X-Men Monday #304 – Paul Allor Talks ‘Marvel Rivals: Hellfire Gala’ and ‘Marvel Rivals: King in Black’

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

First, if you only use the internet on Mondays to read X-Men Monday (sounds like a good life!), then you likely missed last week’s edition — featuring writer Steve Foxe discussing Imperial War: Exiles — which went live on Thursday. You can give it a read here (or a re-read!).

With that out of the way, I need to be honest, X-Fans — I’m not a gamer. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll have a blast at a barcade, but the last “game” I purchased was either for Nintendo 64 or the Sony PlayStation. So, while I have no idea how to play Marvel Rivals, I do know it’s very popular. I’ve also heard “skins” are a big part of its popularity, so I’m going to assume Paige Guthrie and Angelo Espinosa are central to the plot.

I also keep up with the Marvel Rivals Infinity Comic on Marvel Unlimited, the very X-heavy second arc of which will be on sale this Wednesday (August 6, 2025) as a single comic. I thought this occasion would be the perfect time to invite the comic’s writer Paul Allor to X-Men Monday to discuss this unique series, as well as the new arc, which features Jean Grey! Read on to see what Paul has to say.

AIPT: Welcome to X-Men Monday, Paul! I’d love to start with a little about your personal history with Marvel’s mutants. What was your first X-Men eXperience?

Paul Allor: It was pretty late in life! I didn’t read comics as a kid, and when X-Men: The Animated Series hit, I was already busy being a snotty little juvenile delinquent.

Then the first movie came out when I was in college, and it was like, you know… “Yeah, that was pretty cool.”

But then the dam absolutely broke open when I was in my late twenties and working as a newspaper journalist. A co-worker who was a big comic book fan got my name in our secret Santa, and gifted me the first Astonishing X-Men trade, which I absolutely adored. It set my life on its current course — I devoted body and mind to writing, editing, lettering and teaching about comic books!

That book was such an accessible starting point, which is funny, because it picked up so much on the threads established by the previous Grant Morrison run. But I didn’t know that until a few years later, when I read New X-Men and was like, “Ohhhhhhh.” And that book was, of course, extraordinary, so fresh and interesting and vital, and really solidified my love of the X-Men.

AIPT: Moving on to Marvel Rivals, a lot of X-Fans were heartened to see Krakoa and the Hellfire Gala get such a large spotlight in Marvel Rivals’ second season. What was your knowledge of all things Krakoa going into writing the Hellfire Gala story arc? Were you a fan?

Paul: I was! I loved and have reread that initial House of X and Powers of X run so many times, just admiring the sheer level of craft involved. And I also read a ton of what followed. It was such an amazing time to be an X-Men fan!

AIPT: And run an X-Men interview column! Speaking of, our friend and Marvel Senior Editor Jordan D. White edits the Marvel Rivals Infinity Comic — and, he of course, served as the lead X-Men editor throughout the entirety of the Krakoan era. Was it helpful working with an editor who collaborated on the source material that influenced Marvel Rivals’ Hellfire Gala season?

Paul: Yeah, having Jordan on board provided a real sense of security. He’s a fantastic editor and a great resource on every arc, but on this one in particular, in this setting that means so much to so many readers, it was great to know that if I inadvertently messed something up, he’d get me back on the right track.

I also saw early on how much the Krakoan era means to Jordan, when we were on a Zoom call with the games division, and they were walking us through the Quiet Council setpiece. It was clearly a joyful moment for Jordan to see these places that he’d worked on for so long come to 3D life in a different medium.

And I also have to give props to our assistant editor, Emerald Bensadoun, who does such an amazing job keeping everything on track while providing consistently great advice and support. She’s also been at Marvel less than a year, which is absolutely wild. Being a Big Two assistant editor is a crazy, complex, demanding job, and she’s mastered it immediately!

AIPT: The Marvel Rivals Infinity Comic’s Hellfire Gala story arc has been available to read on Marvel Unlimited for some time, but will see print in one 42-page comic on August 6. For those who will be going in fresh, what do they need to know about the [comic book] world of Marvel Rivals?

Paul: If we did our job right, hopefully not much! I feel confident you could pick up this comic and be able to follow along without any previously assigned homework.

But very briefly: Several different realities have been smashed into each other, meaning characters from different timelines and different dimensions are all living, working, fighting, and Hellfire Gala-ing alongside one another. And the hijinks ensue from there!

AIPT: And what can these same readers expect to find in the pages of Marvel Rivals: Hellfire Gala?

Paul: During the Hellfire Gala, an extremely unwelcome guest arrives in the form of Ultron. And he has a diabolical plan, which represents a dire, existential threat to all mutants, everywhere! High stakes, in a comic book! It’s a new thing we’re trying, and I think it’ll catch on.

Our characters — mutants and non-mutants alike — have very different ideas about how to handle this, and they don’t always come down on the side you would expect. In large part, that’s because of their divergent timelines. Most notably, Captain America has a sharp disagreement with the mutants about… how to save mutantkind, which is rather gutsy of him! But this Captain America is from a future timeline. He’s seen how dark things get for mutants in the future, and that informs his strong opinions on how to handle things in the present. It gets very fun and very complex!

AIPT: You’re doing a lot in these Marvel Rivals story arcs — smashing together characters from multiple Marvel franchises (and realities), mixing high stakes with humor and character moments long-time and new readers can enjoy, and more. With so much to draw from — directly from Marvel Rivals and beyond — how do you zero in on the story you want to tell?

Paul: With great diligence. It is a lot to balance, and there’s no one way I tend to handle it. It depends on the individual arc, how much freedom I have versus how proscriptive the brief is for that story, the combination of characters, the tone of the story, if there are certain settings and skins I need to use, and on and on.

But one thing I’ve been trying to do is to start with the emotional core of the character, and then work outward from there, incorporating and layering in all the other requirements, the humor, and everything else.

So in the Hellfire Gala story, it starts with this existential threat to the X-Men, and how it leads our mutants to make — without spoiling it — a truly terrible, gut-wrenching decision. Which, again, Captain America tries to stop, because he thinks they’re inadvertently putting mutantkind in danger, and he simply can’t allow that.

And while all that is happening, Thing, Rocket Racoon, Jeff the Land Shark, and Squirrel Girl are all hanging out on the beach. And the emotional core of their story is… “Party, party par-TAY!”

AIPT: As a writer, do you enjoy playing with the scrolling Infinity Comic format? I really enjoyed some of the “camera tricks” you and your artistic collaborators employed — specifically, how artist Luca Claretti’s endless wave of Ultrons gets closer and closer to the reader in issue 7 and how artist Daniel Scalisi zooms the camera in on Emma Frost punching Ultrons in issue 9.

Paul: Oh, thank you, that’s awesome! I do, yes. The comics medium, and especially American monthly comics, is so set, so consistent, and it’s fun to push against its boundaries and see what you can do with it. But then… but then… when you get a whole new format? Heck yeah, I’m gonna take that and run with it!

But of course, like you said, it couldn’t be done without the extraordinary artists on these books! I’ve been incredibly lucky. They’ve all brought so much humanity and action and passion to these pages, along with colorist Dee Cunniffe and letterer Joe Sabino, doing their usual stellar work and bringing it all together. What a team!

AIPT: Of all the X-characters you got to write in the Hellfire Gala arc, which did you have the most fun writing?

Paul: Emma Frost, all day, all night, all day again. I love characters who shove everyone away to protect themselves. And she does it in such a fun, deeply wicked way.

But they were all so much fun, and I am very, very excited to see more mutants make their way into the Marvel Rivals universe! And who knows if this will ever happen, but there’s a certain story I plan to pitch as soon as we have at least eighteen of them…

AIPT: The next Marvel Rivals arc — featuring a Phoenix-powered Jean Grey — is underway on Marvel Unlimited. Anything you can share about writing Jean?

Paul: Oh, is Jean Grey a character people like? Interesting, interesting. I’ll have to keep that in mind for the future…

But more seriously, the new arc dropped on Marvel Unlimited last week and features said Phoenix-powered Jean Grey! If you have Marvel Unlimited, you can go read it now, and if not, it comes out in print this October as Marvel Rivals: King in Black.

AIPT: Finally, for X-Fans who enjoy Marvel Rivals: Hellfire Gala and want to read more Paul Allor-penned comics, what do you recommend?

Paul: To misquote Gary Oldman in Léon: The Professional, I recommend everything.

(what do you mean, everything?)

EVERYTHIIIIIIIIIIIING!

Ahem. But if you want a place to start, I’ve done a ton of work on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, another band of merry mutants whose stories combine humor, domestic drama, and wild action!

On the creator-owned side, I would check out Hollow Heart, a very queer monster love story with the emotions, romance, and sexual tension all pushed up to 11, which should appeal to any good X-Men fan, haha.

So that’s a good place to start. But seriously… everything. Especially on the creator-owned side. If you’re new to my work, then exploring more of it will be a beautiful gift that you give to yourself.

And you’re worth it.

AIPT: What an uplifting note to end on. Thanks for that, Paul, and thanks for stopping by X-Men Monday! Remember, X-Fans, Marvel Rivals: Hellfire Gala is on sale this Wednesday!

And here’s an eXclusive look at what comes next in the Marvel Rivals Infinity Comic, courtesy of artist Nico Leon and our friends at Marvel.

Next X-Men Monday — August 11, 2025

In the next edition of X-Men Monday… well, that’s a bit of a homework assignment for me (and a field trip!), as I’ll be attending FAN EXPO Boston 2025 as press. Last year, I had great conversations with Steve Orlando, Gerry Duggan, and Marguerite Sauvage, so we’ll see who I talk to this year — all for you, X-Fans!

Follow my FAN EXPO Boston adventures via my X (@ChrisAHassan) and Bluesky accounts (@chrishassan.bsky.social‬) — assuming I remember to post.

Until next time, X-Fans, stay eXceptional!