DNX #1 hit shelves today, kicking off a high-stakes crossover between Jed MacKay‘s X-Men line and Ryan North‘s Fantastic Four. Written by MacKay with art by Federico Vicentini, the event sees the X-Men seek out the Baxter Building for aid as a rogue mutant faction known as 3K, led by the evil Hank McCoy now known as The Chairman, attempts to unleash the X-Virus across major global population centers, forcing humans to “evolve” into mutants.
Having gone full mad scientist, McCoy’s biological agent not only forces humans to mutate, it will also kill non-compatible host, forcing two of Marvel’s most iconic teams to launch a joint rescue operation.
While the first issue of the five-part event series launches today, the road to DNX began in August with X-Men #35 and #36 and will continue through issue #41 while spilling into Fantastic Four #17 and #18.
At the core of the conflict will be Cyclops and The Chairman, both of whom see very different futures for the X-Men. Speaking to AIPT, MacKay teased what lies ahead as two of Xavier’s original X-Men do battle:
“DNX is seeing Cyclops and the Chairman going head to head, pitting their differing philosophies for the future of mutantkind against one another, and that’s going to take a heavy toll on each of them.”
And, of course, by crossing over with the Fantastic Four, the event will bring Reed Richards into the fray, which will also include the X-Men’s reformed Beast, a blue-furred Krakoan clone.
“We’ll see some serious discourse between Beast and Reed—Beast needs help that Reed doesn’t want to give for reasons that will become clear. Writing the verbal maneuvering between the two has been a lot of fun…”
DNX will run through November and is expected to lead to line-wide changed for the X-titles in 2027.
