War of Kings News Round-up for 01/16/09

War of Kings writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (DnA) are once again on the interview circuit, and there were several WoK related interviews this week, along with preview art from War of Kings.

In an interview with IGN, DnA talk about how the X-Jammers will get involved in WoK and reveal that they will be in the Guardians of the Galaxy WoK issues:

IGN Comics: While we're on the subject of tie-ins, I wanted to ask about the Starjammers' involvement. Principally this storyline seems to be a dispute between the Shi'ar and the Inhumans. How will Havok's team be involved, particularly once the Kingbreaker mini-series wraps up?

DnA: They're involved in a major way. Polaris's family ties to the Inhuman Royal Family will carry them into the fight, and their involvement will play out through the main series and through the Guardians issues.

IGN also has several pages of preview art (pencils only) from War of Kings #1, including a page that includes Rachel in one panel and the cover for War of Kings #2.


DnA were in the X-Position hotseat this week, and the Starjammers and Rachel were mentioned:

1) Will the Starjammers interact with any of the cosmic crew? Getting Ch'od and Rocket in the same room just sounds golden.

DnA: The Starjammers and Guardians of the Galaxy will be undertaking a mission together so the chances of some fur flying are high!


2) Any possibility of Rachel Summers staying in space and joining the Guardians? The Phoenix Force has always felt like it belongs more in the cosmic books than the X-books, and it would certainly lend them some valuable power. And let’s face it, the team could use more women.

DnA: We're going to talk to editor Nick Lowe about that right now!


1) As a huge fan of the Starjammers (particularly Polaris), I, like many other fans of these characters, are excited and grateful to know that after nearly three years, the Shi'ar storyline is finally heading towards its big ending with “X-Men: Kingbreaker” and “War of Kings.” However, it's unclear to us what kind of role the Starjammers will play in the event. Will they have more of a main role, or will they be supporting characters?

They are definitely front and center and play a significant role in the course of the story.

War of Kings editor Bill Rosemann filled in for Joe Quesada in My Cup o' Joe on Myspace.

JM: War of Kings is another book on your plate. Whereas I think it’s clear this doesn’t hit the marquee value of a Secret Invasion or World War Hulk, this is a pivot point in the Marvel Universe, right?

BR: Definitely. The very cool thing about this is that our bosses basically said, “Hey, you know these Shi’Ar toys in the Marvel toybox? You wanna play with these?” And we said, “Yeah! Would love to! That’s cool!”

So we took two expanding empires—the Kree and the Shi’Ar—heading toward each other, with the central notion of “What happens when these two huge kingdoms collide?” I would say it is as big as Secret Invasion to the Marvel cosmic junkies—this is our Super Bowl. But War of Kings also has a lot of appeal to fans of the Marvel Universe period. X-fan who like the Shi’Ar? They’re here. Fans of the Inhumans? We have them. You’ll see characters like Blastaar, Darkhawk and others pop up. So there will be some great opportunities for people who haven’t sampled the cosmic books to check this out. We’re treating it as a big tentpole event.

And when Dan and Andy sat down with Joe Quesada and Tom Brevoort and all, we decided that we would only tell this story if it legitimately changed the Marvel Universe. It’s gotta move things forward. And Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning absolutely wanted to do that. They have a very clear vision of where they see the Marvel cosmic universe going, and how it will affect the “mainstream” Marvel heroes. And here we are.

It also included the same War of Kings preview art IGN has.


In addition, War of Kings Saga is now online for free at Marvel Digital and Marvel has updated the War of Kings official site with new graphics.

X-Men Kingbreaker #2 Preview

CBR has posted a seven page preview for X-Men: Kingbreaker #2. Rachel appears in the seventh page, which the unletter version was included in the Chris Yost X-Position a few weeks ago.

Interestingly, on the recap page, Rachel is called Rachel Summers. I think this is the first time she's been called that in an X-book in since Uncanny X-Men 472.

1/7/09 Comics Updates

Today there were several Rachel related comics out today.

Rachel continues to be a character in the back-up story, The Sentinels, in X-Men Noir #2.

Rachel does not appear in Secret Invasion: War of Kings. The issue is mainly about the Inhumans and Skrulls, and Vulcan only appears in a few pages at the very end. The Starjammers are not in the issue nor mentioned.

Rachel and the Starjammers are in the War of Kings Saga, a free comic that recaps the major comics that lead into War of Kings. There is no new material in the comic, and it's funny how Marvel avoids saying Rachel Summers or Grey by calling Rachel only Marvel Girl throughout the whole issue.

If you didn't get WoK Saga at your local comic store, it likely will be put online for free prior to the start of the event.

Also, Rachel's "niece", the Messiah Baby/Child, received a name in Cable #10.


War of Kings writers Andy Lanning and Dan Abnett will be answering questions on X-Position next week. Check the bottom of this page for how to submit questions.