Gillen is also penning X-Men: Forever, a miniseries that launches in March and is meant to wrap up some of the threads of his Immortal X-Men run while also tying into the Rise and Fall. CBR spoke with Gillen about both books, his cast of characters, the shadowy, cross-time nature of the conflict in Rise, and the responsibility of helping to wrap up one of the biggest eras in X-Men history.

CBR: Your Immortal X-Men series comes to a close with Issue #18, but do elements from that book carry over into what you and Gerry Duggan are doing in Fall and Rise and what you're doing with X-Men: Forever?

Kieron Gillen: It's really tricky to talk about because I see this all as one motion. Not in a "you can't jump in at any point" way, but more of, "This is a story I've been building for over two years, and the X-office has been building for five." We'll hit a conclusion, and it will be big. It's the Endgame if we want to talk about a Cinematic Universe parallel, which is not a bad comparison to make.

In Immortal #18, we show more of Mother Righteous' cards, and, of course, we've been doing this dovetailing structure with the Xavier side of the story and the White Hot Room side. We reach this big denouement where the two collide and cut away. Then we don't see them for a while because X-Men Forever doesn't kick back in until March.

That's one of the fun things about my side. There's a time gap. So, when we pick up with Xavier in Fall and Rise, there's a question of, "What's been going on with the Sinister Dominion?" That question will get answered, and it's kind of the big plot we've been building toward. We explore that in X-Men: Forever, and it explodes into Rise of the Powers of X.

What can you tell us about the similarities and differences between what Gerry is doing in Fall and what you're doing in Rise?

Gerry and I are bookending the Krakoan age, which started with House of X and Powers of X, and now, we're ending it with these two, and they have different purposes. There's also a different vibe between them. Fall of the House of X is Gerry doing the enormous, explosive, big-budget, present-day fight against Orchis. I'm doing the multiple timelines, Moira collapsing real space, "What is the nature of the future anyway and can we fight it?" plot [Laughs] Both metaphorically and physically, because it's an X-Men comic and the metaphor is also physical, and a metaphor you can punch in the face is how one does superhero comics.

So, that's the way it's sort of divided, and we dance between the two. The one thing we're not doing is having a double ship of one book and then a double ship of another like Jon did, but the timeline is going to be interesting with the tie-ins. X-Men: Forever #2 comes out the same week as Powers of X #4. Then, two issues of it come out before Powers of X #5.

It's a dovetailing plot around the side. I know, it's complicated. I realized with Rise, if you take what Jonathan Hickman did with the timelines, and then you take what I did with the timelines, how do you explain that to somebody who's coming in cold? I've tried to provide a cold entrance all through my work at Marvel, and I want Rise of the Powers of X, despite being a climax, to be a jumping-on point as well.

We start 10 years in the future, and the X-Men have lost. So, what do these last few surviving X-Men do to defy the awful A.I. dominion apocalypse they're facing? Issue #1 explains everything you need to know to jump in with that side of the plot.

You said Rise of the Powers of X is set 10 years in the future. So, I can't help but compare it to the +10 era of the Sins of Sinister event. Is that a valid comparison?

No. [Laughs] The thing about Rise is we start there, but it's more complicated than that. The original Powers of X was about the complexity of time and space, and this is as well.

You'll get to see exactly what Orchis is doing. However, since Inferno, we've known that Orchis is a mutant-fearing, human supremacist organization whose inner circle, Nimrod and Omega Sentinel, is in fact an A.I. supremacist movement. So, this +10 story starts after the A.I. have shown their cards and what they're actually trying to do. In Issue #1, it will be, "OH NO! That's what the A.I. are up to?"

Another fun thing we're doing is trying to gather together things we haven't touched on and asking, "What can we do to give closure in places?" Earlier, I was talking with Al [Ewing] and asked, "What are you doing on [The Resurrection of] Magneto?" And I thought about what I could bring that into. I think it will be Issue #3 of X-Men Forever. And there's stuff that Si [Spurrier] set up that I will pay off here.

So, we are discussing the things we want to make sure are wrapped with a bow, but the funny thing is, I've said this is a story about dimensions and time travel, which means it's really a story about stories. It's storytelling structure -- the idea that all these things happened in these separate timelines, and we're going to bring them all together and make a statement. That's our intention.

This is a book of big ideas, and it would be easy to get lost in the big ideas. What I think will ground it is that it's very personal. It's about what people are willing to do to save the world. That's the heart of superheroism, this idea of what are you willing to do? It becomes an increasingly hard question.

Moira is quite big in this story because the end of the X-Men Krakoan era had to come back to her. It had to come back to Xavier as well. Because we basically started with those two people on a bench. For all the big ideas Jonathan Hickman started, it was a very powerful, personal story about these people trapped and wanting to be free. That's the thing that Moira gave everyone; a chance to try things a different way. Of course, in the end, Moira is not reliable or good, but she had a point.

So, this is not just a story both epic and intimate in scope. It's also one that comes full circle as well?

Absolutely! That's why we're calling it Rise of the Powers of X and Fall of the House of X. You don't evoke that stuff unless you're actually taking it seriously. The flip of that is endings are very different from beginnings. Starting from a clean slate is very different from taking a rainforest of ideas from dozens of creators and trying to make them into a single garment.

How connected is your tale to the story Gerry is doing?

We're quite separate in different ways. That's one of the things that's really hard to talk about. Obviously, my first issue is 10 years in the future. Then we build from there.

We reveal some stuff in the first issue and blank out some names. So, even when Issue #1 comes out, I'm not telling you who all is in play. [Laughs] So, talking in advance is tricky, but, especially when you get to the backend, you'll see bits of connection.

Gerry's story had to do with the War with Orchis and the X-Men trying to save the day. That starts with the trial of Cyclops, and all of it is on Earth, and I'm kind of the shadow war to begin with. So, my story is fights between moments in time. That's the first three issues, and in the next two issues, the tie-in between the books gets much tighter.

That's especially true with X-Men Forever, which is the balloon of plot of something really important happening between Issues #4 and #5 of Rise. That's also got a lot between the two worlds. I'm trying to get as many members of the Quiet Council together again for at least one cameo.

The cover of Issue #1 has a cast of characters. Is that your core cast? Or are they part of a much larger ensemble?

That's also complicated. The cast of the +10 period is probably smaller than you think. A few core characters drive the plot and give you a vision of the future.

We've got Kamala Khan as Captain Krakoa. She's an X-Man now, so it's like, "Let's give her a dark future." Everyone gets a dark future when they join the X-Men. That's how it works.[Laughs]

What's it like writing her in this role as Captain Krakoa?

When you have a character who's beloved by so many people, including me, taking them and putting them in this different position means you want to do good by them. When you're showing a little older version of a teenage hero, you want to show they're a great person. Because people really like that "hero they can be" aspect.

She's an interesting mix. Writing her as a slightly older leader, you see bits of her personality as it is now still there, but you also get the person who can do their taxes better. [Laughs] She's not Cyclops or anything, but she's an incredible team leader. She delegates. She gets people to do stuff. She's really empathetic. She's a hero. That's part of her charm.

It looks like Kamala and some of the cast on the cover of Rise #1 have been through a lot.

Yeah, there's this question of, "What's going on?" We've got the enormous-looking Kitty Pryde-type Shadow Tiger. We have Synch holding it together somehow. We have Wolverine because it feels like Wolverine is the person who does this. So, it felt important to have him.

Then, I've seen people speculating [about] who's in our Iron Man suit, and no one has gotten it right so far. I'm very intrigued. I thought people would have guessed because, visually, there's a vibe. No one I've seen has though. Maybe someone has. I also don't follow this stuff as closely.

It's interesting that of all your cast, Wolverine still looks the same on the cover of Issue #1.

That's actually kind of the fun of it. I wanted a magnetic north. Wolverine has had a few makeovers, but he's the thing you can orientate yourself with because 10 years in the future is not long for Wolverine.

I really like how Wolverine fits into the dynamic. Shadow Tiger is obviously very different from what Kate is. Synch is playing a different role, and you get the vibe from whoever is in the Iron Man suit that they're not playing a Tony Stark role.

Who are some of the other characters in Rise that you can tease?

I've mentioned Nimrod and Omega Sentinel, and there are other people in the future timeline as well, like an Emma Frost corpse. Our first issue is so full on. We show where this future timeline leads. That's always a fun design, and it's so built upon the Powers of X aspect.

The solicits for this story mention that your A.I. villains have a plan to make a "sacrifice to a binary god." I'm a horror fan, so I find that pretty exciting.

Yeah, it's scary, isn't it? One of the great things about R.B. coming back for this is he does great Dominion. He did this absolutely iconic idea of what they look like and how they feel. The Marvel Universe has a lot of cosmic powers and horrors, and making them feel like an oppressive, looming, discordant bass note was what I was trying to evoke with that. And when you write those solicits, it's like, "What on Earth can I say?"

The way R.B. Silva does kinetic action and sci-fi is extraordinary, in my opinion.

Yeah, you almost want to step back a bit with him. In my scripts, I leave space for him to really hit it. They come back, and I can't actually find the right word for this, but it's almost design-led. His paneling choices are straightforward, and he has the ability to make things feel new. That's one of the things that science fiction art does, and for me, the X-Men have always been best when there's a feeling of, "Oh no! What the hell is that? That feels like the new!"

R.B.'s stuff feels convincingly sci-fi. It's like, "This isn't the tropes of superhero stuff rolled out." This is a new and interesting world that you wouldn't want to live in, but you certainly want to look at it for a while.

What are some other final hints and teases you can leave us with about the plot and action of Rise of the Powers of X?

It's big and emotional. It's one of those things where my initial plans for certain things have gone desperately awry. Not in a bad way, but more of, "I thought we were going to go this way, but we didn't." It's, "I thought I was going to make an omelet, but unfortunately, I've actually built a death machine that's going to attack New York. Yep! Wasn't planning that one..." [Laughs]

I've mentioned Moira and Xavier, and the human stuff is what really matters. For all the dominions, timelines, fighting across time and space, trips through moments in X-history, and then setting fire to it all -- it's really about some people making decisions, deciding when to compromise, and deciding who they are.

That's the heart of it because that's what superhero comics are for me. You might be here for the explosions, and frankly, they're good explosions, [Laughs] but the story really has to be about people, even when we're talking about mutants because they're people. That's part of what Xavier's dream was trying to say.

Finally, with this story and X-Men: Forever, you're helping to wrap up one of the biggest and most eventful eras in X-Men history. How does that feel?

Nothing is ever good enough, but I'd like to say it was as good as we could make it. We did something that was respectful to where the story started and the work everyone did along the way. I also like to think it made the time we spent with these characters feel worthwhile.

It was a story, and now, as is the nature of the Marvel Universe, it will carry on in a different form and be interesting as well. So, I feel a responsibility to ensure that, but in a good way. As I said earlier, I want to do stuff that's respectful, kind, useful, and honoring of everyone because only Gerry and I get to write the ending. That feels a little unfair to me. I hit scenes, and I think, "Al should be writing this." Or whoever else. So, I want to do the best possible job I can catching everyone's fastball specials.

Rise of the Powers of X is due out on Jan. 10.