PK: When issue #95 came out in June (with the Northstar cliffhanger ending) it also happened to be gay pride month. In fact, it happened just as I was writing the article about Northstar and his 'extreme bachelor' status. It caused a bit of a reaction due to the timing. Marvel confirmed for us that the timing was accidental, but I thought maybe you'd like to tell our readers a little bit about the process of creating comics and, more specifically, the time between writing what's on the page and when it's actually printed.

Aron: Marvel approached me with writing that book back in November '07, so I had actually come up with the story in November and started writing in December and had no idea when the book was actually scheduled to come out. It's done so far ahead of time, I'm just concentrating on trying to craft whatever issue I'm on. I had a book, the fourth book of the story arc that just came out this week, and I've been so busy that I didn't even realize it was coming out! I'm just trying to write good stories.

PK: A lot of people are upset, perhaps justifiably, that Northstar has died again. (or appeared to) I've seen at least one article referring to him as the 'Redshirt' of the Marvel Universe. What would you say to those fans of the character that feel he's being singled out?

Aron: I don't think he's being singled out. From my perspective, I really wanted to tell a Colossus story. I don't think you can tell a Colossus story in the Ultimate universe without telling part of a Northstar story. He was intrinsic to the story that I wanted to tell. As far as Mark Millar killing him, and resurrecting him as a ninja for The Hand, I can't say that he's a redshirt. I think that people are trying to use him in interesting and different ways and for me it was about telling the Colossus story because that's a character that I've always felt very drawn to. My predecessors on Ultimate X-men had set up a relationship between them and I wanted to explore that further.

PK: From another perspective, often when I see a character die in a comic, I simply think, oh, well, they'll show up again in a year. (Especially if they're a major character). Do you think that comic writers use death too much in their stories, these days? Does this take away from the emotional value of the death? Does it cheapen it? Or, alternatively, do readers take it too seriously, at times?

Aron: I think writers do use it a bit too often. I used it, knowing I was gonna bring him back in a capacity...

PK: This had been a theme recently with the book as well, with Jean having the Phoenix power, and the team just assuming she could bring anyone back.

Aron: Absolutely. I really want to address that. I had a very strong reaction when Phoenix was able to bring people back from the dead lickety-split, and I kind of wanted to address that issue. That death IS more meaningful, that Jean can't just bring people back from the dead, necessarily. That tragedy does happen and what I tried to do was create a real tragedy, that he believe him (Northstar) to be dead. But really what happened was that he had a tragic injury and he's paralyzed. They're both in very injured states right now, and hopefully they'll be able to heal themselves together and really come together as a couple.

PK: So he was injured, and not killed?

Aron: Yes. In issue #97, it wasn't Jean that brought him back, it was Jean that brought him out. She was basically saying, "All your rage, all your emotion is misplaced. In your anger you didn't stick around long enough to see what was really going on". He was paralyzed because of the Banshee, because of what happened to him.

Again, I think that people use death too often. For example, everyone knows Steve Rogers is coming back, but issue #25 (of Captain America) sold lots of copies. It's a good thing because it gets people talking about comic books, it gets people reading. It's a stunt, but it creates interest. It's hard not to use the stunt, but there also more creative things writers can do besides killing people only to bring them back.

PK: While so far there hasn't been anything shown between Northstar and Colossus, I did want to bring up Peter's memories from issue #94. Jean pokes through his head and there's a memory of his father walking in on him with another boy. This is actually pretty bold for a Marvel book, did your editor's say anything about that when you showed it too them?

Aron: They were all for it. I've been honestly shocked at what I've gotten away with, in this run. Between drug use, not condoning drug use, by the way, and that moment of Colossus being discovered by his father. I wanted to do something that was very real, something that pushed the boundries of what was done in the Ultimate universe. For me that's what the Ultimate universe is all about. A very human, very real world take on these characters. That scene was very important to me so I wrote it, and I was expecting them to say "we can't do that" and I was pleasantly surprised when they didn't say anything. I'm pretty proud of my editors and Marvel in general because it's been pretty bold, with what's acceptable and what's unacceptable in a book. I don't know if they've gotten any flak for it, but they certainly didn't say no when I suggested putting it in.

PK: In #96, there's another cliffhanger, Logan, angry that his DNA is apparently the basis for Mutant Growth Hormone, aka Banshee, attacks Colossus, blaming him for it's creation, cutting out his heart. This mirrors, in a way, his killing of mind-controlled Northstar in 2005. Was that an intended reference? Or just symbolism about Colossus' broken heart?

Aron: I was going for the symbolism. It was a mistake on Logan's part, they make up. He didn't have any intention of cutting out his heart. But one of the fights I had never seen in all my years of collecting X-Men was "What happens when adamantium claws meet organic steel?" What's it like inside Colossus while transformed? I don't know. Let's figure it out, What happens?

PK: The surprising result of course, was, not much. It certainly didn't slow him down any.

Aron: It didn't slow him down at all. That's part of what I wanted to do. The metaphor I was attempting to accomplish was that this was a guy who turns his skin to steel, and he hasn't been the most emotionally accesable person. He's so prone to aggression. Isn't that the metaphor he represents? That you can't feel anything when you're steel, that you're cutting yourself off. It's established in the regular Marvel universe, not just Ultimate, that he can survive underwater because his lungs turn to steel. He can survive in space, he doesn't need to breath underwater. It only made sense to me that every part of him turns to metal, there were no squishy parts. When you have no squishy parts, that means you pretty much can't be killed when you're in that form and I wanted to put that forth, have him realize what happens to him when he changes.

PK: One of the main points of my first article on Northstar (that I got sidetracked away from) back in June was how Northstar has been out of the closet for over fifteen years, but has yet to be shown kissing, hugging, or showing any kind of physical affection to a man since. What's your opinion on this? Have writers just not realized it?

Aron: I don't think the writers are aware of that. It's amazing to me when you say that isn't been 15 years because it doesn't feel like it. That's pretty amazing, it really is. I think most writers don't realize it's been that long, especially in the proper (616) universe, because nobody has had the guts to pair him with anybody. To actually say he was in a relationship with anybody. They put him forward, as a gay character, and it's awesome. As a reader, I was 18 years old at the time and I've always been an avid X-men fan and I thought that was really pretty bold for Marvel to do, espcially at the time. It's great. Then he became a teacher at Xavier's, and I thought that's great. That's a really positive role for him. They never put him in a relationship though, it's always Scott and Jean and Rogue and Gambit and that was pretty much it.

I think that, maybe, in the past 4-5 years someone could/should have taken up the reins on that. A writer like Allan Heinberg, for example, who really did an amazing job with Young Avengers, could have done something with that. But like all writers and especially TV writers is hard pressed to do more than one book a month. And it would have been difficult because for the longest time, because he was the only one, it would have meant outing somebody else as well, in order to do that. Maybe the editors were shy about that, but I'm not sure why nobody took the opportunity to put the only gay character in a relationship with somebody, whether it was an established character or a new character. I think it takes people who try to be bold, and I think it was Brian K. Vaughan who did it with Northstar and Colossus in the Ultimate universe and to me that was a big deal. Comics should be progressive and reflect what is really going on in the world.

PK: Given the reaction fans have had over this, knowing how fans hold these characters as icons, has it made you rethink how you approach the characters? About stories you might tell with them?

Aron: It doesn't. I've read a bunch of the boards and I think that the characters need to be able to grow and breath and be able to change. When they take on 'iconic' status, that's something that can't be helped, but it's also something that can't be held onto, necessarily. There's been a lot of debate, just what I've read, that because they're iconic they can't be touched, that nobody can do anything with them. That they have to stay positive role models who can do no wrong. They can't be human beings, in that sense. Which I think is the wrong thing to do with characters. They need to be able to have their foibles and have to be able to make mistakes, whether they're icons or not.

I just wanted to tell a love story, from the perspective of how far Colossus would go, what he would do, for this person he loves. It just so happened that for Ultimate Colossus this person was Northstar, and that's ok, and it's ok to tell that story and the character shouldn't be 'hands-off', just because they are icons or that they are gay. The X-men tell stories like this over and over again, but it's always Scott and Jean, or Scott and Emma, or Rogue and Gambit. But I don't want to tell those stories again. It's un-intresting. It doesn't push the boundries of what we can do as storytellers, of what we can do in media. I don't think comic creators should be scared off because someone is an icon, I don't think anyone is untouchable. Anyone should be fair game to act as human beings, to have stories where they can be normal people.

PK: Finally, can you give us any hints where these two characters might be going, in the future?

Aron: I can drop some hints, as we approach Ultimatum. Ultimatum is gonna shake up the Marvel Ultimate universe, in big, huge, tremendous ways. I wanted to keep those two out of a lot of the shakeup that's going on. They've been through enough already, as it is right now. I think that hopefully, in the not too distant future, I can come back to those characters and finish the story I've set up here. I have plans for them, I have ideas for where they are going next. But I don't know if that will be seen in the immediate future.

PK: So, their current situation, being on the sidelines, recovering, may end up protecting them a bit?

I think it's going to save their lives. That might be a very big spoiler for Ultimatum, but there it is. I've been so lucky to be a part of Ultimatum, it's going to be pretty big and shake up the universe in a fantastic and gruesome fashion.