Are you ready for another SECRET WARS announcement? This time we'll get to revisit the E is for Extinction run by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. Taking us back is Chris Burnham with Ramon Villalobos on art.
Morrison's run was a game-changer for the X-Men. We spoke with Burnham to find out what he has planned and what we can expect.
E IS FOR EXTINCTION #1
CHRIS BURNHAM (w) • RAMON VILLALOBOS (a)
Cover by IAN BERTRAM
• What happens when mutants prove they really are Homo SUPERIOR?
• What will happen to the X-Men when they fight for a world that wants to be them, rather than hate and fears them?
• And what exactly is Magneto doing running the Xavier institute??
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
CV: What was your original reaction when you first read the original storyline?
BURNHAM: Yeah. I loved it. I thought it was totally bonkers—super cool. I think, like everyone else, I had grown out of the X-Men because I was twenty-two years old or whatever when it came out. I had fallen out of the X-Men when I started getting girlfriends, or went to college. That run definitely brought me back into it. It reminded me how much I loved that stuff. It was everything you loved but cranked up to eleven.
CV: Are the yellow and black leathers back?
BURNHAM: Absolutely. [laughs] That is the thing that’s the same about it.
CV: Which characters will mainly be featured?
BURNHAM: It’s almost everyone that you remember, in varying degrees. The only person I don’t think we’re using is Fantomex. He appears so much in the normal comics, in the X-FORCE comics. He’s sort of grown beyond the Morrison/Quitely run, in his own right. But a lot of the other characters, in my perspective at least, I still associate them mostly with Grant’s run. So it’s just about everyone that you want to see will be in there, in some degree or another.
CV: Whereabouts in the original storyline would this story take place? Is it during, after the run, or an offshoot from the time?
BURNHAM: It’s almost an alternate timeline version of it. It’s almost like another take on events from the first issue and spin wildly out of control from there. It’s not quite a WHAT IF…? or alternate timeline, it’s just coming out of the SECRET WARS events.
CV: Have you talked to Grant about what you’re going to do since you’re working with him on NAMELESS?
BURNHAM: Yeah. I definitely made sure to get his blessings first and he thought it was cool. He doesn’t own the characters but if I thought it was going to piss him off, I would’ve bowed out. He thought it sounded neat. He told me to go for it. He also gave me a couple ideas he thought I should use.
CV: Are there any restrictions when writing these characters? Like with what you can or can’t do or do they have to end up in a certain place?
BURNHAM: I basically have free reign. Whatever limitations I have, I definitely would not be allowed to talk about them.
CV: What’s your favorite thing about working on these versions of the characters?
BURNHAM: The best thing is seeing Ramon Villalobos and Ian Bertram draw the characters. I also like the crazy take we’re allowed to use on this since it’s a different interpretation. For the last fifty years, mutants have been an oppressed group. As far as this series goes, mutants kind of rule the world. It’s fully known that mutants are better at just about everything compared to humans. It’s really fun to screw around with that idea and not have to worry about what’s happening in the next twenty years. We can really break all sorts of things and have a lot of fun with it and not have to worry about the next creators trying to make these comics.
Check out the rest of the characters sketches to see more of what we can expect.
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