The Messiah Complex Throws A Grenade Into The Middle Of The X-Men Universe

At the recent October Comic & Horror Festival in Nashville, Tennessee, Marvel Marketing Manager Jim McCann talked to Comicbook.com staff about the Messiah Complex. McCann told us that the Messiah Complex was a crossover unlike most that are being put out today and that it was very much a throwback to things like the Extinction Agenda. The Messiah Complex will be one long story broken up into thirteen chapters. McCann said "Messiah Complex throws a grenade into the middle of the X-Men universe and in the end that grenade goes off." McCann compared it to how Civil War's ending was not neat and tidy, but it opened the doors for a lot of different things. McCann said that Messiah Complex would do the same thing for the X-Men. As a result of Messiah Complex, McCann revealed that each X-Men book will have its own identity, its own cast, and its own purpose. McCann said "You're not going to have to walk into a comic store and go 'What the hell's the difference between X-Men and Uncanny X-Men?'" McCann also added "Between the months of February and until July, there won't be a team that even refers to themselves as the X-Men. It radically changes things, but in a very good way." McCann revealed that some X-Men books would be canceled and some new ones would be created. When asked which ones would be going away, McCann elaborated that New Excalibur ended with issue #24, but Marvel would be launching a new book called Excalibur in the Summer. McCann promised it would be "an incredible unique take on the name and the concept." Paul Cornell, who was writer for Marvel Max's Wisdom and a number of the most recent seasons of Dr. Who, will be the writer for the Excalibur title. McCann also added that X-Factor wasn't going anywhere, but that "something about every other book in the X-Men universe is changing, either going away, being replaced, changing its name…there will be a lot of surprises in store." McCann also addressed rumors that adjectiveless X-Men was being canceled. He said that the series was "not being canceled," but that was all he could say about it. McCann added that Mike Carey was not going anywhere that he would be "staying in the X-Men universe in a book that he was born to write."