interview by Mike Collins

For people who haven't kept up with your run on X-Men so far, can you give a quick synopsis of how we got to the opening of issue #200?

Oh man, where do I start?

Rogue got really sick fighting Pandemic. He infected her with a virus that makes her touch instantly fatal to any living thing. Then she absorbed eight billion alien minds in order to defeat a Shi'ar death machine called the Hecatomb. So now she's not just sick but losing her mind, too. Defeating the Hecatomb also caused the destruction of a large part of Cable's island home, Providence, and Cable has ongoing problems arising out of that, but the main crisis facing the group is Rogue's progressive deterioration.

Going further back, the mutant race, homo superior, is facing extinction because Wanda Maximoff altered reality so that most living mutants lost their powers and no new mutants could be born. Exodus, the ex-leader of the Acolytes, and Mister Sinister, both seem to have taken it into their heads to do something about that.

Oh, and Mystique has been coming on to Iceman something fierce. They even shared a kiss. I mean, a kiss that wasn't primarily about cardio-pulmonary resuscitation.

We open with a prologue in the French Quarter where a new character makes his debut wreaking havoc in an elevator. Who is this mystery man and why does he hate clowns?

You should recognise that guy. He's a Marauder, and not new at all. The long, white hair might be a clue...

Rogue is certainly a little worse for wear when this issue starts. How much damage has she undertaken between her run ins with Pandemic and Hecatomb?

I think she's in a worse state than we've ever seen her in, although you could draw parallels with the Claremont storyline in which the personalities she'd absorbed started to wake up inside her. This is like that, only on such a titanic scale that her own mind is being washed away in the flood. And she can't reach out for help: she has to be rigidly on her guard against even the most fleeting skin contact with a fellow X-Man. It's as close to Hell as you can get, in many ways.

Some fans are going to go wild with the developments in the relationship between Bobby Drake and Raven Darkholm. You've been planting the seeds for a while. Are you happy with how their relationship has played out?

It's... not played out yet. There are some major beats still to come, in #201 and then in #203. But yeah, I'm happy. I know that there have been some dark mutterings from certain quarters about the whole thing lacking credibility. Looking back, I think every last beat makes perfect sense.

What makes *less* sense, on the surface, is how Mystique behaves towards Rogue in this issue. There is, or there seems to be, a huge and insane contradiction. Again, I'd just say wait and see and all will eventually unfold.

Another very interesting interlude features the return of two Marauders, Vertigo and Scalphunter. Is it safe to infer that someone is in some trouble?

A whole bunch of someones. And part of the point of this story arc is figuring out who and why. This isn't about revenge. It's something subtler, more insidious, and ultimately much, much bigger.

Another moment sure to please many fans is the long awaited return of Gambit, and in his previous form no less. What can you say about Gambit's current allegiances and what it is he is seeking?

I'd prefer to let readers draw their own conclusions here. As we know, Gambit has a long and complex and largely tragic history with Mister Sinister. But yeah, here he is. We know Apocalypse's machines changed Remy a lot. We also know that Sunfire came up with a rationale for them both seeking out Mister Sinister, and that Remy accepted it.

Beyond that... read the story. And don't stop until you get to X-Men #207. THEN we'll talk.

Cable is another character from your squad being put through the wringer. Between Hecatomb's rampage through Providence and what Gambit and Sunfire do to him, Nathan is looking to be in pretty bad shape. How much of a role will Nathan play in this arc as well as Messiah Complex?

Well, I think #200 provides a pretty resonant answer to that question, so I'll just say this: Fabian Nicieza has forgiven me. Kind of.

We took Cable back to an earlier stage in his life, in a way - took him from his statesman role back to the gun-toting mercenary. And we played out the cost of that decision both in the X-Men and (much more) in Cable and Deadpool. There was really only one way that was going to end.

Moving back to Mississippi, all hell breaks loose. You have not one, not two, but three of your current roster be revealed as Marauders. Did you know all along who were going to turn out to be working for the other side?

We knew two of the three all along. The third we argued back and forth, but in the end we decided that she made the most sense as the new host for Malice. It's funny, because everyone was waiting for her to become a threat to the X-Men for a completely different reason, and now... BLAM!

This part of the planning was a lot of fun, in a dark way. With one of the three, in particular, we get a retrospective explanation for a lot of stuff that people read - - and were meant to read - - differently. I can remember really enjoying the moments in Chris Claremont's first X-Men run when he did that kind of stuff - set things up ages in advance and then did the killer reveal just when you'd forgotten all the build-up. Like when the X-Men's fight with Magneto on Muir Island freed Proteus from his cell...

The last scene in the issue is a doozy. Mystique revealed as a traitor after shooting Rogue point blank in the chest. How much fun was that one to write?

Oh. [laughs] I thought we were being coy about the actual details. Is there going to be a spoiler warning on this?

No, it wasn't fun. It actually kind of hurt. It's weird. You get protective about certain characters, even while you're heaping all kinds of inconceivable misery on their heads. I know how the story ends, and I know both the causes and the outcomes of everything that happens, but still... you know...

I remember once reading a review of a Macbeth production. The reviewer said it was the best Macbeth he'd ever seen, and when the actor playing Macbeth said "We will proceed no further in this matter" he actually BELIEVED it - even though, obviously, the play is written a certain way and we know that he does proceed. He does kill Duncan.

In the same way, there are certain dramatic moments that still hurt you when you read them, even if you know that things won't stay that bleak, that dark. Phoenix's first death, say - the real one. Rogue leaving Gambit in the snow. That kind of thing.

But the rest of the issue... oh, that was fun.

Mike Carey discusses the start of his X-Men run.

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