A friendly reminder: This HOX/POX reread contains no spoilers beyond these two series that are one. But logical theories will be worked out here and there as we go along.
X-Men
How to (Re)Read the Hickman Era of X-Men: House of X #2 Pt. 1
I. The Cover Story of House of X #2: The Uncanny Life of Moira X
Six Moiras on the cover, forming a hexagram, patterns like fingerprints in the background, each portrait opposite someone else’s—with two more triangular portraits fitted into the corners. It’s as if we’re looking end-on at a prismatic crystal, each facet featuring a grim-faced icon.
Seeing this cover for the first time, the reader would be struck by mystery—primarily: Moira as Apocalypse?!
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How to (Re)Read the Hickman Era of X-Men: Powers of X #1 Pt. 2
POX 1: The Last Dream of Professor X—Part 2: Year 100 and Year 1000
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Uncanny X-Men Omnibus, Volume 4 Review!
Claremont’s X-Men run is generally referred to as an indisputable comic book classic, one that ran for no less than seventeen years (more if you include his various returns to the books after departing in 1991). There’s no question that it is where the greater world began to take notice and fall in love with X-Men’s suddenly complex and tragic mutants, and the special mix of science fiction, horror, action, and soap opera that Claremont brought to the book continues to define the mood of the franchise all these many years later.
With many of the X-Men’s greatest hits in the bag (The Dark Phoenix Saga, Proteus, The Brood Saga, etc.), this is where we truly start to see the stories diverging and expanding into a more sprawling and convoluted X-Continuity. Soon, Claremont would no longer be the only X-Writer, and we would see more and more of the spin-offs and crossovers that sometimes diluted and sometimes advanced the franchise. Though The Uncanny X-Men Omnibus Vol. 4 might read as more of a sporadic collection of B-plots than a saga, longtime readers and those newer readers that don’t mind being thrown into the deep end of the pool will be able to appreciate the character dynamics alongside many resolving and developing plot threads alike. [Read more…] about Uncanny X-Men Omnibus, Volume 4 Review!
X-Factor Epic Collection: Angel Of Death Review!
X-Factor exists in a really strange memory limbo. Most people think of the team as the Peter David run with Multiple Man or the government-run era with Havok and Polaris. But if you’re really tuned in you remember the original hook of the team being the Original Five X-Men reunited, and if you’re really really tuned in you remember the additional hook of them masquerading as Mutant Hunters to take and train the mutants they “captured” as the “X-Terminators”. This Original Five era may not be necessarily the most well-remembered era in the concept of the X-Factor team, but it can’t be denied that it gave some incredibly influential building blocks into the X-Universe – including Apocalypse, Archangel, and of course…Nanny and Orphanmaker.
While Bob Layton was the author of the beginnings of this series, it really started bringing these ideas to life when the great Louise Simonson, primarily joined by her husband Walt Simonson, took the reins. X-Factor Epic Collection: Angel Of Death collects this Simonson era in its full swing. This collection really pushes the scope for what X-Factor as a concept can be by stripping it down and rebuilding what works, what doesn’t, and making it look like it was meant to be there from the beginning. From Archangel to “Inferno”, this collection really captures some of the heights of the Simonsons’ X-Factor run while keeping up the serialized soap opera so at home in this era of X-Books.
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