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Oct 3

House of X #6 annotations

Posted on Thursday, October 3, 2019 by Paul in HoXPoX, x-axis

As always, this post is full of spoilers, and page numbers are according to the digital edition. This is the final issue of House of X, but I’ll be reviewing it and Powers of X together once both are complete, since they’re functionally a single book.

COVER (PAGE 1): Storm, Emma Frost and Exodus, on Krakoa, with Storm apparently addressing an audience. There are more people watching from the balconies in the background.

PAGE 2: The epigraph simply has Professor X proclaiming an imperfect but good start. That applies not just to his plan with Krakoa, but to the Hickman run in general – House of X is more of an extended prologue to establish the Krakoan status quo than it is a story in itself. The line comes from the Council meeting scene later in the issue.

PAGES 3-7: One month ago, Professor X dons the Cerebro helmet and makes his speech to humankind – the one that he gave shortly before issue #1.

Krakoa. Krakoa is floating, not connected to the sea bed. That would explain how it could have been hurled into space at the end of Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975), and indeed how it could have got back. On the underside – with inverted gravity – is “Moira’s No-Space”, previously mentioned in Powers of X #5 as a location for one of Xavier’s backups of mutant data. Issue #1 established that a “No-Space” is also beyond the consciousness of Krakoa itself. There’s an obvious question here: why is all this being hidden? Note, by the way, that Xavier’s speech refers to “the island of Krakoa”. We’ll come back to that.

Professor X. Even though he starts the scene without his Cerebro helmet, every panel is framed so that we only see the lower part of his face or the back of his head – there’s no clear view of the parts of his face that are normally obscured by the helmet. But Magneto and Moira are looking right at him and seem to see nothing wrong. This doesn’t seem to be the first time that Xavier puts on the helmet – he was already wearing it when he went to recruit Emma in Powers of X #5. (And that scene must come first, because it takes place before Xavier’s pharmaceuticals have become public knowledge.)

Xavier’s speech. Xavier claims that the drugs “have been discovered by mutant scientists.” Who? Does he mean Moira and Sinister (who seems to be treated as a mutant for most purposes in this series)? Xavier also claims that his drugs extend life, cure mental illness, and prevent “most common maladies”, including “most cancers”. The “most” there is probably a nod to not breaking the rest of the Marvel Universe too badly while this storyline is running, but you have to figure that something is going to go wrong with these drugs in the end – partly because profound social changes in the MU tend not to stick, but partly because they’re just too odd to be a mere background point.

Xavier claims that he has realised that his dream of harmony between humans and mutants was a lie, with humans standing by and doing nothing to help when mutants were under attack. While he alludes to the Genoshan genocide, he stops short of actually accusing humans of committing it (rightly, since that was Cassandra Nova). Oddly, he refers to the dead mutants as “our children” rather than “us”, which is a theme that keeps coming up in this series. Broadly, Xavier is trying to portray himself here as someone who has abandoned a dream of integration instead of separation.

But remember, in Powers of X #5, Namor refused to join Xavier because he didn’t believe that Xavier really meant all this. And there are plenty of reasons to be deeply sceptical before taking Xavier’s speech at face value. For a start, he claims that he’s supplying drugs to humans on condition that humans recognise Krakoan sovereignty and grant amnesty to all mutants. But in Powers of X #5, he tasked Emma with delivering the drugs to countries that rejected the deal – so he seems to be lying about the conditions. Xavier frames his amnesty as giving convicted mutant criminals a chance to “overcome man’s bias against mutants”. But just look at what actually happens to Sabretooth – a supposed beneficiary of the amnesty – later in the issue. And Xavier claims that mutants are “the future” and “an evolutionary inevitability”. But he knows from Moira that in her previous lives, what actually happened is that the machines inevitably rose to prominence. By all appearances, then, Namor is right – this is an act, at least in part.

Here’s another point. In House of X #1, the epigraph credited Xavier with “Humans of the planet Earth. While you slept, the world changed.” (That’s actually the first and last sentences of his speech here.) In Powers of X #1, Percival’s dying words were “There was a dream. Our dreams are the same. While you slept, the world changed.” That appeared at the time to be an expansion of Xavier’s speech. But we now know that Percival actually comes from Moira’s previous life – and the two sentences about dreams being the same don’t feature in this version of Xavier’s speech at all.

PAGE 8. The credits. The story title listed here is “I Am Not Ashamed”, which would tend to suggest a mutant-pride angle. But in the Krakoan-text trailer pages, the title of this issue was given as “I Am Not Ashamed Of What I Do”, which is slightly different. The small print in the bottom right reads “The House of Xavier – The Three Laws.”

PAGES 9-10. Data pages on the Quiet Council of Krakoa. This is a repeat of what we saw in Powers of X #5, with most of the redactions removed and some added material about the “great captains”. Frankly, it’s not clear with hindsight what the point was of redacting all this so heavily in Powers of X #5, except to delay the reveal.

  • The “autumn” Council members are Professor X, Magneto and Apocalypse – presumably linked by their grand visions.
  • The “winter” group are Mister Sinister, Exodus and Mystique – all villains. Sinister has obvious practical importance to the plan, and Mystique may or may not have connections with Moira (via any clues that Destiny left for her). Exodus is a strange inclusion, since he’s traditionally been a rather slavish follower of Magneto who only takes a leadership role when Magneto is unavailable; perhaps that’s the point, that he’s a reliable vote who’s bound to side with Magneto.
  • “Spring” is Sebastian Shaw, Emma Frost and a still-redacted Red King, all presumably representing Krakoa’s trading wing.
  • “Summer” is the traditional X-Men, represented by Storm, Jean Grey and – a little surprisingly – Nightcrawler.

The great captains. Basically the field leaders who are the next level down, it seems.

  • Cyclops. The “captain commander” and first among equals – but isn’t it a little odd that he didn’t make the cut for the Council? In favour of Nightcrawler…?
  • Gorgon. The Hand leader who’s had a couple of cameos before now, but has little previous history with the X-Men outside a few Wolverine stories.
  • Bishop. A veteran X-Man dating back to the early 90s – and not previously mentioned by Hickman. Bishop is a time traveller from a possible future generally along the lines of the Days of Futures Past, although in his world there was a successful rebellion which ended the Sentinel domination. How that fits into the inevitable robot ascension remains to be seen, but it’s striking that Hickman has kept the X-Men’s time travellers (who are not in short supply) at bay up till now.
  • Magik. Another established X-Man and former New Mutant, with bonus sorcery which might come in handy with all those comments about Inferno we had in Powers of X #4. Magik can also time travel, though it doesn’t come up that often.

PAGES 11-17. “Now.” This seems to be the first meeting of the Quiet Council, who decide on some laws and then punish Sabretooth for killing people during the raid in issue #1. The mysterious Red King is absent, and nobody comments on the empty chair. Everyone speaks normally in the meeting, so it’s not clear why it’s the “Quiet Council”.

The council chamber. The seats are in four groups of three (representing the four seasons), and the centre has the new “X” logo used on the covers of this series – the first time we’ve seen it in a story. Krakoa is in the background as a large tree trunk with a face, and Cypher perches puck-like in his branches, seemingly to act as interpreter – though all his actual contributions here seem to be on his own initiative. Xavier identifies the X-Men group as “family”, the Hellfire Club as “friends”, and the three blatant supervillains as “allies”, which is very tactful.

The laws. The Council proceed to debate what the basic laws of Krakoa should be. The discussion comes up with a grand total of three laws, which is not what you’d call a functioning legal system, and has more in common with religious guidance such as the Ten Commandments. These are: (1) Make more mutants; (2) Murder no man; and (3) Respect this sacred land.

The second law of mutantdom. This is the first one to be discussed, despite the numbering it gets later. In the discussion, the ban is specifically on taking a human life, on the logic that humans can’t come back, while mutants (now) can. The question of exceptions for self defence and so forth is acknowledged and kicked into the long grass; you get the sense that Magneto, at least, is willing to take a very flexible approach to what this law was “meant to” cover, should the point ever arise. Apocalypse seems to be suggesting that a bit of mutant-on-mutant violence should be encouraged so that they can continue to test their fitness. (His other argument – “How can it be a crime to kill someone who cannot be killed?” – is hopelessly bad. The answer is “because it’s still an assault.”)

Economic laws. Raised by Sebastian Shaw, and parked as a bit difficult for discussion. Cypher raises the understandable objection that people can’t own bits of Krakoa because it’s a person, and Storm seems to suggest mutants may still keep their actual homes outside Krakoa if they prefer it that way. Interestingly, Cypher claims that Krakoa is “fauna, not flora” – an animal rather than a sentient plant.

The third law of mutantdom. Exodus’s main contribution to the discussion – other than refusing point blank to talk to Sinister – is to propose that Krakoa be treated as sacred. Nobody disagrees with this… everyone seems quite on board with the cult-like aspects of the whole thing.

The first law of mutantdom. Proposed by Nightcrawler in response to Mystique taunting him about his religion – be fruitful and multiply, and all that. (Oddly, Mystique refers to Nightcrawler as if he were the only religious mutant.)

PAGE 18. A data page emblazoned with the three laws of mutantdom (which sounds a bit like Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, but that’s probably coincidence). Note the small print at the bottom of the page: “Krakoa 1, Arakko 0”. In Powers of X #4, we were told that the land of Okkara had been torn into Krakoa and Arakko back in primeval times. Why the laws lead to some kind of scoreline – if indeed that’s what it is – is unclear.

PAGES 19-22. Having decided that Sabretooth broke the laws they literally just made up, the Council sentence him for breaking them – the only discussion being about whether to give him another chance or make an example with him. Now we know why we had the scene with the human kangaroo court in issue #3 – while this is presented to make us more sympathetic to the X-Men, by any reasonable standard it’s far worse. Sabretooth is given no chance to speak or make his case, and then they torture him. And it’s not like they gave him the option of staying in the human jail.

(And, yes, they’re convicting him under a law they’ve just made up – but that’s the least of the issues here, since it’s a law against murder, and Sabretooth knew perfectly well that that was against the local law when he committed the crime.)

Sabretooth’s sentence is to be placed in stasis inside Krakoa, “alive but immobile, aware but unable to act on it”, and “forever.” Xavier describes this as exile, but by any reasonable standards it’s torture. Xavier claims that this is the only option because they don’t tolerate prisons on Krakoa, and if they executed him then they’d just have to bring him back. But neither reason holds water – they don’t have to bring him back if he dies. And what could possibly be the ethical objection to prisons if this is the alternative? Is this going to happen to everyone who commits a crime on Krakoa? What’s the punishment for not respecting the sacred land?

Xavier does note that perhaps one day Sabretooth will have a chance to redeem himself, so you have to wonder if we’re being told the whole story about where he’s going. Is he actually being packed off to Moira?

None of the Council seem to be surprised by this turn of events, but note their individual reactions. Magneto, Apocalypse, Exodus, Storm and Emma play it fairly straight. Sinister thinks it’s funny. Shaw is barely interested. Nightcrawler and Jean are slightly hesitant, but they vote for it anyway. The one person in the room who seems to have a real problem with it is… Mystique.

Sabretooth is dragged through a hole which opens up in the floor where the X-Men logo is. It’s battered and cracked when it heals over. This isn’t subtle. Yes, Xavier gives us a speech about having to make difficult decisions, but, er…

PAGES 23-27. From that, we go straight into a giant public party for the Krakoans, fireworks and all. Xavier again refers to the mutants as “millions of children”, and suggests that the Council are going to be taking the awful decisions that keep them awake at night, so that everyone else on Krakoa can live happy lives. While we end on a great celebration and a new dawn, there are plenty of signals that this won’t end well.

Recognisable among the crowd – and thus established to be on Krakoa, if we haven’t seen them before – are the following:

  • There’s someone with big feathered wings on page 23. This can’t be Warren, since he’s in Archangel form with metal wings when we see him on page 25. It might be Icarus, Cannonball’s brother, who was killed in New X-Men #27 (2006).
  • The Five dancing together.
  • Banshee, clearly seen as back to his old self and cured of his zombie-ish appearance. Did Elixir sort him out, or was he restored from back-up?
  • Siryn, his daughter.
  • Dazzler, entertaining the crowd. Dazzler’s powers work by converting sound to light, so the idea is that Siryn is screaming at Dazzler to boost her light show.
  • Archangel, Iceman and Beast. Note that the rebooted Warren is back in Archangel form, despite that being the result of Apocalypse’s experiments and not his natural mutant powers. Curious.
  • Exodus, telling stories to children around the campfire. If you look closely, Sinister is lurking in the background, watching.
  • Marvel Girl, Cyclops and Wolverine – traditionally something of a romantic triangle, with Cyclops and Wolverine as rivals, but all friends here.
  • Anole, Surge, Gentle, Pixie, Broo, Synch and Skin. Mostly assorted trainees of varying generations, though Gentle and Pixie have been on the main team for brief stints. Synch died in Generation X #70 (2000) and Skin in Uncanny X-Men #423 (2003), so both have evidently been restored from back-up.
  • Gorgon, offered a drink by Wolverine – a remarkable gesture given that Gorgon was the bad guy who turned Wolverine into a Hand agent in Mark Millar’s “Enemy of the State” storyline from Wolverine (2004-5). In a similar gesture of reconciliation, Jean offers a drink to Emma Frost, who had an affair with her husband in the Grant Morrison run. All of this is a little bit Too Good To Be True.
  • Jubilee and a woman in glasses who looks to be Boom-Boom.
  • Shark-Girl, just visible as a silhouette behind Emma in one panel.
  • Havok, Cyclops’s brother, who died in the final issue of Matthew Rosenberg’s Uncanny X-Men and has been restored from back-up almost immediately. (If you were thinking that the X-Men who died on the space station might not have been the originals… well, that argument isn’t available with Havok.)
  • Apocalypse sits off to one side and watches.

PAGES 28-29. Data pages on Krakoa… both of them. One in the Atlantic, the other in the Pacific. Note that Xavier’s telepathic speech to the world only referred to “the island”, so something’s up here. The small print on page 28 says “Krakoa Spawn Atlantic” and “Krakoa Spawn World”, which sounds a bit worrying. The Atlantic island has only three features shown: a transit hub, “the Pointe” (which was mentioned in Powers of X #5 as one of Xavier’s back-up database locations) and a training location called the Danger Island (the latest incarnation of the Danger Room).

The Pacific island map has grown some new points since we last saw it in issue #1. The first twelve items on the key are the same. Five new items have been added:

  • Bar Sinister, which must be Sinister’s home.
  • Hellfire Bay, presumably the base of the Hellfire Trading Company.
  • The Red Keep, presumably something to do with this Red King guy.
  • “Blackstone”, which means nothing to me.
  • The White Palace, which sounds like Emma.

Item 18 on the map is off in the sea, and is left blank in the index. It forms part of an area of sea marked off with a dotted line; it’s not clear yet what that refers to, but the line was on the issue #1 map too.

PAGE 30. The closing quote from Magneto, drawn from the party scene: “Just look at what we have made.”

PAGES 31-32. The reading order, and the single train for Powers of X #6, which reads “NEXT: HOUSE OF X.”

Bring on the comments

  1. Job says:

    In any case, printing the data page with the council list twice, once with most of the names blacked out, is not only redundant but utterly pointless given their proximity in the story as a whole.

  2. Dave says:

    “However, based on what we’ve seen in House and Powers, the future where Apocalypse rose up and conquered the planet, exterminating most human life, is shown to have never been a possibility for the future of Earth-616.”

    We’ve only seen 1000 years in the future, and Cable’s time was/is/will be centuries after that.
    Not that it was making any sense before this anyway – after The Twelve Cable’s future was rewritten due to Apocalypse being defeated once-and-for-all (or dead,even), then he came back in multiple ways. And Rachel was never going to be Mother Askani as of Cable issues from that post-Twelve era.

  3. Karl_H says:

    “I’d like to see a story involving mutants who haven’t generally got involved with the X-Men life, like Justice, dealing with the whole Krakoa situation.”

    Me too. “Mutant” has always been a convenient origin to grab for Marvel stories outside the X-Books, so there are a lot out there. It appears with Marvel Comics 1001 that Squirrel Girl is off the list, though, and that’s OK with me. (Although I’d love to see Ryan North’s take on Doreen visiting Krakoa and reacting to the HoXPoX scene…)

  4. YLu says:

    For those who read The Wicked and the Divine, the two Council pages are kind of like the interstitials in that. Each an update/snapshot of the current situation, at this point in the story, of a specific group of people.

    @Job

    “That’s not waiting.”

    How so?

    “This is what you claimed: “A typical Hickman character is so zealous and set in their aims and desires that it’s almost impossible to imagine them changing their opinion.””

    And I’d say that’s perfectly in line with everyone being so all in for the new Krakoan cause.

  5. Zomburai! says:

    @Karl_H: They can’t do that. She’d get to the bottom of the whole storyline and defeat the bad guys immediately. And probably Thanos, too.

  6. Joseph S. says:

    In fact Squirrel Girl hasn’t been a mutant for a few years now. I can’t recall exactly when or where but pretty much since her solo book debuted. I don’t think they made her an inhuman (which 1001 confirms) but was part of that same wave.

  7. Job says:

    @YLu

    “I’d say that’s perfectly in line with everyone being so all in for the new Krakoan cause.”

    Do you even know what characterization is or what that word means? Is English not your primary language?

  8. YLu says:

    @Job

    I have no idea why you can’t just discuss things civilly and respectfully like everyone else.

    But to address your question, I’d say devotion to a cause is very much part of characterization, yes.

  9. Mordechai Buxner says:

    https://www.cbr.com/squirrel-girl-not-mutant/2/

    (In the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl page, read the text at the bottom as well.)

  10. wwk5d says:

    “Now that Disney might own Fox, it will be interesting if any characters suddenly become mutants again! Maybe Squirrel Girl can “relapse”!”

    So if that happens, does Dr. Ditray have to take back what he said about Squirrel Girl?

  11. trininomad says:

    How was Xavier broadcasting his message to everyone? Mentally? How does it help mutant-human relations if you just randomly invade people’s minds with a message. What individual would be comfortable with someone having that power and abusing it the way Charles does. So far the X-Men have zero justification for this bizarre and aggressive strategy and if this is how Cerebro is being used, humans do need a Master Mold.
    Even if Hickman is going the “we can all turn into monsters” route, something needs to trigger it. And so far, I see nothing. Genosha was Cassandra Nova and the Sentinel program never got to the DOFP future. Both the humans and mutants are equally repulsive in this series. Maybe that is the point here.
    I do not mind the direction Hickman wants to take things. However, context is seriously lacking. Sinister, the man behind the Mutant Massacre, is to be trusted? Everyone is on board with that? All the X-Men love Charles’ dream? No one has any objections? I seriously hope all these people are clones otherwise how is Charles able to get everyone in line or control them (including other telepaths like Marvel Girl and Emma). Why would Exodus need to be here? He is a zealot. Why introduce all these stubborn villians? Is all this set up to fail? I hope POX #6 has another twist because putting together such an incompatible combination of characters is as predictable as it gets.

  12. Job says:

    @YLu

    “I’d say devotion to a cause is very much part of characterization”

    By that definition, Bernie Sanders has characterization. You don’t know what the word means. Why are you so bad at this?

  13. YLu says:

    @Job

    We’re discussing whether characters are being depicted as extremely set in their beliefs and desires. A fictional character who acted like Bernie Sanders could definitely be described as extremely set in their beliefs and desires.

  14. Chris V says:

    Krakoa is offering life-extending drugs and a cure for most diseases to humanity if they leave the mutants alone.
    Most people would probably be accepting of that offer.

    If some people are against mutants and decides that Krakoa needs to go, most people are going to be very upset at them deciding to take away the life-saving drugs Krakoa offers in trade.

    Before, no one really cared if people decided to kill mutants.
    At best, they were completely apathetic. More likely, in recent years, most humans were portrayed as Nazis when it came to mutants.

  15. Job says:

    @YLu

    You don’t actually know what characterization is. Just admit it and go away. When you’re in a hole, stop digging.

  16. Jason says:

    Yeesh.

  17. YLu says:

    @Job

    I have no idea why you have such a bee in your bonnet over what ought to be a benign conversation.

    All I’m saying is that Xavier is hardly the only character who has demonstrated extreme commitment to a cause in these two series. If you disagree, cool. No need to get snippy about it.

  18. Arrowhead says:

    Trying to get this convo back on track before the big finale tomorrow: I’m inclined to give Hickman the benefit of the doubt with his loose continuity. Given the number of stupid, convoluted, self-contradictory or outright awful X-Men stories published I don’t think it’s desirable or even possible for a writer to treat all of them as a perfectly accurate, dogmatic, historical record. That’s not even Marvel policy, with the sliding timeline thing. So the high-concept retcons about the true nature of Krakoa or the Phalanx or Apoc’s origins don’t bother me at all, especially because the previous explanations are from decades-old stories that were confusing and pretty bad to begin with.

    I think you can build a much stronger case criticizing character portrayals, although that doesn’t necessarily make for productive conversation. Personally, I’m generally willing to give new writers the benefit of the doubt, as long as I can more or less justify a character’s new direction within the broad outlines of their established personality.

    But that’s a personal thing that varies from reader to reader. For example, I can buy the newly radicalized Xavier as a “mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore” guy who’s finally gotten fed up watching his students getting killed and has gone a little off the deep end trying to set things right. I can buy into that, both as an acceptable direction for the character, and because I find this version interesting and entertaining. But that’s a personal thing! You might not buy it, and that’s okay too! Obviously, neither of us will convince the other, because interpreting the behavior and psychology of fictional characters in pop culture depends a lot on the reader – and all of that’s okay!

    Trying to objectively classify as “good” or “bad” an ambiguous portrayal of a historically inconsistent character previously written by literally hundreds of writers… unless the writer is literally Chuck Austen-level terrible, it’s clearly not a useful conversation to have.

  19. Arrowhead says:

    Personally, I really enjoy this direction. On a meta level, I appreciate seeing the X-Men brand kicking back after years of neglect due to stupid licensing rights and corporate politics. As a fan of the characters and concept, there’s something thrilling and liberating about mutants finally giving humanity the middle finger and going off the reservation. But at the same time, that enthusiasm is tempered by the obvious ethical and philosophical problems of the new mutant society.

    I don’t think we’re meant to read the Krakoan political experiment as wholly negative or positive, only radically different. Some of it’s creepy and dystopian, some of it’s optimistic. I don’t expect the text to immediately judge the situation as totally good or bad, but to build on these complexities, and ultimately see if this model is sustainable in the long run or if it crashes and burns. For now, I’m really enjoying it, and excited to see what comes next.

  20. Alex Hill says:

    @Arrowhead

    I think you’ve hit the nail on the head here. What Hickman is doing is just so different from what’s come before that our first instinct was to suspect mind control, whereas it’s more that their worldview has changed. This is such a break point from what came before that it’s taken a while to adjust to it. And yes, we could possibly do with more showing how they got from point A to point B, but I find that hasn’t bothered me as much as it would otherwise. By starting the story in medias res and barreling forward with This Is How Things Are Now, Hickman has caught me up in the momentum of it. And that’s the more important part; rather than worrying about why Jean Grey for example would want to be a part of Krakoa, the story has sold me on the idea that she *is* a part of it. And that’s understandably not going to work for everyone, but damn it works for me and I’ve gone from reading barely any X-Men comics to anticipating HoXPoX every week and wanting to read the entire line as it comes out.

  21. Alex Hill says:

    Random thought: in the old days this would have had a companion anthology miniseries with stories of random characters making their way to Krakoa, and it probably would have been very underwhelming.

  22. Adrian says:

    I am in the opposite camp to Alex and Woody. The direction of the series doesn’t work for me not because it isn’t interesting but because it has not been set up properly. I cannot buy into this premise as it is so out of whack with everything that has come before despite Xavier screeching at me about poor oppressed mutants. Hickman has yet to convince me that any of these villains or the various X-Men would even remotely find this approach compelling or be persuaded to follow it.

    I also do not understand what is so new and bold about it. This is basically DOFP Hickman style with Genosha and Destiny’s Diaries a la Moira thrown in. Nothing is wrong with any of this but I wouldn’t call it different from anything that has come before. It seems to be very much in they vein of one of those over the top late 80s/early 90s X-Men crossovers.

  23. Thom H. says:

    I’m firmly in the “enjoying the hell out of this story” camp, and I agree with almost everything Arrowhead and Alex wrote above. One quibble:

    “What Hickman is doing is just so different from what’s come before that our first instinct was to suspect mind control, whereas it’s more that their worldview has changed.”

    I’m certain that’s part of it. But we’re definitely supposed to suspect something isn’t right with Xavier. Hickman is directing his artists to do things like linger on his creepy smile or not show us his eyes. That’s either a clear signal that something is amiss or it’s one hell of a misdirect. Given Charles’ power set — as well as his past actions — it’s perfectly logical to suspect mind control or some other form of coercion.

  24. Arrowhead says:

    @Adrian
    One thing I agree with is the story would be much stronger with a specific catalyst to explain Xavier’s sudden change in perspective. Like a massive tragedy on the scale of Genosha or House of M.
    (Although one might argue that the quality of the X-books over the past decade qualifies as a “massive tragedy”). Of course, this all assumes there isn’t malevolent force influencing Xavier’s behavior – which could also work, like when Cassandra Nova forced him to reveal his secret identity publicly, which forced everyone to adapt and evolve.

    @Alex
    Just like with Manifest Destiny and Utopia. That said, a hypothetical anthology could actually help a lot to smooth out the transition – like if Hickman and the other writers spent 20 minutes discussing “okay, here’s why Kitty might be willing to give Krakoa a shot despite her reservations, and we’ll build on that character arc going forward.”
    And the new Dawn of X titles, which seem to be more conventional character-driven team books, will absolutely NEED to address how the cast members feel about Krakoa. Personally, I think HoxPox works as big-picture setup even without individual character motivations, although others clearly disagree and I can understand that.

  25. Alex Hill says:

    @Thom H.

    True. And this is the pitfall of discussing a story that hasn’t finished yet; there could be something in today’s issue that proves me wrong. I had forgotten slightly that we very pointedly haven’t seen Xavier’s eyes in the present day; I had wondered if it actually wasn’t Xavier, but that doesn’t seem like the case now. It doesn’t feel like the story is going the mind control route to me, or at least I’d be disappointed if that turns out to be the case. There is the definite feel that we’re missing a piece of the puzzle where it comes to Xavier though; maybe Powers of X today will fill that in, maybe it’ll remain a mystery for a while, but either way I trust Hickman enough to go along for the ride.

    @Arrowhead Agreed. HoXPoX has gotten away with focusing on the big picture, but sooner or later we need to see what Krakoa is like on a ground level.

  26. Arrowhead says:

    Some random speculation:

    Anyone else get a swingers vibe from Scott Jean and Logan at the end? One of The “Sinister Secrets” suggested Logan was having an affair with a married woman… but the three of them in a consensual polyamorous relationship would be an interesting new take. Definitely in line with casting off traditional human values.

    With admittedly very little evidence, I suspect Cyclops is the Red King.

    The teaser art being used for the HC cover includes young Storm and X-Baby Havok. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but some of the specific characters and costumes featured in this teaser have been significant in HoxPox… maybe with the cloning, we’ll get (shudders) the canonical MU debut of the X-Babies?
    https://insidepulse.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Powers-of-X-House-of-X-Mark-Brooks-cover-annotated-banner.jpg
    (Other interesting inclusions are Firestar and Weapon X Logan.)

  27. Job says:

    @YLu

    “All I’m saying is that Xavier is hardly the only character who has demonstrated extreme commitment to a cause”

    No, that’s not all you’re saying. You keep changing what you’re saying after I keep shooting down your claims. Go away.

  28. Job says:

    Powers of X #6

    And I thought the repetition of material in previous issues was bad . . . yeesh . . . this comic is almost half reprinted material from previous issues. Marvel really knows how to milk its fans.

    So basically Moira has magical character-rewriting powers now, and . . . that’s it.

    Everything is different because Moira rewrote the characters. Great.

    And Year 1000 doesn’t matter because of course it doesn’t. It never had anything to do with the present-day story.

    We have no idea what Nimrod of machines have to do with the present story. Everything that was established about the future has been written out.

    It took three months, 12 issues, and $60+ to get to this conclusion. HoXPoX could pretty much have been confined to this one issue, but then Marvel couldn’t have cashed in.

  29. Alex Hill says:

    @Arrowhead

    Yup, there’s definitely something going on with Scott, Jean and Logan, and possibly Scott and Emma (and Jean again?) as well. Evolved people having evolved notions towards relationships and all that.

  30. CJ says:

    One of the things I’ve liked about the premise of HoX/PoX is that the so-called radical new direction could have arisen from recent events:

    -Xavier gets a new Fantomex body and is not the same as he was before

    -Some of the X-Men see what would happen if mutants lived in a world that wasn’t based in hate and fear in “Age of X-Man”

    -The others saw how awful things could get in Rosenberg’s run, which ends with most of the main cast staring defiantly at belligerent humans

    With that alone, a separatist, ends-justify-the-means mutant status quo is not so far-fetched.

  31. Job says:

    @Arrowhead

    “With admittedly very little evidence, I suspect Cyclops is the Red King.”

    It’s Kitty Pryde. It was already spoiled.

  32. Job says:

    @Alex Hill

    “What Hickman is doing is just so different from what’s come before that our first instinct was to suspect mind control, whereas it’s more that their worldview has changed.”

    Nope. PoX #6 basically boils it down to something akin to mind control after all.

  33. wwk5d says:

    @Job

    Why are you spoiling what happens in Pox #6 here?

  34. Job says:

    @wwk5d

    Because these threads are about discussing the details (i.e. spoilers) of the series, and there is no PoX #6 thread yet.

  35. Adrian says:

    @Arrowhead
    I agree with the comment on the catalyst but I think it is more important for the other X-Men as well as the villains. The big problem with this story for me is the lack of context around character motivations and the implausibility of the current scenario given character histories and interactions in the past. I don’t understand why Hickman felt he had to put all this effort into mucking about with continuity when he could have just used an event as a catalyst for all of this. It made things worse. The latest issue doesn’t help matters either but I will save my full comments for the Paul’s Powers of X #6 annotations.

  36. YLu says:

    @Job

    “No, that’s not all you’re saying.”

    It’s the gist of what I’ve been consistently saying. *shrug* But even if you disagree, seriously, why the attitude? We’re just talking funnybooks, man.

    Anyway, HOX/POX everyone, huh?

    It occurs to me there are two very different ways to imprint the line about smuggling drugs into non-treaty countries. Are they trying to get people hooked and thus create pressure for a treaty, or is just humanitarian concern for people the drugs could help?

    The story keeps zig-zagging in terms of the mutant nation’s overall morality — one moment they’re decreeing murdering humans as the highest crime, the next sending Sabretooth down the pit — so who can say?

  37. Job says:

    @YLu

    “It’s the gist of what I’ve been consistently saying.”

    You haven’t been saying anything consistently. There’s a square peg you keep trying to jam into a round hole over and over, and you keep twisting it differently to see if you’ll get any closer. You won’t. You’re not. Stop.

  38. Arrowhead says:

    Sometimes, someone has an opinion on pop culture that’s fundamentally incompatible with the rest of the discussion – and that’s okay, but there’s not much point in trying to engage with it, because they’re effectively two different conversations. Also, I would recommend not responding to a commenter who spends half the time composing weird insults.

    Anyway, I’m going to check out for now until Paul posts the PoX 6 annotations. Looking forward to seeing what everyone makes of it.

  39. Karl_H says:

    “Because these threads are about discussing the details (i.e. spoilers) of the series, and there is no PoX #6 thread yet.”

    No, this thread is specifically for discussing HoX #6. But you can’t seem to control your need to whinge until the new thread goes up. Between that and your increasingly shitty responses to other posters, I really wish this forum had the ability to block users.

  40. Karl_H says:

    @Arrowhead

    Yeah, yeah…

  41. Job says:

    @Karl

    No worries. Now that this snoozefest reboot is over and the Age of Hickman is confirmed as an alternate timeline with a clear reboot button (bringing back Destiny, forcing Moira into Life 11), I’m done with the X-books.

  42. Ben (Fake Brent) says:

    Bye bye then you charmer!

  43. Chris V says:

    It’ll be hard to just reboot everything, because that would require a reboot of the Marvel Universe, as we know it.

    Unless, because Moira rarely ever interacted with the rest of the Marvel Universe, if Moira died as a child in life eleven, and Hickman basically said that everything in the Marvel Universe happened exactly as you remembered it, except Moira was never there to meet Xavier.

    That still doesn’t change the revelation from Powers of X #6, which I won’t talk about in this thread.
    Basically, it doesn’t fix anything to just reboot reality again, and kill Moira off.

  44. Job says:

    If Moira can magically change Professor X’s mind exactly as she wants it, and can magically rejigger Cerebro to store and back up all mutants, and can magically jigger a handful of mutants to be able to resurrect every mutant at any age and with almost all memories, then I’m sure she can magically restore everything to the way it was pre-House of X (or a prior reality, whatever). She’s Moira Ex Machina now.

  45. Chris V says:

    I believe this is going to be the new status quo for years going forward.

    Are there major problems with House and Powers?
    Oh yes.

    However, this new direction is far more interesting than “mutants are going extinct” or poor man’s retreads of Claremont.

    Marvel has been doing something similar with Hulk in the Immortal Hulk comic, and it’s been Marvel’s best comic book in years.

  46. Boj says:

    Job,

    Please recognise what a desperately pathetic person you are.

    Everyone who reads your posts thinks ‘go away’. But they have the basic decency not to say it out loud.

    This is a forum about comic books, you shocking inadequate. I don’t care if you go away or not, I can simply scroll by.

    But at some point, you may look at all this and wonder what a waste.

    But I doubt it.

  47. Job says:

    @Boj

    “I don’t care if you go away or not, I can simply scroll by.”

    Okay. Looks like you worked that out for yourself there.

  48. Job says:

    @Chris V

    “However, this new direction is far more interesting than “mutants are going extinct” or poor man’s retreads of Claremont.”

    Notably, it’s actually a direction (I mean I guess? I suppose Hickman is giving writers outlines of the boundaries they can tell in their stories). At any rate, there’s a lot of uncharted territory to cover, given the utter lack of characterization in this prologue series.

    But I think we’ll see quickly that series either end up covering the same ground, or are treading water until Hickman gets around to whatever crossover he’s building toward.

  49. wwk5d says:

    “Because these threads are about discussing the details (i.e. spoilers) of the series, and there is no PoX #6 thread yet.”

    No, these threads are about each individual issue or storyline that Paul posts about. This particular thread? It just says “House of X #6”, not “House of X #6 and Powers of X #6”

    “I’m done with the X-books.”

    And yet, I have a feeling you won’t be done posting on this site, even if it under a different name, because trolls gotta troll, I guess.

  50. Mordechai Buxner says:

    I’m not sure why anyone is engaging with Job at this point, who has been arguing his position over and over as if we don’t all know his opinion by now. I’ve been ignoring his comments for a while now.

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