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I love the X-Men. They were one of the first comics I started reading. I started collecting them in Jr. High. Eventually, though, I gave up. Grant Morrison, New X-Men, Cyclops cheating on Jean, Necrosha... it just got worse and worse to the point I gave up. I've kept tabs on them for a few years, but haven't read them regularly (or at all, really).

But I checked out House of X #1 and Powers of X #1 over the last two weeks, and for the first time in a long time, I'm excited about the X-Men. Hickman has done a stellar job on these first two issues in my opinion. I'm especially intrigued by Powers - I like the multiple timeframe motif they're employing. And I'm looking forward to the new line of books that will be launching after House/Powers are done.

Have you read House of X #1 / Powers of X #1? What are your thoughts on the books and the future of the X-Men?

Comments from another site...

House of X

This is good. It is VERY Hickman. Not so sure it's very X-Men yet though. It will come down to whether or not he sticks the landing, which, for me, he historically hasn't at Marvel.

Also, not a big fan of these "everything is different" stories that ignores what came immediately before. Except Jean Grey's outfit. That last one was an abomination that should be purged from memory.


Power of X

This is not very good. There's no actual story in this issue, just four "Meanwhile..." style drop-ins on time periods that aren't now. And while I usually love a future X-Men story, these are unnecessarily convoluted and in no way held my interest.

Art was nice though.
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I know Hickman's style isn't for me. He's a great idea generator and sometimes the journey is very interesting (see House of X), but I find he doesn't actually know how to bring all the ideas to a satisfying conclusion (at least with his Marvel stuff).

But, this issue specifically? This was just bad pieces of information, none of which make a coherent story (and I hated the Nimrod sequence), and at $6 and 45 pages, that's not cool.
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Art was definitely not "special" but it was nice. Some of the facial expressions were very good (although seemed like they may have been lightboxed/photo referenced a bit too much). I liked that aspect better than Larraz's work in HoX, but he had more interesting backgrounds and costuming details.

I'm like you. Been reading X-Men since I was a kid. Powered through a lit of stuff I didn't like (including Morrison) but keep sticking with it. Well, at least Uncanny.

My biggest problem here is I'm a Hickman skeptic coming in. I genuinely enjoyed HoX but it's Hickman's X-Men, not Marvel's. At least so far.

I'm totally the opposite on this. I love this style of storytelling. I look forward to seeing how these four timelines tie together. It's like solving a mystery or putting together a puzzle. Completely held my interest.


I am not burdened in this regard, thankfully.


Two semi-conflicting thoughs: 1) This doesn't bother me so much. Marvel's X-Men for the last few years have been junk, IMO. Let it be Hickman's. Reset and move on. 2) This feel like what the X-Men were heading for way back before the wheels fell off for me, so I feel like it is true to Marvel's X-Men.

Since my mom collects X-Men and got this, I figured I'd go ahead and read HOX and POX. (Disclaimer, I haven't read anything more current in X-Men since... maybe the mid-2000's, though I've heard secondhand some of the goings on.)

I moderately enjoyed HOX and definitely more than POX, I'll echo the previous sentiment that POX feels like "meanwhile".

I also looked up other stuff that Hickman has wrote to see what I've read of his and the only thing I've read of his was Secret Wars... and boy, did I hate that.

So I'm definitely in the camp of not liking Hickman's writing at all. And all the reasons why I didn't like Secret Wars, I see popping up in HOX and POX so far. The foremost of which he starts the story off with something completely unfamiliar with no context and then trickles out reveals for the entire series. That's great and all... but in my experience (with other stuff, but especially Secret Wars) is that at the end of there are so many questions that end up completely unanswered, simply because they were never intended to be answered in the first place (they aren't important questions, but I had no way of knowing that at the start, so I get invested in the questions only to find out they were meaningless... which annoys me.)

On a slight side note, Marvel was making a big deal with characters commenting on the missing 8 months that Secret Wars took place. Did any title actually take any time to resolve that or did all the characters just stop caring they couldn't remembering anything over an 8 month period?

House of X #2 is super trippy! I loved it.

#2 is good. It's Goundhog Day on a longer scale, but it's good.

That said, Hickman has gotten $15 out of us for 135 pages and has yet to actually tell any particular story or adventure. It's all been background info table setting.

Glad you liked it. You're absolutely right about it being background. It feels very much like that to me. Obviously, House/Powers are leading up to a relaunch of the entire X line of books.

And I'm pre-ordering every one of them based on creative team and/or characters (and see which fall off). But this style of writing is one of my frustrations with Hickman. He did something similar with SHIELD. I read 6 or 8 issues of that. Individually interesting, but nothing ever went anywhere. Same with his Fantastic Four run, but I read dozens of issues of that with no payoff. Too much seeding with no harvest.

PoX #2 - I liked the past. I liked the present, except Hickman writes Cyclops so out of character I wondered if Silva drew the wrong person. I don't like anything about either future storyline.

PoX #3 - Finally, a cohesive story! Too bad it's still not a 616 X-Men book, but it was a fun, quick read.

I agree. It was a good read. And it was a fun twist, IMO, that this isn't the 616 future, but Moira's 9th life.

Agreed.

It wasn't until Moira showed up that it even dawned on me it wasn't 616. And frankly I was relieved and that allowed me to enjoy it more.

HoX #3:

The good - Really enjoyed Sabretooth, Emma, and the Cuckoos.

The meh - Pepe Larraz's art isn't doing anything for me.

The bad - Did we really need yet another "superhuman super-maximum security prison" or any of the babbling text around it?

The ugly - Nothing about Hickman's writing of Cyclops, Magneto, or Professor X rings true to their character.

The fugly - The text pages have had diminishing returns the last couple weeks, have terrible placement of late, and with this issue aren't adding anything new at all anymore. Yet we are paying an extra $1 for their inclusion as there is only the standard 20 pages of actual story.

Soooo.... House of X #4 went sideways really fast. Did not like. Obviously they're going to have to undo some stuff somehow before the new regular series begin.

Ha. And here I thought it was the best issue of the run to date. I mean, there's nothing to be emotionally invested in since we know FROM THE ADVERTISMENTS IN THIS ISSUE that everything that happened gets a) cosmic reset, b) isn't happening in the 616/Life 10 universe, or c) the new line takes place outside 616. I don't see Marvel pulling the last one, so, yes, an well done issue, but like the rest of the series (for me) just another "not the real X-Men" issue.

And I still have problems with Larraz's art. What the heck happened to Jean's leg in that one panel?!? I rarely like self-inkers or wide line inkers (Larraz is both) but the colors aren't helping things either.

I had made the assumption that this story was 616, but perhaps it's one of Moira X's other lives?

The timeline shows that House of X takes place during her 10th life. Which, I think, we all assumed was 616 but beginning to doubt it.

A couple of things from Power of X #4...

1) What's the deal with Mr. Sinister not seeming all that sinister? He used to seem far more creepy, calculating, and... evil.

2) I really like the Red Diamond/Sinister Secrets pages. I'm hoping that they are plot points for upcoming stories in the regular series after House/Powers are done.

Powers of X #4 - I loathe this issue.

The dialogue and characterization is absolutely awful. The story is downright stupid. I hated the blind items pages. The art is weak sauce.

Upon reflection those comments are just about the Sinister part.

I also don't have any interest in the nonsense history of Krakoa. Also, Cypher is dead. And while the Phallanx have become kind of cool over the years I do not care a lick about Hickman's version of the future.



#notmyxmen