Attention, Marvel Mutant fans – we are about to enter into the first official crossover of the X-Men: ResurrXion era! And in keeping with the retro flavored vibe of the entire ResurrXion initiative, the villain is none other than Mojo, a major X-baddie from the ’80s and ’90s that hasn’t been in the spotlight for quite some time.
For those unfamiliar with Mojo, he’s the corpulent, self indulgent ruler of the other dimensional Mojoverse, a world that is fixated on round the clock, 24 hour reality programming, who has a yellow complexion and is obsessed with ratings and his own popularity. I know, it sounds like I’m describing our own world at the moment, but Mojo was actually created back in the ’80s by Ann Nocenti, Arthur Adams, and Chris Claremont. It seems they were just being prescient.
Writers Cullen Bunn and Marc Guggenheim are bringing together the X-Men Blue and X-Men Gold teams in the first X-Men crossover of “ResurrXion,” along with artist Jorge Molina and others to be named later, for a storyline being called “Mojo Worldwide.” In Mojo’s latest bid for ever-increasing ratings, he decides to invade New York City using villains and events from throughout history to create an X-Men “greatest hits” collection of battles, which he hopes will be the biggest ratings hit of all time in his dimension.
Based on the interlocking covers from Art Adams, it looks like among those greatest hits are two of the X-Men’s biggest foes of all time, Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix. Or, more likely, simulations of those characters for the X-Men to fight. Based on the cover images (which you can see below), it also looks like Sentinels and the alien Brood will also be making an appearance as well.
In an interview with ComicBook.com, writer Cullen Bunn says “Mojo’s deals in meta-thinking the way an expert gambler deals in cards, and we lean into it in a big way. You’re going to be revisiting some classic X-Men stories, but you’ll be seeing them through Mojo’s eyes. You’ll see the Blue and Gold teams working together (and breaking up into interesting sub-groups) but Mojo is turning his eye for entertainment to the groupings as well. Every move Mojo makes has ‘meta’ written all over it, and he is inviting the citizens of the Marvel Universe to share his vision. As the story goes on, he escalates the stakes ever step of the way. More meta, more dangerous.”
Along with the return of Mojo and his world, also coming back will be ’80s X-Man Longshot, one of the few members of the team who wasn’t a mutant, but a creation of Mojo’s for his own entertainment (plus, he once dated Dazzler, which makes him that much cooler). “Longshot has been back in Mojoworld, and he’s been causing trouble,” Bunn says. “He’s still fomenting a rebellion, but it isn’t taking the form you might expect. Once more, for the sake of keeping a few surprises for the book, I’ll decline to say what he’s doing exactly. But he’s more of a thorn in Mojo’s side than ever before.”
Another thing fans can expect from the first crossover of the ResurrXion era is team leaders Jean Grey and Kitty Pryde dealing with the fact that Jean has been keeping a pretty big secret from Kitty – namely that Jean and the original X-Men are working with Magneto. According to Cullen Bunn, all of that will come to a head in “Mojo Worldwide” as well. And don’t expect Kitty to be pleased.
So far, we are only a few short months into X-Men ResurrXion, but all the X-Men line of comics from Marvel have definitely received a shot in the arm. While it may seem like just nostalgia to have certain team line-ups together, the truth is, certain groupings of heroes just “click” for a reason, and if it ain’t broke, why fix it? After years and years of the X-Men being an endangered species, running from one home to another, constantly infighting with each other, and so forth, we have the team dynamic that fans love again.
And we also have the Xavier Institute as a fixture once more, as the school portion of the X-Men mythos is key to who they are. Along with have teams made up of characters fans love, it’s been hard to resist this recent line of X-Men titles. Even if the teams are mostly time displaced versions of half of characters. (younger X-Men from the past, older Wolverine from the future, etc). For most mutant fans though, it’s close enough.
“Mojo Worldwide” kicks off in X-Men: Blue #13 before moving into X-Men: Gold #13. Here are the solicitations for both issues:
X-MEN: BLUE #13
Written by Cullen Bunn
Penciled by Jorge Molina
Cover by Arthur Adams
“Mojo Worldwide” Parts 1 and 3
Mojo, the demented creature obsessed with melding deadly television shows with reality, has made Earth his focus and it’s going to take the combined might of two X-Men teams to fight back! But when threats from their past are thrown at them, how will these teams react? With Sentinels and Brood and Bad memories attacking at every opportunity, will Kitty and Jean and their teams be able to save Manhattan? Or is this the trick that finally boosts Mojo’s ratings?
X-MEN: GOLD #13
Written by Marc Guggenheim
Penciled by TBA
Cover by Arthur Adams
“Mojo Worldwide” Parts 2 and 4
The X-Men may have bitten off more than they can chew as the Mojoverse continues its bizarre invasion of Manhattan! Jean Grey and her team fight side by side with Kitty Pryde and her group of Merry Mutants…but can Mojo be defeated when he’s got the X-Men’s greatest hits weaponized against them? Or will an unlikely alley come to the rescue?
Are you stoked about the return of Mojo, along with a “greatest hits” of their villains? Let us know down below in the comments.
Images: Marvel Comics
