Warning: spoilers for Avengers #39!

Marvel Comics have revealed the true origin of the X-Men, and it begins in 1,000,000 BC. Jason Aaron's Avengers run is rewriting the history of the Marvel Universe, with issues between modern-day storylines leaping back to share the origins of the Avengers of 1,000,000 years BC, a group which included Odin the All-Father and the first Phoenix host. This group existed in a time when the Earth was still under the reign and rule of Mephisto, bringing together a group of wildly powerful heroes in the Marvel's Universe's first super-team.

Avengers #39, from Aaron and Dale Keown, finally reveals the story behind the first human to host the Phoenix Force. Predictably enough, this first Phoenix is a red-haired woman - and, as Avengers #39 reveals, she's actually an early mutant. In fact, not only is she a mutant, she was also a member of the first X-Men.

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The first mutants were born when the blood of a diseased Celestial seeped into the Earth, resulting in the X-gene spontaneously generating among a small handful of humans. One of these first mutants was a telepath and telekinetic, who learned how to communicate with the minds of others and formed a band of outsiders who he offered a home. He called them the Tribe Without Fear, and they included mutants possessed of super-elasticity, metallic skin, and wings. There were even Cheyarafim and Neyaphem, mutants who are either angelic or demonic in appearance. Aaron's characters and concepts are pretty on-the-nose - not only is the leader a clear Xavier analogue, the first Phoenix corresponds with Jean Grey, and there's even a literal Cyclops.

First X-Men

Aaron has just written mutants into the very dawn of the human race, with both the Avengers and the X-Men existing in the year 1,000,000 BC. He's actually building upon a retcon already introduced during the Jonathan Hickman era, which has suggested there were always mutants but they were historically mistaken for the supernatural. This theme is particularly notable in Tini Howard's Excalibur run, which has even suggested certain groups of mutants became geographically concentrated. The Cheyarafim and Neyaphem, for example, ultimately became centered around ancient Israel. The story is careful to offer a huge variety of mutations, given that these individuals are representative of all the ways humanity would evolve and transform down through Marvel's history - one aquatic mutant could even hint at the true origins of the Atlantean race.

Tribe Without Fear

Unfortunately the first X-Men community was doomed, and they were slaughtered by early humans. When Jean distracts their telepathic leader, who she calls Highwalker, the mutants' powers can't save them from the numbers and brutality of the humans who came to wipe them out. This is an important theme throughout the X-Men's stories, and currently under examination during Hickman's tenure as Head of X - mutant abilities may have combat applications, but that isn't what makes them special, and the cruelty and inventiveness of humanity always finds a way to hurt those who are different.

The tribe's destruction prefigures the slaughter of mutants in Genosha, and confirms the X-Men have been battling to protect those who hate and fear them since the very dawn of time. That has only changed in the present day, with the X-Men finally founding a mutant nation that seems strong enough to stand against the forces of hate, and yet even there, glimpses of a possible future have revealed machine life could finish the job Avengers #39's cave people began.

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