The Inhuman Torch is laying waste to New Berlin, and Jim Hammond, the original Human Torch, must oppose him in a final, irrevocable confrontation. There’s just one catch: Hammond is dying, barely able to stand, and the monster he faces can control all fires, including Hammond’s own… Writers: Mike Carey, Alex Ross; Art: Patrick Berkenkotter; Cover: Alex Ross Available: June 3,...

So I was thinking… Writing the original Human Torch forces you to think about backstory, and how far you should acknowledge it in a modern story based on pre-existing characters. In the case of the Torch, “pre-existing” barely covers the half of it. The Torch’s first appearance (in Marvel Comics#1, published by Timely Comics) was all the way back in October of 1939, and actually pre-dates Marvel as a publisher. So that’s 70 years of...

…has dominated my thoughts this week. The X-office hooked all the creators up for a conference call to talk about something pretty amazing that’s about to spin out of X-Force, with Craig and Chris laying down the architecture and the rest of us brainstorming about how we could tie into or mirror the core events if we chose to do so. I don’t mind admitting that I went into that call with very little idea of what I wanted to do, beyond...