To Me, My X-Books!

I’m the best there is at what I do… and what I do is write books well—sometimes in projects involving famous comic book characters!

In case you haven’t heard, today is the U.S. release date for X-Men: Days of Future Past, the fifth movie based on Marvel Comics’ popular mutant superhero team. A sequel to both 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand and 2011’s X-Men: First Class, this time around moviegoers are taken back to the 1970s to learn the origins of Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters—and to an alternate future reality in which mutants are hunted to the verge of extinction! It’s based on a classic X-story written by Chris Claremont and drawn by John Byrne and Terry Austin, and stars Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, James McEvoy, Ellen Page, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, and a host of others.

So why, you ask, would we be talking about X-Men movies, of all things, here at The ’Warp? This is a horror and dark-fantasy publishing house, you say, not a superhero comic book company! (Not counting our graphic novel Troubleshooters, Incorporated: Night Stalkings, of course.) Well, allow me to explain…

X-MEN: THE CHAOS ENGINE TRILOGY was a set of original novels that I wrote between 2000 and 2002 for publishing house BP Books, with b&w illustrations by Mark Buckingham (Fables, Doctor Who) and cover paintings by Bob Larkin (Doc Savage, Savage Sword of Conan, Tomb of Dracula, and most recently cover artist of my Saga of Pandora Zwieback novels). In the first book, X-Men/Doctor Doom, the team returns to Earth after a cosmic mission to discover everything has changed—and that the Fantastic Four’s archenemy, Doctor Doom, is now the planet’s emperor, courtesy of the Cosmic Cube, a device that allows its possessor to alter reality to fit their personal desires. (Movie fans may know it better as “the Tesseract,” the blue-glowing cube seen in Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor, and Marvel’s The Avengers.) In Books 2 and 3, X-Men/Magneto and X-Men/Red Skull, things only worsen when each of those super-villains get their hands on it.

I wasn’t a major fan of the X-Men when I started the assignment—in fact, I had to read about a decade’s worth of comics to catch up on their continuity—but Marvel’s licensing people (at least those in charge when I began writing) liked my approach to the characters and gave me free rein to tell the story how I wanted to tell it. What I mean by that is that it became a very character-driven, not plot-driven, story; more often than not I referred to the X-Men by their real names, not their superhero code names; and I made Psylocke—the sexy Japanese ninja whose body is home to the soul of a Caucasian, British telepath named Betsy Braddock—the star of all three books. Toss in the multidimensional, superpowered Captain Britain Corps, a few unexpected X-deaths, the multiverse on the brink of destruction, a couple of thinly veiled Doctor Who references, and the concept of Cyclops, leader of the X-Men, as an enthusiastic Nazi(!) and you wound up with an extremely dense (over 300,000 words!) epic. Even better, the X-fans seemed to enjoy it!

“Think Lord of the Rings, but instead of One Ring, it is a small cube where three villains from the Marvel universe can wish to turn our world into what they have dreamed of—namely, world domination! The writer, Steven A. Roman, made the story so well, it was like the greatest movie never made. I doubt if this would ever be adapted, but if it does, it could challenge LoTR as the best movie trilogy.”—The Movie Blog

“Roman excites the reader with wonderful descriptions of the normally drawn comic book characters. The story didn’t read like a typical comic but rather as an action-thriller that left you on the edge of a cliff with its surprise ending. Dr. Doom is certainly portrayed in character, and readers will get a great portrait of Marvel’s elite Mutant stars.”—Bookwatch

“A powerful roller coaster of a novel. This trilogy is not just for Marvel lovers and has something for every reader to enjoy, including romance, action and demise, with a cosmic twist. Roman pulls you right into the action as it unfolds, leaving you gasping from the first book to the last.”—CelebrityCafé.com

“Roman does a great job of bringing the personalities out of the main players. He has plenty of fun with them too without going as far as sending them up. Well written, intelligent and not without wit [X-Men/Magneto] pushes all the right buttons of the genre.”—Goodreads

“Xavier’s confrontation with Magneto [in Book 2] is simply heartbreaking. Instead of the usual slugfests, these two have always warred with words, but this is one time where both want Xavier to win… and the one thing Magneto wants Xavier to concede is the one thing he wishes he could, but can’t. It’s absolutely one of the best moments these two have ever had, and I honestly felt sorry for both of them… One sacrificing ‘The Dream’ for the Multiverse, the other being forced to sacrifice… well, that would be telling.”—Comixfan

You can still find used copies of the novels at online retailers like Amazon—the trilogy was published as trade paperbacks, mass-market paperbacks, a trade paperback omnibus edition, and an oh-so-rare hardcover omnibus exclusive to the Science Fiction Book Club. Pick it up; it’ll give you something to read while you’re waiting on line for the next movie showing.

As Stan Lee would say, “Excelsior!” And as late film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert would say, “I’ll see you…at the movies!”

No, seriously. I’m going this weekend. Save me a seat.