“When two aggressive species share the same environment, evolution demands adaptation or dominance.”
With this minimal ad, Marvel began a long journey towards the era of Johnathan Hickman guiding the X-Men line. Hickman will be writing two books, House of X & Powers of X, which have promised to unveil Xavier’s master plan for mutantkind, and reveal the secret past, present, and future of mutantkind, changing the way you look at every X-Men story before and after. Beyond that, we have very little information about where the books are going. But with only two covers, two contextless panels, a handful of ads, and a promo image, I think I have cracked the core of what Hickman is doing.
Y’all, the X-Men are going to Mars and meeting up with the Legion of Superheroes!
Maybe I should back up. One of the most recognized qualities in Hickman’s superhero writing is his longform storytelling. Seeds are planted in issue one that might not come to bloom until the grand finale. It can make for complex stories that are deeply rewarding upon rereading. He, does not however, limit this to individual series. His massive, universe ending story Secret Wars pulled not only from his Avenger’s titles, but also his work on SHIELD, Ultimate Comics: Ultimates, and Fantastic Four. It shouldn’t be shocking that his plan for the X-Men would draw on stories he has written in the past.
It all begins with this problem. “When two aggressive species share the same environment, evolution demands adaptation or dominance.” At first, it can be read as a description of the folly of Xaiver’s dream of peaceful coexistence. Mutants are truly dominant by evolution. Humans cannot adapt to survive them. And this, after all, is the course of nature. Everything dies. But I believe that stance is accepting a problem as unsolvable, and throughout his work, notably in Fantastic Four and New Avengers, Hickman’s character have had one burning goal. Solve everything. I believe Charles Xavier has begun to look at this problem differently. If two aggressive species can not share the same environment, the only peaceful solution is for one to leave.
Now finding a new world wouldn’t be a novel solution for the X-Books. It was long rumored that Rick Remender’s take on Extraordinary X-Men would have set the team on Jupiter’s moon Europa instead of Limbo. The current Age Of X-Man event solves the problem by turning two aggressive species into one peaceful one and most of the X-Men’s villians believe eliminating all humans or all mutants would fix everything. Finding a solution beyond adapt or die isn’t new. It’s old enough, in fact, that Hickman may have already set it up.
Hickman’s Avengers epic opens with the introduction of an antagonist named Ex Nihilo. His name is Latin for “out of nothing”, and is philosophically used to describe the theory that the creation of the universe came from not but an abyss. First there was nothing, followed by everything. Ex Nihilo is a Gardner, created by the first race in the universe, The Builders. He, and the other Gardner’s, are tasked with perfecting life. Evolving it. Seeing life on Earth as imperfect, he attempts to fulfill his role, until he is stopped by the Avengers. Now he is not malicious or evil in this act. In fact, he takes joy in this creation, seeing himself as benevolent towards Earth. Realizing this, he and the Avengers come to an agreement. He stays away from Earth, and in return he can grow on Mars. He can turn the red planet green.
What does this have to do with Hickman’s X-Men? Well, we need to look at the recurring motifs in the art we currently have released. There are a ton of things to catch the eye in the massive Mark Brooks promotional image for these books, but what many have overlooked is the tree of vines in the background. The cover for Powers of X has leafy vegetation among the characters and starscape. Most convincingly, the House of X cover reveals the X-Men emerging from some portal (one similar to those the mutant Manifold created in Hickman’s Avengers) surrounded by deep green vines and plant growth onto a world with a deep red sky. The scene is nearly identical to Dustin Weaver’s depiction of the garden of Mars as created by Ex Nihilo.
Still, I remained unsure about this. Sure the connective tissue of evolution, growth, and Hickman were all there, but it couldn’t be that simple right? However, I had a profound realization, one that convinced me that I was 100% correct. The catalyst for all this evolution was a single character, a character who influenced every X-Men story from the very beginning.
Ex Nihilo
X-Nihilo
A well known truth about comics writers, Hickman included, is that they love puns. To me, this is the smoking gun. The indisputable evidence that a wild theory about the X-Men living on Mars had to be true. It convinced me to write over 1000 words about a fan theory. Staking my reputation by calling my shot about the biggest X-Men relaunch in years. Based on a pun.
My firm belief is that X-Nihilo was the source of the X-Gene. He caused the secondary mutations. He has been waiting for mutants to reach their natural potential. Learning this (we’ll get to how) Professor Xaiver will relocate the X-Men to the garden of Mars as their new home world. Their House of X.
Now, as compelling as this evidence is, it doesn’t tie everything we have been shown into one cohesive theory. The biggest gap being the new characters on the Powers of X (read 10) cover. This is where we get into wild guessing territory, but hang with me. The X-Men have a secret weapon that can be used to combat all these odd situations and inconsistencies.
Time travel baby!
For better or worse it (and its cousin alternate realities) is a constant trope of not just the X-Men, but Hickman’s work as a whole. His Fantastic Four involved time displaced versions of many of the characters who helped guide the FF into their next adventures. Similarly, an arc of his Avengers was about Captain America seeing different, future versions of the Avengers and acted as the driving force for his actions in the third act of the run. SHIELD was all about different timelines and realities. New Avengers was about alternate Earth’s crashing into one another. The Red Wing and Pax Roman are time travel epics. Manhattan Projects and East of West are alternate histories. Hickman and the X-Books love these tropes, and I think they are coming together.
An upcoming cover of the Marvel edition of Previews features the ad copy “Face the Future”. This is not just talking in a meta-textual sense as these books are promoted as a paradigm shift for the books, I believe this is literal. Charles Xavier will be forced to face the future his dream wrought, and I’m betting it’s good. We’ve seen a braided girl with metal skin swinging the soulsword. A red demonic figure in Nightcrawler’s usual duds. A bald woman and a child with a streak of white hair. I’m betting these are not Infinity Warps style mashups or the offspring of current mutants, these are the X-Men of the far future. The X-Men ten generations removed from the present day. These are The Legion of Superheroes, but for X-Men.
To me, this is much more realistic than the X-Books spending six months in an alternate reality only to jump right into another one. It’s more realistic than editor Jordan D. White approving a story where all the warp together a year after doing that in Infinity Warps. This is Hickman taking his well documented love for the concepts in DC’s Legion of Superheroes and applying it to his X-Men run. It also would explain the odd pronunciation of the title. These are the X-Men evolved ten times over. Powers of X.
Seeing this dream become real, combined with the realization that X-Nihilo caused the evolutionary jump that begat mutants, gives a new purpose to Xavier. His mission is foreign to the X-Men, not prevent the future, but ensure it comes to pass. He’ll seek guidance from the Gardener on Mars after learning the truth of the history of mutantkind. He’ll realize the subtle way X-Nihilo influenced the evolution of other species on Earth, specifically through a mutant lobster named Bill. This will put him and his X-Men in a partnership with Magneto, who sees Mars as a solution to the oppression of mutants he has often fought against. It will put them in conflict with Sinister who wants to use the ability of X-Nihilo as a tool for his own nefarious purposes, as well as against Apocalypse who sees it as a perversion of his edict of survival of the fittest.
While this is going on in House of X, we will cut to the far future X-Men and learn more about them in Powers of X. We will get a deeper understanding on how they came to be. We’ll fine more out about these characters and see what makes them tic. At the end of these two six-issue series we will see this X-Legion come to the present, to the House of X on Mars. And brother, there’s gonna be conflict.
In all honesty, I don’t know how much of this will come to pass. I have no inside information about the plot of these books. I just have time to kill, but it’s fun to think about right? At the end of the day, I hope that anything we actually get is half as wild as this. Hickman is a wildly imaginative creator and I’d bet we’re going to see him dream bigger than I ever could. But for now, I’m going to preach this theory as true and dream that I get even 10% of it right. And to those who say I’m just a dreamer, well, here’s the thing… It’s not a dream if it’s real.
Zachary Jenkins co-hosts the podcast Battle of the Atom and is the former editor-in-chief of ComicsXF. Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside all this.
