36 Comments

Is Iceman still gonna be showing up by the end of the year, no spoilers necessary, just to know if we're still gonna be getting something from him by the end of year, because so far he hasn't been nowhere to be seen

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Hey Brevoort! Here's some questions I wanted to ask.

You mentioned Extraordinary X-men on you're last post and I wanted to ask was that a mistake or a future title?

Another question - what do you feel about line ups changing ( I hope they don't change any time soon ) but many writers think that line ups should change quite often such as the Krakoan X-men team

My last question is what about the multiverse ? Do you support multiverse plots or enjoy them or perfer everything to be based on 616

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This may be something you’ve covered before, but has there ever been any thought about putting some of the infinity comics on Webtoons? I could see keeping them exclusive to Unlimited for 6 months and then maybe putting them on a service like that to try to attract new readers who are growing up on those services instead of the local comic shop. X-Men Infinity, Mary Jane, Alligator Loki, and Jeff seem especially relevant to that service. I’ve seen that most Netflix content is consumed in a month or so, and if it’s a similar timeframe for the Infinity comics it seems like spreading them to another service is a way to continue getting more eyeballs. I’ve also seen stories that keeping podcasts exclusive to one service has limited their reach and diminished their returns. I’ve seen a few of the Infinity books get a print version (Jeff and X-Men), but most of the content lives only on Unlimited. I’m sure you guys have studied all this, and I’m just armchairing it, but curious what the research on your end showed. As always I appreciate any thoughts you have. :)

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Dear Brevoort, the preview of Phoenix #2 shows that the plagiarized part of it has been fixed, which is a good sign, but I still wonder when we can get rid of this artist? I can't accept him as a white man who copied the work of a black artist. I think I will stop buying this book until this artist is replaced.

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author

You should do you.

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Tom, you mentioned that Thunderbird/John Proudstar will appear in From The Ashes. Are you thinking of keeping his current look or going back to something more classic? I mean, his current costume has great meaning and importance for the character's indigenous identity. Nyla Rose, David Cutler and Steve Orlando have worked hard to give John a story that respects his roots, as well as a look that is unique and full of elements of indigenous/Cheyenne culture.

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Aug 18·edited Aug 18

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question in this edition. I would like to ask a follow up if that's okay. What led to the decision to deal with marvel cosmology and cosmic entities in Storm (we are getting Oblivion as early as issue 5, and Eternity and Living Tribunal I believe have been teased by the writer) as opposed to taking these kinds of stories on in Phoenix, when Jean/Phoenix is an actual cosmic entity herself? (not a complaint by any means btw! just very intrigued by the paths the books are taking )

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"I’ve been doing this for a very long time, and I have a confidence bordering on arrogance about my own capabilities in this field."

How do you make sure that confidence/arrogance isn't leading to complacency? For example, wouldn't an overly confident/arrogant person be prone to attributing any negative sales trends that arise to factors other than themself? Or as long as superiors are not stepping in to criticize your decisions, can you assume you're doing fine? To that end, could it be said that the Jim Shooter/Bill Jemas approach to management may have advantages in pushing to make the end product better?

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A lot of people have asked questions about things you didn't like about Krakoa or tried to get you to talk about things you didn't like. But I'm curious, are there things about Krakoa or the Krakoa era that you like? That you thought was done really well? Obviously with the editorial change there's a new direction and status quo but as an editor is there anything that makes you wish you had a chance to play in the krakoa "sandbox"? Any lessons learned or developments unique to the Krakoa status quo that you think should carry forward through X-Men stories? Not in a literal "we need to always have magic plant gates you can teleport with" or something but more of a philosophy or theory of storytelling in terms of X-Men. Like how you're adamant it's out of character for Nightcrawler to murder indiscriminately (even though I LOVE Krakoa I agree with you there that was really jarring and weird, same for Kitty murdering like crazy)

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Also I wanted to add: thanks for answering my previous question I really appreciate it.

I know in real life Hope isn’t a super popular character (which sucks I think she’s amazing I wish more people could see that) and I know there was an editorial change. You guys want to do a new jumping on point for new readers, it wouldn’t make much sense to have a “funeral issue” dealing with something that happened under the old editorial team.

I get all that I really do and I didn’t hold it against your team since from an editorial standpoint it just wouldn’t make sense. But man was it ever a bummer one of my favorite characters died. I mean I get it, it’s comic books, characters die and they’ll come back some day when there’s an interesting story somebody wants to tell with them and Hope isn’t a fan favorite. But in universe she was really important. First new mutant born after M-Day, saved everybody in Second Coming, had a whole war fought over her with AvX and with Wanda’s help saved the world AND made it so mutants could be born again (are the new mutants we’re seeing in your books the product of Hope sparking x-gene activations again?) then served on the Quiet Council and gave her life for all reality and so Jean could live. It was just a huge bummer she didn’t get much in the way of even a “damn, Hope died”

I got into comics, and X-Men as a teen with Messiah Complex and followed Hope’s journey from being born to her recent sacrifice. She’s my favorite character since unlike any other character I feel like I watched her grow up as I grew up. I’m still pretty bummed she’s dead and really bummed there wasn’t time to address properly it in the end of the last editorial teams run and that it just didn’t make sense for your editorial team to really address it.

BUT with all that said I feel a little better knowing that it will be at least acknowledged somewhat down the line when it makes sense to do so. I was really worried it’d just never get acknowledged at all and everybody in universe would just shrug and forget her and that made me so sad

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I am sorry hope died. It truly sucks when a character you love dies. The first time Xavier died I was still in hospital. I couldn’t tell anyone, too embarrassing. But my father was on base alert and my mom and sisters were sick so no visitors. I cried for a good bit. Then someone stole my copy of Lad, a Dog. And I got pissed off. Angry is a lot easier to deal with. Xavier came back. My book did not. Hope, though…Hope’s not dead. She is part of the Bird and the births. You’ll see her again at the end. Just before it all begins again. https://youtu.be/CZFngXSDD0I?si=dYNVXn82IM8XKGU5

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That’s funny. You shared that John Byrne Hulk anecdote a few months back but you left his name and the name of book anonymous. I remember because it was extremely easy to tell who and what you were talking about, lol

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Your kinda blowing up Tom's spot a little bit here haha, if he didn't explicitly say the name I assume that's for a reason, so instead of outright stating who it is in the comments, maybe just say that you saw it and were able to guess easily who it was.

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Dear Mr. Brevoort, thank you for answering my question.

I have one more question. I won’t ask when. I have a feeling you couldn’t answer, but I will ask *if* you intend to have a redemptive story arc for Professor Xavier. He isn’t very good at being bad. From what I have seen in comics, good or bad is immaterial to a character’s popularity, it’s competence that matters. The odor of failure sticks to a character and seems to bring out the worst in the fans.

There are so many stories he could still tell. He could go back to search and rescue. Or teach mutants without powers how to defend themselves. Or go back into research to find out why some mutants have disastrous powers or none at all.

Finally, a nit to pick please. In X-men, when Phillip Scurvy is facing the prisoner in his sensory deprivation gear and stress pose, Phillip is wearing a back brace thar laces up the front, long leg braces and a onesie.

I get that he is sick. That people are being treated badly. But in a back brace and long leg braces all locked down like that, it’s going to be tough to move And in that jumpsuit how can the poor man pee? I get that it’s fiction but I wore braces like that. I used the same sort of crutches. Looking at Phillip makes me squirm.

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Not Tom but in terms of Xavier's redemption, I'd contend that it's already begun in the X Men From the Ashes infinity comic, worth checking out!

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Thank you for this, that is immensely comforting.

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I'm glad to hear it :-)

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Also the user name is…well..cool.

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I just want to say for the record that I agree with your take on Nightcrawler's morality and superheroes in general.

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Do you read any ongoing comics from any other publisher?

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I bought all the Marvels Comic Group books. I thought it was a fun event. But I was always into the fifth week event stuff like DC’s Tangent line.

Anyway I remember loving the Thor book.

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In all honesty, Dwayne was a stronger writer than many folks...and he solidly proved that with the Milestone titles. I was conflicted about his leaving...I kind of felt like I was a fill-in writer and my stories were being ignored. I was disappointed the the schedule cause his last story to be the most chaotic artist wise. I love Chris Wozniak's work and was excited to see what he was going to do, but I always thought this looked nothing like his work. Maybe it's the various inkers...but it's not the best example of his work. At this point I had to figure out how to clean up the continuity of the book and get it going in MY direction. I was thrilled that we got the go ahead finally to use Luther Manning. This gave me a chance to try and connect everything we'd done on the book together and give it t'sown identity. I was happy to write the epilogue with Manning in this issue, but somehow the credit was never put in place...and people gave Dwayne the credit for that page and assumed HE had come up with all the plans with Manning...ughhhhh...I knew I had to make this book my own, fast. And step one was to finish off some continuity that had been around way too long...

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If 2024 Tom Brevoort was editing Deathlok -- a comic with two lead writers who were taking shifts and writing almost separate books about the same character -- how would you deal with that? Rebrand then as limited series? Cut the Gordian knot and go full-time with only one of them Two monthlies? They're now co-authors?

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Before From The Ashes was announced, some books on the X-Line leaked, very accurately. However: The three X-Men books all were leaked under wrong names. Uncanny without the adjective, Adjectiveless down as Cyclops and Exceptional was the somewhat less confusing Young X-Men. All names that more or less describe the books. My question is: Was this a matter that those book had code names that leaked? Was it some intentional subterfuge? Or was it just a matter of the leaker getting just those parts wrong? Or is it some other thing I didn’t mention?

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