Marvel’s X-Men Writer Addresses the Problem of Too Many Overpowered Characters

Marvel has re-invented the X-Men in a big way, thanks to writer Jonathan Hickman’s “House of X” event series. Now the entire X-Men comic line is being relaunched in the “Dawn of X” reboot, and among the many issues with the X-Men world that Hickman hopes to fix, there’s one that’s been bugging a lot of fans for years: the skyrocketing powers of Marvel’s mutants. It used to be that laser eyes, or psychic and elemental powers were all the X-Men needed – and by now, there’s a universe of mutants that can play with reality itself. However, Hickman is done letting Marvel’s mutant powers spiral out of control.

In a recent interview with AIPT, Hickman let it be known that in his version of the X-Men universe, there will be no more playing around with the number of Omega Level mutants in the Marvel Universe:

“The list of Omega Level mutants is complete and set in stone,” Hickman said. “Anyone who isn’t on the list isn’t one, and there won’t be any new Omega Level characters created for quite some time. There are way too many overcooked characters as is right now. It’s probably the second worse thing we do after breaking things for dramatic, and not story, reasons.”

Hickman also iterated that the rules of the new “X-Office” is to be “additive, not destructive,” with a mandate of building things, instead of just breaking them.

Given what we saw with House of X, Hickman’s view of how to approach X-Men is definitely leaning more towards taking what’s already there and enriching the mythos into something new and interesting. That means not casually adding new overpowered characters to forward storylines or open new doors – but rather finding ways to use the power sets already on the table to accomplish that goal.

Hickman took the most unlikely (and in some cases obscure) combination of X-Men characters to create “The Five,” a group that has the power to recreate the body and powers of any mutant who dies. When it came to giving the X-Men multiple new timelines and multitudes of possibility to explore, Hickman funneled all that storytelling potential into one supporting character that had been overlooked for years (Moira Mactaggert). Even villains that seemed so one-note (Apocalypse, Mr. Sinister) have been given bold new dimensions of character and backstory, that make them more interesting than they’ve been in years. That’s all to say: the ‘re-purposing’ approach definitely works.

As it stands, see below for the complete list of Marvel’s Omega Level mutants for the time being. The one mutant with “Human” allegiance (Franklin Richards) will soon be the subject of the X-Men / Fantastic Four crossover series that was just announced:

The “Dawn of X” Relaunch is now underway.