The Krakoan Era came to a somber and fiery close this year, with mixed reactions from fans. While not the definitive conclusion, Volume 6 of X-Men by Gerry Duggan finds a way to keep his focus on the mutant characters as the Fall of the House of X incorporates other books and minis. It’s not the best of the X-Men issues from this era, but it captures the visual and character strengths the series had developed over the last few years, giving steadfast fans sufficient reason to pick it up in trade format.
Collecting issues #30-34 of X-Men, this book charts parts of the Fall of the House of X specific to this title. As the X-Men grapple with resurgent foes as they battle Orchis in a time of crisis, Synch and Talon face the fallout of their past with the High Evolutionary, while Nimrod relentlessly adapts in its quest to eliminate mutantkind. Amid the growing peril, Kate Pryde and Illyana Rasputin unite, and the X-Men gather for what may be their last stand on Krakoa.
Marvel Comics
This trade is hard to read without the Fall of the House of X/Rise of the Powers of X minis, which clearly anchors these issues in the final days of the Krakoan era. While these issues are focused with notable care by Gerry Duggan as he completes his run on the book, they simply feel lacking in plot context. Duggan was always at his best when he got to focus on great character interactions, and this final series of X-Men issues offers plenty of these moments. While their world is colliding to a dreadful finish, the Pryde and Rasputin flashes are touching, and Wolverine’s turn against Xavier is potent in the final pages. The X-Men were an engaging superhero soap opera under Duggan, but the weight of the larger crossover is felt in the pacing and demand to move the narrative headfirst as hurriedly as feasible.
The art in this trade, and the entire run, is exceptional. Joshua Cassara and Phil Noto continue to create enchanting panels that painlessly carry the weight of the plot with their engaging visual spacing. The X-Men have rarely looked this good, and these artists should be given credit for their astonishing work. The current crop of X-artists are strong, but I will miss these two creator’s contributions to mutant kind.
Marvel Comics
It’s a real shame that this final trade did not include the final issue of this X-Men run, as it basically ends on a cliffhanger. Cassara crafts some awesome battle panels in issue #34 (his Wolverine contortions stand as some of the character’s best), but this book would benefit from the closure brought in issue #35 (which is included in the Fall of House of X/Rise of the Powers of X trade recently released by Marvel.
It struggles to develop a clear, contained storyline without the context of the larger Fall of the House of X event, but X-Men by Gerry Duggan Vol. 6 still stands as a testament to creators who understood the human interactions of its cast and a need for super heroics in the X-line. It requires supplementary reading, but this final trade provides a satisfying conclusion to one of my favorite modern runs on the X-Men.
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