Marvel brings back the original graphic novel with X-Men: No More Humans

The first original X-Men graphic novel since the famed God Loves, Man Kills is poised to explore a world without humans.

Marvel is promising a grand X-Men yarn in the classic style with this one, and I couldn’t be happier to hear it. The biggest X-Men tales from across the history of the Marvel U always pitted the mutant super-team against not just villains or threats from the ‘human world’, but also against ideals. If that’s what’s on tap for No More Humans, then this is going to be one not to miss.

The book picks up after the events of Battle of the Atom, with all of the normal and super-powered humans alike vanished from the globe. It’s up to the mutants of the world to team together, discover just what’s happened and reverse it. As editor Nick Lowe and writer Mike Carey explain though, not everyone is too pumped to bring back the people who’ve ‘hated and feared’ them for so long.

“We are so lucky to have Mike Carey, one of the most popular X-Men writers of the last ten years, who just happens to be a best-selling novelist, and Salvador Larroca, whose runs on X-Treme X-Men, X-Men, Uncanny X-Men and Cable and X-Force earned him a place in all X-Fans hearts,” says Senior Editor Nick Lowe.

Following the shattering events of the “Battle of the Atom” the X-Men awaken to find all the world’s humans gone. From normal everyday folks to the Avengers and Fantastic Four, all Homo sapiens have disappeared. It’s up to the disparate sides of the X-Men to come together, get to the bottom of this mystery and find a way to get the humans back. But do all of the mutants want their human brethren to return?

“’Battle of the Atom’ was the perfect launching pad for X-MEN: NO MORE HUMANS, in a lot of different ways,” states writer Mike Carey. “It raised, in a very direct and powerful way, the question of how the X-Men influence the world around them, for good or bad – and it introduced Raze – a fascinating new villain, conflicted and with his own scary and consistent agenda. I came in at just the right time to bounce off that.”

Carey continues, “X-MEN: NO MORE HUMANS is an X-Men story in a classic mold – one that pits the mutant heroes, not just against external enemies, but also against each other, forcing them to confront their own ideals and prejudices as they cope with world-changing and potentially world-ending events.”

The day of the Original Graphic Novel is slowly making a comeback and it’s great to see Marvel putting such a big X-Men story into the format and eschewing the usual monthly-based story arc. Some of the coolest superhero tales I remember reading from the 80s and 9os were in original volumes with no ongoing book ‘involvement’ of any  kind, so I’m pretty pumped to see what the creative team has in store for No More Humans.

A hardcover tome, weighing in at 128 pages and with the team of Carey and artist Salvador Larroca behind it, X-Men: No More Humans will hit the shelves this May the 7th from Marvel Comics.