| Title | : | House of X/Powers of X |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1302915703 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781302915704 |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 448 |
| Publication | : | First published December 11, 2019 |
COLLECTING: House of X 1-6, Powers of X 1-6
House of X/Powers of X Reviews
-
I loved the story!
It really does make all the crazy X-men titles and wacky plotlines come together into something that resembles a cohesive story. And it makes them interesting again.
Which, for someone like me who was never able to really get a grasp on what was happening, this is an amazing thing to read. And while I've arguably read more comics than the average soccer mom, I've still never come remotely close to being an X-pert. <--I am so sorry for that! I couldn't stop myself.
However, as much as I enjoyed the majority of the reading experience with the plot & art, it took me a while to get through this thing. Why?
This shit right here:
There has to be a better way to convey this information in a graphic novel than jarring pages of text. It was awful. Every time I'd flip the page and see this garbage it made me feel queasy. And you're probably (rightly) thinking that if it bothered me that much, I should have just skipped/skimmed these parts.
Ahhhhh! I wanted to! But I was afraid there was something super-pertinent stuffed in all the words and diagrams of timelines.
And yeah. There kind of was. I mean, it helps to read that stuff.
I don't want to spoil anything plot-wise, so I'll just say that this was a 5 star X-Men comic with boring text bullshit that really yanked the enjoyment factor down to 1 star every time those pages popped up on the screen.
And even so, this is the best X-Comic I've read in a looooong time.
Highly Recommended. -
The only interesting thing Marvel Comics did in 2019 was finally take a firm grip of their X-Men line - which has been floundering aimlessly for years with numerous silly and pointless death/marriage/VS storylines - and unify it with a suitably epic new storyline. I’m sure Marvel saw the success DC have had by giving stewardship of their entire Superman line to Brian Michael Bendis who breathed new life into that icon for a new audience, so they brought back a big name to come back and take over their entire X-Men line: Jonathan Hickman. House of X and Powers of X are his opening two six-issue runs that complement one another into a sprawling, ambitious 12-issue vision of the X-Men for 2020 and beyond. And… eh, I wasn’t that taken with it. Largely because it’s 12 issues of non-story!
Krakoa (itself an island-sized mutant) is now the home of mutants everywhere. Xavier has unified all mutants - including the likes of Magneto, Apocalypse and the Hellfire Club - under his leadership and they seek recognition as their own sovereign nation, indeed their own race, with their own language, laws and culture. But why have they all come together so suddenly? Because, through Moira MacTaggert, a mutant whose power is reincarnation, Xavier has learned of what the future holds for mutantkind and he is preparing them all to face it - and survive.
Jonathan Hickman is really good at world-building but he is lousy when it comes to telling a simple story. Almost all of this massive book is taken up with how and why Krakoa came to be and I really didn’t care. In the same way that I’m not too fussed with how Xavier’s come back to life for the umpteenth time and other nitpicky details that I won’t go into here, I’m not bothered with how this situation came to pass - I’m happy to be told broadly without endlessly going into the finer details. But Hickman insists and so too much of this book is devoted to seeing things like Xavier convincing various mutant characters to join his cause one by one, assembling personnel to build the Krakoan infrastructure and announcing to the world the intentions of Krakoa, even though the opening chapter firmly established all of this. It’s soooo tedious to slog through so much exposition and dull detail.
Of the two titles, I preferred House of X because Powers of X mostly focuses on the distant future where mutants are - surprise surprise - under attack from killer robots yet again, and I didn’t understand half of what was happening. There’s a blue man who talks about godhood, there are giant shadow monster aliens that dissolve worlds, there are sentient sadistic robots called Nimrods - uh huh, and the point is…? It seems like it’s just a repeat of the classic mutants vs Sentinels (albeit updated) scenario with Hickman’s pretentious, convoluted and plain bad sci-fi mixed in - I hated all of that Year 100 and Year 1000 stuff. And I didn’t like the future X-Men characters either - a Colossus/Magik hybrid, a female Xorn, etc. They were just boring, uninspired and derivative.
Out of twelve issues, only two parts really stand out for me: the first is a confrontation between Cyclops and the Fantastic Four in the first issue over how to deal with Sabretooth, who’s just been on a bloody burglary and Cyclops is trying to get the FF to hand Creed over to him and, understandably, they’re not willing to. The second, and best, part of the book though is the daring raid on the Mother Mold.
A Master Mold is a Sentinel factory - a Mother Mold is a Master Mold factory. A faction of rogue scientists from AIM, SHIELD, and other groups have set up a Mother Mold in space - Cyclops leads a team to destroy it as the Mother Mold, besides the dangers it poses in the present, has implications for the future of mutantkind (the Year 100 and Year 1000 stuff). It’s an exciting and genuinely gripping set piece with a surprising coda.
But most of the book is repetitious, dreary world-building with way too much detail. The comics pages are interspersed with dozens of text and graphic pages full of irrelevant detail. Hickman’s created his own mutant language, which, while impressive, is too much - for me anyway, I’m sure Hickman fans live for this kind of stuff. Do we need to read about the different types of galactic societies? The different types of Mister Sinister? (Actually, Hickman’s campy Mister Sinister was another highlight for me.) How the UN voted on whether or not Krakoa should be recognised as a sovereign nation (two pages for something we were just told the page before!)?
I’m just not impressed with this kind of stuff. When I look at the actual story, and not the excessive fluff surrounding it, Hickman’s not doing anything that brilliant. A mutant nation state has been done before - Genosha and Utopia - and the doorways the mutants use to teleport around the planet - simply Krakoan plants - are flimsy at best. What’s stopping anyone from burning these plants down or digging them up, thus eliminating the portal?
The X-Men paradigm used to be Xavier as MLK, the non-violent advocate for progressivism, and Magneto as Malcolm X, the violent leader for homo superior dominance. Hickman’s Xavier is now even more radical than Magneto ever was (and, as if to underline that point, he’s given Xavier a Cerebro helmet that makes him look like The Maker, the evil Reed Richards from Hickman’s previous Marvel books).
So Hickman’s vision of the X-Men is to turn them all into dogmatic, weirdly religious (they have rituals and things now) villains. That’s not to say they’re juxtaposed with any heroes - the only thing approaching that is the Fantastic Four in the first chapter - so it’s a book filled with nothing but villains. I’m not totally opposed to that idea - villains are usually more interesting than heroes - but I also wasn’t rooting for anyone here. I don’t really like any of the characters and I don’t like how they all seem to simmer with barely-checked hostility towards anyone who isn’t a mutant. It’s like they’ve become what they always stood against: the definition of prejudice.
I really enjoyed Pepe Larraz’s artwork on House of X - definitely his best work so far - and quite liked RB Silva’s art on Powers of X. There are a couple decent set-pieces and the tone of the book is deeply grand, slick and cinematic - like a comics version of a JJ Abrams picture. Overall though with House of X/Powers of X Jonathan Hickman does what he always does: takes a meandering, complicated route to tell a not very interesting pseudo-story that’s really all set-up for something further down the line that probably won’t pay off. -
What a reboot to the series, or so I hear. Since they announced at Comic Con last summer 6 new X-men titles, I have been wanting to read them and this is my first one of the new batch. So many classic characters are back in the pages of the story.
We have a new mutant called Moira whose mutant ability is re-incarnation. She comes back after death with all her memories intact to the same life over again and she can make different choices to change her future. She makes for a great character. We see she has 11 lives we know of and a timeline is given for each life.
This book spans roughly 1000 years on into the future. It's told all over the place, the present, some in the past and then a year from now, 100 years from now and 1000 years from now. I don't mind jumping in time, per say, but I do wish that the telling of the story had been more linear. It would have been better.
In this book, Mutantdom starts the own island that is alive and only mutants can get to. They bargain with the world to be acknowledge as a country of their own and their own laws are soverign. They come up with a vaccine to erradicate all cancer and disease and the humans want this.
I love the set up and how all the mutants are on the same page and work together. Magneto and Charles are on the same team and it's so nice. I would love to focus on the present more and the future less. I just can't really care about 100 years from now.
I didn't much care for the break between the artwork. Jonathan will have graphics and diary entries and it's set up like a story. It was weird and broke the rhythm of the story. It was awkward. Jonathan came up with his own mutant language and that's great and all, but as a reader, do we really need to know that. I don't.
I had a lot of fun reading this story and I look forward to me. I felt it was a great mutant story and it was nice to see that very few mutants fought mutants. There is so much potential here and I hope we see some of this in the movies.
I have a few more Graphic novels left to read and then I will run out. Our library is closed and I'll just have to find other things to read around here. I do miss my library. -
Mutants have been persecuted throughout the entire Marvel history, they've been killed and abused over and over again.... NO MORE!
House of X/Powers of X is one of the best franchise relaunches I ever read, Jonathan Hickman built the foundation for the future of the X-Men in such an exciting way that I fear upcoming writers are going to struggle to live up to the expectations in the future.
This is turning point for the mutants, a revolution that started some time ago in
AvX, when Cyclops told Captain America that the Avengers have never helped the mutants when they needed, really, where were the Avengers when the mutants were being persecuted, exterminated and depowered on several occasions, makes sense if you think about it.
The mutants have tried building a safe haven for themselves to solve this problem, Genosha and Utopia, both destroyed, so now is finally time for theX-Menmutants to do something about it. In the words of Charles Xavier, "Here is a new truth: while you slept, the world changed", and so the big three, Xavier, Magneto and Cyclops declared the island of Krakoa as the new sovereign nation for the mutants, in exchange, countries that recognize Krakoa as a nation will have access to a new super drug produced from Krakoan flowers that are capable of extending the human lifespan.
In sum, Hickman found a way for all the mutants, friend or foe, to be part of a single faction, even powerhouses like Apocalypse agreed to join Krakoa, a council was formed and together they established the first three mutant laws:MAKE MORE MUTANTS
MURDER NO MAN
RESPECT THE LAND OF KRAKOA
How revolutionary is that, this no longer feels like the X-Men, because it isn't anymore, they have a nation now and with it a new authority that is new to the franchise. But if you think this is all this book has to offer, you're in for a ride, I don't want to spoil everything in case you're reading this review without picking up the book first, but let's just say that there is a new group called The Five and Goldballs have become one of the most important mutants, that's right, Goldballs.
HoX/PoX has a little bit of everything that made the X-Men great and then some, plenty of heartful family moments, camaraderie, a thrilling last stand mission, a fresh time travel idea, multiple timelines, brutal twists, deaths, rebirths, and a new sense of belonging. It feels like the end of an era and the start of a new one, one where the mutants finally have a place to call home, Krakoa. It has a sense of conclusion while introducing a plethora of new ideas, welcome to the Dawn of X.
-
Finally the X-Men is good again for the first time since the last time they all lived on an island. Marvel has left the X-Men to flounder since the days of Schism. (I honestly think they were trying to drive down sales for a long time while Fox had the movie rights.) And I've been reading X-Men since the Claremont and Byrne days. Hickman brings in all his high concepts, builds a great starting off point for new readers while building off some of the major X-Men events of the past like House of M and the destruction of Genosha, satisfying long time X-Men fans as well.
The infographics were kind of annoying, but in hindsight, I do think they help encapsulate some of the big ideas and changes Hickman is putting forth. Pepe Larraz and RB Silva have similar art styles and meshed well together on the two different books.
Now I can't wait to dive into the Dawn of X books. -
A truly epic story. Nothing short of a new world order. These stories House of X and Power of X needed to but put together, I could not imagine having them separately and then trying to put them together.
The artwork is great the story is huge and I am not going to spoil it here, the only fault i found is a character who has the power of resurrection, really seem to living their life over and over but time stands still around it. Read it and you will see what i mean.
There is not as much action in this series but the story more then made up for it. The is a life of information and almost short stories and added info pages that all come together in the end, and it is a great journey.
This story is a combination of done of the best X-men mythologies and every characters heroes ir villains. The old dream is dead long live the new dream. -
I cut my comics teeth on X-Men (specifically, the Dark Phoenix Saga) about 30 years ago, so Marvel’s merry mutants have always been my nearest and dearest four-color pals (well, except maybe for Spider-Man). Having Messrs. Claremont and Byrne as my entrée into comics has proven both blessing and curse.
On the one hand, when it comes to superhero team books, they don’t get much better than the opera (both space and soap) that those two sang so beautifully together. On the other, their work so defined these characters for me that I have a hard time judging other X-Men writers and artists on the merits of their work; usually, I end up defining them by how they differ from Claremont/Byrne’s work. Defining something by what it is not does not usually bode well for the something.
That’s not to say that I haven’t enjoyed other X-Men runs over the years; putting aside Claremont’s excellent work with Dave Cockrum, Jim Lee, and a slew of other artists, I’ve enjoyed the work of numerous other folks on X-Men (though not, I’m sad to say, Grant Morrison; I don’t know what the hell that tomfoolery was, but it wasn’t X-Men). But, every time I dip into a new storyteller’s box of fun, I’ve always got that original, magical story in my mind.
It was no different in picking up Hickman’s much-hyped retooling. Hickman is wildly imaginative and incredibly smart; he also has a tendency to get a little lost in the complexity of his own narratives and doesn’t always execute to the level his high-concept, high-octane stories deserve (his run on Avengers is a good example of that). So, I went in with some trepidation.
One thing I loved so much about Claremont’s work on X-Men was how character-driven the stories were. There were so many quiet moments; in some issues, there was barely any action, and yet it was gripping—full of drama, pathos, heart, and emotion. Hickman’s run is quite the opposite; he leans on prior incarnations of X-Men to inform character, but primarily focuses his creative energy on some mind-twisting plottery.
As a general rule, I don’t love plot-driven X-Men stories; they tend to devolve into unmemorable slugfests that turn into bad quip fests. It’s basically like having a conversation with me.
And, yet, this works. Somehow, this crazy, time-skipping, continuity-rebooting, universe-altering, mind-shattering explosion of plot works. Hickman has done his homework and leverages every bit of X-Men lore, reshaping and twisting it into something that feels fresh and vibrant. I read this in collected form and, each night, couldn’t wait to get to the next issue, forcing myself to work through it slowly, one issue at a time, to absorb it.
I don’t know where this run will end up. It’s possible it will implode beneath the weight of its own complexity. And, I have no idea how this positions the X-Men vis-à-vis the rest of the Marvel U or otherwise impacts continuity, if there is such a thing anymore with these time-hopping gene freaks. But, for right now, I’m in, and I’m intrigued. (Also, the art is great.)
So kudos, Mr. Hickman, for taking this in the opposite direction of the stories I hold most dear and still keeping me on the edge of my seat.
Bring on the next round! -
Jonathan Hickman is for epics.
This is House of X / Powers of X, part of the Dawn of X line (if you don't get it, this is an X-Men event).
Speaking as an old-school fan who grew up with the 90s crossover era, went back and read every classic Claremont era, and jumped back in every once in a while such as during Grant Morrison's ambitious run in the 2000s, it's good to see the X-Men are back. Without getting into the Marvel Studios/Fox rumors, let's just say it's been a while since comics flagship franchise has been on top...
What I find absolutely incredible about Hickman's take, is that he has seemingly incorporated every single era of the X-Men that fits into a grand narrative, and it all actually works. Like it was all planned that way from the beginning decades ago. The grand arc is about mutants versus A.I.: be it Sentinels or Nimrod or the cosmic force of the Phalanx. In the X10 timeline--get it, Powers of X--Xavier and Magneto invite every mutant on earth to live on the new nation of Krakoa. It's no longer a metaphor for civil rights, instead the mutants are not a persecuted minority but a storytelling exploration of what would happen if superhumans really created their own world. It's high-level science fiction, about power and time travel and the universe.
It can get confusing. Told in nonlinear fashion, jumping from the familiar post-apocalyptic hundred years in the future to a more mind-bending thousand years in the future, and there's also Moira Mactaggert's multiple lives. Confusing is fun, it takes effort from the reader to keep up.
Almost all of the X-mythos is used well. There are some super fights to be sure, Wolverine and Cyclops exploding robots and all that, but the real meat is the political implications of villains like Apocalypse and Sinister joining the island council. And of course that ultimate cliche, that dead characters keep getting resurrected, is embraced and explored in some real fascinating world-building.
It's a story beyond simple notions of beginnings, middles, and ends. That said, it's also a prologue to the long-running regular series which will take the new premise and run with it. As the superhero genre goes, to be continued forever more.
Dense stuff. Highly, highly recommended for the real superhero fan who needs big ideas. The reward for the challenging read is worth it.
I give 5 out of 5 stars. Casual readers, however, just be warned that Hickman's writing is a lot to take in. -
House of X made X-Men a MUST read title once more.
The thing is I didn't hate recent X-Men runs. One a few years ago by Bendis was pretty good, I liked some of Taylor's run as well as Astoning X-Men by Soule. I even enjoyed the more recent first half of Rosenberg's run. Saying that, while they were all good, we needed great. The X-men have been down for far too long. Enter Hickman to pick them back up and make them grand again.
Right off the bat the world is set different Xavier, Cyclops, and a lot of other familiar faces stand firm on bringing the X-Men and mutants in general to a new safe haven named Krakoa. But first Xavier sets ground rules. Avengers, fantastic four, and more do not come into their land demanding shit. This is the land of mutants, and they are united like never before. They set out rules though, such as Kill no Human, Respect the land of Krakoa, and the biggest one...Make more Mutants.
Make more mutants? No no no, this isn't a sex story. Though that would be interesting. Then how is Xavier going to create more humans? That is the mystery and when revealed it might make you go "oh shit...that's kind of brilliant."
Why this works well is Hickman's ability to grab the past characters, so many you might relate to or love, and make a compelling story of their future. Instead of creating another dozen or so new mutants we focus on ones already here. The moving forward storyline, filled with sci-fi and politics, keeps this title extremely fresh. The end result with two great artist really helps this series shine.
My only negative is in the Power of X we have a lot of time skips. And in doing so the future storylines might not seem as interesting. Even in the end I didn't love them all but I did love the way it all tied up.
To say Hickman's idea is ambitious alone would be unfair. It's both Ambitious and GREAT. The artwork helps further it into a status that makes this must read for X-Men fans. I don't know what awaits for our favorite mutants but I can't wait. A 4.5 out of 5. -
A masterpiece and an instant classic. Quite possibly the best thing Hickman's ever written, and I'm almost sure the best X-Men run... ever. Easily the best thing to happen in comics all year, which is no small feat since 2019 in particular saw an insane amount of fantastic comics. But really, nothing could compare to the sheer grandness and genius that Hickman brought to the world of Marvel's mutants. (Well... maybe the final year of Giant Days. But nothing will ever be as good as Giant Days, so that book is in a category of its own). I already can't wait to re-read this thing (I admit, those X2 and X3 timelines flew a bit over my head in particular), and I can't believe that this is only just the beginning of the run. Go HiX-men.
-
Representatives of the leading world powers have been requested to attend an event on an island, as a prelude to the ratification of a new country - a new state, run by, and containing mutants led by Xavier AND Magneto! What the!!! If you ignore the fact that this story ignores most of the more recent continuity, it does take a pretty deep and detailed re-look at the X-universe to create a multi-era, cogent story with a huge cast of nearly ALL our favourite mutants.
This feels like it could become the next huge step in X-Men lore, or a great concept that jumps the shark, and only time will tell which this is. Having a cast that covers the entire mutant race from Apocalypse to Xorn, there's extremely limited character development even of the leading characters. If you're an older reader (or one that has read a lot of back history) you can look at this and imagine
Chris Claremont taking about 10 amazing years to tell this story and giving us a lot of pay-offs. In a nutshell, a pretty innovating and big story, but one that feels rushed and driven by maybe whatever Marvel Studios has planned for the future of the cinematic franchise? Scrapes an 8 out of 12, for concepts and clever use of X-history.
The X-Men never really got over the heights set by
Grant Morrison and then
Joss Wheedon, but this has those heights set, and only time will tell, if this era reaches those heights. -
A modern classic in its infancy.
Wild ideas and fantastic execution. -
I'm so happy to join in on the hype that Hickman's X-Men relaunch has engendered from critics and fans alike. This is a take that feels fresh, bold, and is a welcome utopian turn for a line of comics that has felt bogged down by tragedy and mishap at every corner. Perhaps the most welcome addition is Hickman's high concept, slow-burn plotting which works well against the backdrop of the X-Men's new status quo. The book is smart as hell and not afraid to experiment with cool and compelling infographics that gave me a distinctly creator own vibe. Indeed, this is something that feels like it could have come from no one but Hickman.
I loved the slow reveal of the intricacies of the mutant nation of Krakoa. Hickman somehow turns the X-men into a sci-fi political drama with occasional superhero antics during the House of X issues. By contrast, Powers of X (X is read as 10) takes us from the start of Charles Xavier's dream to the distant future where mutants struggle against ever-evolving machines, galactic beings, and human opposition. Despite being billed as two series, the collection is a unified whole. One issue of House of X feeds into Powers of X and vice versa.
The thing that impressed me most was the evolution of Hickman's craft from his Avengers run, which is already a comic favourite of mine. Where I sometimes felt like I had to be comfortable lost in the disorienting build-up of Avengers, HoXPoX delivers satisfying content on a page-by-page basis while still putting in lots of funky stuff. For instance, the strange far-distant future storyline doesn't reveal it's relationship with the main story until the book's final issue or two. Yet I never felt like I was not entertained by what was going on.
Speaking of entertainment: Hickman knows how to do action scenes right. An early space faring adventure matches tension with terrific artwork and scenes that had me going "eeeeeee!" in my head like a twelve year-old boy. This is all buoyed by Hickman's superb character work. These versions of famous mutants (perhaps Xavier excepted) are those that feel most real and consistent with their history. In point of fact, there's a two page scene between Cyclops, Magneto, and Xavier that delivers the purest essence of Scott Summers' character. These bits are littered throughout the collection and helped me settle in to this new world.
When I was (zealously) praising this collection to a friend I told him that it felt more like a modern sci-fi novel than it did a classic X-Men comic. There's so many exciting concepts paired with pages of lore and well-designed graphics that I almost couldn't peel myself away from the pages. I was trying to savour the experience, but every time I reached for my novel, or my short story collection, I felt the pull of Krakoa. By the end of this collection the X-men are in an entirely different place in the Marvel universe than they have ever been before. I'm most certainly along for the ride.
AN ASIDE
For those of you who have read on to the first chapters of the Dawn of X relaunch that followed these miniseries: what do you like? I plan on reading the Hickman-led titles, but am pretty invested in the world at this point and am happy to branch out into whatever is good. Fire away recommendations of series that you're loving! -
"Humans of the planet Earth. While you slept, the world changed."
-Professor X
THE. HYPE. IS. REAL.
I've been a pretty big X-Men fan ever since I was a kid. I'm mostly a DC comics fan now but when it comes to Marvel, I rock with the mutants. They've always been the odd-heroes-out in the Marvel universe, persecuted for their abilities even though other heroes have them. That might be one of the reasons why I've never been a big Avengers fan, because throughout all the years of the X-Men being treated like crap but still stepping up to help save the day when shit goes down, I never once remembered those assholes in the Avengers or the Fantastic Four truly stepping up to defend the X-Men from discrimination. Not once.
The mutants have gotten the shit end of the stick for far too long, but now writer Jonathan Hickman has come along and changed that with this stunner of a series. Designed as a way to launch a new direction for the X-Men books, this twin miniseries sees the mutants taking their destiny in their own hands. I don't want to say anything more for fear of spoilers. But the book is one of the best comic reading experiences I've had this year. It's equal parts entertaining, dense, and thought-provoking, and packed with action, excellent dialogue, eye-catching art, and clever concepts that push the mutants forward in ways we've never seen. Hickman pulls from and references every era of the X-Men and creates something solely his own, retconning popular characters and events in ways that will make hardcore fans want to go back and read everything again from the beginning with fresh eyes. But it also is a great place for newcomers to jump in as well.
I'm sure this will be a rewarding re-read for years to come. I've read through it twice and I feel like there's still more to unpack. There are multiple timelines, journal entries, and white-paper info dumps, but it all somehow still holds together. Believe the hype, this marks the X-Men's triumphant return to the top of Marvel publishing, has changed the entire world of mutants forever, and is one of the best books of 2019.
"And should forever end, let me die in battle, surrounded by my fallen enemies and with blood on my sword."
- Apocalypse -
The X-Men have been directionless for a long time now. There have been numerous attempts to try and get them back to their glory days, but they've met with varying levels of success. So of course, here comes Jonathan Hickman to shake things up the only way he knows how - by taking the X-Men apart at their very core and reconstructing them as something entirely new that they feel like they should have been right from the beginning.
House Of X and Powers Of X are two distinct series, but they form one overarching story that is full of plot twists, exceptionally clever retcons (looking at you, Moira), and ends with the potential to change the face of the Marvel Universe in a way that hasn't happened since...well, since Hickman literally ended the universe and rebuilt it all after Secret Wars.
On art are two growing superstars of Marvel, Pepe Larraz and R.B Silva, who have both made a name for themselves on smaller books and are now stretching their legs on the big stage. These two are absolutely phenomenal, and when you put them together, true magic happens. This is a good looking pair of series.
I'm not going into story details; if you've not read these series, you deserve to experience them fresh. And you should - on the list of books that you absolutely have to read this year in comics, HoXPoX should be at the top. -
Right, before I get stuck into the story, let's deal with the art. There is no denying this is a beautiful looking book; all the artists involved (and I'm definitely including the colourist in this) have done a stellar job. There are some repeated pages, which I'm not normally a fan of, but considering the enormous page count of this story, I wasn't too bothered and it was done for artistic effect, so I'll not drop a star for it.
Artwork: 5 stars
Now to the story. It is becoming more and more clear to me, whenever I read Jonathan Hickman's work, that Hickman is a big ideas man. His hard science fiction ideas are ambitious, groundbreaking (particularly in the comicbook world; not quite so much if you include the world of SF novels), broad in scope and meticulously thought out. So far, so good. You could argue that they're more than a little pretentious but let's not go there.
What is also becoming clear, however, is that his actual writing does not live up to his ideas. So much of his work, moreso here than with anything else of his I've read, is totally dependent on pages upon pages of huge info dumps. Info dumps of this sort are, in my opinion, simply bad writing. Rule one of creative writing is 'show, don't tell'. Almost all Hickman does is tell, tell, tell. It's even worse in comicbooks than in novels, because comicbooks are a visual medium. If you need to insert several pages of plain text ('prettied up' with some fairly mediocre graphic design) in your comicbooks, you should probably be writing novels instead. One of the major 'rules' of comicbook storytelling is that the reader should be able to tell (roughly) what is going on in the story even if you removed all the text. You most definitely cannot do this with Hickman's work.
Another thing Hickman seems to struggle with is character. Well, he either struggles with it or finds it completely unnecessary. Again, it's a case of the big ideas being the most important (or perhaps only important) thing to him. He seems to forget that he's playing with characters who have decades long histories and clearly defined personalities. Hickman ignores all that and just hammers characters into his stories with absolutely no regard for the fact that he is making them act completely out of character. I'm all for innovation but you have to respect what has come before. Hickman clearly doesn't give a toss what's come before and there are a number of retcons in this story that, to anybody who's read the book for any length of time, simply don't work. I'm guessing Marvel would just handwave those concerns away mumbling something half-arsed about Secret Wars having changed everything.
The only way to explain why 90% of the characters featured in this story were acting completely out of character would be that Xavier was mind-controlling them, which would be a huge cop-out in itself. It also wouldn't explain why Xavier was acting completely out of character.
Also, the whole idea of the X-Men organising all the world's mutants into some kind of militant nation state that is openly hostile to humanity is, quite frankly, absurd. Most of the X-Men would never be OK with this course of action (and most of the ones who would object most strongly either don't appear at all or are limited to appearing in the background of a couple of panels). In fact, some X-Men villains have tried doing just this in the past and the X-Men, quite rightly, have fought hard to prevent them from doing so. It's just... painfully frustrating. The fact that none of the world's superhero teams lift a finger to do anything to prevent it is just absurd, too. Presumably, they're all being mind-controlled too...
My other gripe is the whole multiple/future timelines thing. Who was the idiot in the X-office who thought 'I know what the X-Men need! YET ANOTHER ALTERNATE FUTURE!' I mean, we've already got about thirty, what's another ten? It's played out, folks; the alternate future thing is so tired I can almost hear the paper it's printed on yawning.
The other question it leaves me with, and I can't be alone here, is: when Hickman's finished with his lengthy, epic, world-shaking storyline and tootles off to pastures new, where does that leave the X-Men for future writers? I mean, OK, Hickman may have some ingenious means of somewhat restoring the status quo in mind but it's hard to see what other than a worldwide mind-wipe, yet more bloody time travel bollocks or Charles Xavier waking up in the shower and it turns out his entire run was a dream. None of which are anything other than a total cop-out. I don't know; maybe they'll surprise me. For now, I'll keep my mind open and give them the benefit of the doubt, but it's not looking particularly promising where it stands at the end of this book.
Sooo, to stop myself from boring you all to death, I'll stop there for now. I'll give the story 2 stars, more for its sense of ambition than anything else, which gives us an average score of 3.5 stars. With apologies to this book's art team, I'm going to round down... mainly because I'm currently really angry with something that's happening at work. No, that might not be fair, but nobody ever said life was fair; man up, snowflakes! :-D -
Unlike anything being published in superhero comics. A triumphant return to true X-men storytelling. Jonathan Hickman returns to Marvel to bring the X-men back to prominence with a tale that without a doubt changes how fans will see the mighty mutants of the Marvel Universe going forward. It is a bit unfair to judge this book without stating that everything that happens in this volume works in unison with its sister volume, Power of X. Hickman spares no time by jumping us right into the action. I mean the first issue is filled with pod people, mind control and strange mutant languages. But Hickman does a great job of simplifying the world and showing the reader what the world for mutants going to be like going forward. There are some incredible reveals in the mystery Hickman is building with the X-men. Issue#2 probably had one of the greatest surprises X-men fans have ever seen in the history of the book. Hickman has certainly placed himself with this series alone among one of the great X-men writers besides my two favorite X-men scribes
Joss Wheedon &
Grant Morrison. I will point out that fans who are not use to reading a Hickman book may have to realize that he writes a long narrative that builds towards something that only scratches the surface before an incredible climatic ending. Just read his Avengers run it starts with
Avengers, Volume 1: Avengers World and ends with
Secret Wars. I also really enjoyed his Fantastic Four series which starts with
Fantastic Four, Volume 1 and ends with
Fantastic Four, Volume 6. The artwork in this series was outstanding and the color palette was astounding as well. I especially loved the art in issue#3. Some of favorite moments in the book include Cyclops interaction with the Fantastic Four and the dialogue between Wolverine and Nightcrawler. This is definitely a series that should not be spoiled. I am really happy about where Hickman is taking this series. It is so layered and warrants a reread. -
Ok, So I didn't love this. But at the same time I loved it. Does that make any sense? No? Didn't think so.
To set the stage, I'm pretty new when it comes to the marvel comics world. I have been dreading/ really wanting to start reading some x men comics, but I wasn't exactly sure where to start. So I saw a reading guide on marvel unlimited to the x men and it said to start here. Well, here we are! And, to be honest I'm not completely sure this is the BEST place to start. It doesn't really introduce characters. I am familiar with the main ones, (thanks x men movies) but there were some people that I had no clue who the heck they were. Like that girl that is basically immortal. Yeah, never heard of her. Although I really liked the whole concept of that though.
I think my biggest problem is it shoves to much at you all at once. In the very beginning it felt like there was so much going on, which made it kinda hard to follow along especially not being familiar with the characters. There is SO MUCH x men lore. To the point where my brain feels fried after a few pages. I mean there is litteral pages just filled with a bunch of facts about the x men and stuff. And it all just gets a bit overwhelming.
Now once my brain sorta wrapped my head around the plot (around halfway threw), I started to enjoy it a lot more. I just found it all super interesting. But at the same time, it was just a bit too much.
I think, I will have to come back to this book, later when I am more familiar with the characters. And thanks, to Chad, I have a whole list of recommendations, of where to go next. So better get reading.
Thanks for reading this beast of a review lol. :) -
I read this in singles. 1 each week and each week Hickman blew my mind. This isn't just a reboot of the X-men...its literally a whole new way of looking at Mutant kind in general.
These 12 books, respectively, are the stepping stones into a whole new era of Mutants and how they relate to the Marvel universe in general.
Holy shit I cant wait to see where this all leads...what a trip its gonna be.
Fantastic stuff. Five easy stars. -
Tingles... This was perfection. I can't wait to see where the Dawn of X takes us.. Strap in folks, Hickman's taking us for a wild ride!
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SUPER FAST REVIEW:
Imagine if Wakanda was populated by the X-Men and they were a slightly racist cult and are now friends with the mutants that we are used to seeing as the antagonists... that’s what this is like and it’s surprisingly good.
So the story is very interesting throughout, kept me turning the pages. The artwork is decent. I noticed some very interesting but subtle political stuff too, Hickman is really good at that in East of West (my favorite series!) so it’s cool that he’s doing a somewhat similar approach to the politics faced in X-Men stories.
Unfortunately Hickman sometimes tries too hard to be all cool with the dialogue which yeah, that happens a fair bit here. I also don’t like the big info dumps especially since some of it seems unnecessary TBH (like the fuck was the point in that weird mutant language that’s not really used for anything?), that fucked up my enjoyment more than I expected. I also ain’t into this take on the characters themselves though maybe I just need to get used to it.
The pace is odd. Sometimes it feels real exciting, other times it feels kinda slow.
Overall I dig what Hickman’s trying to do I think, I’m just kinda picky about things in general so had some issues. I think this is probably a must-read for X-Men fans as it seems to be the setup for modern X-titles for probably the next few years at least. I am probably gonna read Dawn of X Vol 1 soon to learn which titles I care about and how high priority they are to me.
I wasn’t sure if I was gonna give this 3 or 4 stars. I decided 3 because while the book is cool, some stuff didn’t work for me therefore I didn’t enjoy it as much as most other fans seem to be so... yeah.
3/5 -
Well, then. One big happy family at long last?
I must say off the top that High-Handed Xavier is now my personal favourite Xavier.
Will he inevitably pay a terrible price for his hubris? Well, seeing my man walking about on two perfectly functional legs is all I need to know to safely predict that...or is it?
Probably the most delightful thing about this tome is how the publisher has clearly given the creative team a lot of leeway to shake the Merry Mutants out of their torpor and tell an extremely bold story with (potentially) grandiose implications not only for the X-Men and related characters but for the Marvel comics universe as a whole. And, even as a *cough* mature comics fan who has seen enough retcons, timeloops and continuity resets to baffle even Stephen Hawking I'm willing to buy in hook, line and sinker because the scale and imagination are just THAT compelling.
End of story: if you're an X-Fan it is definitely worth getting X-cited over these issues.
-
Really great refresh of the X-Men franchise. This has a lot of concepts and themes that I find really interesting. I have all of the follow-up titles’ first volumes preordered (wow that was word salad) and I had thought about canceling some but after reading this I want to give them all at least one shot.
This does kind of touch on the “X-Men are under threat of extinction” plot that is very very tired and overplayed, but it does so in a different and tasteful way, and the conclusion of the book hopefully signals an end to it’s use going forward. If I ever were to have creative control at Marvel I would ban X-Men writers from using that theme because it is just so ran into the ground at this point. But like I said, the way it was approached here was well done.
Would definitely recommend this. -
Wow. This'll deserve a more in-depth review when I read it collected, but even reading it each week it was fantastic! Hickman takes not just the X-men but the idea of Marvel characters themselves in a bold direction here and it's brilliant. The artworks amazing. The story hooks you to keep coming back week after week. I can't wait for his new X-men books to start!
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As someone who has been a fan of the X-Men at an early age when watching X-Men: The Animated Series, the amount of comics featuring the Marvel mutants are too much to know what is a good place to start with. My comics introduction to them was reading Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday, which is an ideal start for anyone wanting to read their super-heroics. Given Marvel has relaunched their line-up of books, numerous times over the last decade, so has the X-Men, I have been attempting to start at the beginning of a relaunch, which subsequently spawned dozens of X-titles and that's where I lose interest.
In the summer of 2019, Marvel once again relaunched the X-Men with "Dawn of X", beginning with Jonathan Hickman returning to write for the publisher with the crossover event told over the course of two limited series: House of X and Powers of X. There is a lot to dissect what's happening throughout this event so SPOILERS will be revealed. Formerly striving to serve a greater good by promoting peaceful coexistence and equality between humans and mutants, Professor X – now clad in a Cerebro-like helmet – abandons his dream and has turned the island of Krakoa into a sovereign nation state for mutants. In exchange for recognizing the sovereignty of Krakoa, Professor X will give newly-developed drugs that could change human life, with mutants living in peace on the island.
Throughout the history of the X-Men, mutantkind has always been hated by humanity and most of the mutants would choose to oppose the hate-filled Homo sapiens, such as the likes of Magneto and Apocalypse. If mutants are to survive and maintain their status as the next stage of human evolution, Professor X allies himself with these antagonistic mutants, all of which will form a government for mutantkind with their own sense of law and order. From the first issue of House of X alone, seeing the X-Men in a different light is weird, from the sinister appearance of Professor X (looking more like the Fixer from the Ultimate Marvel comics) to Cyclops, who was always the boy-scout leader of the team, intimidating the Fantastic Four and stating the mutants are not going to take it anymore.
Although Hickman does acknowledge the mutants' history, including the return of some classic X-Men costuming, this event serves as the next big seismic shift since Grant Morrison’s New X-Men, which was about the mutant sub-culture becoming the culture, which will inherit the Earth. If you know Hickman through both his Marvel and creator-owned works, he is all about sci-fi world-building and since the X-Men has its own mini-universe where so many sci-fi ideas are explored, Hickman feels right at home. Whilst House of X is about the present that sets up the status quo for all the X-titles that are currently being published, Powers of X reveals the past, present, future and far-future of mutantkind. No doubt it can be dense and there are pages that are just text, documenting all the various scientific aspects about the mutants and their world throughout the ages.
What sealed the deal for me, in terms of Hickman's world-building, is the participation of Moira MacTaggert, who becomes the surprising star of the book. Created by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum in 1975, Moira is always known for possessing great intelligence and experience in the field of genetics and mutation, whilst allying herself with the X-Men. As revealed in House of X #2, Moira turns out to be a mutant all along with the ability of reincarnation, as the issue showcasing the multiple lives she lived, most of which showing the alliances of various mutants, but all of which showing how mutants will always lose. This idea of reincarnation not only makes Moira a compelling figure, but also builds on the idea and then builds some more throughout some of the subsequent issues.
Considering how Hickman recontextualises the X-Men, most of the book doesn't feel like an X-Men story in the traditional superhero sense, which is probably why a number of long-time readers are negating this relaunch. However, during the middle chapters, you get a subplot involving the X-Men’s assault on Orchis, an organisation dedicated to a response to a "doomsday" scenario involved an extinction-level population of Homo superior. One can argue that Hickman's world-building is ultimately what's driving the storytelling, but with such an extensive cast, there are many great character moments, from the team-playing between the X-Men, the friendship between Professor X and Magneto, to even the playful villainy of the advanced Sentinel robot Nimrod.
Drawing the present day in House of X, Pepe Larraz shows the highly-detailed beauty of both the opposing worlds, from the bright naturalistic surroundings of Krakoa to the metallic interiors of Orchis' space-set home base "The Forge", which happens to be a giant Sentinel head. House of X #2 deserves a shout-out, artistically as Larraz gives us breathtaking imagery in showing Moira's different lifespans. As the artist of the Powers of X issues, R.B. Silva draws the distinct time periods, giving us a stunning mixture of the old and new, in terms of characters and locations, such as a dark future that resembles Days of Future Past, whilst Nimrod shows off some fun expressions.
Having previously read this event when it was published as single issues on a weekly basis, reading House of X/Powers of X as a collected trade is a better experience in grasping the many details that Hickman, Larraz and Silva display throughout. Due to its density, this may be hard to get newer readers into the X-Men, but for those who have a bit more insight will hopefully embrace the "Dawn of X" relaunch as this masterful event sets up something new and exciting for the Marvel mutants. -
This was recommended by a comic shop employee (whom others considered to be the expert on X-Men) as a good jumping in point to the X-Men. I read the comics in the late 80s and early 90s and he said this was the best way to "catch up".
This is a 12 issue reboot that I felt was pretty dense at times with pages of text that became info dumps. This really brought me out of the flow of the comic. There were also multiple timelines and plot points which at times, made things confusing. I'm hoping a little googling will clear things up for those things. I really enjoyed the artwork and overall it was a worthwhile read. -
If any comic need a hard reboot it was the X-Men, and this was a really good one at that. The only negatives are that it was a bit confusing in places (I had to read an article explaining a bit of it) and I think there is a plot hole: .
This is Marvel, so in another year or two we are going to get a big event where Krakoa gets annihilated and half of these characters all die/switch sides/get shot into space/whatever, but for now I'm excited to see where they are going to go with this. -
خیلی قشنگ بود هم ارتش هم داستانش، توئیست پایانیش هم برگ ریزون بود. حتما ادامش رو هم میخونم 🌝
پ. ن1:(نصف زیبایی این کمیک به خاطر طیف رنگ هایی بود که توش استفاده شده بود. انقدر رنگ ها به زیبایی کنار هم استفاده شده بود که بعضی از صفحه ها حتی نگاه کردن بهش هم لذت بخش بود. -
Wow. The breadth and depth of what Hickman just did to the X Universe is mind-blogging. Amazingly, he radically changed the current, and long standing status quo for something that is the naturally evolution (ahem) of the X-Men story. For the most part, he kept within continuity, pulling in various histories from different decades and wove them together, with some minor, although arguably better changes.
It's so refreshing to read a story that has clearly been well thought out and full of ideas, urgent and dramatic without being too distasteful and shallow. Will have to read this again to digest all the details, and look forward to reading just what happens next. -
What an epic way to rebuild the X-Men universe and allow it to have even more scope than ever. The structure of this one is quite complex but once you get used to the flow, you start understanding how the pieces move and it's stunning to watch it all develop.
Speaking of stunning, the artwork is quite wonderful and really brings to life the colourful new environments introduced throughout this story-arc. This is some really good stuff.
Remains to be seen what they plan on doing with all these heroes post-HoX/PoX.
Yours truly,
Lashaan | Blogger and Book Reviewer
Official blog:
https://bookidote.com/
