House of X, Powers
of X by Jonathan Hickman collects two miniseries that set up the
current status quo for the new X-Men titles under the umbrella title of Dawn
of X. This book collects twelve issues- six for each miniseries.
Professor X no longer believes in
coexistence with humanity. He no longer believes that the X-men should fight
for a world where humans and mutants live in peace side by side. Someone has
changed his mind and he no longer thinks the human race is worth saving or can
be saved. Professor X is no longer the man X-men fans have known. His idealism
is gone. He is now a cold cynic when it comes to the human race. Professor X
will protect mutants and his X-men at all costs and is not at all concerned
about the fate of humanity. Alongside Magneto and the X-Men, Professor X has
set out to create his own nation for all mutants. This book features nearly
everyone in the mutant realm along with cameos by the Avengers and the Fantastic
Four.
This book is mostly about Professor X,
Magneto, and one other character that can not be named here without spoiling
some of the book. Wolverine, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Nightcrawler, Jean Grey and many
more have their moments in this book. This book features nearly everyone in the
mutant realm along with cameos by the Avengers and the Fantastic Four.
As should be clear from the initial
premise, there are lots of radical changes made in this tale to do something
original that has not been done before. If you are a long term reader of the X-Men
comics, you know that for the last ten or so years the writers have been
playing with the same themes and utilizing mostly the same set of ideas. While
some of that has generated great writing, there has been a ton of mediocre writing
because it is hard to do something different when everyone is doing the same
sort of themes.
House of X, Powers of X by Jonathan
Hickman is a radical change in the X-men status quo which may or may not work
for you. Personally, I enjoyed because it was something different and I am a
fan of Hickman’s writing. For the most part I like his stuff even though it
often seems that he makes things so complicated that it can be hard to keep
things straight.
If you are familiar with Hickman’s
previous work you know he loves to utilize time travel or multiple timelines,
alien civilizations, flawed heroes with huge plans, complicated world building,
and more. Hickman loves to write heavy sci-fi. He loves to write how the
decision made by one or more prominent leaders on a team can change everything
in a world. All of his usual elements are very apparent here.
Hickman has written the Avengers, the Fantastic
Four and is now doing the X-Men. That means that thing, the normal status quo,
is over for the foreseeable future for the X-Men. These X-men are similar to
the ones most fans know but the change to Professor X has rippled across the X-Men
group and they all look at the world far differently than the past way most
folks understood.
House of X, Powers of X by Jonathan Hickman is not for fans
who can’t accept widely different interpretations of a character. If you are
not okay with having stories where both the “good” and “evil” side are correct
in their views from their perspectives and therefore are doing morally grey
things that make sense from their perspectives, this is not the book for you.
If you have an open mind and are an X-Men fan who likes a heavy dose of science
fiction, you should enjoy this book. The art is amazing and the story is epic.
Another cool aspect of the book assuming you like world building is all the
charts, maps, documents that help support the tale and set up the new world for
the X-Men.
I highly
recommend House of X, Powers of X by Jonathan Hickman.
My hardback reading copy came from the Central
Downtown Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.
Scott A. Alexander ©2020
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