House of X
Cover of House of X #1
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
FormatLimited series
Genre
Publication dateJuly – October 2019
No. of issues6
Main character(s)X-Men
Creative team
Written byJonathan Hickman
Penciller(s)Pepe Larraz
Inker(s)Pepe Larraz
Letterer(s)Clayton Cowles
Colorist(s)Marte Gracia
Editor(s)Jordan D. White
Annalise Bissa
Powers of X
Powers of X #1
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
FormatLimited series
Genre
Publication dateJuly – October 2019
No. of issues6
Main character(s)X-Men
Creative team
Written byJonathan Hickman
Penciller(s)R.B. Silva
Inker(s)R.B. Silva
Adriano Di Benedetto
Letterer(s)Clayton Cowles
Colorist(s)Marte Gracia
Editor(s)Jordan D. White
Annalise Bissa

House of X and Powers of X[a] (abbreviated as HOX and POX) are two 2019 comic book miniseries published by Marvel Comics featuring the X-Men by writer Jonathan Hickman and artists Pepe Larraz, R.B. Silva, and Marte Gracia. Both books are part of a crossover storyline within the Marvel Universe that lead to the "Dawn of X" relaunch.

Publication history

After Jonathan Hickman completed his run on Avengers and New Avengers with the 2015 crossover "Secret Wars", he stepped away from Marvel Comics for a time to focus on creator-owned projects. His return was announced in March 2019.[1] Some days later, it was revealed that he would write two interlocking miniseries entitled House of X and Powers of X, with penciling by Pepe Larraz and R.B. Silva respectively. Marvel Editor in Chief C. B. Cebulski said that "We are excited to have Jon back with the Marvel family, and we could not have asked for a better creative team to help usher the X-Men into a whole new era"[2]

The comics marked a company-wide relaunch of the X-Men. To this end, all ongoing X-Men comics - Uncanny X-Men, Mr. and Mrs. X, X-Force, X-23, and the Age of X-Man miniseries - were cancelled.[3]

In early 2024, as the Krakoan age of X-Men launched by HOX/POX was drawing to a close, an experimental edition of this series arranged in chronological order was released on Marvel Unlimited. Inspired by the chronological order feature on the DVD of Memento, it is described by editor Jordan D. White as a fun different perspective, but "NOT the recommended way to read the series!"[4]

Plot

Part 1: "The House that Xavier Built"

Several ambassadors arrive at the Jerusalem Habitat, responding to a telepathic message sent by Charles Xavier to recognize a new sovereign nation of mutants, called Krakoa. The ambassadors are met by the newly appointed Krakoan ambassador Magneto.

Near the sun, spacecraft approach the station known as "The Forge," home base of a human group called Orchis. Orchis is the self-proclaimed "last hope" for humanity, made up of various members of human organizations such as A.I.M., S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra, Alpha Flight, and others, allied to prevent the extinction of homo sapiens to mutants.

Meanwhile, a team made up of Mystique, Sabretooth, and Toad infiltrate the base of Damage Control searching for information in the databases. While they get what they searched for, Sabertooth maims several guards in the chaos and is eventually captured by the Fantastic Four.

Part 2: "The Last Dream of Professor X"

In a dark future Earth, humans and mutants are locked in an apocalyptic, decades-long war, ultimately stemming from the creation of the mutant nation-state on Krakoa. A series of journal notes interspersed throughout the issue provide historical backstory.

Part 3: "The Uncanny Life of Moira X"

In a retcon of Moira MacTaggert, it is revealed that Moira is also a mutant. Her gift allows her, on dying, to start over as a baby while retaining all of the memories of her past lives. In this way, the different histories of the X-Men are seen to be timelines that she has lived through. She is told during one of her timelines by Destiny that she has 10, perhaps 11 timelines in total.

Part 4: "We Are Together Now, You and I"

Professor X and Moira McTaggert visit Magneto on his island base in Bermuda. Magneto agrees to Professor X and Moira's proposal, a long-term plan to guarantee the future of mutantkind.

Part 5: "This Is What You Do"

At the Temple of Concordance, the X-Men attack the Church of Ascendancy, an organization dedicated to the worship of the machines. Omega Sentinel confronts the X-Men and Rasputin IV kills all the remaining X-Men and the Sentinels.

Meanwhile, Apocalypse leads Wolverine's War form and Cypher's Famine form into an old machine databank to find an information crystal. War releases Mother Akkaba, also known as Moira, from her stasis. The Year One Hundred storyline is revealed to take place during Moira's ninth life.[5]

Part 6: "Once More unto the Breach"

Cyclops informs X and Magneto that he has assembled a team in order to attack the Mother Mold facility orbiting the Sun. After meeting, they embark on the mission.

Part 7: "It Will Be Done"

On Krakoa, X and Magneto contact Marvel Girl to monitor the mission. Wolverine and Nightcrawler are successful in destroying the collars, but the ship is boarded by Orchis forces. The humans activate the Mother Mold, not knowing whether it will be sane or not. X tells them to do whatever it takes to stop it. Nightcrawler teleports Wolverine onto the collar before being instantly evaporated by the sun. Wolverine's healing factor allows him time to carve through it before he too is evaporated as the Mother Mold hurtles into the sun.

With the mission complete, Cyclops tries to locate Jean's pod, but Doctor Gregor executes him. The Sentinel drones arrive, intercept Jean's pod, and work to kill her. As his proteges have seemingly all died at the hands of humans once again, X cries and vows "no more".[6]

Part 8: "Something Sinister"

X and Magneto head to the island of Bar Sinister to seek Mister Sinister's assistance to build a database of mutant DNA. He declines, but is promptly killed by another Mister Sinister clone with the mutant gene. That version readily agrees to help. Xavier then wipes the memory of their meeting from Mister Sinister's mind.

Part 9: "Society"

On Krakoa, X, Magneto, Storm, and Polaris assemble and are joined by five other mutants: Eva Bell, Proteus, Hope Summers, Elixir, and Egg. Magneto explains that the five mutants, collectively known as The Five, are able to revive deceased mutants. Storm brings The Five and the revived mutants out, proudly announcing that The Five has allowed the nation of Krakoa to defeat death. The revived mutants enter the crowd as Storm calls them the "Heroes of Krakoa".

Part 10: "For the Children"

X meets with Forge and asks him to modify Cerebro to allow it to store duplicate mutants' minds. In another timeline, X and Magneto meet with Emma Frost in the Louvre in order to recruit the Hellfire Corporation to aid in the establishment of Krakoa.

Part 11: "I Am Not Ashamed"

One month prior to the events of the series, Xavier uses Cerebro to offer Krakoa's miracle drugs to all of humanity.

Part 12: "House of X"

When Xavier sees all of Moira's lifetimes, Xavier is crushed by the experience and the revelation that mutant-kind will always lose. Moira explains that the one constant throughout all her lives is that Professor X is a good person and that she had to break that part of him to ensure mutant survival.

Characters involved

Main characters

Issues Main characters
  • House of X #1-6
  • Power of X #1-6

Reception

House of X holds an average rating of 9.2 by 130 professional critics,[7] while Powers of X holds a rating of 8.8 by 121 critics on review aggregation website Comic Book Roundup.[8]

Prints

House of X issues

Issue Title Publication Date Comic Book Roundup Rating Estimated Sales to North American Retailers (First Month)
#1 "The House That Xavier Built" July 24, 2019 9.2 by 32 professional critics.[9] 185,630[10]
#2 "The Uncanny Life of Moira X" August 7, 2019 9.3 by 24 professional critics.[11] 101,972[12]
#3 "Once More Unto the Breach" August 28, 2019 8.9 by 20 professional critics.[13] 109,110[12]
#4 "It Will Be Done" September 4, 2019 9.3 by 19 professional critics.[14] 119,366[15]
#5 "Society" September 18, 2019 9.5 by 16 professional critics.[16] 139,306[15]
#6 “I Am Not Ashamed of What I Am” October 2, 2019 9.3 by 19 professional critics.[17] 158,396[18]

Powers of X issues

Issue Title Publication Date Comic Book Roundup Rating Estimated Sales to North American Retailers (First Month)
#1 "The Last Dream of Professor X" July 31, 2019 8.9 by 25 professional critics.[19] 167,840[10]
#2 "We Are Together Now, You and I" August 14, 2019 8.7 by 22 professional critics.[20] 107,524[12]
#3 "This Is What You Do" August 21, 2019 8.8 by 21 professional critics.[21] 100,267[12]
#4 "Something Sinister" September 11, 2019 8.5 by 17 professional critics.[22] 127,076[15]
#5 "For the Children" September 25, 2019 8.5 by 17 professional critics.[23] 137,550[15]
#6 "House of X" October 9, 2019 9.0 by 16 professional critics.[24] 160,845[18]

Collected editions

Title Material Collected Format Publication date ISBN
House of X/Powers of X House of X #1-6, Powers of X #1-6 Hardcover November 2019[25] ISBN 978-1-302-91570-4

In other media

References

Notes

  1. ^ Powers of X is pronounced as "Powers of Ten".

Footnotes

  1. ^ "Marvel Comics Announces Jonathan Hickman's Return". 20 March 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-03-30. Retrieved 2019-07-29.
  2. ^ "Marvel Unveils Jonathan Hickman's New X-Men Projects". 23 March 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-03-31. Retrieved 2019-07-29.
  3. ^ "Hickman Explains Why He Convinced Marvel to Cancel the Entire X-Men Line". 14 May 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-07-23. Retrieved 2019-07-29.
  4. ^ Rich Johnston (4 January 2024). "Marvel Publishes Jonathan Hickman's House Of X In Chronological Order". Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  5. ^ Powers of X #3. Marvel Comics.
  6. ^ House of X #4. Marvel Comics.
  7. ^ "House of X Comic Series Reviews". Comic Book Roundup. Archived from the original on 2019-10-30. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  8. ^ "Powers of X Comic Series Reviews". Comic Book Roundup. Archived from the original on 2019-10-30. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  9. ^ "HOUSE OF X #1". Comic Book Roundup. Archived from the original on 2019-08-15. Retrieved 2019-08-15.
  10. ^ a b "SALES CHART JULY 2019". 12 August 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-08-12. Retrieved 2019-08-16.
  11. ^ "HOUSE OF X #2". Comic Book Roundup. Archived from the original on 2019-08-15. Retrieved 2019-08-15.
  12. ^ a b c d Mayo, John (2019-09-17). "Absolute Carnage, Marvel Comics #1000, X-Men dominate August 2019 sales". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  13. ^ "HOUSE OF X #3". Comic Book Roundup. Retrieved 2019-08-24.
  14. ^ "HOUSE OF X #4". Comic Book Roundup. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  15. ^ a b c d Mayo, John (2019-10-21). "Spawn Tops Sales Charts for September 2019, While HoX/PoX Remain Strong". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
  16. ^ "HOUSE OF X #5". Comic Book Roundup. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  17. ^ "HOUSE OF X #6". Comic Book Roundup. Retrieved 2019-10-04.
  18. ^ a b "October 2019 Comic Book Sales to Comics Shops". Comichron. Retrieved 2020-01-22.
  19. ^ "Powers of X #1 Reviews". ComicBookRoundup.com. Archived from the original on 2019-08-25. Retrieved 2019-08-25.
  20. ^ "Powers of X #2 Reviews". ComicBookRoundup.com. Archived from the original on 2019-08-25. Retrieved 2019-08-25.
  21. ^ "Powers of X #3 Reviews". ComicBookRoundup.com. Archived from the original on 2019-08-25. Retrieved 2019-08-25.
  22. ^ "POWERS OF X #4". Comic Book Roundup. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  23. ^ "POWERS OF X #5". Comic Book Roundup. Retrieved 2019-10-02.
  24. ^ "POWERS OF X #6". Comic Book Roundup. Retrieved 2019-10-12.
  25. ^ Brooke, David (August 22, 2019). "'House of X' and 'Powers of X' getting $50 oversized hardcover collection". Adventures in Poor Taste.
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