Name: House of X/Powers of X
Rating: 4.2 (10 reviews)
ISBN: 9781302915704

Jonathan Hickman

Pepe Larraz

House of X/Powers of X

Tim Pendry

Jonathan Hickman's total relaunch of the X-Men mythos in 2019, otherwise known as the Krakoan Age which was to last in publishing terms through to 2024, is imaginatively masterful, so dense in its myth-making that it will eventually require a second reading. It starts the new cycle as a massive reference text in which a 'present' (the creation of Krakoa) offsets a 'long future' or 'futures'. Hickman managed to draw relatively recent futurist speculation about the post-human into his core story of evolutionary competition between humans and mutants. What was once a narrative about repression and cruelty that owed a great deal historically to a coming-to-terms with the crimes of national socialism has switched into a narrative of evolutionary struggle where one might be nervous of transformed national socialist tropes re-emerging. In the older narratives mutants were persecuted victims but in the new they are a power in their own right engaged in a more equal struggle for dominance, initially intending to be moral but becoming less so out of necessity as humanity struggles to retain its species-dominant position. The struggle is just a precursor to new states of being where post-humanity is not humanity at all and this post-humanity is destined for immersion in new forms of being that mean the end of all struggle. To cease to struggle is the end of evolution for both sides. Where we end up can be seen as awe-inspiring or terrifying but Hickman creates an extremely clever multiversal model that offers more than one outcome, allowing the mythos to expand in one or many competing and conflicting directions, some in the novels and others to come. Is Krakoa a form of futurist Israel? It is interesting to set it alongside the futurist and isolationist Wakanda. Is Krakoa caught up in struggle as victim or as perpetrator after the initial genocide of its type, with the genocided now enabled to become resurrected in a striking and distinctive eschatology? There are many cultural tropes from our history but also from science being worked here into a creative whole. One is tempted to use the word 'genius' about Hickman. It is the sort of work that requires just a few paragraphs (as here) or a complete exegesis. One might say that, in a wholly capitalist context (Marvel Publishing), Hinkman's market is responsive enough that he has been enabled to create a mythos that is transitional between a jaded Judaeo-Christianity and an inchoate transhumanism which definitely has religious leanings. The two connected graphic novels are rhetorical ethical statements as obscure as those of the New Testament except that we know that it is all invention and not spiritual reality (if that even exists). The moral ambiguities of the tale are never resolved but force the reader into troubling thoughts. Yes, it is just a set of comic books with all the posing and nonsense of a superhero universe but then most tales of gods and monsters are nonsense and made up of posturing, out of which our anxieties are expressed and our doubts and choices can be reflected. It is good that it is just a capitalist exercise in nonsense because it reminds us of the status of all such exercises in high meaning - that they do not exist without some real world context - but Marvel has enabled Hinkman to do what Alan Moore was sometimes allowed to do, to expand thought.

Dimitris Papastergiou

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!

Patty Pforte

A beautiful drawn and thoughtful reset to the X-Men universe with surprises and new ideas on almost every page!

Collects Powers Of X #1-6, House Of X #1-6. Face the future — and fear the future — as superstar writer Jonathan Hickman (INFINITY, NEW AVENGERS, FANTASTIC FOUR) changes everything for the X-Men! In HOUSE OF X, Charles Xavier reveals his master plan for mutantkind — one that will bring mutants out of humankind’s shadow and into the light once more! Meanwhile, POWERS OF X reveals mutantkind’s secret history, changing the way you will look at every X-Men story before and after. But as Xavier sows the seeds of the past, the X-Men’s future blossoms into trouble for all of mutantdom. Stories intertwine on an epic scale as Jonathan Hickman reshapes the X-Men’s past, present and future!

House Of X/Powers Of X

Heather Harrington

Sans

So very nearly perfect that I had to give it five stars. Hickman KNOWS. He knows what I wanted, what I NEEDED, from a comic book. He knows how to write, he brings the characters to life, he can pace the plot to keep you hooked. 

He’s the antithesis of what is happening at DC and he kept me from backing out of comic books again.

House of X/Powers of X

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