During Mike Carey’s seven years as writer of the
X-Men, he went through three different directions for the book – first a
regular X-team experience and then X-Men: Legacy starring first Professor X and
then Rogue in charge of new mutants, leaving just a few plots dangling.
In 2006, the two core X-Men books were relaunched again with new creative teams. While Ed Brubaker wrote Uncanny X-Men, X-fan Mike Carey took over writing X-Men vol. 2 beginning with #188. “I read the first run of the X-Men in the late sixties, then I got hooked on Claremont’s X-Men a decade later, coming onboard with #108,” Mike Carey revealed to X-Men Nation. “I was a faithful reader of Uncanny for a good six or seven years straight – through the debut of New Mutants and X-Factor. Then after that, when the franchise exploded, I cherry-picked – went through gluts and lean years but generally kept in touch all the way through to Grant Morrison’s stint on New X-Men. The first Claremont run is an incredible achievement. Parts of it read clunky now because narrative formulas change over time, but for raw imagination and for the sheer scale of what it added to the mythos, it can’t be touched. And once you’ve got your ear in, it sings to you.”
“Fabian Nicieza is a hugely talented writer and produced subtle, clever, moving storylines at a time when the comics industry as a whole was chasing foil-embossed variant covers like there was no tomorrow,” Carey continued. “Grant Morrison’s New X-Men run was immaculate. Grant always throws caltrops in his wake, but man, what a ride. What a frigging ride!”
Mike Carey’s own stint as X-Men writer would last seven years. He revealed to Wicked Comics that he was most inspired by “other people’s stories, I guess. When I read a book or see a movie or TV show that fills my mind to the exclusion of everything else for the time when I’m watching it. Stories are much more vivid than reality to me.”
Mike Carey’s inspirations were particularly obvious in his first three story-arcs, starting out by introducing the Children of the Vault which like Chris Claremont’s Neo were the next step in human evolution after mutants. The Children of the Vault had evolved in a closed and time-controlled environment akin to Grant Morrison’s Weapon Plus’ World which had bred Fantomex.
In Mike Carey’s next story-arc in X-Men vol. 2 #194-196, he introduced the villainous Pandemic who like Morrison’s John Sublime wanted to steal mutants’ powers. And then, in #197-199 Carey’s team of X-Men came up against a Shi’ar Mummudrai called Hecatomb akin to Morrison’s Cassandra Nova. “Um, bizarrely, the Hecatomb actually came about when I was working backwards from Cassandra Nova,” Carey told IGN. “I really wanted at one stage to bring Cassandra Nova into X-Men. This was before I realized that Joss Whedon, whose instincts are 100% sound, had already decided to bring Nova into Astonishing (X-Men). I was thinking that I would like to set up a situation where a Mummadrai would come down from outer space, and this Mummadrai has come down because Cassandra Nova is here, dormant but still alive in the X-Mansion. So, this Mummadrai has come to make love to her. It'd be like a Mummadrai clutch of eggs - the next generation of Mummadrai. So, I was playing around with a story like that, but I got a call from (editor) Mike Marts who said, ‘Hi, I have some bad news for you. Joss is, um, writing a story and Cassandra is already a major element.’ So, I thought, ‘Well, I'm reluctant to let go of this.’ I had already begun to flesh out the origin for Urizen at this stage. So, I thought, ‘What else would bring Urizen to Earth? Well, maybe he's not running towards something, maybe he's running away from something.’ So, the Hecatomb came out of that really.”
Cable instead of Psylocke
Mike Carey’s team of X-Men started out as Rogue, Iceman, Cannonball, Mystique, Sabretooth and Lady Mastermind. “Cable was an inspired suggestion from Mike Marts after I asked for Psylocke but found her already taken,” Carey told X-Men Nation. “We needed someone with psi-powers.” Then, “You can just write in characters that are on other teams and say, ‘It's okay! It's within continuity lines! They're… visiting!’”, Carey told IGN. “So, I've been using Beast, Cyclops and Emma a lot. (…) Originally, I had Psylocke on the table, but Chris Claremont wanted to use her (in Exiles). Obviously, he created her, so he had the prior claim. I'm not going to argue with that. I'd still love to give her a cameo at some point. Husk, I would love to bring in. Dani Moonstar, even though she's de-powered, I think she's a really engaging character. Lila Cheney, I would like to have her come back.”
However, before any of those characters could be brought in, X-Men vol. 2 was retitled X-Men: Legacy beginning with #208 in 2008. Mike Carey stayed on as writer, but now Professor X was the main character as readers followed his journey to self-discovery after having been shot at the end of the Messiah Complex crossover which Carey wrote parts of in X-Men vol. 2 #205-207. Professor X’s starring run included the brilliant answer to why Wolverine had suffered from memory loss when originally joining the X-Men in a crossover with Wolverine: Origins #28-30 entitled Original Sin. After X-Men: Legacy #225 in 2009, the focus on Professor X shifted to Rogue, who now had her mutant ability under control, with Gambit and Magneto co-starring. Rogue was put in charge of a group of teenage mutants by Cyclops and this direction for X-Men: Legacy lasted until Carey ended his long run with #260 in 2012.
Plots left hanging
Mike Carey didn’t get around to do anything with a subplot concerning Gambit’s other persona from his time as a Horseman of Apocalypse in Peter Milligan’s preceding run as writer. “I really, really wish I’d been able to get to that,” Carey told Comic Book Resources. “It’s not just about the fact that Gambit has been a Horseman – there’s something else going on, and the story is still one that could be brought back into focus and concluded. But whenever you leave an ongoing book, you’re going to leave some balls still in the air. This was one of mine.”
Another ball Mike Carey left hanging was Destiny’s vague premonition of Blindfold’s brother in X-Men: Legacy #233. Destiny said he had killed their mother. “As far as the Blindfold plot goes, it was one of the things – like Gambit’s other self – that I kept trying to get back to but failed. It’s not resolved by the end of my run, so after that it’s up to other X-writers to decide if it’s something they want to revisit.”
In 2012, an X-Men: Legacy vol. 2 series starring Legion and written by Simon Spurrier was launched with #1. It would feature Blindfold’s brother, Luca Aldine, as a recurring villain until he died in #22 in 2014.
Also, in X-Men: Legacy #256 Magneto was in space with his daughter Polaris and promised they would talk once they were safe, but Carey didn’t get around to it before leaving. “I had space to pay off some, but not all of the plot threads I’d left dangling. That was one I didn’t manage to get to. I’d like to see it happen, but I couldn’t make it work naturalistically in the space I had.”
Sources:
Richard George: The Future of The X-Men: Interview & Preview, 13 May 2012, IGN
Jordan Lurie: Exclusive Interview with Mike Carey, 17 October 2008, X-Men Nation
George A. Tramountanas: X-Position: Mike Carey’s 7-Year “Legacy”, 25 October 2011, Comic Book Resources
Wicked Comics Interview Mike Carey, 11 October 2012, Malta Comic Con
