The comics world, and particularly long-suffering X-Men fans, are pretty excited for the debut of Jonathan Hickman and Pepe Larraz's House of X next week, the beginning of a new era for the X-Men in which Hickman intends to restore the franchise to its proper place of prominence. At the Jonathan Hickman Q&A panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Hickman admitted this wasn't possible until recently, alluding to longstanding Bleeding Cool reports that Marvel Chairman Ike Perlmutter had ordered the deprioritization (to put it mildly) of the X-Men and Fantastic Four due a feud with rival movie studio Fox, which owned their movie rights.

We didn't have a reporter in the panel, but Newsarama live-blogged it, and it was chock full of interesting tidbits from Hickman, and unlike Marvel, we're not about to pretend people don't want to read something just because our competitors are making money off it.

In the panel, Hickman was asked about unfulfilled ambitions in comics, and he revealed that after he's done with his multi-year plan for X-Men, there are no more… at least at Marvel. DC, however, is another story.

Everything else is probably at DC – I was offered the opportunity to go over there, but the market shifted underneath everyone when Axel left Marvel and Bendis jumped to DC. So the president of Marvel called me up and asked what it'd take to come back.

If Hickman were to jump to DC, what would you like to see him tackle?

As for fans of Hickman's creator-owned series, he also revealed that East of West is returning this Fall, and The Black Monday Murders and The Dying and the Dead will return next year.

For the immediate future, House of X #1 is in stores in just three more days.

HOUSE OF X #1 (OF 6)

MAY190690

(W) Jonathan Hickman (A/CA) Pepe Larraz

FACE THE FUTURE! Superstar writer Jonathan Hickman (SECRET WARS, AVENGERS, FANTASTIC FOUR) takes the reins of the X-Men universe! Since the release of Uncanny X-Men #1, there have been four seminal moments in the history of the X-Men. Giant-Sized X-Men. X-Men. Age of Apocalypse. New X-Men. Four iconic series that introduced a new era for Marvel's mutants and revolutionized the X-Men. In House of X, Charles Xavier reveals his master plan for mutantkind…one that will bring mutants out of the shadow of mankind and into the light once more.

Rated T+

In Shops: Jul 24, 2019

SRP: $5.99