In January's Sins of Sinister #1, darkness falls over the Marvel Universe as the amoral geneticist, Mr. Sinister, gains ultimate power. Making matters even more dire is the fact that it might not just be one Sinister with dominion over the Marvel Universe. There could be as many as four different versions of the all-powerful, malevolent scientist holding sway over everything.

In early 2023, Al Ewing's X-Men: Red, which focuses on the mutant-dominated planet Arakko (formerly Mars), will become part of the Sins of Sinister event for three issues when it becomes Storm and the Brotherhood of Mutants. Ewing and artists Paco Medina, Andrea Di Vito, and Alessandro Vitti chronicle their titular characters' fight against Sinister in the future. CBR spoke with Ewing about the X-Men Red issue leading into Sins of Sinister, the challenges Storm and her allies will face in their 1000-year fight against the geneticist, the new characters they'll encounter, and what happens when the story returns to the present day.

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CBR: There's still one very big issue of X-Men Red before Sins of Sinister. What can you tell us about it? How epic is the Storm's clash with Vulcan you set up on the final page of issue #9?

Al Ewing: I'm obviously not going to spoil the plot in an interview, but I can reveal that it is pretty epic. The landscape of Arakko is very literally changed by this confrontation, as you'd expect. It's a battle between two people that we've established are equally matched, except one's had a nice rest in an egg and the other hasn't, so does that tip the scales a little? I guess we'll find out.

What made you want to be part of the Sins of Sinister event?

The idea was always to build something that had a lot of Arakko in it. Kieron [Gillen's] basic idea immediately gave me a whole bunch of ideas: how to introduce new characters, how to tell a story I wanted to tell -- or, technically, three stories I wanted to tell -- about Storm and the people she inspires. You could say it's the story of a friendship that lasts centuries between a Goddess and her most loyal follower. You could also say it's the Brotherhood TV show I'll never get to write. It's many things.

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Recent developments in Immortal X-Men suggest there might be as many as four different versions of Mr. Sinister. What can you tell us about Sinister's presence in your title? What's it like writing Sinister?

I can tell you that there are four Sinisters, and we haven't seen two of them. Maybe one of the remaining two is in my book, maybe they're not. I've seen all sorts of theories, but to quote Francis Urquhart, "I couldn't possibly comment." In terms of what it's like to write Diamond Sinister, I do get a chance to write him over the course of this crossover, and I tried to do my best impression of Kieron. He gets a couple of choice puns, even in a universe where the pun is kind of a dead medium.

From talking with Kieron about Sins of Sinister #1, Immortal X-Men, and Immoral X-Men, it sounds like Storm and the Brotherhood of Mutants is an extension of X-Men Red. Does that mean this book is still about the movers and shakers on Arakko? What can you tell us about the core cast and focus of the book?

Storm is the focus of the book, but it's Storm at three different points of a thousand-year history and her connection to an evolving Brotherhood. Each episode has different vibes pulled from different sources. +10 is the closest to the context we know, the Brotherhood as an angry superpowered strike force, hitting out at what they consider justified targets. The vibe is Blake's 7 meets The A-Team, and part of the fun is seeing what's become of some characters you've seen before in a new setting. Loolo, the scrappy kid, is now a scrappy teen, and her powers have kicked in. Cable bonded with Xilo, and he's looking weird. By +100, the Brotherhood's evolved into an interstellar rebellion, and Storm's leading it. By +1000, the Brotherhood is an ancient order of knights, and Storm is... Well, that would be telling. And then readers get to apply [what] they've learned to the present day.

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Sins of Sinister plays with and fundamentally alters the Marvel Universe. Who are some of the familiar Marvel players that don't regularly, or haven't yet, appeared in X-Men Red that you're enjoying playing with in Storm and the Brotherhood of Mutants?

There's Jon Ironfire. He's interesting to me, at least. Jon, in +10, is different from Jon in +100 and Jon in +1000, but they're all the same person. Will we meet Jon in +0? Who can say? I like that he's just this guy who turns up in promo shots right now, and nobody has any idea who he is or what his deal is.

Aside from that, there are a couple of potential guest stars in +100 I'm looking forward to. And then in +1000, we get to see what's become of some characters I usually don't touch at all and writing those was a real trip. I had a lot of fun writing a certain someone I won't spoil here.

What can you tell us about some of the other new characters who appear in Storm and the Brotherhood of Mutants?

Every new time period gives us the opportunity to create some new Arakkii characters. By the time we get to +1000, we've got some great, weird ones. I get to create another Arakko poet and have fun with some very odd powers.

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Kieron described the vibes of the eras in his stories as +10 is near future cyberpunk, +100 as a sort of Starship Troopers or evil Star Trek, and +1000 as having a gothic, operatic feel similar to Warhammer 40,000. From what you said earlier, it sounds like the vibes in Storm and the Brotherhood will be a bit different.

Yes, instead of cyberpunk, my +10 is a near-future "squad of outsiders take on the dystopia" story. Instead of Star Trek, my +100 is Star Wars or maybe Buck Rogers. And +1000 is taking that Warhammer feel, having never played Warhammer, I'm so sorry, and telling a kind of far-future-Camelot story about a heroic last stand against impossible odds and the importance of hope. So I guess it's like Transformers: The Movie.

What's it been like collaborating with artists Paco Medina, Andrea Di Vito, and Alessandro Vitti, and your fellow writers Kieron Gillen and Simon Spurrier, who's penning Nightcrawlers?

All three artists are wonderful. It's great working with Paco again, and I'm looking forward to what comes of the collaborations with Alessandro and Andrea. Working with Kieron and Si is very reminiscent of Trifecta, which was the last three-person crossover I did with entirely British writers. It's got the same kind of flavor in that each of us has our own turf and our own tone, but it all comes together into one big story in a way that's very elegant.

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How important are the events of Storm and the Brotherhood of Mutants to the story you're telling in X-Men Red?

You'll learn a lot about one of the big players in 2023, and you'll have more of the information behind a confrontation that's been brewing ever since Issue #7. It'll be important to the X-line as a whole in ways that'll continue to reverberate as we move forward.

I'll end with a thank you to those who've been spreading good word of mouth about X-Men Red and Sins of Sinister and especially everyone who's been picking up the book in stores. We've lasted long enough to hit the beats we've been setting up since S.W.O.R.D., and we're going to hit some beats that have been lingering since X of Swords. Things on Arakko are about to get very intense, so thanks for the opportunity to tell those stories.

Storm and the Brotherhood of Mutants #1 is due out on Feb. 8.