Joss Whedon

JOSS WHEDON ON ‘ASTONISHING X-MEN’ WIZARD gets inside Whedon’s Danger Room to answer the biggest questions surrounding Astonishing X-Men

By Mike Cotton Posted November 6, 2006 8:15 AM

He’s taken Emma Frost back to her White Queen roots, brought back the Morrison-era threat of Cassandra Nova, depowered Cyclops and used cute little Kitty Pryde as a pawn. So what can writer Joss Whedon do for an encore? Create a final Astonishing X-Men arc with artist John Cassaday that’s so much bigger and better, it’s “Unstoppable”!

But before issue #19 begins the X-Men’s trip to the Breakworld-where Colossus allegedly destroys the alien planet-what about all the dizzying details from the previous arc?

Don’t get your spandex in a twist-Wizard sat down with Whedon and grilled him Cerebra-style about all the “yeahbuhWHAT?!” moments he’s astonished us with. If you’ve been trying to figure out how he got away with the Kitty/Peter off-panel sex, having Cyclops shoot people with a gun and avoiding Civil War and other crossovers like Wolverine avoids getting his back waxed, we’ve got the next best thing to getting telepathic powers and reading Whedon’s mind yourself!

So...Cyclops isn’t a mutant anymore after Emma psychically manipulated him when she went bad?

JOSS WHEDON: No, he doesn’t have his powers. Well, he has a choice to either be completely out of control or bury them. He can’t use them. That’s pretty much it. But the thing that would be fun is that, with no powers, he’s going to be the best that he’s ever been. That’s what the arc is about. Once you start dealing with these guys, they become more and more fascinating. But I concentrated on Cyclops because he’s been the team leader and the team washout in terms of popularity. He was defined by Jean [Grey] so much, and I just think that this guy is so interesting in his struggle against mediocrity. Then, when it’s all laid on the line, when you find out the thing that’s been holding him back from being just a complete badass has been himself all his life, that he’s been lying to everyone, including himself, about who he is-that should be freeing. The Scott that we’re going to see is going to be a little bit different. This guy is either completely out of control or in control of something we’re not used to. I wanted him to be an unabashed tough guy. He is shooting people and turning very much into a leader. Not everyone is going to like it.”

So, Lockhead’s been spying on the X-Men for S.W.O.R.D.? He’s a lovable li’l dragon!

WHEDON: “Yeah, how about that? I thought that I would get a little bit more into the Lockheed situation and make him a little less of a pet and more of a player. Beyond that I’ll not say. Actually, I probably won’t pay that off completely. I’m going to raise some questions about him more than doing a whole arc on his planet. I have to sow some seeds while I’m on the book. If no one picks it up, no one picks it up. Him and [S.W.O.R.D. director] Abigail [Brand] can go off and be awesome.”

Are you prepared for Lockheed-fan backlash?

WHEDON: Jeph Loeb made it very clear to me that I was never to go near those places on the Internet when I started out, which was a great piece of advice. If it happens, I won’t know about it. I think that people will be pleased because it’s going to give Lockheed a little bit more than ‘I show up and I’m cute.’ The question is whether he’s doing this willingly, or was this done to him? What’s the motivation of that dragon? If people are like, ‘You’ve destroyed the essence of Lockheed,’ I’m not going to lose a lot of sleep. They’re already pissed at me about the Danger Room. Didn’t they introduce the Danger Cave like five seconds after I got rid of the Danger Room?’” [Editor’s Note: Yes, Joss, they did. See New X-Men #21.]

How do the X-Men come back from Emma’s attack and move on to the Breakworld?

WHEDON: The trick is that she’s basically attacking everyone in a way that makes them stronger. She deconstructs Scott and Hank and Logan. Everyone is dealing with an issue that they have so that they can get over it. So she’s in the process of trying to destroy the X-Men, but she’s also rebuilding them. She’s actually making them stronger. When they get off-world and get their shit together, it’s going to be the best superhero team in the universe, which is pretty cool.”

Um, the Kitty/Peter sex was cute and romantic, but it also made me feel a little dirty...

WHEDON: “The thing is that everything [in that scene] is about as dirty as you want it to be, which is how I like to write. [Laughs] I had dinner with Brian K. Vaughan and he was like, ‘Did Wolverine smell them on each other, or did he just know because he knew because they were acting guilty?’ I was like, ‘Which do you want?’ He was like, ‘I will take smell, please.’ I was like, ‘There it is.’ That’s the beauty of it.”

Why don’t we ever see Astonishing crossing over with things like Civil War or other major Marvel events? Do you not play well with others?

WHEDON: I wish that I could [work in crossovers] sometimes because that’s sort of fun, but I hate books that necessitate the reading of other books. It’s just difficult to keep up because we were bi-monthly. Things are moving so fast, too. They went straight from House of M fallout to Civil War, and they’ve got stuff coming up after that that’s pretty mind-blowing. DC is doing the same thing. The events are walking among us like giants. It’s event after event after event, and there’s barely enough room for all of them. The other thing about it is that my stories tend to take place in a day. I don’t set out to do that, but I’m not a great one for the passage of time. I love momentum. I love to see people going through something very intense. I like to get into real-time as soon as possible. So ultimately, that makes it harder for me to be part of their big events-but also easier for me to do the book without running up against them.”