Charles is endearing, even if it might be sometimes misguided.

AIPT: Now, yes, “X-Manhunt” was the end of Charles Xavier’s arc since the fall of Krakoa, but I finished the one-shot feeling like this was very much Cyclops’ story. I know neither of you are Scott’s regular writers, but I feel like you’ve given him opportunities to throw off many of his self-imposed shackles. Where would you say Cyclops’ head is coming out of X-Manhunt Omega?

Gail: Those great bits were mostly Murewa’s work, but we did include Jed at pretty much every stage. He’s writing a fantastic Scott and Murewa brought that energy in perfectly.

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Murewa: Speaking as a fan who has just happened to read more in advance, I think the audience is about to see a Cyclops who is not interested in the return of Charles Xavier, a Cyclops who is a little more reserved, and a Cyclops who digs himself deeper into the trenches of responsibilities. Like I said before, the comics after “X-Manhunt” are something special.

AIPT: It was also good to see two of the X-Men squads rise above their recent differences (for now, at least). Gail, how might Xavier’s exit impact Rogue’s team and their purpose as mutantkind moves forward?

Gail: It’s a weird thing that a lot of readers missed it, almost certainly because I was writing the opposing team… but I actually think Rogue was more wrong than Cyclops was on the issue of Charles. The temptation is, “Screw this, let’s get him out of prison.” But he ASKED to be arrested. And Scott felt it would cost lives if Xavier walked out without consequences.

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Rogue had lost so much in our first issues. She made some bad calls. Leadership doesn’t fit on everyone the same way. Give her time, we’ll see if she can rise to become the leader everyone hopes she can be.

AIPT: Murewa, Storm obviously has quite a bit going on in her own series, and we see her touch on lessons learned from the Dark Phoenix. What can you tease about the internal challenges that await Ororo in the pages of Storm?

Murewa: It’s great wisdom to not only learn from one’s own mistakes but to learn from others as well. However, Storm is about to apply lessons learned from “The Dark Phoenix Saga” to a problem that beyond the surface, bears no semblance whatsoever to it. “The Eternal Storm Saga” is strategically designed to hit Ororo everywhere it hurts – from the humorous qualities of hers we saw in Fantastic Four (1961) #547 to the more gut-wrenching trauma of hers we discovered in Uncanny X-Men (1963) #267.

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

AIPT: As we wrap up, Kitty Pryde taught us Xavier could be a jerk. And he certainly has a track record of dabbling in manipulation and deception. BUT, when he suggests Cyclops and the X-Men build another school… is that just a harmless suggestion or a tease of things to come?

Murewa: From the rumblings in the Marvel offices, I think it’s a legitimate tease of things to come. The real mystery is which of the books will it take place in. Who are the characters that’ll oversee the school? How will they manage to build a new school in the current hateful climate mutants have found themselves in?

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Gail: Oh, he definitely meant it. But the question is, who would take that mantle?

AIPT: Start speculating, X-Fans! Finally, now that we’ve seen “The Red Surfer,” “Scarlet Scatter Shot,” and “Sniping Sagittarius,” will we learn the names of more mutant moves in future X-comics? Because I’m not sure a simple “ZZRAK” will satisfy me anymore.

Murewa: Haha! My approach to SFXs comes from webcomics, anime, Manhwa, and classic fighting video games. I find that these “action SFXs” augment the reading experience in a much different way than onomatopoeia SFXs do, so I endeavor to use both in my work. We see a form of it in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, where Miles Morales’ spider-sense is triggered but it’s represented by a massive text superimposed across the background that says, “LOOK OUT!” In X-Men (2024) #9, there is a little panel where Rogue pulls her arm away from Cyclops’ grasp, and the SFX there is an action SFX that says “YANK.” I can’t say for other projects if we’ll begin to see more action SFXs, but we’ll definitely continue with our “MUAY THAI FLYING KNEE,” “IMMORTAL HEAD SMASH,” and “GOD SLAM” in the pages of the current Storm ongoing series.

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

Gail: I swear, when you have a sports car, you don’t want to drive it slowly to church on Sunday. You want to take it out on the open road and see what it can do. Murewa is our Lamborghini, only the nitro’s engaged and he’s trailing fireworks. I love it.

AIPT: Me too — big fan of the nitro Murewa’s bringing to his X-work. But on that note, Gail and Murewa, thanks for stopping by X-Men Monday! For this week’s X-Men Monday eXclusives, we’ve got something from each of your ongoing series, courtesy of our friends at Marvel.

First up, we can eXclusively reveal artist Mateus Manhanini’s cover to Storm #10, on sale July 2025.

Courtesy of Marvel Comics

And here’s the eXclusive eXtra early preview to Uncanny X-Men #13, on sale April 9, 2025 and written by Gail Simone, penciled and inked by David Marquez, colored by Matthew Wilson, and lettered by VC’s Clayton Cowles.