For five years, the X-Men franchise underwent a significant change with the Age of Krakoa. Thanks to Jonathan Hickman, who’s made a name for himself crafting grand sagas including the multiverse-shattering Secret Wars and remaking the Ultimate Universe, Marvel’s mighty mutants enjoyed a resurgence in popularity. But now the tables have turned, as the anti-mutant organization Orchis drove mutantkind from their sovereign nation and hunted them to the far corners of the Earth. Fall of the House of X #1 from Gerry Duggan, Lucas Werneck, Bryan Valenza and Travis Lanham explores what happens when the X-Men strike back.
Fall of the House of X #1 is packed full of plot and action from the very start. There’s the trial of Cyclops – a trial that is rigged by Orchis, meaning the X-Men’s leader is doomed from the start. There’s a rescue mission that goes south, as Charles Xavier has plans for Rasputin IV. Finally, Kate Pryde starts rallying mutants from across the globe to participate in the X-Men’s battle against Krakoa. While the sheer amount of events happening is enough to fill the book’s 36 pages, they throw the double-edged sword of Duggan’s scripting into focus. A sequence featuring Wolverine, Colossus and Nightcrawler fighting against Orchis forces shows the X-Men at their best, while eagle-eyed readers will notice dialogue that harkens back to House of X/Powers of X, the interlocking series that helped launch the Age of Krakoa. However, some of that dialogue can be a little too heavy handed. There’s also the fact that Duggan sets up a major plot point in Invincible Iron Man #14-15; while I love how Iron Man and the other Avengers have been woven into the fight against Orchis, it robs this series of being a truly standalone effort.
Art-wise, Werneck and Valenza deliver a visual feast for the eyes. From the opening sequence – a Western-tinged nightmare – to the final page, Werneck is going for the biggest impact he can, which is needed for a book like this. The best moment features the recreation of Wolverine and Colossus’s classic “fastball special”, but inverted to rather gory effect. It also turns out that Duggan isn’t the only creator on the book willing to homage HOXPOX; Werneck illustrates a conversation between Cyclops and ORCHIS leader Alia Gregor that is a mirror image of the one he had with the Fantastic Four during House of X #1. All of it is rendered in rich color by Valenza, whether it’s the sun shining on Cyclops as he heads toward his trial or the vast darkness of space.
But what really stood out to me is the data page inserted in the middle of the book; it contains a letter from Cyclops to the mutant race. Lanham structures it like an actual letter, putting emphasis on the most important parts. But even though there’s no art, the weight of Cyclops’s words hit with the force of a truck. Scott Summers is one of the most prominent leaders in the Marvel Universe, and speeches like this prove it.
Fall of the House of X #1 begins the end of the X-Men’s Kraokan Age with all the spectacle you’d expect. No matter what happens in its companion series Rise of the Powers of X or whatever the future may hold for mutantkind, one truth remains: Don’t mess with the X-Men.
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