Welcome to another creepy edition of X-Men on Monday at X-Fans, AIPT!
Charles Xavier is free! Lilandra Neramani, a former Magicist of the Shiar Empire, is alive again! Cyclops and Rogue’s X-Men Team – with better words! Obviously, a lot has happened beyond the seven parts of the “X-Manhunt” crossover (so if you missed it, it’s better to catch up right away). But now it’s in the backview, so there’s no good time to unpack some of the most important moments in the final chapter with X-Manhunt Omega co-writers Gail Simone and Murewa Ayodele. Let’s see what they have to say.
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AIPT: Gail and Murewa, return to X-Men on Monday! Before breaking down some of the biggest moments of X-Manhunt Omega, I have to ask: how much fun was collaboratively co-authoring on this issue?
Murewa Ayodele: Thank you for welcoming us, it’s really good to be back. There was a meeting where we outlined the main plotline for the “X-Manhunt” event and discussed the plot, but this event has an improvisational element that makes the work really enjoyable.
For example, I wasn’t planning on using John Wraith in X-Manhunt: Omega #1, but after reading Geoffrey Thorne’s script in X-Force #9, I had to borrow a character from the finale. The same thing was X-Manhunt: Omega #1 – It was a joy to see how she took what I set to a greater emotional height, using what Gail set in the previous part of the story. It’s always fun for me to see masterwork in my own craft.
Gail Simone: I think anyone who follows me on social media knows my wildest respect for Murewa and the incredible things he accomplished in the storm. It’s been a real favorite since the X-Books. We have very different styles and perspectives, but I think it made it fun. Murewa wrote a freight train carrying explosives without brakes, and I thought the best possible response to it was quiet and almost whispering. I love the way the contrast happened.
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AIPT: This one-shot serves as the conclusion of “X-Manhunt” but feels like the end of the first phase of “from ashes” postcracore in the “from ashes” era. There are opportunities to take conflicts, say goodbye, find new purposes, and more. Is this an accurate interpretation?
Murewa: Honestly, I wasn’t going to approach the event that way, but when I read the script on the closing page for “X-Manhunt”, I found out that it was so moving that I immediately emailed Tom Brevoort, Gail Simone. I told them that this felt like the end of the phase – the previous era was at the dawn of X, the reign of X, etc., I had to name the phase after “X-Manhunt”, but my suggestion was a little too late – the marketing machine had already surpassed that point.
However, I read the manga that appears after “X-Manhunt.” It seems everyone has gotten a note from writing team to art team – every book really gets hot. We have some limbo politics, giant ice dragons, wars of the thunder gods, one of my favourite X-Men screaming their hearts in the snowy wilderness, and more. This phase also leads to a massive storyline that will tear down the entire X-Books line in the most thrilling way. I can’t wait to announce it in the next few months. History is about to be made.
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Gale: I don’t think of it as a beginning or end in “the era.” My philosophy when the stories and characters are kings and when they appear in new books is that all the stories have happened. This is a chapter, the best we can do. That being said, it’s nice to be able to do the actual movement, draw a line and say this happened, and change things. That’s how I feel about the end, and also the thawing of the cold between injustice and the cyclops. I believe they were not intended to stay on the other side.
Murewa’s rights and future ones are killers. The next five issues with Uncanny X-Men are two of my favorite stories so far. One is art by his beloved David Marquez, and the other is the incredible art of Lucia No Vecchio. I’m in X-Art heaven!
AIPT: Well, speaking of what happened in “X-Manhunt,” about 16 years later, Lilandra finally returned to Marvel universe. Why was this the right time to regain the old MagicStrengths of the Shiar Empire?
Murewa: Empire of Jonathan Hickman, Ivan Coello and Federico Vicentity.
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Gale: It definitely knew the epic planned by the brilliant Jonathan Hickman. However, I really find Lilandra and Shiar to be attractive too. All that power and knowledge and they still have the same foible of all of us. Plus, her love for Charles is adorable, even if it may be mistaken at times.
AIPT: Well, yes, “X-Manhunt” was the end of Charles Xavier’s arc since the collapse of Krakoa, but I ended up with a one-shot feeling like this was a story of so many Cyclops. I know neither of you are Scott’s regular writers, but it feels like you gave him the opportunity to throw away many of his self-imposed shackles. Where do you think Cyclops’ heads come from the X-Manhunt Omega?
Gail: Those great bits were mostly Murewa’s works, but I included JED at almost every stage. He wrote a great Scott, and Murewa brought that energy to perfection.
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Murewa: Speaking as a fan who just happened to read it, I think the audience is trying to see Cyclops, who are not interested in Charles Xavier’s return, a slightly more modest cyclops, and cyclops that delve deeper into the groove of responsibility. As I said before, the comic after “X-Manhunt” is something special.
AIPT: It was good to see two of the X-Men teams outweigh the recent differences (at least for now). How will Gail, Xavier exit affect Rogue’s team and how will their objectives be influenced when Mutantkind moves forward?
Gale: It’s strange that many readers missed it. It’s almost certainly because I was writing the opposing team…but in reality I think Rogue was more wrong than Cyclops was becoming a Charles issue. The temptation is, “Let’s screw this in and let him out of prison.” However, he asked to be arrested. And Scott felt that if Xavier left without consequences it would be life-threatening.
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Rogue lost a lot in our first problem. She made some bad calls. Leadership doesn’t suit everyone the same. Give her time, we will see if she can stand up to be the leader that everyone wants to be.
AIPT: Murewa, Storm clearly does quite a bit of it in her own series, and sees her touching on the lessons she has learned from Dark Phoenix. What can you tease about the internal challenges awaiting Ororo on the Storm page?
Murewa: Learning not only from your own mistakes, but also from others is great wisdom. However, Storm is trying to apply lessons learned from the “Dark Phoenix Saga” to the other side of the surface to problems that are not considered at all. “The Eternal Storm Saga” is strategically designed to hit Ororo everywhere, from the humorous quality we saw in Fantastic Four (1961) #547 to her brave trauma we discovered (1963) #267.
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AIPT: We conclude, Kitty Pride told us that Xavier could become a jerk. And he certainly has a track record of dabbling in manipulation and deception. But when he proposes that Cyclops and X-Men build another school, is it just a harmless proposal, or is it a bullying of what should come?
Murewa: From the rumblings of the Marvel office, I think that’s a legitimate bullying in the future. The real mystery is which book it will take place. Who is the character who directs the school? How can they build new schools on current hate-filled climate mutants?
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Gale: Ah, he definitely meant that. But the question is who will take that mantle?
aipt: Start your guess, x-fans! Finally, we saw “Red Surfer”, “Scar-colored Scattered Shot”, and “Sagittarius Sniper”, so we’ll learn the names of more mutant movements in future X-Comics? Because I don’t know if a simple “Zzrak” will satisfy me anymore.
Murewa: Haha! My approach to SFXS comes from web comics, anime, manwa and classic fighting video games. These “action SFXS” augments the reading experience in a much different way than the Onomatopoeia SFXS, so I strive to use both in my work. Spider-Man has its shape in Spider-Verse. Miles Morales’ Spider Sense is triggered, but “Look!” In X-Men (2024) #9, there is a small panel where Rogue pulls his arm away from Cyclops’ grasp, and SFX has an action SFX with the words “Yank” written on it. As I start watching more action SFXS, I can’t say anything about other projects, but I’ll definitely continue with “Muay Thai Flying Knee”, “Immortal Head Smash” and “God Slam” on the current Storm ongoing series page.
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Gale: I swear, when you have a sports car, you don’t want to drive it slowly to church on Sundays. You want to take it out on the public road and see what it can do. Murewa is our Lamborghini, and Nitro is only engaged, and he is chasing the fireworks. I love it.
AIPT: Me too – a huge fan that Nitro Murewa brought to his X-Work. But on that note, thank you Gail and Murewa for stopping by the X-Men on Monday! This week’s X-Men Monday Exclusives has something from each of the ongoing series courtesy of a friend of Marvel.
First, you can exclusively reveal the cover of artist Mateus Mannini for sale in July 2025 to Storm #10.
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And this is an exclusive early preview of Uncanny X-Men #13, which will be on sale on April 9, 2025, penciled and inked by David Marquez, colored by Matthew Wilson and sold by Gale Simone, written by VC Clayton Cowles.
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Next Edition of X-Men Monday: Author Stephanie Phillips discusses Phoenix, and new series artist Roi Mercado joins her!
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Until next time, X-Fans will remain exceptional!
