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Peter Milligan: X-Men's New Writer

The Photographer in Blowup

08:42 / 25.07.04

Courtesy fo newsarama:

Today at the X-Men Reloaded panel at San Diego, the question was finally answered: Peter Milligan will replace Chuck Austen as the writer of X-Men

As Milligan explained it, he wasn’t actively seeking an X-book to write after X-Statix ended. “But we - that is a few people at Marvel and I - had touched on the subject of me working on the book last year, but the timing wasn't right. Now the timing does feel right so here we are,” Milligan told Newsarama.

Asked if he’s realized that to a certain group of X-fans, he’s the absolute last person who would’ve landed the mainstream, core X-book. “I suppose I have a vague awareness of that, yes,” Milligan said. “But I think it's probably a good thing.”

While Milligan is still fairly tight-lipped about his approach, he was able to talk about his global team view. “I suppose how I see these people interacting, living and working together is what the series, as far as I'm concerned, is about, and it will be what my run on the book will be mainly about,” the writer said. “This group of extraordinary people asked to do extraordinary things...that nonetheless grapple with some quite ordinary problems when it comes to relationships and nuts and bolts of getting along with life.”

Milligan said the leader, as well as the heart and soul of the team will be a fluid and ongoing question that the book and characters attempt to resolve. The writer also said that, his history with all things X is fairly spotty, but he doesn’t see that as a detriment, necessarily. “I enjoyed a lot of what Grant Morrison did with New X-Men, though it's probably not a state secret that I am not the world's most avid follower of all things beginning with X.

“I want to be able to get some real dark deep emotional stuff in there among the humor and the lightness. My theme, if there is one, will be the balancing act between the big, global missions and issues these guys deal with, and the emotional, interior lives they lead.”

Only Milligan to make me break my promise of never buying X-Men again after Morrison's run... bastard!

The Natural Way

11:48 / 25.07.04

So........Joss, and now Milligan.

Looks like I'm an X Fan for the foreseeable future.

Interpersonal shit's the stuff Milligan does best. And I'm sure the weirdness quotient'll be pretty high too.

11:50 / 25.07.04

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

15:36 / 25.07.04

I want Guy to join, but I have a feeling most of X-Statix will drop into limbo after X-Statix ends, or maybe they'll all die.

I wonder if it will still have the "real" Xorn and Cassandra on the loose?

17:58 / 25.07.04

Dammit. I really don't want to be buying more X-books. I made an exception for Joss... but now Milligan, too! Grr. I can't afford this!

Regrettable Juvenilia

20:33 / 25.07.04

It would be fantastic if Milligan gets permission to start culling the current cast of the book with the same regularity he killed his own characters off in X-Force/X-Statix. Gambit? Nu-Xorn? Polaris? Let there be death! Either that, or he's also the kind of writer having fun with the fact that they're almost all second-rate losers with either no personality or wildly inconsistent, implausible ones. Maybe he can even make Alex Summers' issues about being the shitter brother interesting...

Good news, either way.

Matthew Fluxington

11:46 / 26.07.04

This is lovely news! Maybe now the world will finally start paying attention to Milligan.

I'm most excited that Milligan will be in charge of Rogue and Gambit - those characters both have so much potential, so much baggage to sort through, and I think Milligan is exactly the right guy to exploit all of it.

Matthew Fluxington

12:18 / 26.07.04

I really really really hope that Milligan gets to write Nu-Xorn.

Regrettable Juvenilia

12:24 / 26.07.04

Would this be the wrong place to ask if anyone else skimmed through the latest Austen abomination and read the scene in which Nu-Xorn makes some of the X-Men stop bickering by philosophising at them? He soothes their stressed-out Western souls with his calming yet enigmatic Eastern wisdom!

I'm not sure Milligan can be funnier than that.

12:36 / 26.07.04

Wow. This could be really, really cool. We'll see just how much X-Editorial messes with Milligan in his run. Hopefully X-Editorial won't drive Milligan away in 8 issues, esp. given Milligan's more sophisticated sensibilities and Marvel's apparent desire to return to a simpler 80s kiddie-fare mentality. (although Joss' X-Men does dispute the X-80's kiddie mentality trend in Marvel, certainly)

13:00 / 26.07.04

Flyboy - its wicked, not to mention all too easy, to mock the afflicted.

Matthew Fluxington

13:21 / 26.07.04

I don't get the sense that Marvel really wanted to take the X-Men in a "kiddie" direction - they only wanted to make it more of a superhero comic, with costumes et al. I don't think the fact that Austen writes like a child necessarily meant that he was intentionally writing a "kiddie comic."

I strongly doubt that Milligan would have been hired if they didn't know what they were getting themselves into. By the time his run begins, Whedon's will be almost over, so he fills the Grown-Up X-Men Comic niche, potentially keeping the Morrison and Whedon fans (ie, us) on board. I also doubt that Milligan would have agreed to the project if he wasn't protected somehow on a contractual level, as Grant was.

Peter Milligan is better suited to the ridiculousness of superhero costumes anyway. He w

Matthew Fluxington

13:25 / 26.07.04

the scene in which Nu-Xorn makes some of the X-Men stop bickering by philosophising at them? He soothes their stressed-out Western souls with his calming yet enigmatic Eastern wisdom!

I couldn't quite figure out how that scene was meant to be read - the "wisdom" was totally absurd, and there was some implication that Xorn was just a lunatic in isolation, and his words were meaningless and delusional. I think that they were intended to be funny and ridiculous. I'm willing to give Austen the benefit of the doubt, and assume that it was his stab at irony and meta humor.

15:57 / 26.07.04

He w

well said, Flux. he does, in fact, w. he w's so hard it makes my eyes bleed.

i really have no idea what to expect of Milligan on X-Men. he said somewhere that his angle on it is going to be on the idea that these are ordinary people who are called upon to do extraordinary things on a regular basis, but what that translates to on a day-to-day basis, i have no idea. this could be really brilliant, but i'm kind of afraid that it will be more lukewarm.

how long until Austen finishes up?

Matthew Fluxington

16:25 / 26.07.04

Austen's going to be on for five more issues. #164 is his final issue, and I presume that Milligan begins with #165. I'm guessing that Salvador Larocca will remain the penciller, but maybe not - Milligan is usually pretty specific about artists, and Larocca's art doesn't seem like the best match for Milligan's style.

Then again, Marvel seems to like Larocca (he's pretty good, he's always on time, and fans like him), so the odds are good that he'll stick around. The guy's been stuck drawing terrible material for the past four years, so maybe his luck is changing.

16:34 / 26.07.04

they did confirm that Larocca's going to stay, which makes me even more curious as to how this is going to play out. it is, as you said, an odd match.

five issues, huh? i don't suppose there are any months where it's shipping twice anytime soon?

19:16 / 26.07.04

As Milligan says himself in is San Diego interviews he often works best in tight spaces. My best guess is that milligan will focus on character relationships, especially those of peripheral characters, riffing off the most ridiculous elements of continuity to construct tales that probe our heroes sense of self and identity...

19:32 / 26.07.04

LaRocca used to be a pretty mainstream superhero artist, but his recent X-Men work has seemed either rushed or just weak. Maybe it's the 'shooting from pencils' thing? Or maybe he's just been really rushed with the Austen issues? I dunno...his style and composition and execution used to be far sharper, methinks.

Matthew Fluxington

20:34 / 26.07.04

It's a combination of Larocca speeding through 12 issues per year, and having no inker.

Matthew Fluxington

20:38 / 26.07.04

Actually, he's doing more than 12 per year, isn't he?

He had four issues of X-Men published in one month alone this year, on top of doing that Namor series, various pin-ups, and several issues of Austen and Milligan X-Men. He's a hard working guy.

20:45 / 26.07.04

being a hardworking guy for Marvel doesn't necessarily pay off - as Igor Korday and arguablely Chuck Austin found to their costs...

01:28 / 27.07.04

Should I say I told you so?

Opps. Just did.

The Natural Way

12:15 / 27.07.04

What? You told us what?

I don't remember you telling me anything.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

16:38 / 27.07.04

The X-Characters Milligan has are only as good as he writes them - chances are this is a chance to fall in love with Havok et al like we fell in love with the New X-Men.

I'm pumped for marvel again.

16:44 / 27.07.04

Although Milligan did write the laughable-looking VENOM VS. CARNAGE, due out this week. I kid you not. Even though this book looks like a return to Milligan's 90s ELEKTRA awfulness, I trust him to do good things with the X-Men.

Matthew Fluxington

17:39 / 27.07.04

Milligan kicks ass on a monthly basis in both X-Statix and Human Target. Who cares if he does a dim project every now and again for the cash? He probably has a ball writing the dross.

00:53 / 28.07.04

Varriage, I called it here.

I agree with Matthew. I'm not really fearing Milligan entering another phase of 'hackwork'(Elektra and that from 96 or so) given that he's been writing consistently excellent books in both HT and Statix. Looking at "Di Another Day", sorry "Back From the Dead", a story that had the shit cut out of it, was still pretty bloody good. So I'm feeling really good about X-Men.

14:25 / 29.07.04

But in other X-News, Rich Johnston reports heavy rumors that Marvel is planning an "Age Of Apocalypse II," an anthology concept/project. Yikes!

ONLY NICE THINGS

14:34 / 29.07.04

Oh, come on. How could Elektra possibly have been a better book? She becomes a dancer, for God's sake.

12:55 / 30.07.04

I bought The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix as a sort of celebratory gesture.

It's Milligan! It's John Paul Leon - I love him! It's the X-Men!

It's not very good.

22:32 / 10.08.04

Sorry for the really lazy question, but for how many issues will Milligan and Whedon penned X-Men books overlap? Four months? (if Milligan starts X-Men 5 months from now, that'd put us at Astonishing 8 of 12, yes?)