Writer Jonathan Hickman and writer/artist Declan Shalvey are collaborating on a digital-only X-Men series for Marvel Unlimited.A short 15-second video teases "a new comics X-perience is coming to Marvel Unlimited" on Sept. 9. We then see the Krakoan language on the screen translated into the names of Jonathan Hickman and Declan Shalvey, who will team this Marvel Unlimited exclusive series.
News of Jonathan Hickman working on a new X-Men project comes after the announcement that he will be departing the X-Men franchise following the conclusion of Inferno, a four-issue miniseries that will wrap up the writer's dangling plotlines from House of X and Powers of X. The story focuses on Mystique seeking vengeance against Charles Xavier and Magneto for not resurrecting her lover Destiny.
"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."
At the time of the Inferno news, Hickman did reiterate that while he was leaving X-Men, he was not ending his time at Marvel. Hickman revealed he was working on his "Next Big Marvel Thing" with plans for it to debut later this year. Whether or not this is the Marvel Unlimited digital series remains unknown at this time. However, there will also be a weekly X-Men series to spin out of the franchise in 2022.
Source: Marvel