The marriage fans were expecting is no longer happening.


If there’s one thing that Marvel Entertainment’s X-Men franchise loves more than metaphors for social injustice, it's classic soap operatics, and the twist in this week’s issue of X-Men Gold shows that the romance is still alive — in more ways than one.


As revealed via The New York Times, Wednesday's — X-Men Gold No. 30 will see the much-hyped wedding between Kitty Pryde and Colossus fall through at the last moment, only for an entirely different marriage to take place instead, when Rogue and Gambit tie the knot.


Marvel has been promoting the wedding between Kitty and Colossus for months, even going so far as to release a stand-alone X-Men Wedding Special last month in advance of Wednesday's release. Talking to the Times, Marc Guggenheim — writer of the X-Men Gold series, which Marvel on Tuesday revealed will end in September — suggested that their not getting married wasn’t the original plan.


"Comics, like TV and film, is a very collaborative medium," Guggenheim is quoted as saying. "These are not my characters, they are Marvel's. … Part of writing other people's characters in a shared universe are other ideas are going to end up supplanting yours. My job as a writer is to take those marching orders and write the best issue I can."


While the remaining issues of X-Men Gold will follow up on what happens to Kitty and Colossus, replacement X-Newlyweds Gambit and Rogue will anchor a new ongoing comic book series launching next month called Mr. and Mrs. X, written by Kelly Thompson with art by Oscar Bazaldua. Thompson’s comments to the Times also hinted that the twist in the tale came as a surprise to the writers and artists involved.


"Marvel likes to keep things interesting and throwing the wrench into things," said Thompson. "I think I was resistant to it initially, but that’s my mistake. It creates all this great conflict and intrigue." Her new series, she said, will fill in some of the backstory to the characters' marriage because "I felt the fans deserved to see this because we did not get a big buildup."


X-Men Gold No. 30 will be released Wednesday; Mr. and Mrs. X No. 1 will be released July 25.