Nearly 30 years after bringing Cable to life in the pages of The New Mutants, artist Rob Liefeld is returning to Marvel Comics for the debut of a brand-new character who is set to take the X-Men franchise by storm.
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Marvel just announced the new series Major X, featuring a mysterious new character who will collide with Wolverine, Deadpool, Storm, Cable, and other X-Men in a conflict that’s set rock the foundations of the X-franchise. Liefeld is writing the bi-monthly series as well as providing art for the first issue while Image Comics co-founding partner Whilce Portacio and former Teen Titans artist Brent Peeples joins Marvel to helm issue #2.
They’ll also be joined by X-legend Whilce Portacio, who will be lending a hand on the new series.
Liefeld spoke with ComicBook.com about his newest creation, revealing some major details about the story’s plot like the fact that Major X will come from an unexplored area in the Marvel Universe.
“Major X comes from a realm, another plane, called ‘The X-istence.’ It is populated only by mutants,” Liefeld explained. “It’s their special place. They’re happy. They’re living in harmony. The events that cause this portal to open, and for this ‘The X-istence’ to exist at all are subjects we deal with, and we answer. The absolute formation of The X-istence. Major X hails from there, and his home, the reason he’s here encountering the current modern-day Marvel mutant landscape, is because The X-istence has been destroyed, and he is on a journey to restore his home.”
The idea for Major X actually stems back from an aborted project Liefeld admittedly was reluctant to pitch back in 1992.
“This was a storyline that was on my list of things to do in 1992 before the landscape changed,” said Liefeld. “It’s either late ’91, early ’92, it was in New York and they were having an X-Men … they’d brought everybody in to plot the future of the X-Men. Major X was in my notebook, I just didn’t speak up at the time because there were other voices that were really, I think, dying to be heard. And I think guys like myself and Jim Lee at the time were quiet because we were flat out, we were tired, man. We were tired. We had been going at mach speed with the X office for about three years at that point. And I think we just were looking for maybe some new challenge at the time, but you always want to go back and revisit old threads, especially ones that haven’t been … I feel like this is new territory. That’s the exciting part. The other thing is the instincts. Just like the instincts to bring Cable and Deadpool and Domino. It just felt like the right time and the right place, and you know, all you got is your instincts when you’re making art. And I’m gambling that this is the right time and the right place for Major X to make his play.”
However when it comes to the identity of Major X, fans are going to have to wait because, as Liefeld puts it, “if you’re going to play in the X-Men sandbox, you better bring some mystery and some intrigue because that’s what they’re built on.”
“And I still get asked all the time, ‘Who’s your favorite character?’ It’s Wolverine,” Liefeld continued. “It’s always been Wolverine. He made me love comics and made me love the X-Men. And the thing about Wolverine also is the mystery. The mystery that they layered him with over multiple years. So with Cable, Deadpool, Domino, X-Force, I felt like I’ve subscribed to that notion of mystery and reviewing different layers.”
Major X hits your local comic shop’s shelves this April.
Additional reporting by Jim Viscardi.
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Image Credit: Marvel Comics
