Who Is the Tree Man in Powers of X?

Jonathan Hickman's reinvention of the X-Men mythos continues with Powers of X #1. In a surprise [...]

Jonathan Hickman's reinvention of the X-Men mythos continues with Powers of X #1. In a surprise move, Hickman uses the book to stretch his storyline out across four separate time periods, which intersect in ways we are still only starting to learn about.

One of the most interesting things that Powers of X introduces, is a new version of the X-Men's dystopian future, in which mutants are being exterminated by a new threat: the Man-Machine Supremacy. That faction is comprised of humans who are allied with Nimrod and its evolving breeds of Sentinels, and presumably grew out of the Orchis alliance introduced in House of X #1. Mutants have been driven off-world and out of Earth's solar system - with the exception of ten powerful mutants who are the only remnants of the X-Men.

Power of X 1 Man Machine Mutant War Future X-Men Tree Man Groot Black Tom

The big splash page that reveals this future's surviving X-Men shows us a group of four figures standing in the remnants of Krakoa - two are all-too recognizable, while two take a little closer examination to determine who they are.

Consensus says the guy with the flaming head is Xorn, as House of X hinted that the twin Xorns were amongst the pod-people hatched in Krakoa. However - who is the tree guy? There seems to be two conflicting ideas about that character's identity.

Black Tom Cassidy

Black Tom Cassidy has slowly but surely been undergoing a secondary mutation, that pulls him further away from human form and closer and closer to being a living tree. It would make sense then that by the time of the Man-Machine-Mutant War, 100 years in the future, Black Tom would still be alive due to his evolution into a full-on tree form. The facial hair suggests as much, and the forearms look like they could be charged with Tom's signature Bio-Organic Thermokinetic Blasts.

Old Man Groot

The other guess that's been really popular with reviewers and fans is that we're seeing "Old Man Groot" in this scene. It's not hard to see why fans would come to that conclusion: it's a tree guy, and Groot has become the most famous tree guy in Marvel lore, thanks to the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.

However, there's a couple of issues with the Groot theory. The first is that, while Hickman's annotations mention alien races in the form of mutant colonies being established in the Shi'ar Empire, there haven't actually been any aliens introduced into the main storyline yet. It would be kind of strange to throw an alien like Groot into the final remnants of X-Men on "Asteroid K" (the remnants of Krakoa).

The theme for the rest of the pictured group (and in Hickman's annotations) is that only the most powerful mutants make it in the era of the Man-Machine-Mutant war, so an evolved Black Tom seems like the more like guess.

Who do you think the tree guy in Powers of X #1 really is? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

House of X and Powers of X are now releasing in alternating weeks, for the next 10 weeks.

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