Secret Wars gets Frozen In Time

The final volume of Astonishing X-Men featured a storyline involving Iceman developing godlike power, becoming morally corrupted and dealing with a number of unresolved issues going back several years, covering everything from his failed romantic relationships to his issues with his family and specifically his father. It's a story that was touted as having long-term consequences for the character, but like a lot of the development the character of Iceman has received over the years, it hasn't really stuck; indeed the storyline has all but been ignored since it was published.

That is something Marvel's Executive Editor, Mike Marts, intends to see changed; and he's chosen to do it in a very big way, as a part of the massive Secret Wars event. To do it, he has re-teamed Astonishing X-Men's writer Marjorie Liu and artist Gabriel Hernandez Walta along with industry legend Walter Simonson, and all four of them sat down with us(via Skype) to talk about the storyline.

ComicFront News: First, what happened? The original storyline(featured in Astonishing X-Men vol. 3 #62-65) was billed as a game-changer for Iceman...then nothing!

Marjorie Liu: Isn't that always the way with Iceman! There is some sort of weird "Bermuda triangle" effect when it comes to character development with Iceman, stories go in, and they don't come back out!

ComicFront News: There does seem to be a pattern...

Mike Marts: In reality, there were a number of storylines already in the pipeline, franchise-wide storylines, even line-wide storylines, and the planned changes to Iceman just did not fit with that. It was a great story, and a great launching pad, Marjorie did a great job getting us there...there was just no room for that version of the character to take flight.

Marjorie Liu: I tried, I really did!

ComicFront News: Which brings us to Secret Wars - Frozen In Time. How did this come about?

Mike Marts: The idea actually came to me while fielding questions from some fans at a con, and I knew the Secret Wars event would be the perfect, perhaps the only place, to tell this story. I felt if we were going to do this, we had to have Marjorie and Gabriel involved. Both jumped at the chance, but with Gabriel tied down doing Magneto, it didn't seem possible.

(It should be noted that Gabriel Walta had a cold during this interview)

Gabriel Hernandez Walta: I said "I have a very high page rate. I can do a page and a half a day, sometimes a little more", so with enough lead time I could do MOST of the story if it didn't go past four issues.

Marjorie Liu: It went five! I cut it back as much as I could, but with so many characters and so much story...

Mike Marts: We tried to think of an artist whose style would mesh well with Walta's and Walt Simonson was the first name that came to mind.

Gabriel Hernandez Walta: I was thrilled at the prospect of working in some way with Mr. Simonson. He was an inspiration to me as an artist coming up, especially in terms of style.

Walter Simonson: Walt! Please, call me Walt. Stan Lee calls me Walt, for crying out loud, so you certainly can? *laughs* I was busy doing my creator-owned project Ragnarök for IDW Publishing, so I wasn't sure I would have the time to contribute, but the chance to develop some things with Iceman that I and Louise(his wife and writer of X-Factor at the time) had discussed at length and laid some groundwork for in both Thor and the pages of X-Factor years ago, it was a nice opportunity to see that come to fruition after all this time.

ComicFront News:  This story is, from what I understand, not an exact continuation of the story from Astonishing?

Mike Marts: It's not. In the original storyline, the other X-Men basically managed to talk Iceman down, got him off the metaphorical ledge before he jumped and the world paid the price. In our story, they failed and the world has suffered terribly for that. The storyline picks up ten years after what happened in Astonishing, the world has spent those years under Iceman's rule, and it has not been pleasant.

Marjorie Liu: A massive understatement. In our story, and you could certainly see the seeds of it if Bobby had not corrected his course in the original Frozen arc, Robert Drake is a tyrant. He has spread his consciousness over the whole Earth and there is very little that happens without his knowledge. That said, there are those with technology and with certain abilities who are in hiding, and opposing his rule.

ComicFront News: Which brings us to our next question, who are the players?

Marjorie Liu: Iceman, of course, though he isn't calling himself that anymore. That mantle has been claimed by another character, one readers have seen before. Kitty is rather prominent, as are a number of his exes, some we didn't get to see in the original Frozen arc. Magneto is leading the opposition, and Quentin Quire is a sort of wild card in the equation. Magik (Illyana Rasputin) is involved, though her concerns are more for Kitty than opposition to Iceman, though there is some obvious overlap there.

There is also a version of Rogue in this story, one unlike any seen before, that I think will shock some people and blow some people away.

Mike Marts: Seriously. When I saw Marjorie's script for the first issue I was like "she went there" with Rogue? It was chilling.

ComicFront News: What is the takeaway with this story, is it a fun "What If?" type thing, or will there be some lasting consequences?

Mike Marts: There will be some lasting consequences though I can't at this point say what they are.

ComicFront News: Anyone, final words?

Marjorie Liu: This is, I think, a good story in it's own right, but it will also answer some questions readers were left with from the original arc.

Mike Marts: Including the wings!

Marjorie Liu: Ah yes, the wings! People keep thinking they had something to do with Archangel and the death seed, but the truth is they never had anything to do with the death seed at all, they were pure Iceman. Angels, after all, aren't the only things with wings...

Mike Marts: Anyone who thought those were somehow related to the metal wings Apocalypse gave Angel when transforming him into Archangel were dead wrong. There is a reason for the wings, but it is all Iceman!

ComicFront News: With that, our interview is over. Secret Wars - Frozen In Time ships weekly in August.