Ross Hutchinson
Unless you have been living under a rock or in an alternate timeline (haha), you know about the impending Age of X-Man event kicking off in February next year which will see X-readers thrust into a very different world which will be bringing a strange new world and fresh takes on mutant kinds sons and daughters.
One of the titles in the impending X event is Age of X-Man: The Marvelous X-Men. Since it’s launch there has been a major buzz around what the nature of the story will be, who will be in it and so on and so forth beyond what has been revealed in the solicits. If you follow X-Men twitter a great deal of information can be found regarding what is happening in the upcoming X-event.
One such source of information is Mike Hawthorne. The best selling Deadpool artist has been revealing his designs for some of the characters which are being used in Age of X-Man: The Marvelous X-Men by Lonnie Nadler and Zac Thompson and with interiors by Marco Failla. We have put them together here:
First up Colossus. Hawthorne said on twitter that he managed to get this design sorted on his first pass at it but did not elaborate on why Colossus is an amputee except to say it’s “an interesting story point)
Next is X-23 who gets a haircut and an eastern look and feel to her clothes while homaging the wolverine yellow and blue colors. Hawthorne explained in his tweets that he had some assistance from editorial to pin down her final look for the series. the second image above is an unused design.
Nature Girl is next with a look that Hawthorne describes as self-explanatory.
Next up Mr. Kurt Wagner himself. Nightcrawler will not only feature in Age of X-Man: The Marvelous X-Men but will also be getting his very own mini in the event called Age of X-Man: The Amazing Nightcrawler written by Seanan McGuire and drawn by Juan Frigeri. McGuire revealed on Twitter that Nightcrawler is a super famous and wildly popular actor in this reality and went on to reveal that his title would include characters Meggan, The Cuckoos, Magma and even Kylun who will be Kurt’s personal trainer in this new reality! As to design Hawthorne admits to multiple passes before settling on the above. For all the beard lovers, Hawthorne expressed his awareness of Kurt’s current facial hair popularity but explained it didn’t serve the story in this reality.
According to Hawthorne Storm along with Colossus are two of his favorites from growing up and he may have spent a bit of extra time on the Windrider who he has chosen to style with a cleanshaven head and much more ethnically styled outfit than we usually see her in.
With Magneto’s design Hawthorne says he tried to keep the count look as he put it for the master of magnetism who in this reality is missing an eye. Again Hawthorne did not elaborate on saying only that it will be explained in the story.
Jean Grey’s design is very much a throwback with a twist on her original Marvel Girl costume with its’s color scheme and short skirt design but Hawthorne has mixed it up here to still make the design original and fresh.
Last but not least X- Man himself.
Get to see these designs and others starting this January 30th with Age of X-Man: Alpha #1 written by Lonnie Nadler and Zac Thompson with art by Ramon Rosanas and don’t forget to look out for our full review coverage of this eXciting multi-book X-event.