C2E2: X-Men: Battle of the Atom Announced

At the X-Men Panel at the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo earlier today, Marvel Comics announced Battle of the Atom, an upcoming fiftieth anniversary event starring X-Men past, present and future. The story will kick off in September and be written by Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron and Brian Wood. Bookended by X-Men: Battle of the Atom #1 and #2, it will also run through September's and October's issues of Uncanny X-Men, All-New X-Men, Wolverine & the X-Men and X-Men for a total of ten parts. Bendis and Frank Cho will be responsible for X-Men: Battle of the Atom #1 with #2 written by Jason Aaron and drawn by a mystery artist that Marvel says ensures "that the X-Men's world will never look the same again." In the story, X-Men from the future--Super Beast, Ice Hulk, an adult Molly Hayes, Deadpool, Lady Xorn, and more on the future team, led by Kate Pryde (yes, that one)--come back to the present, where they meet up with the current-day X-Men as well as the "First Class" X-Men who have been inhabiting Bendis's All-New X-Men and Uncanny X-Men books. "The story itself hinges on the All-New X-Men and whether or not they need to be sent back to their home time," said X-Men Senior Editor Nick Lowe. "This causes the X-Men of the past, present and future to pick sides." "Jason Aaron came to us with this [idea]," said Bendis. "Jason pitched big and he scored. Jason came to everyone with the bare essentials of this idea and everybody got really excited about it because it was all the things we liked about the X-Men. It spoke to the legacy of the entire franchise while at the same time focusing on the future."

"It's a little intimidating, working with Brian and Jason on it," said Wood at the panel. "It's really great, I'm launching this book and get to be a part of this anniversary. I think there's one more..." Marvel's management cut him off at that point, saying that there was one more, but they were leaving it out intentionally. It seemed clear from context they meant one more member of the X-Men: Battle of the Atom's future team. The most obvious choice seems to be the character seen at right, drawn from the same series of preview images on Marvel's website as the others below. Who is he? Impossible to say, since he's the only one without a name on his sketch...but it certainly looks like Charles Xavier, doesn't it?