Jonathan Hickman Addresses One of X-Men’s Controversial New Mutant Laws

A new era is beginning for Marvel’s X-Men, thanks to writer Jonathan Hickman and his “House of X” event. Now that the X-Men series are being relaunched in the new “Dawn of X” event, Hickman is opening up and addressing fan questions about the House of X storyline and its aftermath. One of the biggest new developments House of X revealed was the X-Men establishing a new sovereign nation (Krakoa) complete with an entire set of new Mutant Laws. However, one of those laws managed to spark backlash from some sectors of the Marvel fandom – and now Hickman is addressing it.

If you are unfamiliar, here are the three mutant laws that now govern the mutant homeland of Krakoa:

The law that has apparently rubbed some Marvel fans the wrong way is Law #1: “Make More Mutants”. For some people, that law mandates a hetero-normative process of impregnation and child rearing that is upsetting to those in, say, the LGBTQ community, or those who don’t desire to have children. Well, according to Jonathan Hickman, that first Mutant Law is not as restrictive as some are making it out to be – something he argues is clearly demonstrated in House of X:

“Well, obviously, ‘Make More Mutants’ is a play on ‘No More Mutants’ so any confusion about this comes from me loving the poetry of how the three laws sound when you read them together instead of them being the actual codified laws with restrictions and provisions and what not.

Saying that, even a strict reading of the law doesn’t change the fact that I showed you three (four if you were watching closely) ways that mutants can reproduce, and only one of those is in the ‘traditional’ hetro manner (that’s also leaving out pretty commonplace practices like IVF and surrogacy, which seem to me to support the spirit of the law).

Also, no, I don’t think not wanting to have kids is against the law (but I do however think that this wouldn’t be a popular sentiment in the world that we’ve built).”

So there you have it. Hickman’s explanation will surely send X-Men fans back into the House of X / Powers of X books looking for all four methods of mutant reproduction, but the story obviously makes a few of them very clear:

1. Mutants can literally be created and grown through Krakoa’s new Resurrection Protocols.
2. A new type of mutant with combinations of power (chimeras) are grown by Sinister in his breeding pits.
3. In Moira’s 9th Life, Nimrod breeds its own form of mutant hounds, like “black brain telepath” Cylobel.

Hickman is also quick to point out that Krakoa and its new mutant culture open up the range of meaning when it comes to the phrase “Make More Mutants.” In the newly released X-Men #1, the X-Men liberate an entire group of orphaned mutant children and bring them to Krakoa – children, Hickman points out, that need to taught what it means to be a mutant:

“…I do want to point out that story-wise we’re also leaning into the fact that there are going to be thousands of mutant children showing up on Krakoa in search of their mutant family. So while a spirit of adoption isn’t really what you were asking about, I do think it matters contextually as what we’re talking about here is a communal parent/child relationship and what flows from that into the next generation.”

In short: the idea of making more mutants is something that the characters of X-Men will probably have wrestle with and explore – so it’s probably best not to get too deep into one specific meaning yet.

House of X and Powers of X are now done, with six issues of each book available for sale. Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men #1 is also now on sale.