X-Factor Writer Reveals X-Men Vote Will Have a Major Impact on Marvel Plans

Earlier this week Marvel announced that the readers of their X-Men titles would get the chance to vote on the final member of the flagship team with the possible contenders including: Armor, Banshee, Boom-Boom, Cannonball, Forge, Marrow, Polaris, Strong Guy, Sunspot, and Tempo. As readers will know though, most of these characters are already appearing in a few titles and are on the other teams that inhabit Krakoa. Though Marvel has already teased the results so far, fans were curious if the votes were actually legitimate and one X-Writer confirms they are!

“100% real–every option on the #XMenVote came as an x-writer group decision/discussion, and each candidate means a writer is gonna have to switch up some plans no matter what,” X-Factor writer Leah Williams tweeted. “It’s all genuinely going to be tailored to whoever wins, which is a creative choice the x-writers made…flatscans who don’t read comics ruining the vote is a bad thing because the race WAS actually going to be close and each candidate had a real shot to win, but there’s no bad outcome for whoever wins the vote. it’s a great, completely tailored spotlight for them no matter what.

When asked by another reader how the team’s needs could be filled by such a variety of characters, Williams hit the nail on the head, adding: :well, you’ve already answered your own question–it would just be different! the vibe will be different, the dynamic will be different! we think involving readers in the choice is a fun way to drum up engagement and mix things up–we’ll just write the version that gets voted!”

Voting on the new X-Men member is open from now through 11:59pm EST, February 2, 2021 but the results won’t be revealed until the Hellfire Gala in Marvel comics this June with results determined entirely by reader votes.

Early voting results from Marvel have revealed that Polaris (currently appearing in Williams run on X-Factor!) is in the lead with a projected 22.2% of the vote. Banshee was projected in second with 14.6% and Sunspot in third with 12.58%. At the tail end is Strong Guy with just 5.10% of the votes.