Here’s a blast from the past about an old writing project I never thought I’d be discussing these days—but there’s a good reason for it…
This past September, I was contacted by Chad Anderson, the host of Graymalkin Lane, a podcast series dedicated to exploring the past and present of the X-Men, Marvel Comics’ hugely popular group of superhero mutants. The reason he reached out? To discuss X-Men: The Chaos Engine, a trilogy of original novels that I wrote between 2000 and 2002 for BP Books, a branch of the publishing company I was editor-in-chief for at the time, ibooks, inc.
Spoliers ahead: In case you’ve never heard of the project (and why should you, the books have been out of print for over 20 years), the trilogy involved the X-Men returning to Earth from an outer space mission, to find it’s now ruled by Doctor Doom, the Fantastic Four’s archnemesis—and he’s married to Storm of the X-Men! Worse yet, he’s made all this happen by taking possession of a Cosmic Cube: a device that alters reality to match its owner’s wishes. (Fans of the Marvel Studios movies know it better as the Tesseract—the glowing blue box that was one of the Infinity Stones, as seen in Captain America: The First Avenger, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame.)
Matters quickly spiral out of control, leaving Betsy Braddock, the ninja warrior known as Psylocke, the sole X-Man who’s tasked with saving the world—not just from Doom, but from Magneto, mutant master of magnetism, and Captain America’s Nazi enemy, the Red Skull! What kind of realities do each of the villains construct? What effect do their authoritarian visions have on other dimensions? How is Psylocke supposed to put the pieces of a fractured multiverse back together? You’d have to read the books to find out!
What Chad wanted to discuss is “Fascism in Science Fiction,” a topic he’s covering all this month, and given my X-books involve a trio of dictators who bend the world, and the subjects they rule over, to meet their diabolical needs (especially the Red Skull)…well, considering the current shape of the country these days, with its constant attacks on science, intellectualism, books, sexual orientation, and race, the topic is certainly a timely one…unfortunately.
But we also touch on lighter subjects: my history with the Marvel Novels program of the 1990s and early 2000s; some behind-the-scenes tales of the creative process behind the Chaos Engine project; and my background as a comic creator and author. So, come for the discussion on the X-Men and fascist superheroes, stay for the dirt on my adventures dealing with the Marvel Licensing division.
Plus: the Graymalkin Lane Players perform an audio-drama adaptation of X-Men #99!
Check out and/or download the Graymalkin Lane episode by clicking this link to Redcircle. I had fun being on the show; hopefully you’ll have just as much fun listening to it!