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THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2006

MARVEL COMICS: X-MEN PRESS CONFERENCE

Marvel Comics on Thursday staged a telephone press conference regarding its new X-Men teams, specifically writers Ed Brubaker and Mike Carey, who kick off their arcs in July. Brubaker was on the call, but Carey would not attend.

Following are highlights:

* Editor Mike Marts said that both Brubaker and Carey were hardcore X-Men fans growing up. He said that both writers' previous Marvel work made it a "really logical and fun step" to put them on the X-books. "There was very little education that had to be done," he said.

* Marts said the casts of the books will be mixed up. "Both Ed and Mike's storyline are very character driven," Marts said.

* Brubaker's story picks up from his work in X-Men: Deadly Genesis and is described as a soap opera.

"Ed is doing a giant epic story," editor Nick Lowe said. "Mike is goinig a different angle. He captures a feeling that anything could happen at any moment."

* Brubaker's team on Uncanny will be Professor Xavier, Nightcrawler, Marvel Girl, Havok, Polaris and Warpath with a surprise member joining in the second issue of the arc.

Brubaker said he hopes to move the Marvel Girl character forward instead of re-emphasizing the she's-from-the-future angle. "She's been around for 18 years, she should have other stuff going on," he said, noting it was important to have a telepath on the team, and that she has a connection with the Shi'ar.

Brubaker said he's always liked Havok and Polaris, and that Havok was important to the story because of his connection with Vulcan. "Havok is a character with still a lot of untapped potential," he said.

Nightcrawler was selected, Brubaker, said because he wanted a character from the Giant-Size X-Men team. "Nightcrawler is immensely loyal to Xavier," he said.

Brubaker said he likes the brawler aspect of Warpath. "He's really stolen the show in the first couple of issues," he said.

Brubaker said the story serves as a redemption piece for Xavier for all his past mistakes. "And he's a great tactician even without his powers," he said. "He knows more about the Shi'ar than any of them."

* Carey's team on X-Men will be Rogue, Cable, Mystique, Iceman and Cannonball. "Sabretooth will be helping them out in a certain way," Marts said.

* Brubaker said he has read Carey's first three scripts. "People who think his work is too quiet or too intellectual for super-hero comics are really going to be stunned," Brubaker said. "He really knocked it out of the park. This is his place to show he can do a big super-hero book."

* Brubaker said he wanted to writer a story that had "some sort of lasting impact."

"Something I always liked about Marvel Comics and X-Men, you always felt like stuff mattered," he said. "You never knew where there would be a status quo change or if the old status quo would ever come back.

* Brubaker said the main difference between writing Deadly Genesis and Uncanny was that certain points of Deadly Genesis were already in place before he came aboard, while the Uncanny story he originated.

* Marts said he wasn't concerned with such a long arc springing out of a mini-series, like Brubaker is doing in Uncanny. "Actually, I thin it's going to help us out a lot," Marts said.

* Brubaker said he has a 12-issue issue commitment to Uncanny, but hopes to be around the X-office for a few years. "There's a lot of possibilties for what comes after that," he said.



E-mail the Continuum at RobAlls@aol.com



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