Prolific writer Jonathan Hickman is stepping away from Marvel's X-Men line after the conclusion of the upcoming Inferno event.
While Inferno marks the end of Hickman's time as showrunner of the X-Men franchise, this is not the end of his time at Marvel. According to Entertainment Weekly, Hickman is already working on his "Next Big Marvel Thing" which should make its debut sometime next year, along with a weekly X-Men series.
"Oh, plans have changed entirely," Hickman said regarding his initial X-Men plans. "When I pitched the X-Men story I wanted to do, I pitched a very big, very broad, three-act, three-event narrative, the first of which was House of X. And while this loosely worked as a three-year plan, I told Marvel upfront that I honestly had no idea how long the first part would last because there were a lot of interesting ideas that I had seeded that other creators would want to play with, and so, we left this rather open-ended. I was also pretty clear with all the writers that came into the office what the initial, three-act plan was so no one would be surprised when it was time for the line to pivot."
He added, "However, I also knew that I was cooking with dynamite, and it was very possible that what I had written in House of X, and the ideas contained within, was not actually the first act of a three-act story, but something that resonated more deeply and worked more like Giant-Size X-Men, where it would represent a paradigm shift in the entire X-Men line for a prolonged period of time. So, during the pandemic, when the time came for me to start pointing things toward writing the second-act event, I asked everyone if they were ready for me to do that, and to a man, everyone wanted to stay in the first act. It was really interesting, because I appreciated that House of X resonated with them to the extent that they didn't want it to end, but the reality was that I knew I would be leaving the line early."
Hickman made his X-Men debut with 2019's House of X and Powers of X, with artists Pepe Larraz and R.B. Silva, respectively. The six-issue series worked in tandem to set up the next era of X-Men stories, relocating the majority of mutants in the Marvel Universe to Krakoa, which the mutants turned into a sovereign nation-state. Other additions include the creation of three new drugs to help humanity, along with a process to resurrect dead mutants.
Marvel recently relaunched X-Men from writer Gerry Duggan and artist Pepe Larraz, as the team functions as Krakoa's official superhero team. The Inferno limited series picks up story threads from House of X and Powers of X, as Mystique threats to tear down everything Charles Xavier and Magneto (with Moira MacTaggert in secret) have built.
Inferno #1 goes on sale Sept. 29 from Marvel Comics.
Source: Entertainment Weekly