As we tick closer to the finale of the Brian Michael Bendis X-Men run we may have a clue about the future of the franchise.
We need a sign.
Editor in Chief Axel Alonso assured readers the X-Men will be around but what does that future look like?
Bendis is leaving after the milestone Uncanny X-Men #600.
Executive Editor (in charge of the X-Men & Guardians books) Mike Marts announced his departure from Marvel last week.
Marvel has teased the All-New, All-Different Avengers and Uncanny Inhumans for Free Comic Book Day but there’s been no hint of what’s next for the mutants after Secret Wars or who will be writing any X-books.
We may see hope in All-New X-Men #40 this week as we wonder: Who are the Utopians ?
Who are the Utopians?
In Marvel‘s preview the tease “what secret do they hold that pertains to the future of mutantkind?” makes us believe Bendis is setting the stage for the future as he exits.
Who are the players in this drama?
What was Utopia:
After the “death” of Professor X and destruction of the school while searching for a mutant messiah, Cyclops created a new future for the X-Men in San Francisco. Sooner after Norman Osborn’s Dark Reign began and he ordered his Dark Avengers and H.A.M.M.E.R. (his version of S.H.I.E.L.D.) to restore order and make a power grab after orchestrated anti-mutant riots rocked the city by the bay.
Cyclops had an ambitious plan.
The X-Club (mutant think tank of geniuses) brought Magneto’s fallen asteroid to the surface and created his own island nation off the California coast. This “Utopia” was later sunk sunk by the Phoenix Five (Scott, Emma Frost, Colossus, Magik and Namor under the influence of the cosmic entity) in the Avengers vs. X-Men conflict.
This week Bendis appears to be sending the young X-Men to the wreckage of the former haven for all mutants – heroes and villains. Is this a hint of a possible X-Men Exodus from the Jean Grey School? Cyclops closed the Xavier School. and finding a new home base or a comeback for forgotten mutants off the grid since the fall of Utopia?
This comes as the X-Men/Guardians crossover wraps up with The Black Vortex: Omega. Are the mutants falling to Earth and crashing on the former Nation X, the former Asteroid M that crashed to Earth?
Who are the Utopians? We find out Wednesday.
By Editor