Who is Major X?: An Interview With Rob Liefeld

Who is Major X? Rob Liefeld the creator of Marvel’s Deadpool is back with a brand new character and limited series in the X-Men universe. Releasing on April 3rd Major X will tell the untold story of a fabled mutant Shangri-La, where mutants live in peace and tranquility. The tale in this upcoming comic series follows MAjor X, an inhabitant of this world who is cast into the world of the likes of Wolverine, Deadpool, and Cable. I had the honor of sitting down with the creator of Major X, Rob Liefeld and discussing with him just who this new character is and what his motivations may be. I hope you enjoy listening in!

First off before I get to my questions I’d like to congratulate you on having Major X already sell out before it’s even released.

Yeah I tell you man it’s it’s completely you know. It’s very exciting very exciting.

It’s incredible the excitement for Major X. It shows how much people really really love your work. For the readers who may not know, is Major X going to be an ongoing series or a limited series.

So Major X is a six issue mini-series. That ships twice a month. You’ll get two issues a month through June 1 one this week April 3rd and then April 17th. That issue is hot off the presses heading to retailers now within the first week of May. So that’s how we’re doing it. The books have all gone to press. Everything is going great. The pacing of the book matches the shipping of the book it’s very you know you’ll want to be there every two weeks. It has an urgency to it.

So tell me what inspired you to create this new character?

Yeah, you know Major X was kind of an offshoot of what I wanted to do back had I done a third year on X-Force way back when I put it in the drawer. I count my time with New Mutant and X-Force as kind of together and it was over two years. But I didn’t really make it into a third year, so some of the storylines I had left over got tabled, then when C.B. Cebulski contacted me last year about coming on board and doing some stuff in the X-Men series. He explained he wanted to shake up the X-Men office and get some cool stuff back up and running.

He wanted to restore the X-Men under his watch and he had his vision for that. He is the editor in chief and we kind of decided that this would be a good time for Major X to happen.

So tell me just who is Major X?

He definitely tethers into the greater X-Men universe as you’ll see. We’ve been very clear I wanted to do something that wasn’t done before, I don’t think there’s a mutant Shangri-La a kind of mutant paradise, that has existed where the mutants all live in peace and harmony and Major X hails from that realm. When it falls and it falls for a very specific reason, he is thrown and purged and lands in the 1991 era of my New Mutants run then he has to figure out how to get to where he needs to go. Because that’s not where he needs to be in order to restore his home. So he kind of fights his way to the present day X-Men. By the end of this series we’ll see how it all plays out. We’ve done a really good job kind of hiding the antagonists and you really don’t get to meet them till issue 2. But we set the stage you know who he is. You understand his mission. In issue 2 we throw you immediately into his realm which we call the X-existence. You will get to spend quite a lot of time there to find out why it means so much to Major X. It’s really exciting.

You mentioned a mutant Shangri-La an area that hasn’t existed before. In your opinion, for new readers who maybe are new to Marvel comics. Will they be able to jump into Major X issue 1 and be able to understasnd the story.

I believe they can. I mean as a writer sometimes you have to write something that shows Cable or even somebody like Wolverine establishing themselves immediately. They announce themselves to Major X as he is intruding on their space in the same way he would announce himself to the reader. So given that Major X is the audience surrogate and we are seeing the story through his eyes, so yeah I really believe it’s a great jumping off point, it is very exciting. The comics I grew up with were heavy on action, the comic books I made that made my career were heavy on action. This comic is heavy on action. That doesn’t mean there’s not a story and a narrative but people aren’t sitting around in the shadows or talking in boardrooms there’s a mission.

Your previous work with Marvel’s X-Men helped redefine them for a generation

Thank you! I would agree.

How does it feel to be returning to that world with a brand new character and new worlds to explore.

In all honesty, it’s a tremendous honor. I mean here’s the deal C.B has been around the business almost as long as I have been. When I first met him in the mid-90s, I’m a little older maybe 5-6 years older but I broke in as a teenager you know so I was out the gate. So I’ve I’ve been covering you know 33 years in this business until I meet some young people in the business I may be only slightly older than even though I’ve been working much longer in the business than they have. So that’s how I see a guy like C.B he grew up being a giant fan of my work. The New Mutants, X-Force, my group of peers all of us, the image guys and it can still be as tenured as he is. I think he understood that the X-Men is my sweet spot. It’s one of my greatest successes. I’ll say it again and again and again and again the message never changes whether it’s a Deadpool movie or a Major X comic book and I make my own toys, I didn’t have access to Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, Beast or Spiderman. If I had to refurbish a broken down franchise called the New Mutants and I did it and I filled it with fresh faces. And so I planted my own oak trees you know. This is an attempt again to plant another tree and see if it has life and longevity in it. I’m happy they are letting me take another wack at it.

You know we’re moving into new territory with the cinematic X-Men. We can hope that maybe Major X will be crossing over from comics to film soon.

Dude there’s a reason I designed it the way I did. He can drop in at any minute.

Major X has a pretty badass look to him. One thing that struck me was that he has a very classic yet modern look. How did you go about like designing him? what was your thought process?.

Well from the neck down I just kind of worked off the X design and I’m going to tell you I wear my influences on my sleeve. If you go and you look at the original movie poster for Mad Max. He’s a guy with two guns and a helmet. That was my inspiration for Major X. Look at the visual medium whether it’s Boba Fett, Darth Vader, Deadpool, Cable, Dr. Doom or Magneto. You start with how this character is going to capture your attention and I’m telling you right now. I have never ever in my 33-year career received anywhere near the fan art that I have for Major X and it is just amazing how the fans have responded. You would not even believe how great these designs are.

That’s is what is awesome about social media with creators such as yourself. You can interact right with the fan base immediately. Now without spoiling anything can you reveal anything about Major X’s powerset or abilities without compromising the story?

No, you will have to read the story! We tell you who he is at the end of the first issue and then from there, you need to connect the dots. We’ll give you a piece of his lineage. You can go from there and definitely you’ll see the completion of his first evolution in the sixth issue. There that’s a good tease!

That creates the hype even more. Well you know I really appreciate you taking a few minutes here and talking to me about this awesome comic series you have written.

Thank you. I’m very excited. Thanks for giving me the time and I just am so excited to share this and so excited for people to get out. Here’s what I want to stress the fact that the book says it’s sold out is a little confusing. Your store will have copies you just won’t have any copies beyond what’s on the shelf. So get there early and secure a copy because there are no extras.That’s it.

So if you want a copy of the first issue of Major X be sure to arrive when the comic book store opens?

Yeah exactly. That’s it.

I hope you enjoyed this interview with Rob Liefeld, if you did check out some of the other interviews Viral Hare has conducted.

Major X is on sale wherever comics are sold April 3rd.