XSE #1

History

The series was written by John Ostrander — a veteran best known for reinventing the Suicide Squad at DC and co-creating the Oracle persona for Barbara Gordon — making XSE a notable cross-publisher assignment during his productive mid-1990s Marvel period, which also included Bishop's earlier solo title and work on X-Men vs. the Brood. Issue #1's interior pencils were handled by Chris Gardner, with inks by Terry Austin and Tom Palmer, coloring by Derek Bellman, and lettering by Comicraft; Kelly Corvese edited the series under editor-in-chief Bob Harras. The issue shipped with multiple cover variants — a Chris Gardner cover (Cover A, direct edition) and a Steve Geiger cover (Cover B, sometimes identified by its yellow background) — alongside a newsstand edition, a common practice for Marvel X-titles at the time. The series ran for four issues through February 1997 and was followed by a 1998 sequel mini-series, Bishop: XSE, also written by Ostrander.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published November 1996 (on-sale September 4, 1996) by Marvel Comics as the first issue of a four-issue limited series running through February 1997.
• Written by John Ostrander; penciled by Chris Gardner; inked by Terry Austin and Tom Palmer; colored by Derek Bellman; lettered by Comicraft; edited by Kelly Corvese under editor-in-chief Bob Harras.
• First appearance of Hecat'e (Earth-1191), the mutant veteran of the Summers Rebellion who founded and commands the Xavier's Security Enforcers.
• First appearance of XSE agents Sureshot and Trace (Earth-1191), future-timeline supporting characters established as formative figures in Bishop and Shard's recruitment into the force.
• Story title is 'Double Time!' — a flashback-structured narrative in which Bishop and Shard recount their lives from childhood in mutant relocation camps through their entry into the XSE, providing the most detailed origin account of both characters to that point.
• The issue also features the first substantive in-story portrayal of villain Virago and the Exhumes terrorist faction (Earth-1191), as well as early appearances of Trevor Fitzroy and the Emplates in the future-timeline context.
• Issue #1 was released in three editions: a direct edition with the Chris Gardner cover (Cover A), a direct edition with a Steve Geiger cover on a yellow background (Cover B), and a newsstand edition.
• The series was followed by the 1998 sequel mini-series Bishop: XSE (written by Ostrander, illustrated by Steve Epting), which continued the Earth-1191 stories with additional new character debuts.

Full credits

Variants (2)