While the rest of the Marvel heroes contend with the chaos of World War Hulk, the X-Men are besieged by two catastrophic events in their their own corner of the universe that threaten to destroy them, both as a team and literally, as a species itself.

The 4-part “Blinded By The Light” storyline written by Mike Careythat begins in X-Men #200 heralds the return of the Marauders, the same team of mutant assassins responsible for the mass slaughter of the Morlocks several years ago, as well as other atrocities against mutantkind. But this time, Gambit, a former X-Man himself, as well as Rogue’s former lover, is among them. After recent events surrounding Rogue and Cable, the team is already fractured and pushed to its breaking point, and before The Marauder’s ruthless decimation of the X-Men is finished, some of the team will join their ranks, one X-Man will lose their powers, and one…will die.

This 64 page groundbreaking issue features art by fan favorites Chris Bachalo and Humberto Ramos, including a 50/50 wraparound cover by both artists, as well as a stunning gatefold variant cover by David Finch.
But the worst is still ahead for the X-Men, and for mutantkind itself.

The after-effects of M-Day have yielded far worse consequences than anyone imagined. Not only were more than 90% of the mutant population reverted to baseline humans in Decimation, but since then there have been no more mutant births and there are none coming, either. And each mutant death brings the entire race closer to extinction. They are, quite literally, an endangered species.

Beginning in June, and for the next 4 months, X-Men:Endangered Species will focus on this potentially devastating impact on the Marvel Universe, and of course, on the X-Men themselves. The story itself begins in the Endangered Species one-shot, written by Mark Carey, with art by Scot Eaton and John Dell and cover art by long time X-Men artist, Marc Silvestri, and continues through the four core X-titles: Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, X-Factor and New X-Men.

The main protagonist in the stories is Hank McCoy, the Beast–seen here in his role as the X-Men’s foremost scientific expert. Hank will exploring the deeper effects of this crisis, as well as a means of hopefully countering or reversing it before mutantkind dies out completely. And as a result, will take Hank down some extremely dark paths, including him increasingly thinking the unthinkable and entertaining very unsettling options–both in terms of the people he approaches and in terms of the experiments he’s willing to undertake. And finally we take him to an encounter that he’d hoped to avoid, but that could hold the key to–at the very least–a full understanding of what’s at stake and what can still be done.