Reading Order Guide For Beginners & Fans
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.
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[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
And we’re back—at the start of HOX/POX. With so many mutants having died before the Hickman era and not a few of the same being teased in HOX/POX previews and the mystery of “the pod people” in HOX 1, we knew that mutant resurrection was going to be key to the start of Hickman’s run.
[Read more…] about The Hickman X-Men (Re)Read: House of X #5, Pt.2 – The Mutant Renaissance
Wading ashore through reeds, Apocalypse could be equally emerging from some Krakoan lagoon as from the Nile of Ancient Egypt. The ambiguity is mythopoeic—evoking a sense of his impossibly deep past.
Alas, this specific mythopoeism isn’t the subject of HOX 5.
[Read more…] about The Hickman X-Men (Re)Read: House of X #5, Pt.1 – The Resurrection Five