The Return of the X-Men—What You Need to Know

In the wake of House of X and Powers of X, mutants in the Marvel Universe find themselves in a remarkably altered landscape.

There hasn’t been an X-Men run this exciting since Josh Whedon helmed Astonishing X-Men. From the beginning Jonathan Hickman brought his A game as we scrambled to figure out what we were being presented. Nerdist said what was on our mind, tThe first issue shows us Charles Xavier, wearing a Cerebro helmet that he never removes, summoning what look like Scott Summers and Jean Grey in the nude out of pods. This is the biggest hint that our favorite characters are not who they seem to be. First off, ever since Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the idea of ‘pod people’ has never been a positive one. It’s part of our collective consciousness now to respond to images of people emerging out of pods as copies, and evil ones at that.”

House of X shows Charles Xavier establishing a new mutant homeland on the living mutant island of Krakoa. Now the living nation state for the mutant diaspora.

Moira McTaggert is a mutant. One who has lived many lives and is the catalyst for unifying Charles and Erik, so that they in turn can make the nation state a success. They have no choice as Moira tells Charles, “Hard truths are what’s called for when dealing with radical realignments to old ways of thinking.”

Charles Xavier: “We… we lose?”

Moira: ” No. Its much worse than that. We always lose.”

Moira has to break Charles’ optimism in order for him to have the strength that she needs.

Polygon said, “The new foe of the X-Men is neither man nor machine, but rather a the fusion of the two, and that’s a brilliant turn for mutants, who have always been defined by a biological quirk subject to the stochasticity of nature. Mutations are as harnessable as the power of the sun (which was once, canonically, their source), but just as impossible to blot out.”

And House of X/Powers of X has only rooted mutants further in biology and the natural world, from the living island of Krakoa that uses plants and soil to furnish all they might need, to the medical drugs they use as a bargaining chip to force the human world to recognize their sovereignty, to hints that the mutant maker Forge is for the first time turning his talent to biotechnology. And that’s all without mentioning the new mutant access to bodily resurrection.

After praising Hickman’s shake up of the status quo and “by presenting a new mutant status quo, where a hated and feared minority has not merely drew a line in the ground to say “this far, and no farther.” The first issue of House of X alone establishes the military, technological, cultural, societal, and, eventually, population superiority of Krakoa over all other human societies.”

The series has closed by presenting mutantkind with a new existential threat that is beyond humanity, coupled with the reveal that over 10 functionally immortal lifetimes, they have lost to it, every time. And Hickman and his collaborators still did it in the most X-Men way possible: A sweeping retcon that involves time travel, resurrection, and no fewer than nine alternate universes.

With the conclusions of the House of X and Powers of X 12-issue miniseries, Marvel will launch  the first of the Dawn of X publishing initiative, X-Men #1  this week. Written by showrunner Jonathan Hickman and Leinil Francis Yu. The series has been promoted as starring every single X-Man, but the first issue cover features almost every member of the Summers Family Tree.

According to CBR, “Though the cast may be large, a preview of X-Men #1 puts the focus on just two of the X-Men’s leaders: Cyclops and Storm. The duo is out on a mission to take out one of the new threats to surface during House of X. Orchis is an organization comprised of the greatest minds from various groups, including S.H.I.E.L.D., A.I.M., Hydra and others. The collection of humans are trying to stop the rapid rise of the mutant population, which will eventually see mutants surpass humans as the dominant species in a short number of years.

The X-Men #1 preview reveals Cyclops and Storm are in the middle of raiding the last Orchis stronghold on Earth, and the two leaders are making quick work of guards and robot defenders.