Summary

• X-Men's new 'From the Ashes' era officially begins in X-Men #1, and Xorn is back.
• Xorn is a healer with a star for a brain, and was originally intended to be Magneto in disguise.
• Marvel made the hero incredibly confusing with a series of retcons, but X-Men #1 takes him back to basics, giving him one last chance.

Warning: contains spoilers for X-Men #1!The Krakoan Era is over, and X-Men's new era has officially begun, as Cyclops commands a new team of misfits and heroes. However, among franchise favorites like Magneto, Beast and Psylocke, some surprising mutants are also on-hand as the team's staff. Among their number is the franchise's most controversial hero of all time, giving Marvel one last time to fix this incredibly promising character.

In X-Men #1, Beast offers police chief Paula Robbins (and the reader) a tour of the X-Men's new Alaskan base, with the team operating out of a closed-down Sentinel factory. Far from their usual base in New York, the X-Men now have to be far more self-ing, and Beast reveals various new projects, including a hydroponics set-up run by fan-favorite mutant Glob Herman. In a surprise reveal, Beast also reveals that the mutant healer Xorn is living at the new base, there to keep the team in fighting condition.

Xorn is one of the most loved and hated characters in X-Men history - the subject of one of the franchise's biggest and most controversial twists, and a character who has been mangled in the years since, as Marvel tried and failed repeatedly to fix his backstory. X-Men #1 represents what has to be the final chance for Marvel to get Xorn right, but if they can nail it, X-Men can get one of its best heroes back.

Xorn's design, powers and philosophy made him a compelling new addition to the X-Men, but one twist effectively broke the character.

Xorn Is Officially Back with the X-Men

Xorn Has a Confusing, Complicated History, But the Core of the Character Is Sound

Xorn ed the X-Men in Grant Morrison and Leinil Francis Yu's New X-Men 2001 #1 - a Chinese mutant whose power is to heal the injuries of others. However, Xorn also has a physical mutation which replaces his brain with a miniature star. This mutation allows Xorn limited control of magnetic, electrostatic and gravitational forces in his vicinity. However, as a Buddhist, Xorn sought never to turn to violence, only using these latter powers in cases of life and death.

X-Men having both explicit 'powers' and physical mutations is pretty common. For example, Nightcrawler's power is to teleport, but he also has blue skin and a tail. X-Men has suggested in the past that physical changes are part of a mutants' body adjusting to compensate for their main superpower, however this detail isn't used consistently.

Mutants have also been known to carry forward physical mutations from their parents, even when they have different powers - for example, Nightcrawler's alt-universe daughter Talia Wagner (aka Nocturne) has his blue fur and tail but can't teleport.

Xorn was a unique member of the X-Men and especially within the Xavier school, where he taught the 'remedial' class of young mutants with unfortunate powers or bad attitudes. In his time with the X-Men, he healed Xavier's spine and helped to fight off Cassandra Nova, with his compelling design (a metal mask containing his star brain) winning fans' hearts. Morrison and Frank Quitely's New X-Men run remains famous for being incredibly creative, and Xorn exemplified that approach - a mutant whose powers and personal philosophy explored complex but satisfying new ground for the franchise. Then, Morrison revealed the twist they'd been planning all along, and all Hell broke loose...

Marvel tried to undo the twist that Xorn was Magneto in disguise, causing years of chaos for the character.

The Xorn Debacle Explained in 2 Minutes

X-Men's Most Controversial Hero Was Ruined AND Saved by Retcons

Understanding why Xorn is so controversial can't be done by looking at the character's in-canon history, but only by understanding how Marvel has handled the character as intellectual property. In Morrison and Quitely's acclaimed New X-Men run, Xorn's story is very simple - he's Magneto in disguise. Wanting to infiltrate Xavier's school, Magneto created a new persona, disguising himself as someone who could never remove his helmet. Xorn's healing is explained by Magneto using his powers in clever ways, such as using metal to bind Xavier's spine, giving the illusion of having healed him. Magneto's plan culminates in a mass terror attack on New York, where he plans to realign the Earth's magnetic poles and ends up killing Jean Grey.

However, following New X-Men, Marvel wasn't happy with Magneto's new status quo as a genocidal terrorist, and this (arguably) is where the problems started. To redeem Magneto, Marvel revealed that Xorn was a totally separate person - one who had been influenced by one of the X-Men's many villains to pose as the Master of Magnetism and cause chaos. Given Xorn's popularity and the fact he was now a separate character, Marvel tried to have its cake and eat it by replacing him with Kuan-Yin Xorn - the original Xorn's twin brother with similar powers (but this time with a black hole for a brain, not a sun.)

At the same time, Marvel published multiple stories which tried to give fans Xorn without truly bringing him back. Xorn's consciousness was introduced as a new villain controlling all the mutant powers Scarlet Witch removed in House of M (aka the Collective), and a future version of Jean Grey and corrupted Emma Frost both used Xorn 'disguises,' creating a number of stories where it seemed like Xorn was back and had a new status quo, only for this to be quickly reversed. Xorn was resurrected during X-Men's Krakoan Era (hence why he's alive now), but didn't get much to do other than hanging out with his twin.

The fact that Xorn is wearing his Morrison era costume in his appearance in X-Men #1 suggests that Marvel is taking the exact right route...

With two Xorns and a tangled history of what either of them actually did, the character has become impenetrable for fans trying to catch up with what they need to know. This wasn't helped by the fact that Morrison and Frank Quitely's X-Men run was followed by one of the most unpopular runs in the franchise's history, meaning that even many X-Men fans haven't read the entirety of the era where Marvel tried to establish Xorn's new status quo. However, despite all this complexity and confusion, Xorn is a great character, and there's an easy way to proceed.

Xorn's Return Already Suggests Marvel Knows How to Handle Him

Marvel's Missteps Were So Bad, Fans Are Willing to Just Forget Them

The simple answer to how to fix Xorn is to simply ignore the vast majority of his history since Morrison and Quitely's New X-Men. Fans know that Xorn is a separate character who impersonated Magneto for a while, and that's all they need to know. If X-Men simply brings back Xorn with his original personality and powers, with some kind of nod to the fact his backstory was complicated in ways that no longer matter, the character can simply be used once again.

Confusing as it was, his impersonation of Magneto is a) finished and b) wasn't his fault. Many superheroes, even A-list heroes, have come back from wilder stories and twists simply by moving forward (see Superman splitting into two separate Red/Blue forms.) The fact that Xorn is wearing his Morrison era costume in his appearance in X-Men #1 suggests that Marvel is taking the exact right route - telling X-Men fans who loved him in his original appearances that they can simply re-engage with the character as they knew him.

However, bringing back a simplified, recognizable Xorn isn't just a plus because he's a great character or because he offers things no other mutant hero does - he's the perfect voice to put on this team as a new era begins.

Xorn starred in one of the best X-Men comics of all time - and that issue shows why the character is so valuable to X-Men's new era.

Xorn's Philosophy Is an Essential Replacement for Xavier

As Professor X Turns Villain, the X-Men Need an Empathetic Healer

In the closing months of the Krakoan Era, Charles Xavier turned on the X-Men, working with the anti-mutant group Orchis to subjugate his own people. His reasons were complex, but his decision broke his relationship with his students, and it's hard to see Cyclops and his team ever treating Xavier as a mentor again. That's a big deal, since Xavier embodies the 'dream' that the X-Men franchise was built on top of. With Magneto now advising the team and outcasts like Kid Omega and Psylocke on the main roster, the X-Men need a voice who places a high on human and mutant lives.

One of the best X-Men comics of all time is New X-Men #127, from Grant Morrison and John Paul Leon. The issue is a standalone Xorn story where the hero attempts to help a young mutant whose powers have just activated, turning him into a hulking 'monster' as a pupal stage for his true mutant form. The kid is killed by the NYPD, who can only see him as a threat, and Xorn despairs at the tragic loss of a young mutant's life. That idea - that every lost life is a singular tragedy - is essential as the X-Men enter one of their darkest periods ever.

X-Men's new era finds the team on a knife-edge, fighting for survival in a world where Xavier's dream has more or less failed. The majority of team on X-Men's new roster have no issue killing if it serves the greater good, and having a voice like Xorn's arguing that all lives are worth safeguarding is (whether he's right or wrong) a way to offer the emotional and philosophical depth that Morrison and Quitely's New X-Men is ed for.

X-Men's new era just began by bringing back a character who is emblematic of one of the most creative eras in the franchise's history, but also the ways in which Marvel as a company can undermine good ideas in service of keeping the overall franchise as marketable as possible. With fans still making up their minds how to feel about X-Men's 'From the Ashes' era, Xorn acts as both a symbol of hope for the path ahead and a warning of how quickly this franchise can fly off the tracks.

X-Men #1 is available from Marvel Comics now.