Marvel Shocks With The Announcement of New X-Men Book, X-Corps
Phillip Pratt
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Just when we thought the X-Men were already approaching the point of post-MCU Avengers-level saturation, Marvel goes and kicks it up a few notches with the announcement of a new title in X-Corps.
The X Line Expands
Ok, it was less of an announcement, and more of a statement they allowed past their PR-machine. Before House of X and Powers of X had a chance to be called a legitimate success, they let it be known that the line would be expanding to include a host of new books: X-Men, X-Force, Fallen Angels, Marauders, Excalibur, and New Mutants.
Before we got a proper preview from any of those titles, they ran the score up at NYCC by announcing a Kubert illustrated Wolverine title.
With the addition of X-Corps, the X-Men franchise is currently carrying a total of 9 ongoing titles!
Robust X-Catalogue
The X-catalogue hasn’t been this robust in years, especially since Marvel’s secret war against the franchise (get it? Secret War?). Now that they’ve recovered the X-Men movie rights through their purchase of 21st Century Fox, they are free and clear to exploit every corner of the X-Men universe.
That includes obscure concepts like X-Corps.
For those that are unfamiliar with the name (I’d wager that’s most of you), X-Corporation was an international version of the X-Men created by Professor-X pre-Genosha Massacre when the mutant population was booming.
Much like Krakoa has satellite installations across the planet, Mars, and the Moon, X-Corps was split into branches and led by X-Men such as Sunspot, Domino, and Cannonball.
“Don’t let Carmen out of your sights! Follow her into the pages of X-Corp, the latest in the wave of genre-redefining X-Men books! Issue #1 is on sale February 2!” – Sarah Brunstad, Marvel Editor
X-Corps may also refer to the team that Banshee formed in Paris. Funny enough, it was during Banshee’s more militant years following Moira MacTaggert’s supposed death. He’d also been divorced from the school he and Emma headed up together (Generation-X), and still reeling from the death of Synch, his student.
He was in a bad headspace. Banshee’s X-Corps team was like world-police for mutants and included former Generation-X, Alpha Flight and Brotherhood members and deployed out of an old A.I.M. base.
Meshes Well With X-Men Mythos
The two groups would eventually become one, but until now, neither had a book dedicated to it. The concept fits well into the current X-Men mythos, even if it does sort of clash with what X-Force is supposed to be as the “CIA” of Krakoa.
Krakoa aims to revive every bit of the 16-million mutants that have been murdered over the years. So, there’s plenty of ground to cover, I suppose.
With Banshee back amongst the living, there’s probably a good chance he’s going to be involved. No word on who will be penning the book, but the super-talented artist, Carmen Carnero, will be returning to the X-Men franchise for X-Corps.
This will be her the first time with the mutant since her short run with Tom Taylor’s X-Men: Red. X-Corps is slated to debut on February 2nd of 2020.
What do you think? Too much X-Men, too quick? Let us know below.
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