Marvel taps Nick Brooks to write X-MEN: TEAM SPIRIT

Marvel is expanding its mutant lineup, and putting a fresh voice behind the wheel. Author and filmmaker Nick Brooks announced this week that he's partnering with Marvel, Abrams Books, and Piquebeyond on X-Men: Team Spirit, an original young adult graphic novel series kicking off with Fractured.

"So honored to announce that I've partnered with @marvel @abramsbooks and @piquebeyond to bring you an ALL NEW X-MEN SERIES!!" Brooks wrote in the announcement, which he shared alongside a Marvel-branded key art piece dubbing it a "new era of X-Men graphic novels." With the reveal, Brooks says he's making history as the first Black author to write an X-Men graphic novel for young readers.

Brooks is a Washington, D.C.-born author and award-winning filmmaker who's built his career on YA fiction with sharp, socially grounded stakes. His 2023 debut novel Promise Boys, a mystery following three teens of color investigating their principal's murder to clear their own names, became a critical and commercial hit, landing a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor, a spot on the New York Public Library and Kirkus best-of lists, and the 2024 Odyssey Award for excellence in audiobook production. He followed it with the middle-grade series Nothing Interesting Ever Happens to Ethan Fairmont and the 2025 novel Up in Smoke. Before turning to books, Brooks worked as an educator with at-risk youth, an experience that's shaped much of his fiction. 

Fractured, illustrated by Naomi Franq, drops readers into the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters at a moment of strain. Scott Summers is trying, and struggling, to hold the young mutant team together as training missions keep falling apart into bickering and blown assignments. The arrival of a new student, recruited without Scott's knowledge, only turns up the heat.

Meanwhile, Kurt Wagner is fighting a familiar battle: fitting in even among a school full of outsiders. Blue fur, glowing eyes, a prehensile tail — Kurt hoped Xavier's would finally be a place where different didn't mean unwelcome. Instead, he's blamed for a wave of pranks and petty thefts sweeping the school and finds himself shut out all over again. As tensions boil over into physical clashes between teammates, it falls to Scott and Kurt to patch things up and root out who or what is really tearing the X-Men apart.

Preorders for Fractured are open now through Abrams Books, with Brooks urging fans directly: "Preorders matter. They tell publishers, retailers, and the industry that there's an audience for stories like this — and for Black writers getting the opportunity to tell them."

The hardcover edition is slated for a July 6, 2027, release.