The X-Men are about to receive a ratings boost and it just might kill them. Marvel has announced “Mojo Worldwide,” the first X-Men crossover event of the ResurrXion era, launching as part of Marvel Legacy this fall.
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Kitty Pryde’s X-Men Gold team and Jean Grey’s X-Men Blue team are both going to be roped into Mojo’s latest ploy for increased ratings, which involves an invasion of New York City using villains and events from throughout history to create an X-Men greatest hits collection.
Just as both X-Men squads are joining forces, X-Men Gold writer Marc Guggenheim is teaming with X-Men Blue writer Cullen Bunn and artist Jorge Molina for a story that will present Mojo in all of his delightfully meta glory.
“Oh, for sure! Mojo’s deals in meta-thinking the way an expert gambler deals in cards,” Bunn tells ComicBook.com. “And we lean into it in a big way. You’re going to be revisiting some classic X-Men stories, but you’ll be seeing them through Mojo’s eyes. You’ll see the Blue and Gold teams working together (and breaking up into interesting sub-groups) but Mojo is turning his eye for entertainment to the groupings as well. Every move Mojo makes has ‘meta’ written all over it, and he is inviting the citizens of the Marvel Universe to share his vision. As the story goes on, he escalates the stakes ever step of the way. More meta, more dangerous.”
Mojo is usually at home in his own Mojoverse dimension. His incursion into Earth’s reality makes him even more dangerous.
“Let’s tackle this one from a story perspective AND a meta perspective (hey–you brought it up). From a story perspective, Mojo is experiencing crashing ratings in his home dimension,” Bunn explains. “The reason for this ratings nose-dive will have to remain a secret for now, because it’s fun and I don’t want to spoil the surprise.
“From a meta perspective, we knew we wanted to do a Mojo story, but some of us worried that readers don’t find Mojo to be much of a threat because his stories always take place in the alternate dimension of Mojoworld. Well, we decided to blow that misconception out of the water straight away by bringing Mojo to our world. We want Mojo to be sort of quirky and weird, but also scary and threatening. And we’re bringing him right to your doorstep.”
Along with Mojo comes the return of another fan favorite Mojoverse native, the former X-Man called Longshot.
“Longshot has been back in Mojoworld, and he’s been causing trouble,” Bunn says. “He’s still fomenting a rebellion, but it isn’t taking the form you might expect. Once more, for the sake of keeping a few surprises for the book, I’ll decline to say what he’s doing exactly. But he;s more of a thorn in Mojo’s side than ever before. When he shows up, we’ll quickly set up that he has a very different outlook on the trials and tribulations the X-Men are facing… but they need him if they are going to survive.”
As mentioned, this story brings the Gold and Blue teams together for the first time since, which could bring some secrets to the forefront.
“We get the impression that Jean and Kitty have been in contact with each other (even if it’s in an off-panel kind of way),” Bunn points out. “For example, Jean brought Belen to Kitty’s school. So, when they cross paths in this story, we’ll see that they are on good terms.
“Here’s the thing, though. Jean is keeping a big secret from Kitty. That secret is that the Original Five X-Men are working with Magneto. In an adventure like this, that secret is bound to be exposed, and that could very well change how the X-Men interact with one another going forward.”
And, according to Bunn, getting to play with all of the X-Men’s “greatest hits” is exactly as much fun as it sounds.
“It was so much fun and so difficult!” Bunn admits. “We have the chance to pull from every major event and draw upon every major villain. If you have a favorite X-Men story or a favorite enemy, there’s a good chance you’ll get to revisit them in this story.
“But we have to pick and choose which scenes and characters get in-depth treatment and which get only quick drive-bys. There are a few natural choices, of course. “Days of Future Past.” “The Asgardian Wars.” There’s a scene early on where we see Mojo spin a wheel covering every important event in the lives of the X-Men! There are a couple, though, that I’m excited about. Magneto comes out to play in this story, and he finds himself right in the middle of an X-event that he should have been involved in when it first occurred. His reaction might be a little surprising for readers.
“Mojo Worldwide” kicks off in X-Men Blue #13 and continues in X-Men Gold #13. Take a look at Arthur Adams’ epic connecting covers for those two issues below, along with the solicitation text for both issues.
X-MEN: BLUE #13
Written by CULLEN BUNN
Penciled by JORGE MOLINA
Cover by ARTHUR ADAMS
MOJO WORLDWIDE Parts 1 and 3
Mojo, the demented creature obsessed with melding deadly television shows with reality, has made Earth his focus and it’s going to take the combined might of two X-MEN teams to fight back! But when threats from their past are thrown at them, how will these teams react? With SENTINELS and BROOD and BAD MEMORIES attacking at every opportunity, will KITTY and JEAN and their teams be able to save Manhattan? Or is this the trick that finally boosts MOJO’s ratings?
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
X-MEN: GOLD #13
Written by MARC GUGGENHEIM
Penciled by TBA
Cover by ARTHUR ADAMS
MOJO WORLDWIDE Parts 2 and 4
The X-MEN may have bitten off more than they can chew as the Mojoverse continues its bizarre invasion of MANHATTAN! JEAN GREY and her team fight side by side with KITTY PRYDE and her group of Merry Mutants…but can MOJO be defeated when he’s got the X-Men’s greatest hits weaponized against them? Or will an unlikely alley come to the rescue?
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Image Credit: Marvel Comics
