Writer Marc Guggenheim returns to Marvel this August with a chilling mystery set amongst the stars. It all starts with X-MEN #18 and the arrival of an unexpected visitor.
When Deathbird appears at the Peak, orbiting headquarters of S.W.O.R.D., the warrior clings to life. Last seen in the custody of the Shi’ar, her return stokes more than curiosity from special agent Abigail Brand. An all-female squad of X-Men journey out into the black to seek out the answers to Brand’s questions as well as some of their own.
“The idea really came from the fact that I’d been jonesing for an ‘X-Men in space’ story as a reader,” says Guggenheim. “I’d been re-reading the ‘Brood Saga’ and it reminded me how much I love that concept of the X-Men in outer space. It’s a milieu that suits them really well.”
Though the X-Men still trod earthly soil when Guggenheim first started reading—he cites Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s UNCANNY X-MEN #139 and the trial by fire introduction of Kitty Pryde as his first foray with the Children of the Atom—his devotion truly hit its stride with the team’s extraterrestrial exploits.
“Those early years with Byrne and [Dave] Cockrum and [Paul] Smith were my seminal reading experiences,” Guggenheim recalls. “What was cool about the ‘Brood Saga’ was it was more like ‘Star Wars’ than anything we’d seen from Marvel cosmic. It was more like ‘Aliens.’ It had a darkness to it. It opened a new corner of the Marvel Universe that was more mysterious and scary. My goal here is to do something in that vein, to do something spooky.”
