Less than a year after Marvel Entertainment revived the comic book series Uncanny X-Men in an attempt to relaunch the X-Men comic book franchise, the Disney-owned company has announced two all-new series intended to be “the next monumental chapter for the X-Men,” to launch this summer. This new attempt has a significant added bonus: the return of writer Jonathan Hickman.


Hickman is one of Marvel’s most high-profile — and, not coincidentally, best-selling — writers of the past decade. After critically acclaimed runs on Fantastic Four and the Avengers franchise, he was responsible for 2015’s Secret Wars event, which (temporarily) ended the comic book incarnation of the Marvel Universe, selling more than half a million copies in the process. Following the completion of that series in December 2015, Hickman retired from superhero comics, with his only output being irregular releases from his Image Comics series East of West, The Black Monday Murders and The Dying and the Dead.


That will change with the launch of two new six-issue miniseries in July that will run concurrently and, according to Marvel, stand alongside the most iconic X-Men comic book releases to date.


The two series, House of X and Powers of X — confusingly, the “X” in the latter is pronounced “ten,” with the former being “X” as in “X-Men” — will be released alternately on a weekly basis, starting with House of X. Marvel is keeping plot details of both series under wraps, although the press release for the projects describes them collectively as “the next seminal moment in the history of the X-Men.”


Art for the series will come from Pepe Larraz (House of X) and R.B. Silva (Powers of X), with Marte Garcia coloring both series. The promotional art for the announcement came from Mark Brooks.


In a statement released by Marvel, editor-in-chief C.B. Cebulski said of the two new series, “We are excited to have Jon back with the Marvel family, and we could not have asked for a better creative team to help usher the X-Men into a whole new era. While we can’t reveal too much about the story just yet, these new stories will redefine the X-Men and their place in the Marvel Universe. This is a historic moment both new and passionate fans won’t want to miss.”