Jonathan Hickman, the writer of "Secret Wars" of Marvel Comics, revisits the X-Men

By Jesse Schedeen

Marvel Comics has just announced another major announcement at C2E2, revealing that writer Jonathan Hickman was coming back into the company in order to revamp the X-Men franchise.

As revealed today by Marvel's "Next Big Thing" panel, Hickman is writing two new miniseries on the X-Men theme – House of X and Powers of X. Although Marvel does not reveal much From the plot of one or the other book, the company teases the two books will mark "the next seminal moment in the history of the X-Men". The Marvel press release compares the two books to other landmark stories such as Giant-Size X-Men # 1, Chris Claremont and Jim Lee's X-Men # 1 cross-over and Age of Apocalypse.

Both books will appear in six issues and are expected to debut in July 2019, with the new issues alternating weekly until September. House of X will be designed by Pepe Larraz (Extermination) and Powers of X will be drawn by RB Silva (X-Men Gold), the two books colored by Marte Gracia (Amazing Spider-Man).

Hickman was a major voice at Marvel for several years, writing long periods on books like Secret Warriors, Fantastic Four and The Avengers. His last major work for the company was Secret Wars in 2015, a massive crossover in which the Marvel multiverse was destroyed and Doctor Doom became God Emperor of the new Battleworld. Hickman then left Marvel to focus on comics owned by creators, like East of West and The Black Monday Murders, but Marvel seems to have made an offer to Hickman that he could not refuse.

Marvel has also released a new teaser picture within the panel, one that highlights some of the key scenarios of the works for 2019. This image teases these two X-Men books, as well as the future crossover of War of the Realms and the recently announced Absolute Carnage, all lead to another major event in December.

What this mystery event implies is not to be guessed. Will he act on Hickman's next Marvel epic after the conclusion of House of X and Powers of X? And what do these ads mean for current X-books like Uncanny X-Men? We'll find out as Marvel learns more about his plans for 2019 in the weeks and months ahead.

To learn more about Hickman's return to Marvel, check out our countdown to the 15 best moments of his Avengers saga.

Jesse is a writer with gentle manners for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket in follow @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.