Are the X-Men about to have an exodus?
Are the Jean Grey School and Xavier School closing their doors?
In the just announced November previews, Avengers & X-Men: AXIS #4 see the X-Men “join their greatest foe” and in #5 “claim a new home.”
This is the latest clue that could be pointing to the mutants starting over in a new base.
AXIS is the inversion of many Marvel heroes so the tease above could mean the mutants are siding with Apocalypse or aligning with Magneto and finding a new home among old enemies.
This is a sign that the X-Men books are set to evolve again.
Possible spoiler alert:
If you have not read Uncanny X-Men #24 yet you may want to stop reading now.
The mutants are learning The Last Will & Testament of Charles Xavier in the pages of Uncanny X-Men right now. We’ve learned two of Xavier’s greatest secrets: a mutant so dangerous he kept hidden away to protect the entire race and that he married Raven Darkholme (Mystique) before he died!
Who is this mystery mutant?
Does this mean Mystique gets the Xavier land and Jean Grey School and can kick the X-Men off the premises? You know Raven would do that.
Brian Michael Bendis is promising a very different X-Men because of this storyline.
Bendis is sending All-New X-Men into the Ultimate universe for a crossover with Miles Morales. When young Jean and team return will they have a new home?
And does the Death of Wolverine mean the end of Wolverine and the X-Men book or at least a change in title, tone and perhaps setting? (The title is still listed in November previews as the students and staff cope with the loss and Logan’s Legacy.)
Longtime X-readers know a shift in setting can lead to exciting new story and character possibilities.
New readers may be surprise to imagine the X-Men without a school but let’s look back at the mutant real estate guide:
The X-Men began as students of the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters in Westchester, New York and stayed there for decades.
In the 1980’s Chris Claremont “killed” the team and sent them to the Outback. After defeating The Adversary the world thought the X-Men were dead so the team relocated to an abandoned old town in the Australian Outback once used by the Reavers. A mutant teleporter named Gateway, an Australian native, sent the team on missions around the globe but the old town was home base.
The original X-Men once went by the name X-Factor (the original incarnation of the team) and made their original office in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York City before taking over a ship once controlled by Apocalypse.
The Xavier mansion was destroyed and Professor X was supposedly killed (for the, well I don’t have times!) in the finale of Messiah Complex. Writers Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction moved the team out west. The X-Men moved to San Francisco were they were welcomed by a majority of the public and worked directly with the Mayor. The X-Men established a headquarters in the mountains of Marin County while many members lived and helped patrol in San Francisco.
Wolverine was serving double duty during this period (isn’t he always?) and leading X-Force. This covert team was based at Colorado mountaintop resort home of Warren Worthington (aka Archangel.)
Happiness by the Bay didn’t last long when Norman Osborn and the Dark Avengers arrived. Osborn had take over S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers. Power hungry Osborn formed his own Dark X-Men to take over when anti-mutant and mutant riots erupted. In a bold move to escape the authority of Osborn, Cyclops ordered his science team to raise Magneto’s asteroid base which had crashed off the coast. Cyclops declared this Utopia to be a sovereign island nation in which all mutants were welcome and protected. Summers worked with Namor the Sub-Mariner and the lost Atlanteans built their own new home in the ocean underneath Utopia.
Then came Schism – the epic storyline that finally put Cyclops versus Wolverine and severed the X-Men into two camps. Logan, Beast, Kitty Pryde and Iceman went home to the former Xavier estate and build the Jean Grey School.
After killing Professor X during Avengers vs. X-Men – Cyclops, Magneto, Emma Frost and Magik formed a Revolution team and took over the old Weapon X facility. Cyclops recruited new mutants to join the secret Xavier School in the old labs that turned Logan into Weapon X.
Professor X may be dead but this legacy lives on. Will Xavier’s big secrets impact his students by leaving them searching for a new home?
Will the X-Men be able to keep the dream alive after losing Logan?
Keep reading, watching for clues and come back for more as the X-Men prepare for the next stage of their evolution.
By Editor