Marvel Comics’ NYX series is a teen hangout book for a new X-Men era

Whether or not the Krakoan age of the X-Men was your cup of tea, you’ll have to admit: It was about as far from everyday human life the characters had ever gotten. Living on a paradise island, inventing mutant religion, terraforming Mars, and triumphing over death — it was a long way from Kansas.

Now, the Krakoan era is over, and Marvel’s new line of X-Men comics is scattering the characters to superhero adventures across the globe, in titles like X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, and Exceptional X-Men. And in the new ongoing series NYX, writers Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing, with artist Francesco Mortarino, are bringing a select group of teenage mutants right down to the pavement of New York City to face a completely unfamiliar challenge: Getting through a college course together.

“A lot of these [new] books, while there are some incredible solo titles, are X-team books,” Kelly told Polygon via video call, “and they’re very much about X-Men solving X-Men problems. One of the things that we’re lensing in on is Yes, this is arguably a team, but they’re not a superhero team. They are a friendship, they are a community.”

NYX (say it N-Y-X, not Nix) is a throwback title to Marvel’s divisive NYX miniseries of the ’00s, that followed the hard-knock lives of homeless mutant teens in New York City and introduced Laura Kinney/Wolverine to comics canon. But when Kelly and Lanzing talk about their guiding stars for their NYX, they mention Runaways, Young Avengers, Phonogram, and The Wicked + The Divine.

Ms. Marvel zips through Manhattan streets with her stretchy limbs, wearing a jacket and backpack over her superhero uniform, as she talks on a cellphone in NYX #1. — Kamala Khan and Sophie Cuckoo in a preview page from NYX #1.

Kamala Khan looks up surprised and entranced by Sophie Cuckoo, who is levitating books, and other classroom necessities using her telekenesis in NYX #1.

“The cool thing about teen superhero books,” Lanzing said, “is that [characters] tend not to come together over a big threat. They tend to instead be a lot closer to hang out or friendship books. They tend to be a little bit closer to a teen drama, than they do to a big action extravaganza.”

In the case of NYX, leads Ms. Marvel, Sophie Cuckoo, Prodigy, Anole, and Laura Kinney start to get acquainted because some of them are taking the same Empire State University class that another one of them is teaching. (Kelly and Lanzing didn’t specify, but with Prodigy’s mutant power to instantly absorb the studied expertise of those around him, he seems like a shoo-in for professorial duties.)

Who is the Krakoan? asks Marvel promotional art for NYX, featuring Ms. Marvel confronting a levitating figure dressed a bit like Magneto and a bit like Professor X, who appears to be suspending an entire subway car with his powers.

Kelly, himself a university professor, said the course is about examining what the mutant cultural diaspora looks like now that the mutant island paradise is no more. “So we are starting right off the bat with bringing several of these characters together in not a superhero context, but an intellectual educational context.”

If that all sounds heady, don’t worry — both writers were emphatic that there’s still plenty of action in NYX, whether it’s Wolverine appointing herself the dark mutant avenger of New York, or a mysterious new mutant villain called the Krakoan, who represents a threat to the continuation of Krakoan-style community in the post-Krakoan world.

For more hints at the series — including Anole’s new job bartending at a mutant nightclub, and Ms. Marvel and Wolverine having it out in a very recognizable New York location, check out these four pages of preview art from NYX #1, courtesy of Marvel Comics.