"I always thought that Superman should just fall in love with the wrong woman once; that’s how I feel about Scott. And how difficult and unseemly, and yet kind of potentially beautiful that relationship is, fascinates me."

I can't help but be reminded of Spuffy...or I suppose Wesley and Lilah (Weslah? Doesn't really work does it...)

forcorreo | April 28, 13:44 CET

"Weslah? Doesn't really work does it..."

Works better than Liley, hehe

Kaine | April 28, 15:26 CET

As long as he doesn't write Kitty Pryde to be exactly like Willow, I will be fine.

Oh, and as long as he sticks to his deadlines, unlike other famous people writing comic books I could mention...

PMMJ | April 28, 17:30 CET

Jeez, I'm so out of the loop -- Scott with the White Queen? Wow.

brother_grady | April 28, 18:13 CET

Scott and Emma started a sort of psychic affair. Jean found out and freaked, then she did that dying thing she does from time to time.

Tycho | April 28, 18:30 CET

Freakin' Whedon is gonna get me hooked on comics again.

brother_grady | April 28, 20:47 CET

Yeah I was getting less interested in Morrisson's run lately anyway. This should be a nice fresh wind. Also funny how Joss always only refers to the artists of comics. Others have noted that too and he always says he could remember artists better than writers. Frank Miller drew that Wolverine series(And I agree, it is a classic) but Chris Claremont wrote it.

And most of us could remember artists better, especially then, but it always strikes me as interesting seeing how Joss himself became a writer but still mostly associates series with their art.

EdDantes | April 28, 21:32 CET

And most of us could remember artists better, especially then, but it always strikes me as interesting seeing how Joss himself became a writer but still mostly associates series with their art.

Maybe because he's a visual person, really, and he just writes out of the need to get the pictures from his mind into the real world? (I base this on the fact that he writes for TV, films and comics -- all visual media -- rather than simply authoring books of his stories.)

I'm a visual artist who also writes, and part of why I write is for the same reason; sometimes, you can't physically create what you imagine any other way than through words. You'll go to whatever medium you're most facile in first, but when that fails you'll use whatever avenues are at your disposal to get the idea out. (In Joss's case, he's gifted both as a visualizer and as a writer. However, I would argue that he's very slightly better as the former.)

I think the exciting thing for Joss is to actually see the stuff he thinks about. The trouble is, until he puts it on paper, no one else can help him make it happen. Kind of necessitates writing by default....

I'm looking forward to his spin on the X-Men characters. I only hope 'Serenity' and the new series he's rumored to be working on don't create deadline issues for the comics.

Wiseblood | April 28, 22:00 CET

Ive been keeping up with the X-Titles pretty well lately and I was thinking about making a RECENTLY webpage to explain to all the Whedon-philes whats been going on in the universe. Of course I cant self-link on this site, so I'll probably just do it on a comment thread.

Chirp | April 28, 23:26 CET

See this why I only read the Ultimate X-Men title, too much backstory in the X-Men universe(ok I read Morrison's take as well but that was only what to see he could do). I don't have a clue who Bishop or Cable are for example.

Simon | April 28, 23:38 CET

Bishop is a mutant from the future whose timeline was rendered moot by the Days of Future Past storyline. He came back to the prime universe to warn the X-Men of a betrayal from within. It ended up being Xavier, whose mind coupled with Magneto's formed Onslaught. The "M" over his eye means mutant. He also was the only person from the prime universe in the Age of Apocalypse storyline.
Cable (Nathan Dayspring Summers) is the future son of Jean Grey and Scott Summers. Apocalypse infected him at birth with a tecno-organic virus that Cable has to constantly keep in check with his ludicrously kick ass psi-skill. Although he has recently shed the virus. He came back in time just for kicks. He's got his own book, but he also is the sometimes-leader of X-Force, and helped Xavier build a lot of the technology in the Westchester Mansion.

Chirp | April 29, 00:25 CET

"As long as he doesn't write Kitty Pryde to be exactly like Willow, I will be fine."

Who is Kitty Pryde, why would she be like Willow? I remember Joss stating once that Kitty Pryde was to some degree an inspiration for Buffy, (that is the character, not the TV show)- something about her spirit and being a comic-book girl worthy of his fantasies or something. But I keep seeing people compare her to Willow, and, knowing next to nothing about the character, I'm curious why?

forcorreo | April 29, 00:32 CET

"Works better than Liley, hehe"

Yeah I'd thought of that- looks to much like Riley.

forcorreo | April 29, 00:33 CET

Thank you for that Chirp, much appreciated :).

Simon | April 29, 00:35 CET

"Who is Kitty Pryde, why would she be like Willow"

Well, Kitty as she used to be, was this cute, bookish pretty-but-not-glamorously-sexy brainy girl that slowly learned to get by in the scary world of X-Men 'capers' and that everyone was really fond of.

I personally would say she resembles Fred more, but she's really not like any of them. The cute smart girl everyone loves in his/her own way is a recurring thing for Joss (Willow on BtVS, Fred on AtS, Kaylee on Firefly...) But even though there are a general 'type' traits they share, they all differ from each other as much as from Kitty.

As Joss said, she was an inspiration.

As for Ultimate X-Men, just wait a while, because they're building up their own continuity as they go along. Every series does. And frankly, did that get any better? I gave the first trade a try, and apart from it retelling stories I didn't need to see retold.....eegad! There were some of the most cringe-worthy scenes and lines in there that I've read in any comic.

EdDantes | April 29, 01:43 CET

I don't know anything about The X-Men beyond what I've seen in the films, which I didn't especially enjoy. But will I be buying these issues as soon as they come out? Oh yes. Anything that Joss does is definitely worth a look. Is there a release date for issue #1 yet?

MindPieces | April 29, 01:44 CET

Issue One comes out May 26. The extended edition of #1 comes out in late June.

Invisible Green | April 29, 02:14 CET

Cable (Nathan Dayspring Summers) is the future son of Jean Grey and Scott Summers.

Kinda true, since Jean and Scott did travel to the future during their honeymoon, courtesy of Rachel Summers (their child from the Days of Future Past timeline, now in regular continuity) and raised Cable. But Cable is technically Madelyn Pryor's son. But since Pryor is Jean's clone, then genetically Cable could also be considered Jean's son. Anyway, when I got lost after not reading X-Books for many years, I found this fan site that has really good bios, issue summaries, and so forth. This might help answer some of the many questions people just getting in to this are bound to have.

And in other news, the first five pages of Astonishing was in today's Wizard, as promised. And yes, it's going to be worth the money (for either the issue of Wizard or the actual comic).

syrcharles | April 29, 02:28 CET

i use to read xmen comics, but grew out a long time ago..........around the end of my experience was when they did the thing with xavier dying, and changing the world to a horrible place with apocolypse ruling and magneto running the xmen. i liked that series (still have all of the issues from the whole thing, including the cool first issues with the nice reflective covers). i stopped shortly after that, just never found time to read them anymore. i liked the punisher as well.

norman | April 29, 03:55 CET

You're absolutely right, syrcharles. I took a nap after writing my post and cringed when I realized I was wrong. Madelyne Pryor (aka the Goblin Queen WTF) was cloned by someone (Sinister?) to mess with Scott Summers/Cyclops after Jean's death. Jean had been possessed by a bad ass cosmic force called the Phoenix, which essentially took over her body for evil. Jean/Phoenix almost destroyed the world, but then saved it by summoning the last remnants of Jean's personality. Scott married his ex-girlfriend's clone soon thereafter. They had a kid. Jean has recently summoned again the Phoenix force. She and Wolverine died out in space (a nice move by Magneto, who was operating incognito as this Chinese healer named Xian). Wolverine killed her to save her from suffering, and then she became the Phoenix (there's a whole resurrection riff here that gets repeated). Anyway, like 4 or 5 months ago, Magneto killed Jean good and dead with a massive stroke he caused. Then, in a ploy to become a martyr, Magneto had Wolverine cut off his head.

Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat) is from the second generation of X-Men. THe first gen was Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, Angel, and Jean Grey. Her power is PHASING, which means she can walk through walls. She is mentioned in X-Men 2 ("I know a little girl who can walk through walls"). Anyway, she had been the youngest member of the team for a long while, and appropriately mousey. She's infinitely beneficent. After some sort of graduation thing, she ran with the New Mutants (under the aegis of Magneto) for a while, and then with Excalibur (think X-Men: England), and about 2 or 3 years ago she retired to go back to school and live a somewhat more normal life. I remember she wrote Xavier a letter and then Xavier deleted her file off his computer. Anyway, everyone everywhere loves Kitty. Especially the rock band Weezer ("In the Garage"). SHe's the ultimate little sister who is overprotected and then comes out of nowhere to kick ass and save the day. Whedonesque feminism.

I'm sure all this will be addressed in Astonishing X-Men.

Hope this helps.

Chirp | April 29, 04:16 CET

wow, magneto got his head cut off by wolverine.....i have missed some serious storyline since my day.

norman | April 29, 05:05 CET

Yeah well, hardly the first time he got killed. And hardly the first time he was portrayed like a raving loon instead of a complex character with depth either. I had expected more of that arc.

EdDantes | April 29, 09:48 CET