As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

DEAD X-MEN #4
“Hyperballad”
Writer: Steve Foxe
Artists; David Baldeón, Bernard Chang & Vincenzo Carratù
Colour artist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White

COVER / PAGE 1. The X-Men fight their alt-Moira.

PAGE 2. Paul Neary obituary.

PAGES 3-4. The X-Men and Moira are dragged back through time.

Issue #3 ended with the cyborg alt-Moira from issue #1 attacking the X-Men and their local counterparts in Moira’s fifth life. This turns out to be a bit of an anticlimax, as Dazzler calls on Rachel to haul them all back through time and bring Moira with them.

The montage on page 4 shows scenes from Moira’s earlier lives.

• Top left: Moira sees Professor X in a bar in her second life. This is page 8 panel 4 of House of X #2.
• To the right of that, a generic-looking campus scene. By elimination, this is probably meant to be her uneventful first life.
• On the second tier, on the left, Destiny threatens Moira before killing her in her third life.
• To the right of that, a Sentinel blasts Professor X and Moira in her fourth life. This is page 17 panel 4 of House of X #2.
• Below that, Moira and Logan in the Preserve in her sixth life.
• In the bottom tier, on the left, Moira and a wheelchair-bound Xavier in a futuristic city. This is Moira’s fifth life, where they built a mutant city.
• To the right of that, Moira with a sniper rifle, about to kill one of the Trask family. This is her seventh life.
• Next, Moira approaches Magneto. This is her eighth life, and specifically page 21 panel 2 of House of X #2.
• To the right of that, Moira with Apocalypse. This is her ninth life.
• And finally, above Frenzy’s head, a generic head shot of Moira, presumably representing her tenth and present life (from the perspective of this divergent Moira).

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As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X #4
“The Turn”
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artists: Jucas Werneck & Jethro Morales
Colour artist: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White

COVER / PAGE 1. Moira and Cyclops fight.

PAGE 2. Paul Neary obituary.

PAGE 3. Data page (!). The opening quote is Magneto’s line “Promise me you’ll watch Charles… Three began Krakoa. Moira betrayed us. I… deserted my post. Now Charles is alone with his dream.” This is from Magneto’s death scene in X-Men Red #7, which has since been positioned as foreshadowing for Professor X caving to Orchis’ demands in X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023. That in turn ties to Professor X’s role in this issue, of which more later.

PAGES 4-6. Apocalypse leads his forces against Orchis.

Up in the sky are the two crossed space stations from the previous issue.

Apocalypse and his forces have arrived in time to save Krakoa from Orchis. Krakoa has been on the run from them ever since issue #1. As Apocalypse points out, Krakoa feeds off mutant energy, which wasn’t a problem when it had a whole mutant population and could take trivial amounts from each one. Without the mutants around, he’s been starving, so Apocalypse needs to offer up some life force.

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As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

WOLVERINE vol 6 #47
“Sabretooth War, part 7: Bad Seed”
Writers: Victor LaValle & Benjamin Percy
Artist: Geoff Shaw
Colour artist: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso

COVER / PAGE 1. Wolverine (Laura) fights the “Savage” alt-Sabretooth.

PAGE 2. Paul Neary obituary.

PAGES 3-5. Laura escapes her cage.

Laura cut this control collar off one of the beheaded Sabretooth drones last issue. Apparently, the collars trigger the security systems, so once the others are at a safe distance, she’s able to use it to escape. This doesn’t seem like a very good security system, but she is dealing with a whole crew of Sabretooths.

PAGE 6. Recap and credits.

PAGES 7-8. Wolverine and Sabretooth fight.

This picks up directly from the end of the previous issue, where Sabretooth had just zapped Wolverine with Forge’s de-powering gun. Note that even though this is Wolverine’s book (where he’s normally the narrator), Sabretooth is the narrator in this scene, and Wolverine only gets a single line of dialogue. In fact, Wolverine doesn’t get any more proper dialogue until the final page of the issue.

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As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

RESURRECTION OF MAGNETO #4
“Reawakening”
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Luciano Vecchio
Colour artists: David Curiel & Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White

COVER / PAGE 1. Magneto attacks Orchis footsoldiers. He’s in his black costume, rather than the red one worn in the issue.

PAGE 2. Obituary for Paul Neary.

PAGE 3. Magneto advances towards Orchis soldiers.

As in previous issues, this opening splash page is a tarot reference – it’s loosely based on the Rider-Waite version of the Hierophant. That card doesn’t show the Hierophant with three helmets, but it does show him in a purple cape between two pillar type structures, raising his right hand in the same position as Magneto here, and with two worshippers in the position of the two Orchis footsoldiers. It also has two crossed keys lying on the floor, replaced here by two Orchis cards.

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As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

X-MEN vol 6 #33
“As the World Burns”
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Joshua Cassara
Colour artist: Romulo Fajardo Jr
Editor: Jordan D White

COVER / PAGE 1: The X-Men in action alongside some of Doom’s mutant team.

PAGE 2. Flashback: Sebastian Shaw sends Shinobi Shaw to clear land in Madripoor.

Although the caption says “Not long ago”, it’s fairly clear that this takes place during Fall of the House of X. Shinobi explains later that Shaw has offered refuge to Killian Devo, the idea being to either help him rebuild Orchis or sell him out to the mutants, depending on how matters go.

This is the first time we’ve seen Shinobi Shaw since Gerry Duggan’s run on Marauders. As in that series, he’s not exactly on board with the heir role that Sebastian wants him to play, and is rather more inclined to align with his fellow mutants.

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As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

WOLVERINE vol 6 #46
“Sabretooth War, part 6”
Writers: Benjamin Percy & Victor LaValle
Penciller: Cory Smith
Inker: Oren Junior
Colourist: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso

COVER / PAGE 1. Sabretooth operates on Wolverine’s brain. Not something that actually happens in the issue, at least not literally.

PAGES 2-6. Sabretooth briefs Wolverine for their “mission”.

Last issue, Sabretooth came to Krakoa looking for what he described as “something those mutants left behind”, and which he evidently expected to find in Forge’s lab. Wolverine came after him, only for Sabretooth to instantly zap him with the enslaved Quentin Quire, and place Wolverine in a scenario where they were Team X teammates again, about to go on a mission. That’s where we come in.

From the way this plays out, Quentin is obviously doing something a bit more subtle than simply making Wolverine see illusions. Clearly on some level Wolverine is reacting to the world around him, or he wouldn’t be swimming when he believes himself to be parachuting. But on a conscious level, he’s apparently experiencing the version of events on the right hand side of the page.

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As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

X-FORCE vol 6 #50
“Violent Answers”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Robert Gill
Colour artist: Guru-eFX
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso

COVER / PAGE 1. It’s the final issue of this run so X-Force pose for the camera. Look, some of them are even smiling.

PAGES 2-4. Beast II and Wonder Man reach Beast Prime.

We’re picking up from the end of the previous issue, with Beast II and Wonder Man heading out to sea in search of the Krakoa-era Beast, and X-Force opening fire because they figure this new Beast has already turned bad on them. The Krakoan Beast – helpfully wearing a distinctive suit at this point – promptly punts Wonder Man back to the surface.

PAGE 5. Recap and credits.

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As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

RISE OF THE POWERS OF X #3
“The Ex Life of Moira”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: R.B. Silva
Colour artist: David Curiel
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White

COVER / PAGE 1. Moira, on a bench, is approached by someone holding a gun. This is Moira as she appeared in the opening scene of Powers of X #1, where she approaches Charles Xavier and tells him about her earlier lives. The gun is presumably intended to be the same one that Professor X is holding when he approaches a much younger Moira in the issue itself.

PAGE 2. Young Moira leaves the house expecting her powers to emerge.

As established in House of X #2, Moira is reborn with the full memories of her previous lives but has to go through the motions of being a child in her first few years. This is the day when her powers are expected to emerge; until then, she can die permanently. We saw a version of this same scene at the start of issue #2, from Enigma’s perspective. In this version, from Moira’s perspective, her mother Lady Kinross is more clearly visible. Enigma’s version also has a panel of her looking rather downbeat before she leaves the house; here she seems more enthusiastic.

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As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

X-MEN: FOREVER #1
“A Ghost”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Luca Maresca
Colour artist: Federico Blee
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller, Jay Bowen & Kat Gregorowicz
Editor: Jordan D White

X-MEN: FOREVER. There have been two previous series called X-Men Forever (plus a sequel X-Men Forever 2), neither of which have anything to do with this book. The official solicitations and the trailer page give the title for this book as X-Men: Forever, with a colon. The cover says X-Men Forever. The credits page has it both ways. I’ll go with the solicitations.

COVER / PAGE 1. An unconscious Jean Grey lying in a Phoenix-shaped pool of blood in what appears to be a snowbound forest. This doesn’t happen in the issue, though we do see Jean lying in a circle of blood on page 12.

PAGE 2. Flashback: Irene and Raven attend a concert.

This is the first performance of Elgar’s Enigma Variations, which took place at St James’ Hall on 19 June 1899. Irene and Nathaniel Essex both mentioned having been at this performance in the flashback that opens Immortal X-Men #1. We were told there that Irene had had a fit at the opening of the Nimrod variation; Sinister remembered someone having a fit but didn’t know Irene at the time. More of that scene shortly.

The establishing shot in panel 1 is pretty much a copy of a drawing of the Hall in 1858, artist unknown. (It happens to be the picture that illustrates the Hall’s Wikipedia entry but hell, it’s out of copyright.)

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As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

RESURRECTION OF MAGNETO #3
“Falls the Shadow”
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Luciano Vecchio
Colour artists: David Curiel & Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White

COVER / PAGE 1. The Shadow King grips Magneto.

PAGES 2-4. Annihilation confronts Storm.

Issue #2 ended with Storm and Magneto arriving together in a black space and being confronted by what was strongly implied to be the Shadow King; that’s confirmed in this scene. Somehow, since the last issue Storm has been separated from Magneto and is now being confronted by Annihilation instead of the Shadow King. We’ll see later on that Storm can apparently unite with Magneto again through an effort of will, so either this is an illusion, or at least it’s the sort of magical weirdness that Storm is in a position to override once she understands it.

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