X-Men Monday #274 – Gerry Duggan Talks ‘West Coast Avengers’

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

If you’re significantly behind on your comic news, you’re likely wondering why an X-Men column is covering the new West Coast Avengers series. Because Firestar — the former New Warrior and Avenger who X-Fans voted onto Krakoa’s second X-Men squad — is part of the team! And, I mean, after the Fall of X, Iron Man’s basically an X-Men character now, right?

(Don’t answer that.)

Anyway, West Coast Avengers — on sale November 27, 2024 — is also written by Gerry Duggan, who’s always welcome around these parts. Let’s see what Gerry has to say about Iron Man and War Machine’s new team, Firestar’s role in it, and more.

AIPT: Welcome back to X-Men Monday, Gerry! Before we get into West Coast Avengers, I recently came across the first Hellfire Gala hardcover at a great price and had to add it to my shelf. I had a blast revisiting those stories — which feature some of your biggest Krakoan swings. So my question: Would you say your time on Krakoa changed how you make comics in any way?

Gerry Duggan: It’s a good question, but no, I think it was the culmination of a great learning experience. I think learning how to write for different artists is the most critical thing we can do as writers. I spent the years prior to the Hellfire Gala learning how to do that on Deadpool. People forget when you look back at those comics — they have artist authorship — even though we were printing them like a runaway freight train — 18 a year — they don’t read like that because of how we produced it — out of order largely — but serving exactly the pitches that we knew each individual artist would crush a home run each time out. 

Tony Moore then Scott Koblish/Matteo Lolli/Mike Hawthrone as the spine — and trading arcs. That experience served us well on the Gala. We threw the artists the prompts they needed and got out of their way. It was fun to let them do the driving. We knew they would be immortal comics when we saw cosplay before we’d actually printed any of the comics.

By the way, I may be wrong, but I think that’s where the title “Immortal” came from — from those meetings at the dawn of the pandemic — discussing “the immortal X-Men comics,” the ones that would always be read and be talked about, and about how they worked and why. It was a privilege to collaborate on X-Men — will always cherish the experience and I’ll never tire of signing them. 

AIPT: Always good to reflect on the First Krakoan Age, but on to West Coast Avengers. Was your Invincible Iron Man run always meant to lead into this spinoff series? If not, how did this series and your involvement come about?

Gerry: Alanna Smith was considering bringing it back, and even though I’d written 20 issues of Iron Man, I actually managed to land that one without using a single idea from the Iron Man folder of story ideas on my computer. Because I inherited the book and had a couple of new ideas for him, Feilong, Emma, the Stark Sentinels, the Mark Null and Mark Mysterium, and the Sentinel Buster, none of that came from my decade or so of tracking ideas for these characters — so I have a lot of Tony left in the tank.

Grateful that while Spencer Ackerman‘s killing it on the main book, I can hopefully find a place to work in more of my blue chips. When West Coast Avengers came up from Alanna — I said I had the perfect torch pass, and I think it is. I loved that when I was a kid — how story would organically lead to bigger stories — look for more of that from Marvel, I think.

AIPT: Given Storm’s currently an Avenger, it’s likely a lot of X-Fans are reading Jed MacKay’s Avengers. How will West Coast Avengers differ?

Gerry: West Coast Avengers will have its own identity — it’s a team that is barely working. It’s a great idea from Rhodey — the shorthand version is “the work release Avengers.” Can the Avengers work to rehab black hats early? The new villain we have on the team is a perfect test case for Tony and Rhodey.

AIPT: As this is X-Men Monday, we need to talk about Firestar. At the last Hellfire Gala, Jean Grey ensured Angelica would play a key role in bringing down Orchis during the Fall of X. Yet, she’s on neither Cyclops nor Rogue’s X-Men teams. Where is Firestar’s head at when we revisit her post-Krakoa?

Gerry: If I told you it’d probably be more news articles that are riffing off this, and I think I want to let that be a surprise. It’s an excellent character introduction in West Coast Avengers. One of the better page turns in recent 616 comics.

You do NOT need to have read any recent Krakoan comic to relate to where she is, but if you have… it’s a fertile new orbit for somebody who was sent to war and survived.  

AIPT: Firestar’s a character the fans chose for your X-Men team — and you’re still writing her! What made you want to include her in your West Coast Avengers cast?

Gerry: It’s a great opportunity to pick up a character we sent directly to hell, and what we’re doing with her is maybe more surprising than what we’re doing with Ultron.  

AIPT: Well, speaking of — in addition to Firestar, you’ve got Iron Man and War Machine, Spider-Woman, a reformed Ultron, and a new character named Blue Bolt, who’s apparently the biggest jerk in the Marvel Universe. Is it safe to expect some messy team dynamics?

Gerry: Well, Blue Bolt was the name that Tony made him use as an Avenger. By issue 2 we’ll learn that his villain name is KILLERWATT. The name on his suspended driver’s license is Tommy Watt. Blue Bolt is a name he hates… and he has a job he hates… but he might be good at it. The Ultron story we’re telling is really compelling. Excited for everyone to get to experience it.

AIPT: You’re a West Coast writer. Is it nice to write superheroes in your neck of the woods for a change?

Gerry: Makes perfect sense to not put all your Avengers’ eggs in one basket. Tony buys Santa Monica Airport — which is closing in a year or two, and it’s a really fun location to have as an Avengers HQ. The skies look like Grand Theft Auto load screens, there are hangers of armors and cars and the Avengers quarters are really nice and expensive Airstream trailers. The kind that movie stars enjoy on big features.  

AIPT: What can you share about West Coast Avengers’ visuals, courtesy of artist Danny Kim?

Gerry: What a talent. He’s got all the gears for a book like this — the action, the acting on our characters, the ability to sell jokes. And, I rarely cook without some horror. Danny’s a complete artist. It’s his book.  

AIPT: As we wrap up… Tony Stark and Emma Frost. It’s been a minute since the end of their marriage. But in those quiet moments… which of these two thinks about the other more? 

Gerry: Oh, Tony for sure. I’m glad that romance worked. Thought everybody involved crushed it.  

AIPT: Finally, for readers who haven’t been keeping up with your post-Krakoan work, what should they be reading and on the lookout for beyond West Coast Avengers?

Gerry: I have a new Image collaboration with Garry Brown, and he’s just crushing it called Falling in Love on the Path to Hell — about a samurai and a cowboy that meet down in Purgatory and begin an epic romance. It’s fantastic.

Also, I have a new photo book called Timing/Luck that is also available from Image. I take you into some interesting rooms and down some cool-looking streets. If you’re an X-Fan, you actually get to see some shots from the birth of some moments — like Al Ewing discussing S.W.O.R.D. after Planet-Size X-Men was ratified. Most people forget I have a camera in my hand. Those are my favorite shots. 

AIPT: And in case you missed it, X-Fans, Gerry and I actually had an in-depth discussion about Timing/Luck in 2022’s X-Men Monday #173.

As for Falling in Love on the Path to Hell, if you’re an X-Fan who loves action and relationship drama in equal measure, then you need to meet your new favorite couple: Asami and MacRaith. Did I mention the decapitations? Lots of those too. I had a chance to check out Falling in Love on the Path to Hell #6 (on sale November 27, 2024) early, and if you’ve been following the series, brace yourselves for Gerry and Garry’s steamiest issue yet. (And I’m not just talking about the Cauldron.) If you’ve missed the series so far, a $9.99 trade paperback collecting the first four issues will go on sale January 8, 2025.

Gerry, thanks for stopping by X-Men Monday! X-Fans, remember that West Coast Avengers #1 goes on sale November 27, 2024. As this week’s X-Men Monday eXclusive, we’ve got Danny Kim’s preview pages for the first issue…

And here’s an eXclusive first look at the cover to February 2025’s West Coast Avengers #4 by artist Ben Harvey.

Coming soon to X-Men Monday: Writer David Pepose will make his X-Men Monday debut to discuss his upcoming Cable: Love and Chrome mini-series. Click here to submit questions to David by November 12, 2024.

And, in the next X-Men Monday, it’s our milestone 275th edition — featuring the return of the Conductor of X himself, Tom Brevoort!

Until next time, X-Fans, stay exceptional!