NYCC 2019: The Dawn Of X Panel

“Read any good X-Men comics lately,” asked Marvel EiC C.B. Cebulski. There was significant applause in response.

With that Cebulski introduced Jordan White (X-Men group senior editor), Ed Brisson (writer of New Mutants), Tini Howard (writer of Thanos, Death’s Head, and Excalibur), and Benjamin Percy (writer of X-Force and the Wolverine podcast).

Cebulski stressed that this would not be a reboot, that “Dawn of X “will build upon everything that has made the X-Men great. Universal drugs, the end of mutant death, the Krakoan language, White ran through the seismic shifts that House of X has introduced. White couldn’t tell the audience what would happen in Powers of X #6, but he could say what won’t. PoX #6 is not going to undo House of X. This status quo is here to stay.

The “Dawn of X” breaks with Jonathan Hickman and Leinil Francis Yu’s X-Men. Cyclops is the Captain Commander of the X-Men and is hand picking exactly who he needs for the task at hand, so he’s starting with all of the Summers (and Wolverine) but it will change constantly. In a taped message. Hickman promised one and done adventures that will feel like an action movie every month. Every mutant on Krakoa is an X-Man when needed and that’s what the book will look at. Issue #5 sees Xavier, Magneto, and Apocalypse going to Davos for the World Economic Forum.

Marvel is distributing “Dawn of X” trading cards in Krakoan with secret messages and a decoder card.

Captain Kate Pryde is leading a crew to distribute the Krakoan drugs on behalf of the Hellfire Trading Corporation in Marauders. Her crew serves as a legitimate arm of the Krakoan government going one way and an underground railroad on the way back. Hickman said that Marauders is the book that plays most deeply into the X-Men mythos. Dugan calls it a hyper violent soap opera. White and Hickman noted that, while Emma is not on the boat, she is both incredibly important to Marauders and incredibly powerful by nature of controlling an entire quadrant of the Krakoan council.

Hickman said that “Dawn of X” is the closest and most interconnected the X-Men titles have been in years.

Howard quickly came around to Hickman’s vision, seeing in it the promise of a thriving mutant culture that can grow and learn in a way that they simply couldn’t when they were feared and hated. At the same time, Betsy Braddock is adrift, in an uncertain world, in a body that she hasn’t inhabited in years and she’ll be on a journey to find her place with some of Howard’s favorite X-Men. These two threads make up the core of Excalibur. With a romantic’s smile, Howard noted that Apocalypse, too, has “beautiful things that he wants to make and wants to share and finally maybe he’s gonna do that.”

Howard also praised Marcus To as an inheritor of Alan Davis’ spirit on the original Excalibur. She’s had great fun collaborating with him, sending To references, from Waterhouse paintings to Revolutionary Girl Utena, basically girls with swords.

Benjamin Percy, in his eternally disarming voice, declared that X-Force is not merely a team but the Mutant CIA. The intelligence unit is headed by Beast and the field unit is led by Wolverine. Percy says that Hank and Logan are both aligned and at odds. He flatly declared, “this is a dirty book, this is a gritty book, this is a rough-edged book, shadow-soaked book, poisonous book. Bad shit happens in the X-Force.” Finally, rising to a crescendo, Percy promised that something will happen on the final page of X-Force #1 that will ripple throughout the entire line.

You can expect to see Forge in X-Force and you will see what happens when he gets his technomastery all wrapped up in Krakoan bio-tech.

Brisson says that New Mutants will start with the original cast enjoying Krakoa, enjoying what is, for them, paradise, but something is missing. So Bobby takes the team and heads to space to get Cannonball back. They hitch a ride with the Starjammers, but the space pirates get a little distracted by piracy and general skullduggery, which complicates matters and puts the team reunion on hold.

There will also be stories set on earth with later New Mutants acting similarly and seeking to encourage mutants on earth to come to paradise. There will be characters from Generation X, New X-Men, and more, notably Boom-Boom. [] Brisson particularly adores Glob Herman and he can also promise plenty of Glob.

Over in Fallen Angels, Revanche has taken the Psylocke name along with her body. The series looks at characters that are, for one reason or another, uncomfortable on Krakoa. White calls it fun in a dark way. Issue #5 will also introduce Husk and Bling!.

The first question actually came from Cebulski himself. He asked about Martha Johansson and whether she could be transferred back into a body. The answer was a definite yes, but only if she wants to.

A defender of Morrison’s run asked about the Magneto/Xorn retcon, leading White to declare that it was Xorn, definitively (though he acknowledged that this was clearly not the writer’s intention at the time).

There will definitely be a comic about Franklin and Valeria Richards and their decision regarding Krakoan citizenship. A similar question came up about Molly Hayes, but White needed to talk to the Runaways team before he blew up that book like that.

A fan asked about [a long ago story] that presented a future where Gambit was revealed as a clone of Sinister. White admitted that this was not treated as canon by Marvel editorial.

One fan seemed to have a question but first inquired if the panel would discus wave 2 of “Dawn of X”. Unfortunatetly they could not. “Ok, then I don’t have a question, I have a demand: I’m going to need an X-Factor book by Peter David.”

“I love X-Factor Investigations more than anything in this world, but, now that he’s mine, Peter David can pry Rictor out of my bony little hands,” Howard shot back.

White was also asked about Anole’s arm and how it switched. ” I can tell you the real answer: it was a mistake.” Marvel editorial considered switching back but they felt that it had been drawn so many times that would just be another error at that point.

Asked if Laura would feature at all in X-Force, Percy answered “You’re gonna see some X-23”.

A fan noted the absence of Moira from HoX/PoX and White confirmed that she would appear in Powers of X #6 next week.

Despite what they said earlier, there was one book from wave 2 that the panel could talk about. Following the protocol that the panel had enforced for questioners, one of the panelists spoke up.

Wolverine is the character that speaks to Percy, a cracked mirror version of himself, and he has been training in his own personal podcast Danger Room. He stressed that he couldn’t respect his predecessors more, but is eager to leave his mark on the man called Wolverine together with series artist Adam Kubert.