There's a lot unknown about the future of Marvel's fictional universe. The eight-issue "Secret Wars," set to see the classic Marvel Universe, the Ultimate Universe and other multiple timelines and realities combine into "Battleworld," starts in May, with several news series spinning out of the event.

While there's still a lot left unrevealed about the "Secret Wars" story itself, what happens after it is an even bigger question -- and in this week's installment of AXEL-IN-CHARGE, CBR's weekly Q&A column with Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso, a big hint arrived as to what the post-"Secret Wars" landscape may look like for the X-Men titles.

"The X-Men office is taking the opportunity of 'Secret Wars' to build an entire new world for the characters -- to create a shared universe within the X-books that's set off by a huge event/incident/surprise," Alonso said in response to a fan question submitted via the CBR Community. "At that point, they're going to introduce a new team that feels unlike anything you've seen before. It'll be... 'extraordinary.'"

Exactly how literal Alonso meant terms like "new world" and "shared universe within the X-books" remains to be seen, but at the very least, he's bracing fans that not everything may return to the status quo after "Secret Wars." Taken at face value, he may be stating that the X-Men books will literally be in their own world, separate from the rest of the Marvel Universe.

There has been plenty of speculation in recent months about the X-Men's comic book future, since prominent reports and rumors surfaced alleging an unhappiness within Marvel publishing over 20th Century Fox's control over the X-Men characters in live-action projects. Alonso and Brian Michael Bendis, who has been the writer of the flagship X-Men books since 2012, have both repeatedly stated that Marvel has major plans for the characters and no plan to take them out of circulation.

"Secret Wars" starts in May -- the same month "Uncanny X-Men" #600, the last issue of Bendis' run on the X-Men books, is scheduled for release.