How 'Powers of X' #1 Redefines the History of the X-Men

Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for POWERS OF X #1, So read on at your own risk, True Believers!

After last week’s recap of HOUSE OF X, we're digging into issue #1 of that title’s companion series, POWERS OF X!

With the debut issue—written by Jonathan Hickman and drawn by R.B. Silva—out today, we decided to provide a quick spoiler session of what went down in another tale that bathes the entire X-MEN mythos in a whole new light... Past, present, and future all collide in a book that challenges the mutant status quo like never before.

Are you strapped in? Let's do this.

We open in X⁰: The X-Men. Year One. Charles Xavier attends a fair where he has a friendly chat with a woman in which he reveals a dream he recently had about a wonderful new word and his place in it. As the section closes out, it’s revealed that Charles and the woman (hinted to be Moira MacTaggert) know each other.

Flash forward to X¹: The X-Men. Year Ten. And we find Mystique returning to Krakoa after stealing some important intel from the Damage Control storage facility in HOUSE OF X #1. She meets up with Magneto who describes the miraculous effect Krakoa has on the mutant psyche, describing the haven as a place of “dreamers and true believers.” We see what you did their, Erik.

Then Mystique hands over the flash drive of information to Magneto and Charles, albeit with a stipulation of her own... Professor X also admits he wants something else, stating that he’s trying to build a better world.

Now off to X²: The X-Men. Year One Hundred. Cylobel is captured by mutant-hunting forces, which have massive Sentinels at their disposal. As Cardinal plants a Krakoa seed, Rasputin attempts to rescue Cylobel and is nearly successful, but a Sentinel attack causes her to lose focus and she loses the battle. She and Cardinal return to Krakoa to explain what happened to Cylobel and Percival who was confirmed as dead.

Wolverine asks if they perished in vain, but Cardinal assures him that “we’ve got it.”

Over at the Tower of Nimord the Lesser/The Human-Machine Monolith, two followers arrive for an audience with their leader, bringing Cylobel and the news that a group of mutants penetrated the Nexus for an unknown quantity of information. Nimrod apologizes about trying to wipe out mutant kind, but Cylobel isn’t having any of it, promising to erase him from existence. This only excites Nimord, who reveals a plan to capture mutants and reducing them down to raw data to better understand what he calls “the mutant anomaly.”

Finally, it’s a quick trip to The Archive of Nimrod The Greater/the Mutant Library in X³: The X-Men. Year One Thousand.

A being known as the Librarian bemoans the fact that mutant test subjects are beginning to deteriorate and there’s nothing he can do to stop it. Nimord, now a floating machine, blames himself, but the Librarian stalls the self-pity, assuring Nimrod that he succeeded in creating a database of mutants so as to have a better understanding of them in wartime. The Librarian extols the virtues of preserving the past, so that sins won’t be repeated.

POWERS OF X #1 ends with a primal couple emerging into a forest...

Read POWERS OF X #1 at your local comic shop right now! Then head to Marvel.com/X for more on HOUSE OF X and POWERS OF X!