In the Marvel Universe, the old adage “the bigger, the better” doesn’t always apply; especially not this October, when writer Gregg Schigiel teams with artist Jacob Chabot to bring back everyone’s favorite miniature mutants, the X-Babies, in a four-issue limited series. And believe us when we say you’ve never seen them like this before!

Shiegiel and Chabot’s X-BABIES picks up on Mojoworld where a new group of leaders has taken command, and the state of “regularly scheduled programming” normally seen from the television nightmare factory has gone a little soft.

“The new programmers have a very specific vision for what should air—[they are] more interested in ’safe, pleasant, cute, educational and moral-heavy’ programming,” explains Schigiel. “This is distinctly different than the rock ‘em-sock ‘em, fight-heavy stuff more common in classic super hero stories. Obviously, the X-Babies—who’ve been replaced by kinder, gentler, cuter versions of themselves—think that’s dumb.”

But the real shocker comes from exactly who the X-Babies have been replaced with. Ladies and gentlemen, get ready for the most unlikely comeback of 2009—the pantheon of Star Comics!

A Marvel imprint that launched in 1984 geared toward younger readers, Star Comics provided a home for various original creations as well as a few licensed properties and haven’t been seen in nearly two decades. In this pint-sized brawl, the X-Babies will have to do battle with none other than Top Dog—a talking dog—Planter Terry—an interstellar tot in search of his parents—Royal Roy—an extremely wealthy youngster—and Wally Wizard—a young magician in training.

“It was Gregg’s brilliant idea to include the old Star Comics characters in the story, both to act as adversaries and hopefully update them for a modern audience,” says Chabot. “I was thrilled at this concept! I pretty much got into comics through Marvel’s old Star line, so this really goes back to my roots. I am doing some redesigns, but I’m trying to keep them recognizable by incorporating as many details from the original designs as I can. So, for example, if you’re one of the few who remembers Top Dog from back in the day, you’ll be able to know it’s him when he shows up. Hint: he’s the dog.”

“What’s cool about it, to me, was that the story idea came first,” touts Schigiel. “And then came the ‘holy moley’ moment where I realized there was this untapped reservoir of characters in Marvel’s publishing history that fit the story perfectly. You know, you kind of search the landscape for unnoticed or unused characters, which can be tough these days. Kind of made me glad to be old enough to remember these guys. In preparation I’ve been reading the old Star books and they have their charms, to be sure. Clearly they’re written for younger readers, but Planet Terry, actually, is a real page-turner. And Top Dog, oh man, that series pretty much challenged suspension of disbelief almost as its mission statement.”

But getting back to the X-Babies, Schigiel reveals they’ll be using the classic line up of Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Colossus and Kitty Pryde, which under the pen of Jacob Chabot will be reaching a whole new level of cute. Even the artist himself can’t decide which X-Baby he’s most excited to draw.

“It’s hard to pick because the X-Babies were another big part of my early comic reading experience,” shares Chabot. “I must have read those old Art Adams comics a million times. It just seemed so bizarre that these characters could exist alongside the X-Men in the ‘real’ Marvel Universe. But, I’ll have to give it up for Li’l Kitty Pryde, the smallest and cutest of the X-Babies! After that, Wolverine probably comes in a close second, just because he’s a little scrapper!”

In terms of continuity and history, Schigiel and Chabot will approach the characters in a way that acknowledges their place in X-Men lore, but don’t expect an impenetrable piece of mutant nostalgia. Priority number one remains simply to tell a fun story.

“It’ll sound cliché, but the overall tone of X-BABIES is a fun adventure comic; energetic, colorful, maybe a little absurd, kind of trying to capture the feeling or memory of a good Saturday morning cartoon,” says Schigiel. “Jacob’s work is perfectly suited for this, absolutely. He does the cute, shiny, happy stuff, but he can also sell the super hero action and intensity.

“To that end, for all the light-hearted fun we’re going to have, as far as the X-Babies are concerned, the threats and obstacles they’re facing are the real deal.”

X-Men Origins: Wolverine proved that people haven’t tired of X-Men franchise just yet as it has made $350 million worldwide, and we already know that a Wolverine 2 is in the early stages of development, as is a Deadpool spin-off. But what about X-Men: First Class and X-Men Origins: Magneto?

At one point back in 2007 director David Goyer was scouting for locations to film Magneto, but then the writers went on strike and work on the film stopped. 20th Century Fox focused all of their attention on Wolverine while David Goyer worked on other stuff such as The Dark Knight and The Unborn. Then we got word in October last year that Josh Schwartz had been hired to write the script for X-Men: First Class, which would revolve around Xavier’s first students at his School for Gifted Youngsters.

As it currently stands 20th Century Fox have three X-Men films in development and a spin-off, so which will come first? And in what order? SHH got the chance to speak to David Goyer and he explained what the current thinking at Fox was:

“There have been some preliminary discussions,” he told us about Magneto, adding, “I think, at Fox, they’re trying to decide if making a young X-Men film makes the most sense next, does making a ‘Magneto’ make the most sense next. They’re just trying to decide internally who’s next up.”

Wolverine 2 and Deadpool will come whenever they are ready, but Fox are deciding whether X-Men: First Class or X-Men Origins: Magneto should come first. Early drafts of the Magneto script include a young Charles Xavier who meets up with Magneto on his travels, so would it make sense to show Xavier and Magneto’s origins, then show Xavier setting up his school in First Class? Or do they set up First Class and then show how it all began? If they want do to things in order Magneto would come first. But X-Men Origins: Wolverine has shown that you can go back in time and still have a hit without confusing the audience.

Whatever they decide I just hope they get them right. I think it’s fair to say that the X-Men franchise peaked back in 2003 with X2, but with the money still rolling in will Fox continue to pump out so-so X-Men films or will they hire an X-Men version of Christopher Nolan to give the franchise a kick?

Also, if you believe there are characters featured in the X-MEN franchise that we missed, please feel free to let us know; leave a comment. We will continue to be updating the library if we find that we’ve missed characters.

Thanks and enjoy!

We are continuing to update the library, which we believe will be one of the most extensive lists of X-MEN characters. You’ll be able to research the wiki entry of each and every mutant that was ever featured in the X-MEN comics or the television series. That and more too come soon!

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