As announced at C2E2 today, I'll be working on this year's 50th Anniversary X-Men event, BATTLE OF THE ATOM, along with Brian Michael Bendis, Brian Wood and a host of talented artists, including the legendary Art Adams who did this cover. I'm excited and honored to be a part of this one, especially given the landmark anniversary. I had an Art Adams X-Men poster on the wall of my room when I was a kid. Now here I am, getting to help guide those same characters, in their 50th year. Surreal.

With issue #16 of WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN, which hit shelves this week, we unfortunately must say goodbye to artist Chris Bachalo, who moves on to another as-yet-unannounced new project. I owe many many thanks to Chris for kicking off this series in such a great way, for designing the Jean Grey School and for an all-around amazing run. He's been a terrific artist to work with. As wildly inventive as they come. So inventive I had to change the way I wrote my scripts. Chris has so many unique ideas about how to layout a page, that our editor Nick Lowe encouraged me to move to more of a Marvel style, meaning more of a loose plot instead of a full script. So I did, and loved it. My scripts still weren't exactly in the most traditional Marvel style, in that they still included dialogue (when I get a chance in the next few days, maybe I'll post some examples), but it's been an exciting challenge just to break out of my usual routine and a thrill to watch Chris work his magic. I wish we could've done more stuff together. Maybe someday.

As for WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN, we've thankfully got an amazing roster of artists to pick up the slack, like Mike Allred (whose Doop one-shot is coming up next), Jorge Molina (who wraps up our AvX tie-ins in a huge way in issue #18), Steven Sanders (who shows us Angel's all-new mission in issue #20) and of course Nick Bradshaw, who's already cranked out some gorgeous work on this series and returns to help kick off our second year with issue #19 and then handles our crazy new Murder Circus arc beginning with #21. And as if that wasn't enough, come next year we add Ramon Perez to the mix, fresh off his Eisner win for Best Penciller.

I'm one lucky dude.

This one by Nick Bradshaw, who's drawing the book's second arc. It features some of the same characters that are on Bachalo's cover, plus at least two that aren't. And those two will probably prove to be the most unexpected members of the cast. That's all I can say for now.

X-MEN SCHISM #1 is out today, and I'm told it has already sold out at the distributor level, so grab a copy from your local retailer while you can. Or you can also download it from the Marvel app.

I've been excited for a while for people to finally check this series out, and the response so far has been phenomenal. And remember, this is only the beginning. Issue #2 hits in just two weeks.

I also have WOLVERINE #12 and PUNISHERMAX #15 out today so, you know, look for those too, if you're not already sick of me.

As announced today over the AP wire, X-MEN REGENESIS is the tagline for the new core group of X-books spinning out of SCHISM.

Kieron Gillen will be shepherding UNCANNY X-MEN with Carlos Pacheco and Greg Land.

And I'll be writing WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN. My collaborator? The amazing Chris Bachalo.

More interviews with both Kieron and I will be hitting in the coming days. There's not much we can reveal at this point though, as everything hings on events that will be soon be unfolding in the pages of SCHISM.

I can't say who's going to be on my team, other than Wolverine of course. I can't say where they'll be or what they'll be doing. I will say, don't assume you know the full roster for either team based off this one promo image. Both sides will feature their share of surprises.

I can also say, with profound certainty, that I am having the time of my life working on this series.

The AP story
Interview with Kieron and I at Marvel.com

"WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN will have everything I love about the X-Men,” explains series writer Jason Aaron, who will be joined by artist Chris Bachalo. “Big crazy plots, intense character drama, love, sex, anti-mutant hysteria, man-eating aliens, all-new characters, old favorite characters, bizarre space tech, strange transformations, property damage, telepathic shenanigans, Wolverine drinking whiskey, mutants playing baseball. Except perhaps for that last part."

There was a big conference call the other day with me, editor Nick Lowe and Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso all talking SCHISM for the various comic book news sites. CBR's summary is here, along with loads of new preview art.

Look for another big announcement coming early next week involving some more of my future work.

Man, it's been a crazy week. WonderCon was an absolute blast. Seriously one of the best cons I've ever done. Thanks to everybody who came out, especially those of you who braved my spotlight panels.

In case you missed it, my next big gig was announced there. It's X-MEN: SCHISM, a five issue mini-series that'll be the big X-event for the summer. It features lots of giant robots, lots of screaming and pretty much every mutant you can think of. But mostly it's about Cyclops and Wolverine and one of those "battle for the leadership of the X-Men" sorta stories. Plus there's an all-new Hellfire Club, and for Morrison fans, the return of Quentin Quire. And it's all drawn by the most amazing line-up of artists I've ever worked with: Carlos Pacheco, Frank Cho, Daniel Acuna, Alan Davis and Adam Kubert. Not too shabby, am I right?

Some SCHISM interviews:
Newsarama
CBR
IGN

Also the final issue of my ULTIMATE COMICS CAPTAIN AMERICA mini came out this week. Really pleased with the reception this thing got. Thanks to everybody who checked out what was ultimately (no pun intended) a pretty off-beat Cap story. As always it was a pleasure working with the inimitable Mr. Ron Garney. And eventhough Cap is wrapped, Ron and I are already working on something else for later this year. Stay tuned.

And just today SCALPED got nominated for an Eisner for Best Series. Big congrats to the whole SCALPED crew, including all the artists who worked on the series last year, along with our usual culprits, including our long-suffering editors Will Dennis and Mark Doyle. If we win we'll have to carve off chunks of the trophies for everybody to share.

And also this happened:

Marvel Architects or the worst boy band ever? I'll let you decide.