X-Men spin-off book X-Corp back on track with new artist onboard

Empyre: X-Men #3 variant cover — (Image credit: Marcus To (Marvel Comics))

Marvel Comics' X-Men lead writer Jonathan Hickman has announced that the long-simmering spin-off title X-Corp is still in development, with a replacement artist signed earlier this month.

"Yes, we're doing the X-Corp book. Everyone is very excited about it. We actually locked down both the interior and cover artist this week," Hickman told AIPT. "I can't remember which month it's actually going to debut because the company has some funky scheduling coming up and we're shifting things around, but there will be a formal announcement with the creative team and roster and all that soon."

The X-Corp book was originally announced in the letters page of Captain Marvel #11 back in October 2019, with that series' artist Carmen Carnero announced to draw X-Corp - with a planned February 2020 debut.

Empyre: X-Men #1 art — (Image credit: Matteo Buffagni (Marvel Comics))

It's unclear what happened along the way, but the book never appeared and Carnero moved on to draw Miles Morales: Spider-Man; she was later named as one of Marvel's Stormbreaker artists.

Originally created by Grant Morrison during his early '00s New X-Men run, the X-Corp were originally franchise branches of the X-Men organizations in various locations around the world. It eventually fell by the wayside but was revived earlier this year in Empyre: X-Men as a corporation led by some of mutantkind's wealthiest (or most business-savvy) mutants to represent the mutant nation of Krakoa in business affairs. So far this has included Angel, M, and Magik.

This is one of two announced X-Men spin-off titles yet to hit stands; a Moira McTaggert series was announced several months into the recently-concluded 'Dawn of X' era of the X-Men titles, with Hickman saying in October 2019 that an as-yet-unnamed writer had already signed on to the project.

Keep up to speed with our list of all the new X-Men comics, graphic novels, and collections coming up.

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)