A Comic Book Reading Order Guide For Beginners & Fans
At last! We return to the HOX 4 data page, which, relative to the series’ other data pages, comes across as the least objective piece of interstitial documentation in the series—although not because the tallies of mutant dead and who’s responsible are wrong.
As usual, Larraz’s cover work is stunning. The choice of figures is interesting but hard to parse: Is there some commonality between Storm, Exodus, and Emma? Exodus’ presence here and throughout this issue is subtly provocative, but to what end—who can say? Otherwise, what we see is presumably another moment of Krakoan celebration, with MC Storm helping shape the celebrating Krakoans’ emotions. There are celebrants high above among the gargantuan trees, in what keeps me thinking of an Ewok village. The sky, though, is eerily red: An ominous portent?
[Read more…] about How to (Re)Read the Hickman Era of X-Men: Arguments for a Nation (House of X #6)
Whereas HOX 4 was the climax of the maxiseries’ violent action and HOX 5 seemed to essentially clarify the establishment of Krakoa’s sovereignty and its mutant demographics, Powers of X #5 swerves from standard, post-denouement narrative resolution, instead amplifying all the lingering mysteries—and there are so many.
[Read more…] about How to (Re)Read the Hickman Era of X-Men: Mysteries Amplified (Powers of X #5)
[X-Force vol3 #3 by Craig Kyle, Chris Yost, Clayton Crain, Cory Petit, 2008]
(We’ll get to the undead human supremacists pictured above in section VI.)
Last time we did a rundown of all the mutant villains freely stepping onto Krakoan soil in House of X #5. Except for Selene and Sebastian Shaw—so now we can segue (at last!) into a look at the roster of human/non-mutant baddies listed in HOX 4. Why? The Hellfire Club was once an exclusive domain of power-politics contention between elite humans and mutants; it’s seen its share of amoral mutants and humans whose cynical, self-aggrandizing politicking has often resulted in great harm to mutantkind. And even today, the question of the Club’s legacy could reignite.
[Read more…] about How to (Re)Read the Hickman Era of X-Men: The Hellfire Club (House of X #4-5)
[Panel 1, left to right: Wildside, Random, Sinister, Lady Mastermind, Mesmero, Mentallo, Animax;
Panel 2: Shaw, Selene, Emplate, Exodus, Gorgon, Callisto]
Including Apocalypse and Sinister, 22 villainous or adversarial mutants step through the gates. Below, are 18* brief descriptions of those we haven’t yet covered in this series. Speculation on expectations for each following HOX/POX won’t include spoilers. In sum, what we’ll find is all the varieties of inter-mutant strife the X-Men have dealt with over the years. And we’ll likely never see this particular collection of mutants together on the same page again! Pages 25 and 27 are unique snapshot moments in time.
[Read more…] about The Hickman X-Men (Re)Read: House of X #5, Pt.3 – The Villains