Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Marvel Comics, X-Men | Tagged: imperial, jonathan hickman

How Jonathan Hickman's Imperial Ties In With Krakoa And Current X-Men

How Jonathan Hickman's Imperial ties in with Krakoa and current X-Men (Spoilers of course)

Spoilers! Spoilers! Spoilers! Spoilers! Spoilers!  Imperial by Jonathan Hickman, Iban Coello and Federico Vicentini has been teased for some time. At ComicsPRO, Marvel's David Gabriel stated that we have to think of this as a combination of what Jonathan Hickman did on "House of X, Powers of X, and Ultimate Spider-Man" but to the Marvel Cosmic Universe. Well, it may be a bit more literal than we first thought.

Once upon a time, Jonathan Hickman talked of his unmade projects… Imperial Guard – "I was going to do an Imperial Guard book with Bobby and Sam, and it was going to be them on the other side of all of that technology stuff in the Shi'Ar, and the Imperial Guard and Star Jammers would have been part of it, I'm sure. But it would have been a big space book seeding all of that for when we eventually obviously we're going to crash it all together. But it was going to seed all of that in a way, in a pretty intense way, so I'm bummed about that. I clearly set them up to do all of that when I did those four issues of New Mutants, that was clearly where we were going to go with all of that. I have a couple of things that I really was looking forward to doing that I'm just not going to get to do, but they're in great hands."

Instead, we are getting something different, and it ties into the current non-Jonathan Hickman line far more than I thought would be possible. In Uncanny X-Men #11. Xandra, daughter of Lilandra and Charles Xavier called for help.

And Daddy came calling.

In X-Factor #8, Professor X tracked down a Krakoan Resurrection egg that had remained unhatched.

As teased in Marvel Comics' Timeslide last year…

In X-Force #9, it was revealed to be host to a revived Lilanda Empress of the Shi'Ar Empire, and former lover of Professor Xavier.

She had died back in 2009's War of the Kings, killed by Darkhawk, whose armour was controlled Summers brother Emperor Vulcan. Later, Xavier and Lilandra's daughter, Xandra, became the new Majestrix of the Shi'ar Empire. And now they are reunited in live and love, and going to get their daughter.

It may also be notable that in the Phoenix series, Gladiator has convinced the Galactic Council to hire Thanos to defeat Phoenix. And it may well be Thanos who is behind the civil war that threatens Xandra. And now we have the proof that Jonathan Hickman will be picking up this ball for Imperial. From this week's X-Manhunt Omega…

IMPERIAL #1 (OF 4)

Written by JONATHAN HICKMAN
Art by FEDERICO VICENTINI & IBAN COELLO
Cover by MARCO CHECCHETTO
On Sale 6/4
JONATHAN HICKMAN, FEDERICO VICENTINI AND IBAN COELLO TAKE ON THE UNIVERSE! IMPERIAL finds the galaxies of the Marvel Universe on the brink of major upheaval, following the elimination of several of its most prominent leaders. Nature abhors a vacuum, and empires fall, rulers are overthrown and power is seized in a saga of intrigue, mysteries and war, all taking place against the backdrop of the formation of new galactic order in the Marvel Universe. With groundbreaking developments for HULKS, BLACK PANTHERS, NOVAS, GUARDIANS and COSMIC KINGS and QUEENS, IMPERIAL lays the foundation for an entire new landscape of interconnected space-set stories, making it the must-read comic book of the summer!

"I'm very excited about this project as I'm obviously a huge fan of all things Marvel Cosmic," Hickman said. "The goal here is to kind of do what we did with the recent Ultimate line for all of our space titles, except having the setup book (IMPERIAL) be more of an event than a world building exercise (like Ultimate Invasion). The art team is killing it and we're all just very excited for what's happening in this special corner of the Marvel Universe."

"Working with Hickman is a great challenge," Vicentini shared. "I love his scripts. He writes really brilliant dialogue and puts incredible attention to details when it comes to the story's setting. I had only knew Hickman as a reader, so it was incredible to be approached to work with him and Iban, who is a phenomenal artist! I'm working hard to produce my best work, and I'm certainly having a lot of fun!"

"Being involved in this project is incredible," Coello added. "Creating all these new characters and costumes is really fun. Working with Hickman is something I never expected to be able to do, and it's both cool and intimidating at the same time because of the magnitude of what he's doing in the scripts. I look forward to being able to rise to the challenge and do a great job!"

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