Reviews
“No more.” I’ve always been intimidated by the X-Men comics, and comics in general, since there are so many major graphic novels and timelines, and it’s hard to determine the best place to jump in. While House of X/Powers of X may be a large rebrand and game changer decades into an already complicated timeline, I do think that it’s a good starting point for X-Men fans and readers who want to jump into the story. Despite all its moving parts and big concepts, this graphic novel functions as the perfect gateway into reading X-Men comics since so much of it is setting the stage and laying the foundation for the next era of X-Men comics and what’s to come, while still functioning as an interesting story that stands on its own two feet. Even if you’re only familiar with the rough sketches of who the X-Men are, this story does a great job at showing how far they’ve come and reintroducing them and they’re new context. The X-Men have spent their entire lives being persecuted and scrutinised by human society. But they continued to rise above adversity and save people’s lives in order to live up to the ideals of Professor X’s dreams. But what happens when Professor X no longer believes his way is enough? What happens when he embraces the ideology of Magneto and creates a mutant society where humans aren’t welcome? You get Jonathan Hickman’s House Of X/Powers Of X. While there are many science fiction elements introduced into the story and a lot of world building done here, a lot of it serves and uplifts the story and I don’t think new readers will have a hard time keeping up. Even only reading a dozen pages into the story makes it clear that this will be a very different X-Men story, and that will definitely reignite the love for the comics for long term fans who have fallen off in recent years. Due to the film rights to the X-Men being obtained by Marvel Studios, Marvel Comics is no longer trying to shadow ban the X-Men in the comics in favour of the Inhumans, which was an awful replacement strategy that was just never going to work and had poisoned X-Men stories for years, until now. The X-Men has always been a metaphor for oppressed peoples and minorities, however an imperfect one as some of the X-Men could end the world with a snap of their fingers and are universal threats. While not a perfect metaphor, writers have used them to explore some pretty dark themes over the years, and the X-Men in the comics themselves were in a bit of a dark age before this graphic novel. For awhile there it felt like every X story was just finding new and exciting ways to torture and kill these characters, making their extended collective suffering the main highlight of their stories. This story is a much needed breath of fresh air, showing the mutants coming together to form their own nation, away from the humans who have come to torment them for years despite how many times the X-Men have saved them. It was so satisfying seeing Xavier take a different approach with Krakoa. It was so satisfying seeing the mutants from all walks of life, X-Men and Brotherhood, heroes and villains, all come together to form a mutant society. All other attempts at mutant paradises have always ended in genocide and death, but it has never been attempted at a scale this large before, an entire mutant nation, all working together with the strongest mutants at the top ensuring no one stands in their way at having a fair shot. I got a little emotional seeing all the mutants use their powers to better Krakoa and form a world where they didn’t have to suffer injustices and deaths by the outside world. So many X-Men stories feature tragedies befalling them as they try to navigate a world that hates and fears them, so it was so nice seeing them all come together to carve out a piece of the world for themselves. One really cool aspect of this graphic novel are all the graphs and informational pages that detail certain aspects of the world building, and they’re fun to read over and easily flesh out the world in a unique way. I love how this story weaves in major aspects in the Marvel universe while also centring the mutants. I liked how the international implications of a mutant nation forming were explored early on and how many different organizations and companies scrambled to adjust as a result. A lot of this review is just going to be me gushing about how much I loved the world building. I loved seeing how the mutants formulated their own nation, culture, and politics. A huge improvement in this story is what Jonathan Hickman and the writers have done with Moira’s character, building on and expanding upon her previous history in the comics and making her a mutant with the power of reincarnation. It was such a creative move on their part and I loved how it played into the storyline, especially with Mystique and Destiny. While I know that Xavier and Magneto have come together in other stories, this time felt impactful to me because Xavier recruits his oldest friend when Magneto had already lost all hope for a happy future for their people, and for the first time in a long time he has hope that their people will not just survive, they’ll thrive. I loved how this graphic novel combines the storyline of the future involving the remaining mutants after a human/machine apocalypse a thousand years in the future. X-Men stories aren’t strangers to horrific alternate future timelines, but this one seemed so complex and grand within its scale, it really seemed like a labour of love from the writers, who are definitely fans of hard science fiction stories such as Dune. I love how this story spans in scale throughout the Marvel comics universe, introducing universal level implications for the events of the story. I loved how Apocalypse is leading the mutants in the alternate future timeline, and has made a team of mutants his new horsemen in order to defeat the machines. Although I’m a huge X-Men fan, I haven’t read many comics and just know the basics, so I was surprised by how flamboyant and fun Mister Sinister was in this comic, as I only had a very basic understanding of his character from other X-Men properties. One of my favourite world building aspects in this story is the resurrection protocols, and how they were able to essentially become immortal through combining their powers and printing a copy of a mutant’s mind/soul onto a clone body. This was a hugely emotional moment, and usually I’m not a fan of resurrections in fiction since it takes away the stakes of death and felt cheap, but since this feat could only be achieved with the help of five specific mutants, if anything were to happen to them, true death would still be on the table, thus granting the story stakes if needed. Additionally, the X-Men have been through so much suffering up until this point so it felt so earned for them to get such a big win for their people. I also loved the bit of world building that had to do with the mutant takeover of the pharmaceutical industry, which allowed Krakoa to gain political and financial power over nations. I also liked how it was noted that Wakanda had no need for the mutant super drugs as they are the leading technological superpower on the planet. While I loved all the high concepts in this story, my absolute favourite aspect of the story was seeing the mutants come together. Not only in building a nation, but finally bonding as a people. Allies and enemies, friends and rivals, exes and lovers, heroes and villains, all becoming one family, one people. What I loved about this comic is how it introduced so many huge ideas and imaginative world building while telling the story of the rise of a mutant nation. Even though there was so much information in this story and a lot focused on world building and hard science fiction concepts, this entire story was essentially resetting the board and establishing the new foundation for future X-Men stories, and it was done brilliantly. I think this is a great place for people to start reading X-Men comics, because it is fertile ground for the imaginative and creative stories to come in this new era. I always resonated deeply with the X-Men and the mutant metaphor, and I’m excited to see where these big and fresh ideas take these characters from here. “While you slept, the world changed.”
I'll only say this, Hickman makes reading comics FUN, and NOT a chore. I don't care if it's being an event or something to change the history of a character or a team or whatnot, it's fun to read and personally, that's all I want. Loved what he did with Moira and where he took it with the rest, all the little reveals and all the changes in the team and all were great. Being a while since I put myself into the whole "read all the tie-ins and aftermath" of an event, but yeah, I started reading every single title and no regrets so far, haven't had that much fun reading many titles that's in the same line since Secret Wars event. (which coincidentally was also a Hickman event) Also, amazing artwork! Highly recommended for fans of the X-men!
A beautiful drawn and thoughtful reset to the X-Men universe with surprises and new ideas on almost every page!
