X-Men: Regenesis begins this November

Posted by ptb under *like, Comics |

For the past two weeks, Marvel Comics has been releasing a set of their trademark silhouetted teaser images, this time focusing on the X-Men line. With the promise of big changes to the X-Men’s status quo following the current Schism series by Jason Aaron, these teasers suggest a very different landscape for Marvel’s mutants beyond Cyclops simply being at odds with Wolverine. It appears that Regenesis will be a line wide revamp similar in nature to 2004’s X-Men: ReLoad and 2000’s X-Men: Revolution/Counter-X.

The initial promotional image for November’s X-Men: Regenesis focused on the division between characters that would be part of the new Wolverine and the X-Men title and the relaunching Uncanny X-Men. As these latest teasers have rolled out, we now see that no less than eight ongoing X-titles will be part of Regenesis.

The eight teasers for the eight ongoing X-Men series represented (that’s a lot of titles…) link together to form two larger images by artists Dale Keown and Nick Bradshaw, and I always enjoy these panoramic shots. The blue and gold color scheme used for the teams’ logos was an early indicator of who was siding with Wolverine (gold) and who remained loyal to Cyclops (blue). Blue and gold not only harkens back to the original teams uniforms, but also to the early 1990s separation of team members when Chris Claremont and Jim Lee’s adjectiveless X-Men joined Uncanny X-Men in Marvel’s publishing line.

The X-Men’s world has certainly grown since then and it should be interesting to see how the two factions will coexist in the Marvel Universe. Notable revelations include:

Emma Frost will remain by Cyclops’ side on their island home of Utopia in Kieron Gillen and Carlos Pacheco‘s Uncanny X-Men. This book also features the return of the creative team behind Uncanny X-Men #534.1 which I thoroughly enjoyed.
The recently returning Nate Grey will continue to be a prominent character in Danny Abnett and Andy Lanning‘s New Mutants. The silhouettes suggest most of that team is staying put.
Sebastian Shaw (the central villain of this Summer’s X-Men: First Class movie) will be joining the ranks of Generation Hope of all places. I was glad to see Ibraim Roberson listed as the new regular artist on this title. This is another case where most of the team seems to be staying where they are.
Vampire Jubilee will continue to be a focal point in Victor Gischler’s X-Men and will be at odds with her former “sidekick” Wolverine.
Wolverine will be a member of the team in Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo‘s Wolverine and the X-Men, but it’s difficult to identify who’s standing with him. Iceman? Xorn? Jean Grey??? Regardless, I couldn’t be happier to see Bachalo as the regular artist on this title.
A darker version of Nightcrawler appears to be escaping the Age of Apocalypse and joining Rick Remender‘s Uncanny X-Force, although the writer himself is questioning this assumption by fans. This would be an intriguing choice considering Nightcrawler’s recent passing during Second Coming.
Havok will not only be returning from space, he’ll be rejoining X-Factor under writer Peter David and he’ll be siding with Wolverine against his brother Cyclops. It also appears the days of the X-Factor detective agency may be over, but a fair number of the current team’s members (Strong Guy, Wolfsbane, Banshee, and someone in the foreground that could be Madrox or Rictor) seem to be among those shadows.
You can’t tell from the cover, but this will begin writer Mike Carey‘s final arc on X-Men: Legacy after six brilliant years writing the title. It’s good to see Rogue will be a central figure through the conclusion of his run.

Expect these line-ups to be revealed in the coming days. Until then, here are some points of speculation:

Idie, who has become a key figure in Schism, does not appear on the cover to Generation Hope and may be hidden somewhere among Wolverine’s loyalists.
Colossus will remain as the Juggernaut following Fear Itself and join Emma Frost, Namor, Magneto, and possibly Iceman in the new Uncanny X-Men.
Uncanny X-Force looks to be unchanged other than the addition of Nightcrawler and the removal of Archangel.
Warpath may be joining Jubilee in the pages of X-Men.

UPDATE (8/31/2011): Some of Team Wolverine is emerging (we first saw this at Bleeding Cool) as a handful of additional characters from each team have been revealed. I prefer this approach to revealing single panels/teams all at once. Deadpool remaining in Uncanny X-Force is no surprise, but Iceman will in fact be part of Wolverine and the X-Men. It’s also great to see that Shatterstar, Layla Miller and Wolfsbane will be joining Havok in X-Factor.

UPDATE (9/1/2011): Today brings a similar set of revelations for Team Cyclops. The inclusion of Magik and the Colossal Juggernaut on Gillen’s Uncanny X-Men makes a lot of sense given the attention he’s giving them in his Fear Itself tie-in issues. I had thought the energy coming off of Illyana’s Soulsword might be a weapon Namor was holding when the image was blacked out, but it looks like he’s not part of that group. Existing members of Generation Hope (Velocidad and Hope Summers) and New Mutants (Sunspot and Warlock) were revealed as expected, but we also see that Storm will be a part of the team in X-Men. The recent Prelude to Schism had me thinking she’d be siding with Wolverine, but I found much of that series misleading. The big surprise is now that Warpath has been revealed on the X-Men #20 cover, it really looks like Psylocke is standing in front of him. Not sure what that means since she appears to be on the Uncanny X-Force cover as part of Wolverine’s “gold” team as well.

UPDATE (9/2/2011): Things swing back to “Team Wolverine” today with another crop of characters revealed. There are some surprises here and a little bit of sneaky character placement. With all of those shadows, Kitty Pryde, Lockheed and Toad on the cover to Wolverine and the X-Men were completely obscured to my eye. Toad’s inclusion as an X-Man is interesting and this certainly seems more official than his role in X-Men Forever (the 2001 version by Fabian Nicieza and Kevin Maguire that tried to capture the same magic as Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco’s Avengers Forever, not the Chris Claremont alternate X-history title of the same name). I’m expecting great things from Chris Bachalo’s Toad and Lockheed, and taking a closer look at the cover it looks like Beast could be returning to the X-Men in that title as well. Gambit and Frenzy’s inclusion in X-Men: Legacy is fully expected as Mike Carey has been using them for some time, but the only guess I can hazard as to who the shadow behind Rogue is Rachel Summers. She’s part of the current “Five Miles South of the Universe” arc, but the design here is by no means a match. Finally, there’s more good news for X-Factor as Rictor and Monet St. Croix are confirmed here. It should have been clear that there was someone else behind Layla Miller after she was revealed on Wednesday, but this is simply an overwhelming number of characters. It wouldn’t surprise me if Longshot, Darwin and three Madroxes were all packed in there in front of Strong Guy.

UPDATE (9/6/2011): After the Labor Day weekend, Marvel is back with its latest revelations for Cyclops’ “blue” team. Primal and Transonic will continue to be a part of Generation Hope and a well armed Dani Moonstar will remain with the New Mutants as expected. The surprises begin with Danger being upgraded from warden and formally included as a team member in Uncanny X-Men, and Psylocke being featured on the cover to X-Men #20. Now it just remains to be seen if that is indeed her on the cover to Uncanny Force #19 as well, and what that means should she be a member of both Cyclops’ and Wolverine’s X-Men teams. Is she a double agent? Or is she still willing to work in secret with Wolverine’s X-Force while her true loyalties lie with Cyclops?

UPDATE (9/7/2011): The story with Psylocke gets more interesting as we see that she is indeed still a part of the cast of Uncanny X-Force. Obviously appearing on the teaser images as part of both Cyclops’ and Wolverine’s X-Men squads following X-Men: Schism raises a lot of questions and I’m very interested to see how that will play out. It could be the simple answer that she’s a spy or there could be more complexity to this split than we realize. Perhaps equally shocking in today’s revelation is the appearance of Quentin Quire as part of Wolverine and the X-Men. Quire has been a factor in the events of Schism driving a wedge between Cyclops and Wolverine and his presence here is unexpected. Last we saw, Wolverine wanted him turned over to the Avengers for his actions and Cyclops offered him asylum on Utopia going so far as to lie about his whereabouts. Very interesting. Also interesting is the reveal of Beast as part of Wolverine’s team in his new title. From the look of it, I’d say it’s the Dark Beast from the Age of Apocalypse based on his physiology (hands instead of paws mainly) and the weapons, but that could be artistic license on Nick Bradshaw’s part. He’s certainly stylized other characters in this image. Finally, we get confirmation that Strong Guy and Banshee (Siryn) are remaining with X-Factor. As expected, there’s a crowd there in front of Strong Guy. I see a trench coat on the left, a funny haircut in the middle and a hood and cloak on the right. I’m going with Madrox, Longshot and Polaris respectively.

UPDATE (9/8/2011): The final roster of Cyclops’ “Blue” team was revealed today and Cyclops himself was among the final characters shown. Cyclops will continue as a fixture in Kieron Gillen’s Uncanny X-Men along with Magneto who was also revealed today. Domino makes a return as regular cast member of Victor Gischler’s X-Men. She’ll once again stand side by side with former X-Force teammate Warpath, neither have appeared much since the previous volume of that series ended in 2010 outside of brief appearances in Age of X. Not surprisingly, Zero rounds out the cast of Generation Hope and current team members Magma, and Cypher will continue to appear in the pages of New Mutants. Expect the final roster of Wolverine’s X-Men squad to be announced tomorrow.

UPDATE (9/9/2011): As expected, the final roster of Wolverine’s “Gold” team was unveiled today and most of the guesses posted after the last update were spot on. Fanotmex continues as a member of Rick Remender’s Uncanny X-Force, Idie Okonkwo (Oya) from Generation Hope will move to Jason Aaron’s Wolverine and the X-Men following the events of X-Men: Schism, and Rachel Summers will remain a focal point of Mike Carey’s X-Men: Legacy following her reintroduction in the current “Five Miles South of the Universe” arc. These three characters were revealed along with three additional characters from Peter David’s X-Factor: Madrox, Longshot, and Polaris. The three were hidden in front of Strong Guy until earlier this week and I’m glad to see X-Factor is remaining mostly intact with the addition of Havok and Polaris. They really couldn’t be in better hands.