Marvel Reveals Major X-Men Events That Led to House of X

For years, the X-Men have strived to create peace between humans and mutants in the Marvel [...]

For years, the X-Men have strived to create peace between humans and mutants in the Marvel Universe. They've met resistance at every turn. Mutants have suffered extinction-level threats on more than one occasion. In House of X #4 by Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, and Marte Gracia, Marvel reveals how the mutant population has dwindled due to those events.

House of #4 includes a graphic by Tom Muller titled "LOOK AT WHAT THEY'VE DONE." The graphic lists the two extinction-level events that almost wiped mutants out. It also includes a list of humans responsible for the biggest "major mutant crimes."

It refers to the first exction-level event as the "Sentinel/Trask/Mummudrai Genocide." This is when Sentinels traveled to the mutant nation Genosha. The robots wiped out 16.5 million of its citizens (see the first arc of Grant Morrison's New X-Men, "E is for Extinction"). This act alone makes Bolivar Trask, the creator of the Sentinels, responsible for more mutant deaths than the other eight humans listed as perpetrators of "major mutant crimes" combined.

X-Men Look At What They've Done
(Photo: Marvel Comics)

Before the Genosha genocide, mutants were going through a population and cultural boom. They numbered 17,508,236, accounting for 0.0025% of Earth's population. The genocide at Genosha brought their population to fewer than 1 million (986,618), making up 0.00014% of the population.

Things got worse for mutants when the Scarlet Witch -- once believed to be a mutant, now called "the Pretender" -- spoke the words "No More Mutants." Her spell depowered all but 198 mutants, dropping them to 0.000000029% of the population (see House of M). The act makes Scarlet Witch the second-greatest perpetrator of major mutant crimes as she depowered 986,420 mutants.

What made the curse worse was that it also ended new mutant births until the discovery of the child Hope Summers (see "Messiah CompleX"). Hope later ignited "the Five Lights," the first new mutants to manifest after the Decimation (see "Second Coming'). Through the intervention of the Phoenix Force and with the Scarlet Witch's help, Hope was later able to restore mutant births (see Avengers vs. X-Men).

As the graphic notes, the increased mutant birthrate correlates to increased human-on-mutant violence. There was also the threat of the Terrigen Mists. When released into Earth's atmosphere for a time, the Mists manifested the terminal M-Pox sickness in mutants. Most mutants left Earth until the Inhumans removed the Mists from Earth's atmosphere (see Death of X and Inhumans vs. X-Men). There's no exact number given for how many mutants now exist, but it's clear that these events have taken their toll. The graphic helps inform Professor X's emotional reaction to the deaths of his X-Men on the Project Orchis mission.

What do you think of House of X's recounting of humanity's crimes against mutants? Let us know in the comments. House of X #4 is on sale now.

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