Welcome, X-Fans, to another uncanny edition of X-Men Monday at AIPT!
If you’ve been reading X-Men United, you know that writer Evan Narcisse joined regular writer Eve L. Ewing at issue 6. As we’ve already spoken to Eve about the series, it only makes sense to do the same with Evan. And, as this week’s X-Men United #9 ramps up Justina LaGuardia’s war against Graymatter Lane, there’s no better time to talk all things X-Men United.
Read on to see what Evan has to say about his history with the X-Men, co-writing this series with Eve, and much more.
AIPT: Welcome to X-Men Monday, Evan! As this is your first time stopping by the column, let’s learn a bit about your history with Marvel’s merry mutants,Men was, as well as some of your favorite X-Men
Evan Narcisse: So, I’m a long-time comics reader and was definitely reading during the Chris Claremont era. The first X-Men issue I can remember reading was probably during Claremont’s run with Paul Smith on art. There was that Brood arc after “The Dark Phoenix Saga.” I was just hooked. Then, there were John Romita Jr., Marc Silvestri, and all the other iconic artists in the Claremont run, as well as those big storylines like “Mutant Massacre.” I just remember having that seared into my brain—how apocalyptic it all felt, you know?
The soap opera aspect of X-Men is what drew me in, like so many fans from multiple generations. I loved it. These characters and their individual journeys are so powerful, and when they thread together and intertwine, they’re so compelling because within one team or one franchise, you see so many different points of view about what it means to exist in the world along the axes of difference and how you personally respond to it, how other people in the community respond to it, and how the powers that be respond to your very existence. Like, that’s stuff I know from my own life, and seeing it put out there in X-Men was really meaningful to me.
AIPT: And do you have any favorite X-Men, just as a fan?
Evan: Oh, man. I mean, I have to give up to the goddess, Ororo, right? I love Storm. She’s just such a great character, and she doesn’t just have physical power, but a spiritual power that gets tapped into, depending on who’s writing her, that I really, really love. She just makes you feel like there’s this all-powerful Earth mother who’s also a badass without her powers, who’s looking after you and just will not suffer fools. That’s one of the things about Storm that I love the most. People think about her being gentle and nice and whatever, but when you come up against one of her hard lines, she’s taking you out and preaching at you at the same time.
In terms of other favorites—I’m a big Nightcrawler fan. I love that guy when you think about the way he was introduced. Like, the town was basically trying to stone him, right? But he looks like a demon, believes in the best of people, has a heart full of love, and he’s basically a priest—and a Catholic one at that. I grew up in Catholicism, so I’ve always loved him. Those are my favorites.
AIPT: Let’s talk X-Men United. X-Fans Glenn Morrow and Jason are curious to learn how the opportunity came about to co-write the series with Eve L. Ewing?
Evan: I got an email from one of the X-Men group editors asking me if I’d like to come on and co-write. I said yes. The irony of it is that Eve and I are really good friends. We’ve circled around working on other things in the past, but it didn’t work out. So, when this came up, I was like, yes, I want to work with my friend. If you ever have the chance to do creative work with people you like, do it, because it’s really enriching.
I think Eve is an amazing comic book writer. She’s great in the real world as an academic, but I love her comics. Eve and I have a friendship because of comics. Back in the day, she would post online, and I was like, “This person has opinions that I agree with.” We met in person at New York Comic Con a couple of years ago, and we’ve been fast friends ever since. One of the things I’ve enjoyed so far is our friendship energy. The way we banter and talk is showing up in the book, and I think that’s making the experience very fun for me. She’ll write lines that I find hilarious. And when she likes something I wrote, she builds off of it, too. So, it’s been a really great experience so far.
AIPT: On a related note, X-Fans Heather and ‘Please just bring back Feral I miss her so much’ ask how it is collaborating with Eve. How do you two tackle writing an issue, for instance?
Evan: Things were already in flight when I came aboard, so it was a matter of catching up to what was already planned and figuring out my angle and contributions. But from a process perspective, we beat out every story. If it’s a two- or three-issue arc, or the main kind of longer subplot arcs, we kind of brainstorm and discuss those together, and then each grab a couple of pages. Like, “You’re going to do one to three, I’ll do five to eight,” and then we bounce some back and forth. We give them to each other and make suggestions, but it’s really, really collaborative in that way. So, when the Blade two-parter came up, we both had ideas for a fight scene or a conversation sequence or something like that. The things that energize us are the things that usually wind up on the page.
AIPT: X-Fan Duck with a hat is wondering about how you and Eve collaborate across the X-Office when writing X-Men United. Since you’re using the casts of both X-Men and Uncanny X-Men along with United‘s own, do you talk with the writers of the titles about their plans?
Evan: Yeah, I’ve been keeping up on what those guys are doing, and it’s really fun. The stuff that Gail Simone is doing with the Outliers and the rest of the New Orleans crew is really, really fun. But that coordination is mostly happening at the editorial level. Our editors keep us abreast of what is happening in the other books just to make sure there are no clashes. We have great editors in Annalise Bissa and Sidney Stubbs. Shout out to y’all.
AIPT: X-Fan Heather feels like X-Men United was pitched as a school book, but has gradually morphed into a Marvel Team-Up-like series. What changed from the original pitch?
Evan: You know, I can’t speak to the original pitch because I wasn’t part of that process, but I think this is an instance where I can say both things are true. The team-up stuff is fun because there’s an element of tension around it within the ranks of our cast themselves. But I think for both Eve and me, when we think about X-Men moments in the past that really helped our fandoms grow, it was seeing how the X-Men interacted with non-mutant characters—those characters suddenly understanding how the challenge of living as a mutant in a world that hates and fears them actually looks and feels, right? And the other part is seeing what happens when you have characters that are classic loners, like Blade, interact with the team dynamic and if there’s any electricity that can come out of those interactions.
I think about way back in the day, there was Marvel Team-Up #150 with Spider-Man and the X-Men. Those are the things that made me a fan, right? I think when non-mutant characters can team up with the X-Men, interact with them, and be like, “Hey, you guys are kind of cool,” something is self-reinforcing about that.
As for the school stuff, that’s still very much in play, and our next big story arc is going to focus on that a lot more intensely. Since I’ve come on, I’ve tried to do a few things where we reinforce that ingredient, and you’re going to definitely be seeing more of that. The Daredevil arc pretty much amounts to a field trip for some of our cast, and it’s been a lot of fun getting characters into the real world with some scenarios that you can’t just hit a psychic reboot on.
AIPT: And to be fair to the series, Captain America was on the second issue’s cover, so the team-ups aren’t exactly new.
Evan:X-Men United is a lot of fun to play with, because you have to play with the element of disunity, right? It’s a hallmark in the X-Men books. Folks don’t always get along in the X-Men books; that’s part of the soap opera of it all. And finding out how they get along with other people outside of the core cast is, I think, also a staple of the X-Men books. So, it’s been a lot of fun to play around with the idea of what unity means for a cast as diverse as this and the various guest stars we’ve been bringing in.
AIPT: X-Fan Exoduscloak is curious to learn how you perceive Emma Frost in terms of leadership with the X-Men and Mutantkind. What are your favorite qualities? And will we finally get to see our favorite telepath in action? She seems rather neglected lately on that front.
Evan: I’ll take the last part first. We’ll definitely see Emma in action. She activates her secondary mutation and kicks ass in an upcoming issue. Our next big arc after Daredevil will focus heavily on Emma and some of the stuff she’s been going through.
In terms of how I think about her—I love Emma Frost. She’s like the haughty dominatrix—that’s what you get on the surface, right? You get somebody who thinks and knows that she’s better than you, she knows what’s right, and she generally doesn’t do a whole lot of self-doubt or soul-searching. She’s very directed and purposeful. So, introducing some of the challenges that we have in this series is not familiar territory for her. Like, hey, is somebody messing with her sense of direction? Or, existentially, her sense of purpose? Or her very mind? That’s something that she does not tolerate well, and we’ll see her starting to push back against that.
The other thing about Emma is that she loves the headmistress role. She’s somebody who would never deign to actually have children herself—too messy, all that crying, you know? Like, “I lead my own life.” But I think she has maternal qualities, pedagogical-like proclivities, if I can get all highfalutin. I think she likes the sense of purpose that she gets from helping shape a new generation of young mutants.
When you think about the Massachusetts Academy from back in the day where the Hellions were operating out of, it was a boarding school situation, set up as the polar opposite of Xavier’s School. But for me, the Hellions always felt like the friends of mine who went to military boarding school, you know? Like, this is not the looser, more family-oriented kind of school experience. No, you’re going to follow the rules and get shaped into exactly the kind of people that we want you to be. And Emma’s loosened up a little bit since that time, but I think that idea of hierarchy is important to her. Obviously, her history with the Hellfire Club also supports that. She thinks if there’s going to be social orders in the world, that she should be in the upper echelons.
AIPT: X-Fan Dia says Emma Frost and Justina LaGuardia are fascinating foils, with both characters defining superiority in very different ways. What has it been like writing them against each other and challenging their perspectives?
Evan: Justina is so much fun because she’s kind of like a wild card character. When she shows up, she’s immediately upending the implicit hierarchies between her and another character. We saw her first interaction with Charles Xavier, and he’s like, “Yeah, I got this. We’re just going to do a little mind wipe, and I’ll be on my way,” and she’s like, “Uh-uh.” So what we’re going to learn about Justina is her philosophical motivations, why she’s doing what she’s doing, how she intends to do it, and what her goals are. We’re going to be showing that in an upcoming issue, and it’s not a spoiler to say that they’re opposed to Emma and what the other adult mutants are trying to do at Graymatter Lane.
I will say that Justina sees a void in the mutant socio-political ecosystem, and she’s trying to fill it in a way that brings her into direct conflict with Emma. The tricky thing is Emma doesn’t know the exact nature and shape of this threat just yet, and she can’t plan against it. So, there’s a nice juicy tension there that I’m hoping we’ll get to really dive into in the next couple of issues.
AIPT: As a writer, what interests you about Justina as an antagonist? You and Eve very much get to build her from scratch, after Al Ewing introduced her in Giant-Size X-Men #1.
Evan: She has an idea of what the world should look like; some of it is rooted in sociological and historical stuff, and some of it is rooted in the struggle for mutant rights. She feels like, “I have a different answer—I have a better answer,” and obviously, that puts her at odds with Emma and the other mutants at Graymatter Lane. Even as seemingly rigid and rules-oriented as Emma might be, being a headmistress, being in the Hellfire Club, and all that other stuff, she still believes that people should be able to do what they want. She may think most of what other people want can be stupid or frivolous, but unless it’s going to hurt her or the things she cares about, she’s kind of laissez-faire about it all. Whereas Justina’s definitely not. And that’s all I’ll say before I get to spoiler territory.
But yeah, helping shape this character after that initial appearance has been really fun. It’s been challenging, but I think we’re landing on a character who is a force to be reckoned with and presents a real challenge to some of the other philosophies we’ve seen over the publishing history of the X-Men.
AIPT: Another question from X-Fan Dia, who says Prodigy has taken on a much larger role in X-Men United‘s school setting. Can readers expect more focus on him going forward?
Evan: The thing about X-Men is that they’re such a large cast of characters, and everybody wants to see their favorites get more time on the page. So, we’re trying to juggle everybody. That said, I love Prodigy. Like, finding a sense of humor in him has been really fun because when you think about his abilities, they kind of work subconsciously, but he enjoys the benefits of knowing what other people know and using it in various ways. Sometimes, he’s your ops guy, helping figure out a plan. When he’s in the field, it depends on who he’s working with and what they’re able to do, or who or what their opponents are able to do. So, he’s a really useful infielder kind of character, but I think he enjoys the inherent flexibility that his power set provides.
AIPT: One more question from X-Fan ‘Please just bring back Feral I miss her so much’—what is most exciting about working within the unique setting of X-Men United?
Evan: With Graymatter Lane, the first thing is that I was reading this book before I was working on it, and I saw that name. I’m a dude who loves a pun, so I was like, “Yes, let’s go.” Second, it being a kind of shared mind palace psychic university or school—I love that, because you remember those old comics where they would show the blueprint schematic of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters or Avengers Mansion? We don’t have to worry about that blueprint, because the blueprints are always changing. It’s a psychic construct, and we can add stuff as needed; we can play with the edges a little bit, and we’ll see that in the upcoming issue. This is a school that exists in a psychic plane, and you need special credentials to get inside of it. And there’s something really great about that because they’re not exclusionary in any way, but there’s a matter of trust at the very core of this place’s existence that makes it very vulnerable. And we’re going to be playing with that in upcoming issues as well.
AIPT: Another fun element of those Graymatter Lane scenes is seeing more obscure mutants in the background. Can we expect more of those appearances in the issues to come?
Evan: There are plans. That’s all I can say. There are plans to bring in some people that haven’t been seen in a while. I think one character we have coming up only had one appearance back in the ’80s. So, that’s part of the fun of doing this book—having super-new characters like Ransom or Calico meeting established characters like Emma and Kitty.
The intergenerational exchange is always one of the things that’s fun about the X-Men. Think about the original five meeting the new Giant-Size team, and then all the various roster changes. There’s a baton to be passed, and maybe the person handing it over is handing it to somebody who they have beef with. Think about the iconic passing of the leadership mantle between Storm and Cyclops back in the day when she didn’t have powers, and he’s like, “Oh, you beat me fair and square, I guess you’re the leader of the X-Men now.” He wasn’t happy about it, but it’s something that happened, and that’s something that we get to play with too a little bit. All the X-titles have their own factional conflicts, and some of those can be read as generational, depending on the age of the characters. But all that stuff is great fodder for the stories that we’re trying to tell.
AIPT: And drawing all those characters are your artistic collaborators, Tiago Palma and Ruari Coleman. How is it working with these two?
Evan: They’re both great. I really love the way they’ve been interpreting the scripts and making the characters come alive with facial expressions and body language, the fight choreography, and page layouts. And to me, that’s like the secret alchemy of comics, right? When you get those pages back, and you see how somebody’s collaborating with you to try and deliver a good story, you can’t help but get inspired. So, I want to shout out those guys and everybody else on our creative team.
AIPT: Finally, let’s talk about what’s coming up in X-Men United. We know Daredevil is on his way, along with some anti-mutant fallout from DNX. And our friend, X-Fan ‘Please just bring back Feral I miss her so much’, asks if we’ll see any romance. What can you share?
Evan:DNX is kind of going to be lurking in the background for us, but it does provide a bit of an engine for why Justina is pursuing the path that she is. We’re definitely going to be focusing more on the threat that Justina presents and how the X-Men within the halls of Graymatter Lane choose to deal with that, and there’ll be some hopefully intriguing twists as that stuff escalates.
Romance… I honestly think we’re going to have to try and squeeze that in where we can. The stuff that we have planned is going to keep everybody so busy that I don’t know how much time we’re going to have for smooching. But, you know, we’ll try and find moments where Iceman and Ben Liu can continue their flirtations.
AIPT: We’ll keep an eye out. But on that note, Evan, thanks for stopping by X-Men Monday! Remember, X-Fans, X-Men United #9 is on sale this Wednesday (November 11, 2026).
Here’s an eXclusive look at two unfinished Tiago Palma and Ruari Coleman pages from the next issue, X-Men United #10, courtesy of our friends at Marvel.
And one more eXclusive treat—this Leirix variant cover to X-Men United #12!
Until next time, X-Fans, stay eXceptional!
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