Summary

Warning: contains spoilers for X-Men #1Marvel has unveiled a secret bonus page fromX-Men#1, the debut issue of the newFrom the Ashesrelaunch of the iconicX-Menfranchise, mysteriously introducing the leaders of aninsidious group of evil villains whose shadows look scarily familiar! The latest era of the X-Men has found Cyclops and a team of revolutionary mutant warriors fighting for their survival in a post-Krakoa world, operating out ofa former Orchis basein Alaska.

Afterthe fall of Krakoa, the X-Men have all gone their separate ways, and the adjective-lessX-Menseries sees Cyclops working alongside Psylocke, Magik, Quentin Quire, Juggernaut, Temper, Xorn, Magneto, andthe redeemed Beastto protect mutantkind from new, violent threats.

X-Men #1 secret bonus scene 3K

X-Men#1, from writer Jed MacKay with artist Ryan Stegman and Marte Garcia, followsCyclops and his teamas they battle a group of post-Orchis mutants calling themselves “Fourth School,” working for mysterious benefactors.Marvelhas released a “bonus page” for the debut issue, introducing “The Zealot,” “The Doctor,” “The Means,” and “The Chairman,” whowant to build a “whole new world” for the mutantsof Earth.

July 10th, 2024

x-men 1 cover

Ryan Stegman, Marte Garcia, J.P. Mayer

Variant Covers:

J. Scott Campbell, Peach Momoko, John Tyler Christopher, Skottie Young, Tony S. Daniel

FROM THE ASHES! Krakoa is gone, ORCHIS has fallen… but the X-Men remain, always. Cyclops leads, because that is what he does. Beast builds, because that is what he does. And from their new home in Alaska, the X-Men raise a flag of defiance. Mutant business is their business. Join CYCLOPS, BEAST, MAGNETO, PSYLOCKE, KID OMEGA, TEMPER, MAGIK and JUGGERNAUT as new forces in the world move into position, battling for the destiny and philosophy of the mutant species.

X-Men #1 fighting new mutants

The New 3K Organization Is Coming For The X-Men

The group of villains can activate latent X-Genes in adults

The Krakoan Era of the X-Men saw mutants of all paths - heroes, villains, and civilians - attempting to live together in peace and harmony, with all prior sins or transgressions forgiven. However, since mutantkind are not truly evolved beings, they succumbed to the petty squabbling, betrayals, and mutant-on-mutant violence that has defined much of their history. In the X-Men’s new era, it appears thatevil mutants will again be a target for Cyclops and his team, as the mysterious 3K group attempt to capitalize on mutantkind’s sorry state for their own dark agenda.

X-Men Just Brought Back Its Most Controversial Hero of All Time (& This Time He Can Work)

Marauders #2 Variant Cover Cassandra Nova X-Men Featured Image

Little is known about the hateful 3K - which could be an allusion to the real-world hate group the KKK - except that they briefly partnered with the Fourth School in an attempt to find “viable” mutants for their cause. The Fourth School is an offshoot of Jonathan Sublime’s Third Species group, and theyseem to have found a way to activate latent mutants X-Gene en masse, giving a group of six adults vast mutant powers that they used to battle Cyclops. The 3K group wrote off the Fourth School after they failed to provide Wolverine to their group, but decided to collect the six recently powered mutants, calling them “the products of their hard work.”

The Leaders Of 3K Look Very Familiar…

The X-Men may be facing foes they have fought before

The silhouettes of the 3K leaders revealed in theX-Men#1 bonus page are scarily familiar, looking like they could be Cassandra Nova, Astra, Joseph, Namor, andthe Krakoan. Cassandra Nova, Xavier’s evil psychic twin, was left millions of years in the past by Kate Pryde and the Marauders, so how she got back to the present time would be a major mystery. Joseph,a clone of Magneto that Astra has brought back to life many times, recently sacrificed himself inScarlet Witch, but Astra could have easily cloned him again (plus the long-haired person calls the other his “mother”).

Professor X’s Evil Sister Has Finally Got The Punishment She Deserves

Namor has traditionally worked alongside the X-Men but has also spent a lot of time as a villain, so it wouldn’t be surprising if he went against mutantkind if it meant protection for Atlantic. The fact that the 3K leaders are sitting around an “X” table - similar to the Quiet Council’s table on Krakoa -indicates they all are infamous mutants, who want to take down the X-Men and control the destiny of mutantkind.