X-POSITION: Mike Marts Talks Mutant Madness In "Secret Wars"

Between the return of Onslaught in "Avengers and X-Men: AXIS" and the continuing fallout from "Death of Wolverine," things have been pretty hectic for the X-Men as of late. With 2015 on the horizon, stories like the "The Black Vortex" and new series like the weekly "Wolverines" promise to keep things busy for Marvel's merry mutants for the foreseeable future. On top of all that, class is back in session at the Jean Grey School in the new "Spider-Man and the X-Men" ongoing and there's a big ol' event called "Secret Wars" looming ahead.

To get everyone up to speed on the status of the X-Men and tease what the new year has in store for the many, many X-Books, we've secured answers to your questions from Marvel Executive Editor Mike Marts!

In this week's X-Position, Marts takes a step back and looks at the X-Men line as a whole, talks about X-Men young and old and shares some amazing new art!

CBR News: We'll kick off this latest round of Marts Madness with a question from ExodusCloak, who has a question about M-Day

Given that you have five writers (Christopher Yost, Craig Kyle, Brian Bendis, Peter David and Chris Claremont) on the X-Books who were directly involved in M-Day and Decimation, is there any chance we will get to see the X-Office's response to Wanda Maximoff's return, a response to all those deaths that occurred in "Endangered Species," "Generation M," "Uncanny X-Men," "Excalibur,"as well as the damage done to all of reality and the further collateral damage caused as a result of M-Day?

We've certainly seen some individual X-character reactions to Wanda's return -- notably Rogue in the pages of "Uncanny Avengers," and more recently in the pages of Peter David's "All-New X-Factor" (some great cannot-miss interaction between Wanda, Polaris and Danger in that issue, for those that might have missed it!). At this point, though, the general feeling is that Wanda's actions in "AvX" -- reinvigorating the mutant race -- may have helped to curb the X-Men's harsh feelings towards her following the events of M-Day. That being said, there are certainly more stories to be told, more reactions to be seen. And we certainly haven't heard the final word about M-Day and "House of M."

The X-Books have been divided into two camps for the last year -- Cyclops' team of revolutionaries and Wolverine's team of schoolteachers. Supernature has a question about one of those factions.

For the past few years, I have been and still am thoroughly enjoying the stories told on Cyclops side of the X-Men. However the Gold Side books, comprised of the JGS and its students, still seem rather directionless or lacking a well-defined mission statement. Is there going to be some streamlining on this side of the X-Verse?

All X-Men and students associated with the Jean Grey School -- which includes characters from "X-Men," "Amazing X-Men" and "Spider-Man and the X-Men" -- will certainly be refining their mission statement in the aftermath of Logan's death. Watch each of these titles plus our new weekly series, "Wolverines," for some much needed streamlining and refocusing.

Taral-DLOS loves the teen teams that are traditionally featured in the X-Verse and has a question about the current crop of kids.

Some of my favorite books have been those about the younger mutant characters -- Stan Lee's '60s "X-Men" run, "New Mutants," "Generation X," "New X-Men" (the DeFilippis/Weir and Kyle/Yost one), "Wolverine and the X-Men," etc. They have all been a lot of fun and I think the characters being students rather than heroes has been a major factor in that. I'm looking forward to "Spider-Man and the X-Men" and am particularly hoping for a title about the students at Cyclops's New Xavier School (Tempus, Benjamin Deeds, Christopher Muse, Goldballs, etc.). Are there any plans for other books featuring X-youths more prominently?

Those classics you mentioned are some of our favorites, as well! For right now, "Spider-Man and the X-Men" is the definite place-to-be to catch all of the awesome action involving your favorite younger mutant characters like Hellion, Rockslide, Ernst, Shark-Girl, Glob Hermann and more! And please continue to pick up "All-New X-Men" to follow the adventures of the Original Five, and "Uncanny X-Men" for Tempus and the rest. Oh, and I have mention "Cyclops," as well. John Layman and Javier Garron's monthly comic chronicling the adventures of young Scott Summers and Corsair's Starjammers is a great title focusing on a young mutant!

My most anticipated X-stories right now are the Kitty and Illyana adventures Brian Bendis has been teasing us with. Any info or updates you can give us on that? And, pre-emptively, can we have much more of it? Now that you're experimenting with weekly books anyway...

Yes! Without spoiling too much, expect "Uncanny X-Men" #33 (March in-store) to be a Kitty/Illyana-focused issue. The cover says it all!

Finally, Derek has a question about that big event coming up in 2015 and how big of a role the X-Men will have in it.

We've heard that "Secret Wars" is going to be a massive multimedia event for Marvel and its partners; how front and center will the X-Men be in that across the different platforms?

The X-Office has been working non-stop on "Secret Wars" related projects and stories over the past few months. Expect many announcements over the coming months. There will be plenty of X-Men and mutant involvement in "Secret Wars."

Special thanks to Mike Marts for taking on this week's questions!

Next week, X-Position goes back to school with "Spider-Man and the X-Men" scribe Elliott Kalan. Have a question for Elliott? Go ahead and send 'em in via an e-mail with the subject line "X-Position" or if 140 character questions are more your speed, try Twitter. But get 'em in quickly, because the deadline's Friday! Make it happen!