1. Utopia
Currently the X-Men live on Utopia, the remains of Magneto's Asteroid M, turned into an island, under which New Atlantis is built.
There are around 80 mutants living on Utopia right now, and about 60 or so of them are X-Men. What does that mean going forward? Well for one thing, its said that every mutant will take a side on this, that means that on one side or the other, all those mutants that aren't on these covers are gonna be around.
2. These are not your final teams, probably not even close.
Jason Aaron said that Wolverine and the X-Men has about 14 characters in and 3 of them are new. Its possible that there is some spill over from Legacy, but you should definitely expect more people on that team.
Kieron Gillen said his Uncanny will have a team of 10 plus support cast, now once again, Gillen could be dipping into some of the members over on the adjectiveless X-Men book (most likely Storm) but even then, there are gonna be some other characters on that team.
Legacy is probably not going to continue with this specific team after Mike Carey's run is over either, and the Gischler X-Men book has always had a rotating cast of X-Men, and I doubt thats going to change anytime soon. Those two are definitely the places I'd look to see some of your other X-men, like Dazzler, Pixie, Husk or the other Academy X kids showing up.
I don't want to say Marvel is lying with these covers, but they are probably giving a lot of people who aren't up on X-Men some false impressions.
3. No more "No more mutants".
So back at the end of Marvel's first big crossover of the 2000s House of M, the Scarlet Witch, driven insane by loss, decided, more or less randomly, to de-power most of the mutant population. The de-powered mutants were basically just the not popular or unknown ones that had nothing to do with any of her problems with mutants, but hey, that's a rant for another time and place (though its a VERY LONG one).
Anyway, this resulted in the mutant race almost going extinct, but eventually a new mutant was born, and she was taken to the future (because that is what you do with babies in X-Men) and raised there, and returned as a teenager. Her name is Hope, and she has the ability to stabilize the very small number of newly emerging mutants. All the characters in Generation Hope (save Sebastian Shirtless there) are new mutants that have shown up in the last year or so. Meanwhile, over in a book called Avengers Children's Crusade, Wanda has finally shown back up, and has re-powered her first mutant.
So this whole Hope thing...might have been a bit of a waste of time. We don't know yet. Marvel has teased that Schism and Children's Crusade are ending at around the same time for a reason, and Axel Alonso EIC of Marvel has said that Hope will be a very big character this year, but there are a lot of signs that lead to the idea that Wanda is gonna be bringing back mutants in a big way (I mean Logan has to get new characters from somewhere.)
Given that the last several years, and all of Cyclops' more questionable decisions have been caused by the decimation of the mutant population, a re-emergence of mutants, even on a smaller level could be a major game changer.
4. Psylocke
Another thing that might not be immediately clear, because Marvel marketing doesn't actually seem to have anything do with what's actually going on in comics when it comes to the x-books, is that despite Cyclops and Wolverine having a knock down drag out fight for some reason (I think Cyclops wants to sacrifice some hostages from the looks of the Schism 5 preview, and Wolvie is against it) these teams are not fighitng each other. They aren't opposed, and while there maybe be some emotional bruising between them, I doubt theres gonna be much hate.
This is why Psylocke can be on two teams.
If you aren't following X-Men right now, you should probably know that Psylocke is already on two teams with conflicting agendas. Cyclops had decided that a hit squad like X-Force was a mistake, and disbanded it, but Wolverine formed it back up without out telling Cyke. Psylocke is already secretly on that team under Cyclops' nose, and its more to protect Cyclops' credibility than as some kind of betrayal.
Given the events in X-Force, I doubt Betsy will be in a position to leave that team, but that doesn't mean that she's necessarily going to agree with Logan's tactics for the rest of the X-Men. Especially since it seems what he wants for the X-Men as a whole is a very different from how he handles things with X-Force.
5. Who is missing.
There are a number of important characters missing from these covers. They are mostly characters who have become more important in the last 5 or so years, so they don't necessarily spring to the casual X-fans mind. Here is a quick list of characters who probably should have been on these covers somewhere.
A. Dr. Nemesis and the rest of Club X - When Beast was trying to save the mutant race from extinction, he created a new science division of the X-Men. When Beast left, they became the go too characters for the X-Men's science needs and have been a huge part of the books. Dr. Nemesis is a WWII era hero with X-Ray eyes and syringe guns. Kavita Rao from Whedon's Astonishing is a human geneticist who created a cure to being a mutant, and Maddison Jeffries, formerly Alpha Flight's box, is an eratic savant who can literally talk to machines. These guys will probably be in Gillens Uncanny.
B. Namor the Sub Mariner - One of the major plot points of the last several years of X-men has been the alliance of the X-Men with the King of Atlantis and his people. Given they live right above him, I doubt the X-Men are going to sever ties with him soon, though his involvement in the coming Defenders series may scale back his involvement in x-affairs. This is also definitely someone who will show up in Uncanny, or at least on the blue side.
C. Professor Xavier and Legion - How can you put Xavier so far down this list you say? Well, believe it or not, despite basically heading a solo title for a while, in the eyes of the X-Men Professor Xavier has lost a lot of stock. Most of the X-Men realize he's manipulated and abused them at some point in their lives, and while they still love the guy, and think that he is incredibly intelligent and skilled, they are no longer necessarily in a position where they think he should be guiding the mutant race.
Also Xavier's son Legion has returned, a god mutant with every mutant ability imaginable, but he's incredibly unstable. It's fairly like that Xavier will be trying to help his son for some time to come.
D. Pixie - laugh if you want, but Academy X alum Megan Gwynn has been a fairly large part of just about every X-story in the last several years. A lot of that is because the X-Men use her as a substitute for having to fly everywhere, but regardless, she's been a constant presence in the X-books for years now, and not seeing her on these covers is a bit odd.
E. Dazzler and Northstar - two other fairly consistent presences in Uncanny X-men the last several years have been Northstar and Dazzler. While not the most invested in X things ever, these guys have been through a lot with the X-men recently, and its strange to see them just gone.
F. Cannoball and Karma - these two had been with the New Mutants, and both have been through a lot recently, Karma losing a leg, and Cannonball going through some serious post traumatic stress. The two of them will probably end up in the background on the blue side with the rest of the New Mutants, but its especially strange to see Cannonball minimalized
G. Armor - Hisako Ichika, mutant force armor projector, and Wolverine sidekick. Armor has mostly shown up in Astonishing X-Men, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's where she is now, but given she's close with Logan... well we'll see.
H. Anole, Rockslide and all the other Academy X kids. Seriously? I mean this is a huge group of characters that are just in total limbo. They might be splitting them all up, but for absolutely none of these kids to have shown up on either set of covers is upsetting, disconcerting, and honestly a little insulting to their fans. These guys haven't played the biggest part since there book ended, but they've kept a presence in mini-series, anthologies, and just by being generally around in books like Legacy. Having all of them on the covers woudl be silly, not having any is far sillier.
I. Chamber - Chamber was recently re-powered in a little crossover called Age of X, but that meant he once again had a gaping hole in his chest. This really hasn't been touched upon since, and I find it odd he isn't on any of these covers.
6. The covers. So now that I've said everything about what's not on these covers, I guess I should cover the covers themselves.
Starting on the left and with the blue team we have Generation Hope. As I said before Hope is a mutant messiah, raised in the future by Cable to come back and save the mutant race... in some vague way...that has to do with faith...that doesn't make a lot of sense. It's fairly emotionally and conceptually compelling if you don't think about the logistics though, so we can go with that.
Hope's team is comprised of Sebastian Shaw (for some reason we don't know yet) and then four of her Five Lights, the first 5 mutants who have manifested since Hope appeared. There's Velocidad from Mexico who speeds up his personal time, letting him work like a speedster, Primal, who is basically a human being who processes information on a hyper instinctual level. Zero a Japanese artist whose canvas is his own bio-mechanical flesh, and Transonic who has a body of shape changing crystal adapted for high speed flight. They used to have Oya, an African girl who can move heat, but she's sided with Wolvie.
The interesting thing about Gen Hope, is that all the mutants Hope activates are bound to her emotionally, and this has some really sinister undertones to it. Transonic and Zero are particularly vexed by their bond to Hope, to the point of looking for ways to betray her, while Primal and Velocidad are almost literally in love with her.
Next is X-Men. Up til now, and most likely going forward, this book is less about X-Men, and more about X-Men team up. Dracula, Spider Man, the Future Foundation, and as far as I'm aware, that's still the mandate going forward.
The other thing about this book so far, is that its lineup has been flexible, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's still the case. The lineup right now is Storm, Jubilee Domino, Warpath, Psylocke. This is interesting on a lot of levels. First off, Storm wasn't on this cover when first shown, not even her silhouette. I wouldn't be surprised if she's not actually that much a part of the first story this book tells. Warpath and Domino were both on the previous X-Force, and Psylocke, well no one currently knows it, but shes on the more recent incarnation. I doubt that this is any kind of permanent hit squad, but I bet this first mission in this book is pretty black ops-ey.
Overall, I'd take this book with a grain of salt, its probably pretty dis-ingenuous in giving the impression that this is a permanent roster. The one thing we SHOULD take away though, is that Jubilee isn't with Wolverine, and that is just WEIRD. Oh and if you don't know Jubilee doesn't have mutant powers anymore and is in fact a Vampire. Though maybe she'll get her powers back and be a sparkly vampire. You should probably know that if you didn't already.
Uncanny X-Men features Emma and Cyclops naturally, these two have been the driving force of X-Men for half a decade or more now. Danger, which is literally the Danger Room from the old mansion having gained sentience and joined the X-Men (after trying to kill them of course). Colossus (or maybe he's the Juggernaut now), who has made a deal with the demon Cytorrak in order to stop the Worthy possessed Cain Marko during Fear Itself, his younger sister Magik, or more technically a demon who looks like his younger sister, and possesses her soul, but lets not get complicated, she has a magic sword and she teleports, finally there is Magneto. Magneto came to Scott a while back, claiming to respect what Scott has done in uniting mutant kind, he seems pretty earnest about it, but even a Magneto who is on your side is a Magneto you have to watch. These guys goal is to basically be the Avengers, well be even BETTER than the Avengers actually, but at the same time they save humanity, they want to remind people what the X-Men could be doing to any part of humanity that threatens mutant kind.
I love this team, and I love this concept, but I worry Uncanny lacks star power roster wise. A lot of people want there 90s X-Men, or there classic 70's X-Men, and this is not a grouping that feels like either of those, I can't wait though.
Blue team ends with New Mutants who are...well the New Mutants plus X-Man. If you are familiar with the New Mutants at all, you know who these guys are. South American power house Sunspot, techno organic alien Warlock, super hot neo Roman princess Magma, their badass Native American leader Dani Moonstar who will mess you up with a bow and arrow, or a rifle if it comes to it. Major changes here are the inclusion of Age of Apocalypses version of Cable, Nate Grey the X-Man, and the resurrection of Cypher whose language powers have been redefined as pattern reading of all kinds, and is now himself an utter badass as well. These guys have been tasked with wrapping up mutant kinds loose ends. Bringing mutants they've lost track of into the fold, taking out old threats or leftover evil bases.
We move onto the gold team with X-Force. Started by Archangel and Wolverine, to deal with threats like the ressurected Apocalypse, the team also included evolved mutant thief Fantomex (who pretends to be French and has partner named E.V.A. who is a UFO that came out of his mouth), pseudo-Asian ninja telepath Psylocke, and Deadpool, who you should know. Archangel has gone a little bit evil post them killing Apocalypse though, and they recently had to travel to the Age of Apocalypse to try and stop him which is here they picked up this Nightcrawler, because ours has been dead for a while. Warren's absence on that cover probably means he'll be evil for a while, and that's what they'll be dealing with. Fantomex has really been the driving force in this book though, and you might want to go read Grant Morrison's New X-Men to get a better bead on him if you want to read it.
Wolverine and the X-Men. What is this book doing, I don't even know, but I'm excited to find out. I'll go over who is on this cover, but with others joining, including new characters, I'm not sure there's much I can say.
We got Oya up top from Gen Hope, Beast, Kitty Pryde intangible mutant prodigy along with her dragon Lockheed, Kid Omega A.K.A. Quentin Quire incredibly intelligent and with tremendous telepathic power, also kind of a wannabe punk rebel, his schemes never get very far though, and Iceman, who hopefully will be more interesting out of Cyclops' and Storm's shadows.
Next is X-Men Legacy. This is Mike Carey's last arc on the book and I wouldnt expect this roster to last past that, in fact given its history, I could easily see it becoming the young X-men book for Wolvie's side, but right now at least we have Rogue who can finally totally control her powers, and touch people as much as she wants, and she has been, specifically Magneto, much to Gambit's chagrin. Gambit of course is there, he fell victim to becoming a horseman of Apocalypse a while back, and sometimes changes colors and is really powerful, but that hasn't been touched on lately. Rachel Summers, Marvel Girl, just got back from space, and it's odd to see her away from her daddy, and then there's Frenzy. She used to be an Acolyte, and is a bit of a psychopath, but a recent reality altering event has made her want to belong to something better, so now like so many before her, she is a former evil mutant trying to be an X-Man. She's strong and invulnerable, like a mutant Luke Cage, but she is SO invulnerable, that she literally can't feel anything through her skin.
That brings us to our very last book, X-Factor. X-Factor is not the team you knew from the 80's and 90's. Its a detective agency now, its run by Jamie Madrox, and they basically go through as much drama as any three other comics. There's Madrox who has become an expert at many things by sending his duplicates out to learn them, but his duplicates have become unreliable as they don't all share the same philosophy as him. There's Siryn Banshee's daughter with the same sonic scream, she and Madrox used to date, and theres a very good reason they don't know. There is Layla Miller also recently known as Butterfly, who "know's stuff" and brings people back to life, just not with their souls. She was a kid when she joined the team, but as is often the case in X-Men, she went to the future to grow up. She also hangs out with Doctor Doom. There's Mojo World adventurer Longshot who has goodl uck powers, and sleeps around, and Mojo World warrior Shatterstar who has swords, and teleports, and is now gay. Richtor his boyfriend used to be a mutant with earthquake powers, and now is again, Wolfsbane, who just had a baby, that is some kind of Asgardian wolf god, but when she showed up she claimed it was Richtor's, oh also she did some real bad things with X-Force and blocked it out. There's former Gen X member M, who is perfect, and a telepath, and super strong, and can fly, but mostly she's PERFECT. There's Strong Guy, the heart of the team, whose heart recently failed, and he was brought back to life, with a good heart, but no soul, and then there are Havok and Polaris, too more or less normal superhero mutants being dumped into the middles of this wonderful mess.
Well, I think that wraps it up for right now. Let me know if you have any questions.
awesome first post, sums up a lot of important X-facts and raise quite a lot of really interesting questions !
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