Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Marvel Comics, X-Men | Tagged: fall of x, jonathan hickman, krakoa

Jonathan Hickman's Namor, Franklin, Sam & Bobby Plans We Never Got

Jonathan Hickman's Krakoan Age of the X-Men is coming to an end, and it seemed to be one that happened quite abruptly,

Published Mon, 13 May 2024 11:28:08 -0500

Article Summary

Jonathan Hickman's plans for Namor in X-Men were sidelined due to Avengers plot conflicts.
Franklin Richards' Fantastic Four status overrode Hickman's mutant story arc for him.
Hickman's intended New Mutants storyline with Sam and Bobby conflicted with sales priorities.
A foreshadowed cover of Powers of X #6 hints at an unrealized story phase in Hickman's saga.

Jonathan Hickman's Krakoan Age of the X-Men is coming to an end, and it seemed to be one that happened quite abruptly, as the X-Men keys are handed off from editor Jordan D White to Tom Brevoort. But Tom has already had his hands over parts of it, it seems, as Jordan and other X-Men writers talk about the Krakoan age to AIPT, what worked, what didn't, and what they never got around to.

Why was Namor not a bigger thing after being set up big time in House Of X? Jordan clarified, "there were plans to use him — that's why Jonathan set things up. He fully intended to use him in probably a few different places. But that's the risk of trying to do things with characters that aren't yours — by which I mean, not under our editorial purview. Namor is a character who was part of the Brevoort office as part of the Avengers. They had plans with him that they started doing that prevented him from showing up in our books."

And what about Franklin Richards? "That's a character that Jonathan has spent a lot of time thinking about and caring about…. Mister Sinister was talking about the fact that Franklin is the one omega-level mutant he doesn't have the DNA of yet and how he wants it. So, 1 million percent. But again, as much as we wanted to use him because he's a mutant, he's clearly a Fantastic Four character. And they made the decision that I — sorry, guys, do not agree with — to make him not a mutant. And he's their character to do that with. And that's the direction they went. And as a result, he was not on the table for us anymore."

And the Shi'Ar involvement in the Krakoan story, including the New Mutants run that set it up with Sam Ruthgie and Robert Da Costa written by Hickman? "That was a book Jonathan was going to do that he was really excited about. Because it was the Sam and Bobby book. So for him, personally, that is the one he would've loved the most. It just wouldn't be the one that would sell the most, so it wasn't a top priority… the idea was Roberto, not necessarily becoming the actual emperor of the Shi'ar, but at the very least, becoming the lover of the acting empress, Deathbird. That would've been his primary book, where he and Sam would have space adventures. It would've been such a joyful book because Jonathan really does love those characters. So it is a bummer to me that Jonathan came and created this whole era and didn't get to do the thing that he would've enjoyed the most."

Here's the Powers Of X #6 foreshadowing cover that never came to fruition. As to what Jonathan Hickman's Phase Two would have been, or what was really going on with the throuple, well AIPT will be doing a Part Two.

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