“I’ll Be Honest, I Was Kind of Scandalized”: Marvel’s X-Men Writers Worried Avengers Would Ruin 2 of Their Heroes

There was once a concern from X-Men’s writers that two key heroes would be ruined by the Avengers. The on-panel feud between the X-Men and The Avengers that spawned its own heartbreaking Marvel event has been well documented. However, one feud that some fans may not know about is that between the writers of X-Men and the writers of Avengers.

In an interview with AIPT Comics, X-Men editor Jordan D. White discusses the Fall of the House of X. White expresses the concerns writers had when they wanted to use Firestar and Justice during the Krakoan era, but worried if how they were being used in the Avengers creatively may affect how they’re viewed in the X-Men books.

This article seeks to focus on breaking down White’s words bit by bit to get to the root of the writers’ concerns, if they were valid, and on the complicated nature of characters being used in different books where they are depicted differently each time.

Who are Justice and Firestar?

Understanding the Mutants That the X-Men Books Forgot

To better understand the characters at the center of Jordan D. White’s interview, readers must first understand who Justice and Firestar are. Firestar may be the more familiar of the two, having debuted onscreen as part of the cast of the popular Saturday morning cartoon, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. She first appeared in the show’s 1981 premiere episode before being officially introduced into Marvel canon in 1985’s Uncanny X-Men #193. Firestar is a mutant with the power to produce flames that are the equivalent of microwave radiation.

Angelica Jones has made her mark in teams like Avengers, X-Men, and the New Warriors. In the latter, she spent significant time with Vance Astrovik, a.k.a. Justice, another mutant with the power of telekinesis. Justice is a staple of the New Warriors and has been a member of the Avengers as well. Yet, he doesn’t have much of a relationship with the X-Men, despite his mutant status. Meanwhile, Firestar was recently tasked to work undercover within Orchis as a mole, feeding information to the X-Men and becoming their most trusted member.

Some Writers Were Reluctant to Use the Two Heroes

At the time the interview dropped, Fall of the House of X #3 had just been released. As such, much of the interview is geared toward talking about the end of Krakoa as home to the X-Men and the end of the Krakoan era of X-Men as a whole. In pointing out how Firestar played a role in the brutal murder of Dr. Stasis in that issue, AIPT wanted to touch on Firestar’s journey during the Krakoan era, namely going from an Avenger who X-fans (and Gerry Duggan) called a cop, to a heroic sleeper agent. This was White’s response:

…But I had hoped to use her and I had hoped to use Justice as well, because they both are interesting mutant characters. So when we did House of X, I was very much like, “Oh yeah, let’s get both of them on Krakoa.” But none of the writers gravitated toward using them, so they just didn’t get picked for the teams. So they sulked back off to the U.S. No, that’s not true, obviously, but because they just never got picked, we never quite used them. I think maybe Firestar appeared in the background of a scene one time in a group shot or something like that.

This would explain why Justice doesn’t seem to appear at all during the X-books during the Krakoan age, despite his mutanthood. Justice was always one of the few mutants in the Marvel Universe to be fairly distanced from Krakoa. Most readers would assume that it was his New Warriors duties keeping him busy, but there was a creative disinterest in using him that kept him away. Meanwhile, despite how much of an active presence and large role that Firestar holds during the final year of Krakoa, she’s more or less a background character in the Krakoa storylines that precede the “Fall of X” arc.

Marvel Wanted to Keep Firestar and Justice Busy Elsewhere

The Revamped New Warriors Series and “Outlawed” Kept Them Away from Krakoa

As important as it is to talk about Krakoa’s final era, it’s just as important to discuss a different event entirely: Marvel’s “Outlawed” storyline. “Outlawed” was a comic event where teen heroes were literally outlawed. Because of a sacrifice made by Kamala Khan, the government was encouraged to put into law – aptly named Kamala’s Law – that superheroes needed to be 21 or older. It was a storyline that demanded the presence of all the New Warriors, including Justice and Firestar. According to White, that was another cause for tension between the writers.

So, because we never used them, when Marvel started cooking the “Outlawed” story, they wanted the New Warriors to be a big part of it. The Avengers Office decided to use all the New Warriors, including Vance and Angie for that. And I’ll be honest with you, I was kind of scandalized by it, not because I thought those were my characters, but because they positioned both of them against vigilante heroes, I think making them really come off badly a bit, in the sense that it was trying to duplicate a little bit of the debate in things like
Civil War
.

But even with
Civil War
, pretty much all the readers came down on Captain America’s side, right? And I think something similar happened here. The way that I like to phrase it for why that is, is that most readers are not going to side with the side that thinks the comic they’re reading shouldn’t happen. They want to read the comic. So if the other side is saying, “No comic,” they’re going to go, “Well, I like the version where I
do
get to read the comic.” So the fact that the readers all sided against them was really sad for them.

It appears thatMarvel needed Justice and Firestar to be a part of the “Outlawed” storyline, as well as the New Warriors series. Because of this, the duo couldn’t be featured in any other books or storylines, including X-Men books. This further prolonged their distance from the rest of the mutants on Krakoa. As White discusses, this is when things became a point of frustration for the X-Men editor, namely because of the duo’s depiction. It’s not just that their presence in “Outlawed” or New Warriors might clash with any plans that White and co. might have had for them. “Outlawed” painted the two in a light that made it difficult to root for them.

The Complexities of Different Comics Using the Same Heroes

A Character’s Presence in One Comic May Prevent Them from Appearing in Another

Firestar and Justice being featured in the rebranded New Warriors series, on top of having a presence in the “Outlawed” storyline, stilted their push to Krakoa. But conflicting plans between different comics and different creative teams is nothing new. It’s not a Marvel problem, it’s a comic book industry-wide problem that many creative teams have dealt with. Take DC Comics, for example. Superman starred in four separate series in the 1990s, but the Death of Superman event temporarily halted production on every other Superman title released congruently at the time.

More recently, in some cases at least, creative teams are given more free-range to ignore overarching storylines without sacrificing their material. It’s why Batman can continue his Dynamic Duo adventures in Joshua Williamson’s Batman and Robin while he’s still held captive by Failsafe in his main title series. However, White speaks to how it remains an ongoing issue. A character’s presence in one book not only prolongs potential plans elsewhere, but it can destroy plans completely if higher powers are adamant about certain characters not being used elsewhere.

How X-Men Saves Firestar’s Reputation

“Fall of X” Gave Her New Life

While Justice wasn’t fortunate enough to be featured prominently during the “Fall of X” arc (although he is featured briefly as an Orchis target), the storyline happily re-branded Firestar as a fan-favorite hero. Whatever damage that White was worried that “Outlawed” and the revamped New Warriors series had done to Firestar, it was effectively undone by the time “Fall of X” was over. In that same vein, White also talks about how, rather than ignore the last time readers saw her, X’s creative staff opted to bring it up and make it an “interesting” part of her character.

And so when the idea came up of her being in the second X-Men Election, we all immediately did bring up that the last time we saw her, she was anti-superhero in some ways. So that whole cop thing came up and I think it was interesting. But I think if you look at
Fall of the House of X
, it’s also interesting that all three of the election winners are important. Firestar both for helping tip them off to what’s going on in Orchis at the beginning of the series and then here she shows up, they save her, and she kills Stasis. He’s already dead, but she double-kills him. She kills him better. [Laughs]

The X-books proceeded to lean into Firestar’s “cop” reputation and make it a facet of her character that even she is trying to undo, especially as she tries to be a mole for the X-Men, while some of the X-Men aren’t even aware she’s a mole. It’s practically a self-aware means of storytelling in retrospect, one that pays off. Readers watch as she helps save the X-Men during a dire time in significant ways throughout her journey, repairing her reputation with fans and within the Marvel Universe because it’s so easy to be endeared by a hero trying to do the right thing.

Source: AIPT Comics