Marvel took C2e2 2019 by storm with the in-person announcement that writer Jonathan Hickman is returning to the publisher to write two congruent X-Men series. From 2008 to 2015, Hickman stood out as one of the best Marvel Universe writers, delivering impressive work across titles like Fantastic Four, Avengers, and the 2015 Secret Wars event (among others!).
Since Secret Wars, Hickman’s been focused on excellent creator-owned work with Image (books such as East of West
and The Black Monday Murders
), and Marvel’s been struggling to regain their footing. The promise of the writer’s return to an X-Men franchise that has also seen vast inconsistency throughout the 2010’s is an immensely satisfying prospect for fans of either.
Intriguingly, in pre-release hype Marvel has celebrated four distinct major eras of X-Men since Uncanny X-Men debuted in 1963: Giant Size X-Men #1 (1975), X-Men #1 (1991), Age of Apocalypse, New X-Men. The implication is that Hickman’s two series – House of X and Powers of X – will be the beginning of the 5th era.
Below you’ll find a complete guide to the X-Men comics of Jonathan Hickman, as well as connected prelude and tie-in issues that help explain the story.
Related Reading Orders:
Chris Claremont Era X-Men (1975 – 1991)
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Road to Hickman’s X-Men
In interviews (including a brief C2E2 chat with yours truly), Hickman is quick to laud Morrison’s work with praise, from Marvel Boy to New X-Men. It should not come as a surprise if his X-Men comics treat the New X-Men era with a degree of reverence.
Indeed, Hickman’s already pulled from Morrison’s lofty ideas, including the concept of the “phoenix egg” in his “Time Runs Out” build through to Secret Wars.
Comic Book Herald’s Jonathan Hickman Reading Order (2008 to 2015)
Speaking of massive, ambitious all-time great runs in Marvel history, Hickman’s run from 2008 to 2015 across the Marvel Universe stands as my favorite modern sequence of comics in Marvel.
Of particular interest, I’ve also dissected how Hickman wrote specific X-Men characters and concepts, and what we might expect moving forward given this history.
Uncanny X-Men (2018) #11 to #22
Marvel made much ado over the ($7.99) 2018 release of a new Uncanny X-Men #1, and the series ran weekly for the first 10 issues/weeks. While those ten issues do set the stage for a clear break that happens in Uncanny X-Men #11, they’re most focused on driving to the Age of X-Man event.
So, yes, long time X-Men fans can read the entire series, but purely for the purposes of a road to Hickman’s X-Men, I’d argue you can start with Matthew Rosenberg’s time writing the run solo from UXM #11 on.
Uncanny X-Men #22 is scheduled for release July 17, 2019, and is set to conclude this series of Uncanny (which began all the way back in the long ago known as 2018). The first issue of House of X will release the following week.
Hickman on X-Men Checklist
Collects: House of X #1 to #6, Powers of X #1 to #6
This is the collected edition – Full issue by issue breakdown below.
House of X and Powers of X Reading Order
The House of X / Powers of X duology has been so fun, I’ve started a video series called “Krakin’ Krakoa” where I provide background, history, and just overall enthusiasm for the events of the comic.
The series starts here with a history of Professor Charles Xavier prior to House of X #1. From this point forward I’ll just list the next entry in the video series by number, so those of you looking to avoid any possible spoilers can do so here!
You can find my exploration of some stand-out references to past Hickman comics in Krakin Krakoa: Secrets of House of X!
Krakin’ Krakoa #3 also goes with House of X #2.
For my video background, check out Krakin’ Krakoa #4!
Video companion via Krakin’ Krakoa #5!
Video companion via Krakin’ Krakoa #7!
Just the single page story by Hickman and Dustin Weaver about Apocalypse and his four horsemen!
Video companion via Krakin’ Krakoa #6!
Video companion via Krakin’ Krakoa #8!
Video companion via Krakin’ Krakoa #9!
Video companion via Krakin’ Krakoa #10!
Video companion via Krakin’ Krakoa #12!
After HoX & PoX… Dawn of X Reading Order!
Collects: tbd
Collects: tbd
Collects: tbd
Collects: tbd
Collects: tbd
Collects: tbd
Issue by Issue Dawn of X Checklist
Marauders #1
Excalibur #1
X-Force #1
New Mutants #1
Fallen Angels #1
X-Men #2
Excalibur #2
Marauders #2
New Mutants #2
X-Force #2
Fallen Angels #2
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Would reading Ed Piskor: X-Men: Grand Design / Second Genesis / X-Tinction help with Hickman’s House of X?
yes, they are a cliffnotes for entire xmen history tho its not in detail. it shows pretty much all the big events that happened
id say at least read giant size xmen issue to understand what krokoa is, and maybe read any of claremont’s xmen books or grant morrisons new xmen, to get an understanding of all the characters and what their powers are.
grand design pretty much recaps their entire history of events that happened but dont so much go in to detail about the characters and what their powers are…
Question.
I am a new reader of comics. Can I start reading X-Men from House of X #1 even if I haven’t read anything prior to that? Will I understand the stories?
Good question! I wrote a whole column about it here: https://www.comicbookherald.com/previously-on-77-can-you-read-house-of-x-as-a-starting-point-the-all-time-pre-release-hype-rankings-and-being-a-fool-at-a-creator-signing/
Short answer, House of X is intended as a starting place, and honestly, the fact that you haven’t read X-Men before might work to your benefit in some ways (less memory baggage!). That said, it can be a challenging first comic book, so mileage may vary! My advice is to give it a shot, and if it’s not working, try out some other comics as a warmup. Enjoy the comics!
id say at least read giant size xmen issue to understand what krokoa is, and maybe read any of claremont’s xmen books or grant morrisons new xmen, to get an understanding of all the characters and what their powers are.
Road to list should include Soule’s Astonishing X-Men. At least the first two volumes that contain the resurrection of Xavier in Fantomex’s body as “X”