A little of this and a little of that...

I thought I'd give an update on this post as well as answer a few questions that have piled up since last time.
As you may know I stopped doing my FanRequestFriday series a little while ago because I kept finding myself too busy with work and falling weeks behind on the suggestions. But I missed drawing for fun and so when some of the members of the Frank Cho messaage board, which I visit occasionally, decided to start a sketchblog I thought this might be another opportunity to do a weekly drawing just for fun. And since I'm not the only one participating, if I happen to miss a week no big deal.
So here's a link to the FOCer's Sketchblog (FOC stands for Friends of Cho), so go there and check out what I'm posting and what the other artists are doing. If you don't want to go there for whatever reason don't worry, I'll also post my drawings here. 
The first post was just a painted version of one of my FanRequestFriday drawings which coincided with the first week's theme: Liberty Meadows - the great Frank Cho's great comic strip. It worked out good for me since I was already pushing other deadlines.

Here's from this week's theme - Samurai. I'm also going to reveal my first and second roughs for this piece. Unfortunately this isn't an exclusive since I also posted these on my Facebook Art of page , which you should also check out if you haven't already.
I originally envisioned this as a female samurai warrior, but decided to pull in  my libido a little and go full on nasty male samurai with it instead - as you can tell by the second rough.

 

Now onto some questions:


Dani's Blog asks:

Hello, I have a question.
I really liked the Storyline between Kurt-Mystique-Rogue, and also the way Kurt show he liked his mother in "Impact". Did you ever discuss how these characters would end up? It seems Mystique wanted to get both of them to like her and to be a mother.

I really liked all those dynamics as well that started with Shadowed Past - an episode I directed in season 1. I wish I had an answer for you, but if this was discussed I wsn't part of that discussion. I assume that since the storyline was so meaty it would have been re-visited if the show had gone onto another season

Anonymous asks:
Thanks for posting this, x-men evolution was a fantastic show! Heres my question: In season 1 Mystique has a different blue on her face and hands than on her arms/legs/back, I was just wondering what was the thinking behind this? Thanks
Originally her legs and arms were the same as the rest of her skin. KidsWB was skittish about so much flesh showing so instead of completely redesigning the character (we were already into production at that point) we opted to just give her sleeves and leggings and painted them in such away that it wasn't too distracting. KidsWB accepted this as a solution, but when season 2 came up we took the time to completely redesign the character because we weren't very happy about the final look

BlazeRocket asks (or says):

ee, now I'm amused because the "Pietro was probably 8 and Wanda was probably 6. But I could be wrong..." was the answer you gave me a few years ago when I asked. I like your new answer better though!
Sorry about that, but it just goes to show you we never discussed it much and my personal opinion was never clear. Though, if I answered "8 and 6" years ago that very well might have been the directions I was given by Boyd when I asked him what their age difference was when I started designing Wanda. I like my new answer better as well ;)

another Anonymous asks:

Hi, Steve. Any chance of seeing early concept art for X-Men: Evolution? 

I think I only have one or two of those early drawings. I'll look around and post them if I can find them.

Also everyone should check out some of the fan art linked to on the comments on the previous post. Some fun stuff!

Questions from XME fans

Recently I was asked by a very nice young lady (a young lady who sometimes dresses as XME Jean Grey) if I wouldn't mind answering some questions from members of a group that she belongs to - an X-Men: Evolution group, of course. I told her I'd do my best and from the looks at some of the questions these fans seem to know a lot more about the show then I do.

WHY did the show have to end?

That's an answer that I can only answer in vague terms since I don't want to offend any future employers. I can tell you another season had been originally part of the original contract and plan, but for several reasons KidsWB and Marvel decided not to go through with the next season and just wrap it all up at the end of season 4. Needless to say we were disappointed.

 
Do you ever read any of the fanfics or look at fanart created by the fans for the show?

I've never read any of the FanFic (though I understand some of it can get quite "interesting"), but every now and then I stumble across some of the FanArt (some of that can get quite "interesting" as well). I do get sent some photos of some of the Cosplays though every now and then. Feel free to send me any of the FanFic or FanArt. I'm always curious....I think.

Why did they create the acolytes with good-guy characters?

I wasn't part of that decision so I can't tell you the exact reasons since it wasn't one of the discussions I was involved in. In fact, I knew nothing in regards to the Acolytes prior to this show - as I've said in other interviews, I hadn't read or collected comics in a lot of years prior to getting the job on XME so I wasn't even aware of who Wolverine was. 
I regards to the Acolytes, I suspect the reason we used these specific characters is that they wanted to bring them onto the show and this seemed like a good way to bring them in as opposed to bringing in some bad guys never to be used again. Especially since (or so I've heard) that there was some history of these characters being bad guys at one time or another.

Why wasn't Dazler/Marrow/the White Queen/Polaris ever included?

I can only address two of these since I don't recall any discussion in regards to Polaris or Emma (though I'm not sure why - especially since Emma she seems to be a fan favorite and a favorite of Craig Kyle who was the Marvel guy starting in season 3). I know that Marrow wasn't used because we accidentally created a new character (Spyke) that had the same basic powers as Marrow. Believe it or not, we truly had never heard of Marrow until after we had already went forward with the Spyke intro episode. Kind of surprises me , in retrospect, that Marvel never said anything. The other character that you mention that I remember some discussion of is Dazzler and, if I recall right, it was determined she was too dated.

What are the main character's ages?
We never determined specific ages other than the obvious ones. Kitty was young enough to just be learning to drive in season 2 (if I'm remembering right) and Scott and Jean were seniors. Most of the characters were discussed in more general terms. Like so-and-so was in their 30's or so-and-so is younger than Kurt, etc.
Sounds like you have it right to me and I don't think I can add anything more to it. I don't think we thought of them in any more specific terms than these.

Are there ANY plans to continue the series someday? Maybe in comic form?
Anything is possible...but I seriously do not believe there is any chance of the show coming back after being cancelled so long ago at this point. Unless DVD sales are huge (like Family Guy) I wouldn't hold my breath.
All I can say is anything IS possible, BUT I really can't imagine it happening. Marvel never really accepted the show (even though many of the ideas we came up with they adapted and claimed as their own) so I can't imagine now that Marvel is in charge of their own animation that anything more will ever happen with the XME universe.

If the series hadn't ended, what storyline would they have tackled next?
To my knowledge the next season's shows had never been seriously discussed (this usually only happened after the next season was green lighted) and these visions were created as just a way to wrap up the series for the fans - and ourselves.

Where was Gambit's flirtatious side in Evo?
I wasn't involved in story discussions for season 3 and 4 (I was only freelancing the character designs and the occasional storyboard - my day job was at DreamWorks) so I don't know what their thinking was in regards to Gambit. I thought they tried to use it a little bit, but it didn't become quite as big a deal as it did in the comics. Keep in mind we liked (and I think the fans did too) that Rogue had sort of a thing for Scott and too much Gambit/Rogue flirtation would've interfered with that.

Why wasn't Gambit at the final battle with Apocalypse?
I have no idea...sorry. Too many Mint Juleps...?

Why wasn't Rogue and Gambit's relationship explore further?
I think I answered this in the earlier question as best as I could. When I was involved in story discussions I know we didn't feel it was necessary to replicate all relationships and personalities from the comics.  We sure went quite different with many of them like Rogue (no longer the big haired Southern Belle but now Goth Trailer Trash).

If the show had continued, would Gambit have joined the X-men, and if so, how?
It wouldn't have surprised me, but if anything was specifically planned I couldn't say for sure. My best guess would be that he would've only been an occasional guest star on the show and used for specific episodes.

Does Rahne shed?
Constantly. That's why they didn't let her on any of the good furniture.

Why did Rahne get taken out from the show?
After season 2, I think it was determined that we had too many characters to adequately service and give quality time to so they used the outing of Mutants in season 3 to move some of the characters off screen. 

What is the correct way to pronounce "Rahne"? In the show, both "Rain" and "Rawnee" are used.
When we checked with Marvel they said it was pronounced "Rain", but I had a friend that was actually from Ireland and even though she'd never heard of that name before she assumed it would be pronounced "Rawnee" and couldn't imagine it ever being pronounced "Rain". Why was it pronounced both ways on the show...? I can only assumed someone made a mistake and it wasn't caught.

Was Moira MacTaggert Rahne's foster mother in Evo verse?
I don't think we ever went that far in our thinking. If someone had come up with a good storyline that involved that connection we might have used it.

Would you say Magneto is a: Misunderstood old guy in a helmet or Crazy old guy  bent on worldwide domination?
Even though it wasn't real apparent in season 1, I think our goal was to try and show that he was someone that had been wounded by the Human race and felt he needed to do what he could to save Mutant-kind. I think this actually worked much better in Wolverine and the X-Men then in XME.  I also think he suffered from being forced into the position of being the Big Bad in XME and this caused any subtleties to be smoothed over quite a bit.

Where did Pietro disappear to for the end of "Shaddowdance"? (He's seen arriving with his four dates, but after arriving all five are never seen again).
Though I haven't read any of them, I suspect that FanFic has probably addressed that better than I could.

Would Wanda have ever gotten her memories back?
I'd be willing to bet that would have come up in a future episode. We were very proud of that whole "Wanda was institutionalized by her father and was damaged goods" storyline we created, so I imagine it would've come up again.

Who is older, Pietro or Wanda? How old were they when Wanda was institutionalized?
Pietro was probably 8 and Wanda was probably 6. But I could be wrong...
I always assumed they were fraternal twins - isn't that what they were in the comics (not that mattered in the XME universe)? But I'm not sure we ever discussed it. If pressed I would assume Pietro was slightly older

What exactly happened to Kurt in those experiments?
We never really discussed it (that I recall) and we purposely left it vague so the audience could come to their own conclusion. BUT I always assumed that Magneto had done something to force his mutation to occur sooner then it would have naturally (we were working on the hypothesis that mutations didn't usually manifest until the character in question reached adolescence). Whether that caused his mutation to be different  than what it would have been if left to evolve on its own is anyone's guess.

What does the "E" stand for in Kurt E. Wagner? (from "Bada Bing Bada-Boom" where Tabby has doodled what fans speculate to be her initials (T.S.) and Kurt's initials (K.E.W.) in a heart http://www.xmenetv.com/images/caps/02/02_03_56.jpg http://www.xmenetv.com/images/caps/02/02_03_57.jpg )
I have absolutely no idea...sorry. My guess is it was something the writer came up with.

How much can Kurt eat in one sitting?
I don't know...as much as a normal teenager - In other words, a lot!

What's X-23's real name?
I'm pretty sure there was never one created. I think the idea was, since she was  a clone and had no real parents, that she was just given an identification number and X-23 was the 23rd attempt at the cloning process.

Why were two entire episodes devoted to X-23?
There might be a couple of reasons for that. The first is that it was a way to make a couple of episodes specifically involving Wolverine without them being directly about him and the other reason is that the Marvel guy in charge of the show starting in Season 3 was Craig Kyle and he created the character X-23. X-23 was based on the niece (I think she was the niece) of Craig's fiance. She was used as the original model for X-23 and Craig's fiance was used as the model for Dr Risman.

Paul: Where did he come from, and why wasn't there MORE of him?
I assume the writer's came up with the character so Scott could have a non-Mutant friend and eventually they found fewer reasons and less of a need to include him. I did try to insert him into crowd-shots whenever possible, but that was pretty limited

Did Paul ever realize that his milk was overflowing? (While he's watching the X-men on TV in "Day  of Reckoning: Part Two")
If he never figured out Scott was a Mutant then I suspect he never realized his milk was overflowing and probably is still overflowing to this day

What colour are Scott's Eyes? (In the show, in various flashbacks, and single-frame freezes, his eyes are shown as being Green, Blue, and Black (or possibly a very dark brown).)

Hmmm...I'm not sure. I know we did come up with a color model, but I couldn't tell you which color was the official one...sorry

What ethnicity is Avalanche?
American Trailer Trash. Pretty sure we never worried about his heritage beyond that.

Why was Spyke blond?
We were just trying to come up with a unique look for him and it helped tie him in a little with his Aunt Ororo. Originally he was designed with Corn-rows, but the people in charge thought it looked too "gangsta" and might scare the children (?)

Blob vs Juggernaut. Who'd win?!
Juggernaut

Since Forge appears underage, does he have a hard time buying beer or getting into clubs and stuff?
Forge doesn't party - he's a geek. At the end of MiddleVerse originally Forge was going to give Kurt the Star Trek "live long and prosper" sign and Kurt would try and return it unsuccessfully (he was NC at this point), but the KidsWB didn't want us to reference Star Trek.

Was Piotr an artist, like in the comics?
I'm not sure and I doubt we would have gone there, but anything is possible.

Was there a back story or origin story for Ray Crisp? Why was he at the institute? How did he know about the Morlocks?
I'm not sure his backstory was ever really worked out (same for many of the new recruits), but we did know he had a relationship at one point with the Morlocks.


I'm afraid I wasn't nearly as authoritative as some of the XME fans would've liked, but I did my best and I'm always willing to answer more questions (assuming I know the answers) In the future.