During the Designing the X-Men panel in San Diego, Marvel announced a couple of new projects related to their merry mutants.
The first is X-Men Origins Blue, which arrives in November. The one-shot will delve into the origins of both Nightcrawler and Mystique, and, knock on wood, will retcon the terrible retcons made to the character in the early 2000s. It’s by Si Spurrier and Wilton Santos, and Spurrier’s quote offers a glimmer of hope in the right direction.
“It’s not often you get the chance to shine new light into the origins of a truly beloved character. To do so for two at once is an unprecedented privilege,” Spurrier said. “With this book, we’re breaking new ground in more ways than one. We’re walking this path with the deepest love for Nightcrawler and Mystique, and the deepest respect for the formative stories that surround them.”
Here’s the description from Marvel, offering more questions than answers:
This is the one you can’t miss, True Believer! You think you know how the beloved blue devil came into this troubled world? You think you know the tale of his mendacious mamma Mystique? You don’t! Mother and son reunite in a mold-shattering tale that exposes secrets held for decades and redefines both characters forever!
“And yet… by shifting perspective… by wondering which parts of the standard history can be trusted and which are unreliable… by climbing into the minds and memories of mother and son alike… we’re enriching their shared tale in a way that will cast fertile shadows across everything they do from now onwards. This is one of those books that will be discussed for years to come,” Spurrier said.
Let’s just hope it’s discussed as the story that fixed something that was really broken.
A Marvel panel wouldn’t be complete without some sort of teaser, and Marvel didn’t disappoint:
Even the Marvel.com story is appropriately vague.
X-Men Blue Origins arrives Nov. 29, while whatever “New X-Men” is will be revealed in 2024.
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