During New York City Comic Con, Marvel editors announced that following Warren Ellis' run, Daniel Way would take over writing duties for the series with Jason Pearson illustrating. Shortly after, it was announced that Christos Gage would also be writing for "Astonishing X-Men", with Juan Bobillo as illustrator. Gage's arc would alternate with Way's over the course of seven issues. Way later revealed that this format was done due to illustrator Jason Pearson not being available on a monthly basis, and called the decision to alternate stories "brilliant." Though Pearson was the original artist for "Monstrous", he would only end up working on one-and-half issues, with artists Sara Pichelli and Nick Bradshaw doing the illustration for the rest of the arc.