It’s not often you walk into an Avengers panel to learn about the X-Men, but that’s what happened at the San Diego Comic-Con today.
Marvel used its Avengers: Armageddon panel to reveal what’s next for its mutants: Maximum X-Men, an ongoing series from writer Christopher Yost and artist Tony S. Daniel. Yost worked on various X-Men titles back in the late 2000s and early 2010s, most notably on long runs on X-Force and New X-Men. Both creators made surprise appearances at the panel to discuss the series.
“I’ve worked on my fair share of X-Books over the years, but Maximum X-Men is everything I love about comics rolled into one—it’s underdog heroes saving the world from the biggest Avengers-level threats imaginable, it’s mind-breaking action and drama and everything people expect from X-Men, all with a classic Claremont vibe,” Yost said.
In the wake of Avengers: Armageddon, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are no more. Storm, fresh off her own stint with the Avengers, steps up to fill the gap, recruiting an elite team of mutants to handle threats no other team can: Wolverine, Colossus, Bishop, Iceman and Psylocke, along with New Warriors/former Avengers Firestar and Justice. Their first challenge is a full-on invasion from the Negative Zone.
“Rolling Maximum X-Men out as part of the new world post-Armageddon only lets us spotlight the need for a story like this… and to top it all off, I get to work with legendary artist Tony Daniel. As a life-long X-Men fan, it doesn’t get any better,” Yost said.
“The X-Men have long been my favorite characters since discovering Giant-Size X-Men #1 in the fourth grade,” said Daniel. “I’ve always dreamed of working on my favorite characters so it’s an incredible honor to launch Maximum X-Men with Chris. I’ve been a fan of Chris’s writing for a long time, but this is our first time joining forces. I’m already in love with the story in the first issue. Its vibe and energy reminds me so much of the kind of X-Men stories I loved as a child and I can’t wait for the audience to see what we have in store.”
Maximum X-Men #1 goes on sale Dec. 2.