X-Men & Flaming Lips Crossover! See Exclusive 'X-Men '92' Comic Cover Art
From TV to comics to the big screen, the X-Men have remained one of Marvel's most beloved properties for years. But even though they've never quite gone away (in fact, they're back in theaters this month with X-Men: Apocalypse), many a '90s kid still pines for the X-Men of their youth.
Enter Marvel Comics' X-Men '92 series, which takes places in the classic X-Men '90s continuity (yes, this means Wolverine looks just like you remember him from the Fox Kids TV series). In the upcoming Issue #6 (August), Professor X's band of misfits meets another when the Flaming Lips visit the X-Men universe. Today (May 11) Billboard is excited to debut the cover of that issue, which features Wolverine slashing Sentinels while Wayne Coyne looks on quizzically.
"Being in an X-Men comic where they (the X-Men themselves) actually run security at one of our shows... I should have written a song about that," Coyne says. "I mean... before it really happened."
The Lips aren't the only alt-rock band (who started in the '80s but got famous in the '90s) to guest in Issue #6 -- Texas rockers The Toadies also appear in the August issue. Marvel Universe, meet Possum Kingdom.
"Unbelievably cool!" gushes Toadies drummer Mark Reznicek of the experience. "As a lifelong fan of comics in general, and X-Men in particular, I couldn't be more excited that the Toadies are appearing as characters in X-Men '92!!"
"As an X-Men fan since 1977 this is a dream come true. Five year old me would do a Kool-Aid spit take on this news," Toadies bassist Doni Blair adds.
Chris Sims, co-writer of X-Men '92, says the rock world foray started as a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the weird cameos that would crop up in comics back in the day. “It really all started with us joking about the kind of stunts they'd pull in comics in the '90s, and Chad [Bowers, X-Men '92 co-writer] and I going 'hey, wouldn't it be great if we could get a real-life band to appear in the issue, like they did with celebrity guest appearances back then.' We just didn't think we'd actually get to do it!”
Bowers says the selection of the bands was, for him, very personal.
“The Flaming Lips and The Toadies are two of my favorite bands, and each had a profound impact on my musical tastes growing up -- Rubberneck for the Toadies, and The Soft Bulletin and really everything behind it for the Lips. Getting to reference not just the bands, but the music and what those songs meant to us is pretty surreal, and unlike anything either of us imagined we'd be doing on X-Men '92. Now if we can just convince Marvel to let us keep [the Lips'] Steve Drozd on the team when this arc's over...”
Our wish? That the crossover doesn't end until the Flaming Lips cover the incredible theme song to the X-Men cartoon from the '90s. That would (as you'd say back then) totally rule.