Jonathan Hickman returns to Marvel to give the X-Men the Avengers treatment!

If you haven’t heard yet, at Chicago’s pop culture event, C2E2, Marvel announced that acclaimed Avengers writer Jonathan Hickman will be returning to the imprint and taking up the X-Men reigns come this July! The books are titled “House of X” and “Powers of X.” He will be joined by artists Pepe Larraz and R.B. Silva along with colorist Marte Gracia.

This is stellar news as Hickman was key in revamping the Avengers line of books after [easyazon_link identifier=”0785163182″ locale=”US” tag=”boundingintocomics-20″]Avengers Vs. X-Men[/easyazon_link]. Under his leadership, the superhero franchise took on a larger, more impactful story which led all of Marvel Comics into [easyazon_link identifier=”0785198954″ locale=”US” tag=”boundingintocomics-20″]Secret Wars[/easyazon_link].

If you take the time to examine the promo art above you’ll see several inconsistencies such as several versions of Jean, Wolverine, and Storm. There are also a few characters present that are supposed to be long-time dead, specifically, Liandra and Professor-X. Not to mention, on the right side there are a couple of mysteries like a kid version of Havok, and what appears to be an amalgamation of Kitty, Colossus, and Magik!

Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski was excited when announcing the project:

“We are excited to have Jon back with the Marvel family, and we could not have asked for a better creative team to help usher the X-Men into a whole new era. While we can’t reveal too much about the story just yet, these new stories will redefine the X-Men and their place in the Marvel Universe. This is a historic moment both new and passionate fans won’t want to miss.”

Powers of X and House of X will be released on an alternate weekly schedule with House of X releasing first followed by Powers of X.

What the X-Men will look like following [easyazon_link identifier=”1302915754″ locale=”US” tag=”boundingintocomics-20″]Age of X-Man[/easyazon_link] is unclear, but with Hickman, at the helm, it is sure to be interesting and for sure epic. His scope tends to be wider than the average writer. With a canvas as large and rich with lore as the X-Men, whatever he has planned is probably going to change the X-Men landscape for years to come. Personally, had I been able to pick a writer for the X-Men after Secret Wars, it would have been Hickman, especially had they really been jettisoned into space like so many of us thought could happen.

It is probably no coincidence that this announcement came after the acquisition of 21st Century Fox was complete. Any fans of the X-Men will have noticed how often they’ve occupied the backseat of Marvel over the last few years. Despite denials from execs and creators, fans have long suspected that the imprint was actively suppressing the Merry Mutants and any other franchise Disney did not own the film rights to. If nothing else, with the X-Men movie rights finally under the Disney umbrella, perhaps we can see some magic return to the mansion.

It’s possible Hickman’s upcoming X-Men series could influence upcoming Marvel Studios projects much like his [easyazon_link identifier=”0785184236″ locale=”US” tag=”boundingintocomics-20″]Infinity[/easyazon_link] series influenced Joe and Anthony Russo’s Avengers: Infinity War.

Are you looking forward to Marvel’s House of X and Powers of X?