Marvel Comics' X-Men further their founder's dream of peaceful co-existence between man and mutant by fighting to protect a world that fears and hates them. That fight pits them against a number of threats, some grounded in super science and technology, and others more supernatural in nature. Many X-Men have experience with the former, but when it comes to battling the latter, none of them are as qualified as the former members of the New Mutants, the team of X-Men in training first brought together back in Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod's 1982 graphic novel.
The team's original incarnation battled a variety of paranormal menaces, including the Demon Bear (the basis for the crew's movie debut) and numerous infernal entities. Since those days, they've graduated to other teams like the X-Men and the Avengers, but in March, several original teammates will join forces with other fan-favorite mutants in New Mutants Dead Souls, a six-issue miniseries by writer Matthew Rosenberg and artist Adam Gorham.
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CBR: Matthew, one of the central characters of New Mutants Dead Souls is Magik, a character you seemed to really enjoy writing over in Secret Warriors where she made a guest appearance. What is it about Illyana Rasputin that you find especially interesting?
Matthew Rosenberg: Magik has always been one of my absolute favorite characters in the Marvel universe. She's close to being an original New Mutant. She's an X-Men because of her skill, but also because she is family. But still she is a bit of an outsider. The mutants are Marvel's misfits, and she is the misfit among the misfits. There is something so compelling about that. Her life is messed up to a degree that even other characters in the universe find it unsettling. And yet, through it all, she keeps her head down and does her job.
She is as tough as any character in the universe, but there is a vulnerability under there that she hides. She was robbed of her childhood, taken from her family, turned into something terrifying, and from that she came out and became a hero. So often with these characters there are questions of why certain choices were made, how they became the way they are. With Magik I've always understood. She wants to help others because she doesn't want to see people live a life like hers. And that is beautiful and tragic.
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I understand Magik's old teammate Karma is responsible for bringing your cast together in Dead Souls. What can you tell us about your take on the character and her role in the book?
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Yeah, Karma puts the whole thing together. Ever since Marjorie Liu's excellent run on Astonishing X-Men, Karma has been the heir to and head of The Hatchi Corporation, which is a global mega corporation not much different from the Stark or Rand Corporations. But Karma grew up as a New Mutant herself, she knows what teams like that can mean for the world. So, while she is effectively retired from field duty, she has assembled a group of old teammates and friends to start a new team. Essentially she is taking on the Professor Xavier role. And like Xavier, Karma's mission statement and end goals for her team may not be entirely clear from the start. She is on a quest for something, but we don't necessarily know what that is at first, and neither does the team.
Rounding out your cast of original New Mutants is Wolfsbane who was last seen in Tian during the Secret Empire event. How did that experience impact her? What's your sense of Rahne Sinclair's personality and what drives her?
Rahne has had a rough couple of years. She has always been sort of entry point for readers in a lot of ways. Even though she's fully a member of the team, she's a small town girl from a foreign country, religious, not comfortable with her powers. She brings a real outside perspective even when she's been 'inside' for so long.
I think she's a good counterpoint to Magik in some ways. Whereas the metaphor of Magik's armor forming around her when things get tough is obvious, for Rahne it is the opposite. Instead of being sealed away inside, this part of her that she doesn't love having exposed comes out. Thankfully I think she's well past being afraid and ashamed of who she is, but just on a personal level, her transformations, turning into something people view as a monster, it's very tough.
I think there is a world where what has happened to Rahne recently takes her out of this life once and for all. I like to think of her living in the Scottish countryside and just being happy with the quiet life. But this is her friends called into action once again. And she is really the bridge between all of them in some ways. From her time with the New Mutants to X-Factor, she knows them all well. So she is there for them. But I think people are going to find a quieter, more subdued Rahne in this series as she tries to reflect on some of the traumas in her life. One big one will be addressed for sure.
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Your cast also includes some other X-Factor related characters like Strong Guy, Boom Boom and Rictor. What's it like bouncing these characters off the original New Mutants? Based on Boom Boom's appearance in Phoenix Resurrection #2, I'm guessing you're a huge fan of her and these other X-Factor related characters.
Well, I think technically we can say that Boom-Boom and Rictor were New Mutants for a time, but it's certainly not what they are known for. And yes, I am a huge X-Factor fan for sure. I like this group a lot because they aren't entirely a family, they didn't grow up together doing this, but there are all these connective threads. Obviously they all know each other and have for years. There's an interesting dynamic because they are learning to trust each other, learning to work together, all of that. And all of that also plays into why they are on the team together. It's an unusual squad and we're going to examine why they are together as the series goes. And it's not just because they are some of my favorites. But they are.
In Dead Souls you're pitting your cast against some supernatural menaces. Can you talk a little bit about what inspired this angle of the story and the tone you're aiming for?
Our inspiration is the original run of New Mutants. Mutant energy vampires, aliens who infect things with their touch, giant demonic bears, all of the stuff in the original run straddles the line between superhero and supernatural really brilliantly. We wanted to try and update that idea a bit, or maybe lean into the supernatural a bit more. It's still a superhero book, but they are going to be up against some corners of the Marvel universe that mutants don't often appear in.
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Originally I wanted to do the book as a series of almost standalone issues, like a Planetary or Global Frequency, where our team were paranormal first responders. From that a bigger story started to unfold and we ended up boiling it down to really examine that bigger story. But some of that original structure remains.
What can you tell us about the identities of the antagonists in Dead Souls? Are these established Marvel characters? Or new creations? And how big of a threat are they to your cast?
Some of it is new characters, but one of the big antagonists is a character who goes back to the very beginning of the New Mutants. I really can't say much more than that, though.
Finally, you're working with artist Adam Gorham on Dead Souls, who is probably best know by Marvel fans for his recent work on Al Ewing's Rocket series. What's it like working with Adam on this story? What do you enjoy most about his style?
Adam is great. I've known him for years and always loved his stuff. Not too long ago he did a book called The Violent with Ed Brisson and our colorist Michael Garland and I was just blown away by it. His characters, his world, all of it was just so compelling. And the same way that I think he leveled up on that book, I think he's doing it again here. Just his subtle tweaks to character designs and the acting he gives them keeps me so engrossed in every single page he sends me. But he is doing these big epic moments and just blowing them out of the water too. I think readers are really going to be blown away by Adam's work on this.
I hope people check out the series. We've got some twists that I think long time New Mutants fans and new readers alike won't see coming. We're trying something a little different with this one. I think it's not what folks may be expecting. But I know as a lifelong X-fan myself, sometimes it's those odd books that really stick with you. That's what we are going for here and I hope people come along for the ride.
