Xavier’s School has turned into the X-Men’s greatest fear in Marvel’s new mutant era

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Marvel Comics’ new X-Men era begins today with a backup story in the Blood Hunt #1 Free Comic Book Day Special. In the second story of this free anthology, writer Gail Simone and artist David Marquez reveal a world after the fall of the popular Krakow era, prior to the relaunch of the entire series called ‘From The Ashes’.

The story sets the stage for a lot of new stuff, including a surprising recast of the famed Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters – the foundation for the X-Men, and something that had been largely abandoned in recent years.

Spoilers for the Blood Hunt Free Comic Book Day Special #1.

On the opening page of the X-MEn story in the FCBD special, we see Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters being rebuilt, modified, and vilified – including a solid wall of barbed wire that makes it even further away from the world.

“We had a castle. Towers and all,” reads one story from Jubilee, as you watch the transformation of the iconic X-Men school.

The new residents of Xavier’s school are a mysterious group led by Doctor Corina Ellis, an imposing figure, aided by a person named Phillip – a pale, bald person with mobility problems and telepathy – but not the Xavier we know, the bald telepath above all known for using a wheelchair.

One of Ellis’s upgrades to Xavier’s outside the giant wall involves gutting Xavier’s office, asking her staff to “completely strip this mahogany box of an office” and make it “look like an Ikea catalog”.

And in the underground levels of Xavier’s, previously best known for its Danger Room, Ellis holds mutants captive. One is Theresa Cassidy (aka Siryn), and the other is a nameless, invisible prisoner hidden behind a huge circular door labeled “Inmate

Simone and Marquez will continue this story in the relaunch of Uncanny X-Men, coming in August.

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