Is BUFFY's creator going to write Marvel's X-Men?

By Patrick Sauriol     December 31, 2003
Source: All the Rage

There's been a rumor going around the comic book gossip columns about a high-profile writer set to take over the writing duties of Marvel's NEW X-MEN series. Acclaimed comic book scribe Grant Morrison (JLA, ANIMAL MAN, ARKHAM ASYLUM) has been writing the adventures of this X-Men book for two years and his final storyline is about to begin shortly in the series. Morrison's run on the series has introduced new villains, seen the "outing" of Professor Xavier's school for mutants to the general public, born witness to the murder of 16 million mutants and the revelation that homo sapiens will be replaced in a few generations by mutants. So who do you get to follow-up on that?

According to All the Rage, the new writer on NEW X-MEN will be no other than BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER creator Joss Whedon. Whedon's collaborator on the book will be PLANETARY artist John Cassaday.

All the Rage reports that, even though this news is supposedly "the worst kept secret in comics", Marvel doesn't want it to leak out fearing that their deal with Whedon would invite the wrath of Hollywood studios as it supposedly "forbids him" to write this kind of thing. That's a hard statement to believe considering that Whedon's been writing books for Dark Horse Comics for a number of years now, and that other Hollywood producers and screenwriters have launched their own successful secondary careers as ongoing writers for established and high-profile superheroes. For example, BABYLON 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski has been the regular writer of Marvel's AMAZING SPIDER-MAN for nearly three years now, and he's still working on Hollywood projects.

For now it's just a rumor, but one that if turns out to be true, could elevate the buzz level on NEW X-MEN considerably.


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