Returning To The X-Men: House Of X #2
It’s been nearly six years since I last picked up a new X-Men comic. The last series I read with any regularity featuring the merry mutants was Jason Aaron‘s Wolverine and the X-Men. Which apparently ended around six years ago. It’s fair to say that I’m a little out of touch with that side of the Marvel Universe (though I have been following both Old Man Logan and Dead Man Logan, but those series didn’t really involve the X-Men as much as a team book would). More than a little, honestly. A lot has happened in the six years I’ve been away, and since I barely pay attention to solicitations I have missed most of it.
But with Johnathan Hickman steering the X-Men in a new direction with this week’s House Of X #2 I thought this might be a good time to start reading X-Men comics again.
But how easy is it to jump back in relatively blind after more than half a decade away? Join me, and I’ll tell you.
Expect spoilers as I try to make sense of the comic.
Especially this issue.
“You see I know how you humans love your symbolism, almost as much as you love you religion. And I wanted you – I needed you – to understand… you have new gods now.”
Magneto, House Of X, #1 p.47.
We’re three issues in to Hickman’s story now, although this is only the second under the House Of X moniker. First thing’s first, I really enjoyed this comic. More than I honestly thought I would because I didn’t let the burning questions I could feel brewing out of the back of my mind until after I had finished a book that focuses entirely on Moira X. A mutant who’s power is reincarnation. In the same life. Each and every time. Moira gets to relive her life, free to correct any mistakes she believes she may have made along the way – and free to make more. But every time she dies, she starts again.
I suppose it does give the term “comic book death” a new meaning.
Anyway, through Moira X’s mutant power we get to explore some interesting alternate timelines that I am sure will somehow reappear in the future in a What If story of some kind (which I’m totally down for, incidentally). The many lives of Moira X revealed in House Of X #2 are touched on in brief, but I won’t go into them too much here. I don’t want to give away all the fun.
The big twist this issue was oddly subtle. In retrospect, it’s pretty bloody obvious, but as I go into these comics utterly blind I was a touch surprised that Moira X wasn’t a new character. You’ve probably guessed that there can’t be two characters in the X-Men’s life named Moira, and that Moira X has been more commonly known as Moira MacTaggert.
Now I’m assuming that Moira has only just been revealed as a mutant, and that’s why the entirety of House Of X #2 is dedicated to revealing this long-hidden history of the character that is in no way a brand new plot device conceived recently by Marvel’s writers room. Regardless of the choice, as someone who hasn’t read X-Men comics in a while (so take this how you will), I can say it works. Moira being revealed as a mutant, and a mutant with a very old soul, adds an entirely new dynamic to the story.
It also asks the question as to whether any of the stories we’ve read in the past have been in one of Moira’s past nine or so lives, or has everything we’ve read since the 60’s been a part of Moira’s plan?
Honestly, I don’t worry so much about the answer. I’m actually more curious as to how old Magneto is than whether Moira is a grand architect of mutantkind’s future.
The comic itself is a really good read. It’s the kind of issue that has an impact on you long after you’ve read it even though nothing really happens; Hickman’s writing is utterly gripping. Although he’s certainly a long game writer, this is a great standalone issue that is probably easier for a person to pick up than it has any right to be. Of course, I’m sure I am missing a lot of subtleties from my time away from the X-Men, but that just gives me more incentive to dive back into the issues I’ve missed.
Which, in the spirit of this column, I’ll do after the sixth issue of Powers Of X.
Will I understand next week’s installment in the saga, Powers Of X #2? Do I regret skipping six years of X-Books? Am I ever going to find out how Xavier is walking again?
We might find out next week. We might not.
Marvel provided a FREE copy for review purposes, but I read the comic in print from my LCS.
