"'Primary Infection' takes us back to the situation we came in on in #188 - the X-Men's raid on the John Fordyce clinic and the question of why someone is kidnapping and dissecting mutants. The trail will take them from NYC to India - and of course Karima and Lady M, who are the characters most directly affected by what was happening at the Fordyce, are very keen to be in the forefront of the action."
And just who is Pan? Is he a new character? Or an old foe (friend?) making a comeback? "He's new," Carey said. "It turns out that one of the X-Men has met him before, but it wasn't on-panel and it wouldn't have seemed significant at the time. Pan's not his whole name, by the way - just the first syllable of it."
Upcoming plans are for the "Horseman" Gambit to return post-issue #200. But first, just how does he plan to celebrate the 200th issue of the "Adjectiveless" X-Men since Chris Claremont and Jim Lee launched the title back in 1991? "Discussions are in train," he admitted. "We're thinking at the moment of having a normal-length or slightly longer than normal-length story - which will introduce some big changes for the team - along with a gallery and some very cool extra features.
Beyond that, Carey said that "The line up of the "Adjectiveless" team is going to remain fluid for a while, with at least one very major character getting the push in a significant and irrevocable way. Characters like Northstar and Aurora will almost certainly reappear, and may find a place in the team. We want to revisit Husk. We've got plans for Lila Cheney. And yes, Gambit will be revisited too: there's no way Rogue is just going to let that situation lie.
"Basically, you can expect the team to be out in unfamiliar territory, facing old and new foes alike - and you can expect some big revelations about M-Day and some fallout from M-Day that nobody saw coming."
In the meantime, Chris Bachalo is expected be back for the remaining issues of "Supernovas" and then Humberto Ramos coming in for a three-issue fill-in with "Primary Infection". Just who does Ramos look forward to drawing the most? "Mystique," he said. "Why? You saw that bunch of movies, right?" |