This summer Jonathan Hickman is writing two interlocking X-Men miniseries (House Of X and Powers Of X), which will spawn a new direction for upcoming X-Titles.
House Of X #1 hit stands first, for $7.99. Without spoiling anything I can say, the issue picks up during, what feels like, the middle of the story. After reading a few pages I actually put the book down and checked the internet to make sure I hadn’t missed something between the final issue of Uncanny X-Men and the book I was currently reading. I hadn't. The issue simply began after an entire new “world order” (for lack of a better term) had been created for mutants.
I almost pulled the title from my subscriptions list. However, I’m a huge X-Men junkie and if these books were setting up new ongoing titles, I didn't want to go in blind down the road. I’m happy I stuck it out.
The fourth season of Babylon-5 showed fans the future of humanity one-hundred years, five-hundred years, one-thousand years, and one-million following the end of the Earth Alliance Civil War. Powers Of X #1, for $5.99, does roughly the same thing with the future of mutants. I was hooked. Seriously, I can’t remember when I’ve enjoyed a book more.
A week later, I picked up House Of X #2, for $4.99, which rewrites the history of one well known character without contradicting anything which has been published previously. Hickman gives the character a power I’ve always wished I had, to tell a brilliantly creative quasi time travel story. Then he reshows readers a seen from Powers Of X #1 from a different point of view, which had me thinking about mutant history for few hours after I’d read it. Thanks for costing me sleep Hickman.
Each issue is peppered with pages mimicking computer readouts to convey important story elements to the reader. These can take the form of historical facts, mutant population statistics, political insights, etc….
Both #1s feature extra long stories which increase their price. Plus, I mistakenly bought the “Director’s Cut” of House Of X #1, featuring a cover gallery, script notes, and other extras, which add nothing to the story, but increase the cover price by $2.00.
The new take on the X-Men takes some getting used to, but now that I’m a few issues in, I like where it’s going.
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