WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for House of X #1 by Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, Marte Gracia, VC's Clayton Cowles and Tom Muller, on sale now.

Although writer Jonathan Hickman has given numerous interviews about House of X and its sister series, Powers of X, the dual X-Men projects remain largely shrouded in mystery. His run on the X-Men has been compared to other seminal moments for Marvel's mutants, including 1975's Giant-Size X-Men #1, 1991's X-Men #1, Age of Apocalypse and Grant Morrison's New X-Men. Each era took the property in a new direction, and served as a springboard for years' worth of stories.

RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: House of X #1 Preview Reveals a Whole New World for the X-Men

It may be difficult to picture now, but the X-Men was, for years, Marvel's premier franchise, ahead of the Avengers and Fantastic Four. Of course, that's changed, due in large part to Earth's Mightiest Heroes opening their ranks to the likes of Spider-Man and Wolverine. But that's all in the past now, with the expectation that Hickman and collaborators Pepe Larraz, R.B. Silva and Marte Gracia will revitalize the X-Men's place in the Marvel Universe.

Not only do the mutants get a new status quo in House of X #1, they are now positioned to be the dominant species in the Marvel Universe.

The Sovereign Island State of Krakoa

An image of Jean Grey running through a Krakoa portal

One of the first developments is that the mutant island Krakoa is now the home base for all mutants, heroes and villains alike. Charles Xavier, who returned from the dead in Charles Soule's Astonishing X-Men, sent out a telepathic message to the world, letting humans know the mutants' intention of creating their own nation-state. With mutants set to become the dominant specials on Earth in the next 20 years (more on that later), the X-Men are allowing humans to keep a small piece of the pie, in exchange for Krakoa being off-limits.

One of the prominent items on covers and preview pages for House of X was plant life with colorful pod structures. It was widely believed to be connected to Krakoa, and House of X #1 confirms that. However, what we couldn't foresee is Krakoa's new ability to be used as a communication and teleportation network, only accessible to mutants.

RELATED: House Of X Teaser Unites Original Five X-Men From Different Eras

New Mutant Cypher has built an entire system to manage the traffic of the Krakoan network, along with developing an entirely new language only legible to mutants. The Krakoan language is scattered throughout House of X #1, with some eagle-eyed fans successfully decoding the ciphers to uncover the six X-Men titles to launch in Marvel's "Dawn of X."

The next major change comes courtesy of Charles Xavier, and the medical breakthrough he accomplished with Krakoa's help.

Charles Xavier, Master Of Modern Medicine

Part of Xavier's play for pushing mutants to the top of the evolutionary food chain includes designer drugs created from the flowers of Krakoa. They are the primary economic resource for the X-Men, and Xavier is only offering it to countries that recognize his new mutant nation-state. The three drugs for humans are the Human Drug L, Drug I and Drug M, each coming in the form of a synthesized pill.

Human Drug L comes from a flower that extends the life of a human for five years; the flower for Human Drug I produces an adaptive, universal antibiotic; and Human Drug M's flower produces a drug that cures diseases of the mind in humans.

Two Krakoan flowers are a part of the mutant network mentioned above. Spread across the globe are Krakoa habitats that are formed from flowers, each functioning as a self-sustaining environment connected to the island's consciousness. Another flower grows a gateway that allows transportation for mutants between the habitats. Jean Grey clarifies that the only way for humans to travel through a gateway is if they are accompanied by mutants. Even then, they have to ask Krakoa for permission.

RELATED: Age of X-Man Finale Reveals How the X-Men Return to the Marvel Universe

With as many enemies as the X-Men have, it makes sense to limit access to their centralized location. We get an example of that when Mystique, Sabretooth and Toad flee from the Fantastic Four after stealing assets from Damage Control. Mystique and Toad make it through a gateway, but Sabretooth is captured in an invisible box created by Sue Richards. Instead of following the two perpetrators, the Fantastic Four are forced to watch as Cyclops saunters through the gateway.

We're not told what data the three mutant villains have stolen, but we know Damage Control has made some tweaks to its normal operating procedure. Damage Control's primary function is to clean up the messes in the aftermath of super-powered conflicts, but the company also archives metahuman technology left behind when heroes are incapacitated, killed or go missing, and there isn't a clear chain of custody. The majority of stored inventory belongs to Tony Stark and Reed Richards, who were both believed to be dead at different points within the past couple of years.

Big Brother Is Watching

The final status-quo change sets up a new threat for the X-Men and mutants, in the form of a doomsday collective of the largest agencies in the Marvel Universe: A.I.M., S.H.I.E.L.D., S.T.R.I.K.E., S.W.O.R.D., Alpha Flight, H.A.M.M.E.R., A.R.M.O.R. and Hydra. Representatives from each organization have retrofitted a space station out of the floating head of a Mother Mold robot.

The Orchis Protocol is a watchdog program to secretly observe mutant influence. After the mutant population was drastically reduced in the Genoshan genocide, the species wouldn't be able to rebound enough to become dominant. However, that changed when Dr. Alia Gregor's research revealed that, if not for the Genosha event, mutants would have become Earth's dominant species within 10 years. Genosha only bought mankind time, which is quickly running out.

One of the X-Men's own, Omega Sentinel, has joined with Orchis for unknown reasons. The Orchis Protocols were activated when predictive models forecast what Xavier is planning. Perhaps Omega Sentinel did the math and decided to switch sides, but her intentions definitely warrant monitoring. Of course, there is always the possibility that she is a double agent working for the X-Men to gather intelligence on their new enemies.

House of X #1 opens a Pandora's box full of mysteries for the X-Men's place in the Marvel Universe. Why is Xavier offering humans drugs that can help their longevity? Are the drugs really to be trusted? And why has every mutant, aside from Omega Sentinel, gladly joined up with Xavier, when mutants like Magneto, Sabretooth and Mystique have spent the majority of their time fighting the heroes?

As bright as things seem for the X-Men now, we can't help but wonder if there is a bombshell revelation coming in next week's Powers of X #1.

KEEP READING: New X-Men, Excalibur Series Lead Marvel's Dawn of X