This October, what looks like a treat becomes one dangerous trick as the dead denizens of Genosha return from the grave in Necrosha, an event set to play out in the pages of X-FORCE and bleeds into NEW MUTANTS and X-MEN: LEGACY as well.
Necrosha kicks off with a one-shot whose main story, written by X-FORCE co-writers Craig Kyle and Chris Yost, details the entire life of the immortal villain Selene-the main antagonist of the event and former Black Queen of the Hellfire Club-from the moment of her birth until present day. The other two stories, written by X-MEN LEGACY scribe Mike Carey and NEW MUTANTS writer Zeb Wells, lay the foundations for events in their respective titles.
"It's 5000 pages, but it should read quickly," jokes Yost of the special. "This is something Craig and I have been planning for about three years now and it's great to finally see it come to fruition. We love the Hellfire Club in general, but the Black Queen always seemed like somebody that had some kind of plan, but it just never seemed to materialize. In NEW X-MEN, we had her go off on what we'll find out is a recruitment drive. Wither was one of the New X-Men who ended up being seduced by her. We see her again in X-FORCE where Eli Ford shows up and presents her a gift: Caliban, who has been risen from the dead by the techno-organic virus. That was all a prelude to the big story, which is Necrosha."
The story focuses on the machinations of Selene as she seeks to finally achieve her goal of becoming a goddess while simultaneously punishing those she feels have betrayed her or impeded her quest throughout the years, which includes a number of prominent X-characters. Part of Selene's plan involves bringing back to life the thousands of mutants who died during the Genosha massacre and a number of others who have fallen throughout the years, such as the many young students who died in the pages of NEW X-MEN. The emotional and physical impact of the returning dead provides the means by which Selene seeks to exact her revenge.
"They're not crazy zombies," explains Yost of the returned deceased. "For all intents and purposes they're the people you know and love or even hate come back to haunt you."
"The Hellfire Club was the big foe when I was reading comics," says Kyle. "Selene was the mysterious one. She had such a nightmarish and dark and wild power. She was immediately attractive in her mystery and it made her that much more intriguing. I'm grateful for what Grant Morrison did for Emma [Frost] because he gave her a second life. We feel that Selene has the same potential. Not that we're Grant Morrison, but we'd love to find a
way to deepen her and explore more of her character and do the same type of justice to her."
As for other characters readers can expect to see in the upcoming event, the duo promises many appearances by favorites from throughout X-Men history. Between Selene, her inner circle and the resurrected dead, literally look forward to a cast of thousands.
"The most honest answer I can give without giving away some of the Easter Eggs we're hoping to hide in is that Chris and I are hardcore X-fans," enthuses Kyle. "We read the books as kids. We love the books now. We're just the biggest X-fanboys. So, we're going wide and deep. We're going way, way back into the books when we were collecting and we're looking at recent history. If there's a mutant that's worth bringing out, I would be surprised if you don't see them make an appearance in this book. A quote someone gave us-and I always like to bring out-is that someone called X-FORCE 'continuity porn.' We take that with great pride. Being the type of fans we are, expect us to bring in some of the best stuff that's been lost and some of the weirdest stuff that's been lost."
As mentioned, while the main part of the story plays out in X-FORCE, the affects of Selene's plan spills into X-MEN LEGACY and NEW MUTANTS. Fans can read each title independently, but reading all the books gives a broader few of the X-Universe as a cohesive whole. In that sense, Necrosha plays out as a crossover similar to the classic Fall of the Mutants event from 1988.
"This is an X-Men crossover in a classic mode, with X-Men from different teams and from no team at all being pulled into a widening crisis which initially they're not even in a position to understand," explains Carey. "There's an obvious threat, and a bigger threat behind that, and a big, terrifying tsunami of collateral consequences. The beauty of it is that all the crossover moments arise very naturally out of the core story, but they play out very differently in each case. There are a lot of surprises here, and a lot of appropriate narrative pay-offs for the different characters involved."
Considering that X-MEN LEGACY contains no official team and focuses mostly on long-time X-Man Rogue, the Necrosha tie-in follows a personal crisis for the character as she confronts someone she never expected to see again.
"What I can tease, a little, is the identity of the revenant that Rogue will have to confront," says Carey. "It's someone who goes back a long way with her, and who has had a major impact on her life very recently, but acting through a proxy. It's been a long while since they met face-to-face, and Rogue isn't exactly ready for that meeting."
The New Mutants also find themselves drawn into the conflict as not only has the team long opposed Selene, but each member has certainly experienced more than their fair share of fallen teammates during their super hero tenures, such as former teammate Cypher and Cannonball's younger brother Jay Guthrie.
"Everything we do we always assume is an X-Universe story, but this is the first time it actually turned into one," laughs Yost. "This is a story that is so big in scope that if it didn't affect the other characters, it'd be kind of silly. It's great to have Mike Carey and Zeb Wells and [editor] Nick Lowe embrace the story and go for it. It's turned into a great thing."
so do you know what this means?
Is Rogue going to have a run in with Destiny after all these years? Cody coming back doesen't sound very exciting i would much rather see how Rogue will react to her after all the drama she has gone trhough over the diaries she left behind. Would Irene Alder come back with a precognitive warning.......?
How will Rahne Sinclair react to Doug Ramsey coming back from the dead? And to take things further, how will Warlock react to Doug coming back? better hope this doesent mean Douglock from Excalisuck comes back...
And who else is coming back?
I'm leaving Jean out on this one, but i wanna see.....
Banshee, a character with kick-ass powers and a kick-ass costume that always had great potential but has been screwed over by writers the past 30 years by killing him or depowering him?
VS
The biggest thing i wanna see is John Proudstar finally coming back from the dead and taking on his younger brother James in an all out, concrete cracking Thunderbird vs Warpath!! Will James finally be able to put some of his past demons to rest? Would John Proudstar, a fan favorite that only lasted 3 issues, finally get a second chance at life?
And after twenty five years, will Selene finally live up to her potential and be an Omega level threat to the X-Men, like Apocalypse and Sinister back in the 80s and 90s? The last decade or so the X-Men franchise has been lacking that one dangerous foe that would relentessly come back again and again and raise hell. We've always had Magneto but he's really not evil when u read between the lines and even Eric Magnus would take on threats such as Selene, Apocalypse, Sinister etc when the need rises. Emma Frost, the white queen, has risen from near obscurity to be a major x-character the last ten years, why not bring back her black queen counterpart as her evil rival and a major threat? A climatic Emma Frost versus Selene battle would have to be the absolute best major battle in years.....
:confused2::razz:
