X-Men: Blue – Only Time Will Tell

With the timestream in ruins, the Blue squad needs to find a way to restore history before saving themselves from…themselves.

A collection of mysterious “other” versions of the X-Men have appeared to occupy the team’s places in the past. And, at long last, the original X-Men get their reunion with Professor Charles Xavier. So how will the mutants react? Find out on January 10 in writer Cullen Bunn and artist RB Silva’s X-MEN: BLUE #19!

With so many electrifying mysteries at play in this story, we went to Cullen for some answers!

Marvel.com: Walk us through what’s been happening in “Cross-Time Capers” so far!

Cullen Bunn: The story is really just getting started! The X-Men have realized that everything around them has started changing. Polaris vanishes out of nowhere. Magneto disappears. Watching television, Bobby sees a report about the anniversary of the X-Men killing Magneto and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, something that never happened, of course.

It’s almost as if reality is correcting itself all around them, healing the way a broken bone heals…imperfectly. Amidst all this, they receive a message from Professor X, saying he needs them in the past. Thanks to the Time Platform that Magneto has been secretly building, they have the means to do that. But their first jump through the time stream took them to the future instead of the past and they’ve been trying to work their way back from there ever since.

Marvel.com: How has the Blue team been trying to put the timeline right?

Cullen Bunn: The message from Professor Xavier comes from the past, and they believe that something has happened in their original time to cause all these strange problems. They believe that their absence in the past may finally be catching up with them!

The problem is that they visited their point of origin once before and saw that they still existed there. They started to believe that maybe they came from an alternate reality…but if that’s the case, how could they be causing such trouble in this reality? It all feels pretty headache-inducing for them.

Marvel.com: Will Professor X have some answers once they all meet up?

Cullen Bunn: I don’t know if Professor X will have all the answers, but he does have something very important to tell the X-Men—something that will guide them in the days to come. They’ll come out of this story with a clearer view of where they’re headed. They’ll have more questions, too, but that’s only to be expected.

Marvel.com: How do the “other” X-Men, as seen on the cover, play into this issue?

Cullen Bunn: This story has everything to do with the “other” X-Men they saw when they hopped back through time in ALL-NEW X-MEN. When they reach the past and encounter themselves, they’ll be quite surprised by what they find!

The Blue team will wonder if something changed in them when they started traveling through time. In facing their past selves, though, they will need to align with an unexpected ally…

Marvel.com: How do you think this experience has changed the X-Men?

Cullen Bunn: The Original Five are completely different than they were before. They have discovered new things–about themselves and about the world. They have developed new relationships, developed new abilities and powers. All of that’s important, too. Assuming these X-Men come from “our” reality, there’s no way they can just return to their time. The physical and psychological changes they’ve experienced could “break time” too.

Marvel.com: If the Blue team manages to get back to where they came from, will the Gold team follow?

Cullen Bunn: This one stands all on the shoulders of the Blue team—they are the only heroes who can solve this crisis…because, in many ways, they caused it. If they fail, the Gold team will likely never exist. As you’ll see in the story, their travels through time have really twisted reality, not just for them, but for others in the future and the past as well.

Marvel.com: How does the team feel about the prospect of going back to their old lives?

Cullen Bunn: It’s not something any of them take lightly. Some of them—like Bobby—hate the idea of returning once and for all. But, as I mentioned, it’s more than just popping into the past and carrying on as if nothing ever happened; the X-Men are different now. They can’t simply go home. If time can continue unhindered, they must return just as they were when they left. Their physical changes must be undone. Their mental changes must be undone.

Imagine knowing that, in order for the world to go on spinning, you have to sacrifice everything that makes you who you are; for some of the X-Men, that price might be one they’re unwilling to pay.

Marvel.com: Any hints as to how this whole paradox will resolve itself?

Cullen Bunn: They have to be very careful here. They could change everything with their actions in the past. Really, though, that’s how they have gotten themselves into this mess in the first place. We’ll see that they are not the only people from the past that know they have been traveling through time.

We’ll also see that they’re really just patching leaks in the time stream with this adventure; if they want to repair the paradox once and for all, they must return to their timeline. Anything else destroys reality.

While this is a fun, crazy adventure, I think it leaves the Blue team with a deeper understanding of the inescapable fate that ultimately awaits them.

Cullen Bunn and artist RB Silva’s X-MEN: BLUE #19 ventures into the past on January 10!