After years of putting the X-Men comic books on the backburner, Marvel has finally moved the spotlight back to the mutant superheroes. Among the many new titles being launched is Astonishing X-Men from writer Charles Soule and artist Jim Cheung, though the latter will only be sticking around for one issue.
That’s because Marvel’s big idea here is to have someone new join Soule each issue, with the likes of ACO, Phil Noto, Greg Land, Ramon Rosanas and Ron Garney all being lined up for subsequent instalments. What’s even more exciting though is we now know that fans can expect to see the return of Amahl Farouk, AKA the Shadow King.
If you watch Legion, you’ll already be familiar with the X-Men villain, and Soule has promised that we can expect big things from him in this series.
“He’s this incredibly ancient force of darkness – kind of a dream demon. The book is a puzzle box, and you’re not supposed to know where everything is going.”
His presence in Astonishing X-Men can likely be explained by the fact Psylocke is on the team. She has a fair bit of history with the Shadow King and while the team is made up of characters like Old Man Logan, Mystique, and Gambit, they’ll likely still find themselves overpowered by him here.
Unfortunately, Astonishing X-Men isn’t set to launch until July, so we still have a little while to wait until we can get our hands on the title, but it’s already shaping up to be one of Marvel’s most promising upcoming launches. The revolving door of artists is a little strange, to be sure, but with such big names attached and Soule writing, there’s definitely a lot of potential in this series.
