As part of a special Marvel Comics press call, we’re talking to writer Brian Wood and editor Jeanine Schafer about Wolverine and the X-Men: Alpha & Omega. If that’s all Greek to you, hopefully we can shed some light on the situation.

Watch this space for updates as they happen.

Wood opens by commenting on his return to the Marvel U after a long absence. The writer says he’s was more than ready to jump back into superhero work, and X-Men scratches most of his itches in that regard.

The first issue in this five-part mini centers on Quentin Quire, with the rebellious youth on the offense and Logan on the defense. Wood concedes that Quire is seen largely as a brat. Schafer comments on her love for the character and her elation that a writer like Wood can showcase more of the complicated mutant’s persona. The editor calls this series and its first issue a “Quentin primer” and recommends it as a starting point even for those turned off by the kid.

Guest stars. While the focus is Wolverine and Quentin, Wood promises big moments for Armor and Rachel, with fun background moments from Toad as groundskeeper. Quire will also attempt to hit on Bling, and that doesn’t work out for what should be obvious reasons.

The book features two artists, Roland Boschi and Mark Brooks. Wood comments that these styles aren’t exactly similar, and this actually works out because they’ll each be generating pages for two different narrative threads.

Asked about Armor’s presence in the story, Wood suggests she’ll be the young female foil to Logan and that he’s been a fan of the character since Whedon’s Astonishing run.

With regard to Quire’s “dickish arrogance” Wood says he’s eager to strip away some of the character’s attitude and explore his many layers. This is really a showcase for the lad. On the Wolverine tip, Wood says he’s actually very intimidated to step into the shoes of so many great writers who’ve contributed to his legacy. He is of course taking cues from Jason Aaron’s current positioning of Logan as a “Weary old man.”

Given his history with teen and YA oriented comic stories, we asked about Wood’s approach to balancing day-to-day teen drama and superhero action in his scripts. Wood jokes that he tends to turn in scripts to his editors and then wait on notes about adding more superhero stuff. He says there’s a real learning curve there, but he greatly benefits from collaboration with editors after all this time away from the genre. Schafer, though, praises the writer for a recent scene turned in with a particularly badass claw-popping moment.

Though the narrow focus of the mini limits the inclusion of those fun classroom scenes we loved in Aaron’s debut issues of Wolverine and the X-Men #1, Wood was pleased with the opportunity to set his story in Logan’s new school which functions so differently than Chuck’s academy. “I did miss getting to write a scene set in an old wood-panneled library though.”

It all starts in January, but until then, here’s a preview from Wolverine and the X-Men: Alpha & Omega, color pages by Roland Boschi, inks and cover to issue #3 by Mark Brooks.