Daniel Ketchum has edited over 900 comics in his career, the majority of them in the X-Men family. He sat down with Xavier Files to discuss ResurrXion and what the X-Men really mean.
XF: The X-Men mean a lot of different things to different people, but what do the X-Men stand for in your eyes?
DK: Empowerment. I was born in South Korea but was adopted as an infant by white folks in a very white town. (Shoutout to CHURCHVILLE, New York!) So by the time I discovered THE X-MEN at age 8, I was no stranger to being made to feel different from everyone else. And here were these super heroes whose defining feature was that they were different from the rest of humanity. And, more than that, they were EMPOWERED by their difference. It was their difference that gave them the ability to change and save the world time and again. For me, that’s always been the most aspirational aspect of X-Men: use what makes you different and unique to better the world.
XF: Inhumans Vs X-Men caps off the M-Pox story that has been ongoing since 2015. What do you think the greatest success of that era of X-Men was?
DK: I think the X-Men are at their best when the chips are down and their backs are against the wall. In what I like to call the “EXTRAORDINARY Era,” it was fun to live a world where the X-Men were underdogs, literally fighting for their place in the world. It opened up some unique storytelling avenues for our creative teams to explore. I’m SO pleased I had the chance to collaborate with Jeff Lemire, Cullen Bunn and Dennis Hopeless, three writers with SO much talent between them. I think they each approached the premise differently and gave each series its own memorable voice.
XF: What did you learn from that era?
DK: I learned that there are a surprising number of ways to get back and forth from Limbo, apparently. Haha.
XF: The ResurrXion relaunch as a whole has the same “back-to-basics” feel that books like Astonishing X-Men found a lot of success with. What makes this the right time to reintroduce those classic elements?
DK: Really, I think that’s probably the lesson I learned from the EXTRAORDINARY Era: You can only sustain a story with a cloud hanging over your characters’ heads for so long. Especially with the state of the world what it is, it was clear that after we wrapped up the Terrigen Mist story, we needed to follow it with stories about blue skies, colorful costumes, and the kinds of super heroics that made us all fall in love with the X-Men in the first place. Comic book escapism at its best. Stories not just about the threat that’s walking through the door this month, but also softball, snappy one-liners, and “who’s kissing who”…
XF: As a counter to that question, what is the most innovative thing ResurrXion is doing?
DK: The fun of ResurrXion has been figuring out how to craft new takes on old favorites. How do you a GENERATION X book that pays homage to the original, even going as far as reuniting its cast of characters, without just retreading that ground? I can’t give the creators enough credit for how they’ve solved that riddle. I think they’ve done a nice job of keying into the soul, what’s essential, in each book, while fleshing out the details with material that’s new and different.
XF: The ResurrXion relaunch features a couple of solo titles in Iceman and Jean Grey featuring characters who have never headlined their own ongoing titles. What was appealing about digging into those two?
DK: Iceman and Jean Grey have been around for as long as there have been X-Men…but both characters have undergone some changes recently that warrant some extra real estate beyond the team books for exploration. Jeff Lemire had some terrific ideas for both Iceman and Jean for EXTRAORDINARY X-MEN, but we really only got to scratch the surface because there just weren’t enough pages available to dive in deep. Giving these two their own solo titles will allow us to explore those stories further…
With Iceman, I’m SO excited to have Sina Grace writing an Iceman who’s just figuring out who he really is and what he wants out of life…all while a younger, time-displaced version of himself already seems to be further ahead on the path. It’s a fun dynamic. And Sina does a terrific job of balancing all of the soul-searching with punching bad guys in the face.
And Jean Grey. It’s hard to believe she’s never had her own series before! Dennis Hopeless’s premise is a simple one: THE PHOENIX IS COMING. And Jean, not wanting to end up like her predecessor, is going to steel herself, learn from every master the Marvel Universe has to offer, so that she can TURN THAT ##### BACK. It’s sort of like Luke Skywalker, Beatrix Kiddo and Harry Potter all rolled into one.
XF: The X-Men have a roster where everyone, even guys like Maggott or Shark-Girl, are somebodies favorite. How do you balance limiting the line to a manageable number of characters while making sure fan favorites get their due?
DK: Honestly, this is the TOUGHEST thing to manage from a storytelling perspective. As we like to say, “Every character is someone’s favorite.” And with a roster as expansive as the X-Men’s, it’s SO difficult to make sure even the most obscure characters get screen time, while still getting on and telling concise, exciting stories that aren’t too bogged down in continuity. I think different writers have different strategies for making it happen. I will say, the task is FAR easier to achieve when you have a school in the middle of New York City where characters can come and go. We have LOTS of cameos and guest appearances in GOLD and BLUE, as well as GENERATION X, in particular. Dennis Hopeless also came up with a smart setup for JEAN GREY that’s going to allow us to peek in on some characters who haven’t turned up in a while.
XF: What should fans be most excited about with ResurrXion?
DK: Remember back when X-MEN was five American teenagers, and then they shook up the series by shifting the focus to a team of adults plucked from across the globe and thrown together to fight evil solely because they shared an extra gene? More than any other family at Marvel, I think the X-MEN franchise has been defined by its ability to undergo drastic transformations. And that’s exactly what we’re doing here. New creators, new team rosters, new costumes, new villains. Everything’s familiar, everything is undeniably ‘X’…but everything’s also different. It’s an exciting time to be an X-MEN fan and I can’t wait for everyone to see what the creators working on these titles have in store…
Thanks again to Daniel. Make sure you check out the start of ResurrXion with X-MEN: PRIME on March 29, 2017!
Zachary Jenkins runs ComicsXF and is a co-host on the podcast “Battle of the Atom.” Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside of all this.
