YMMV / House and Powers of X

• Applicability: The mutant metaphor has had a long history of applying to any number of real-life minorities, but House of X and Powers of X seem to introduce another applicable metaphor: Judaism and the theme of making a homeland, i.e. Israel. Per this Twitter thread:
  Let's start with the obvious: Jerusalem was chosen almost entirely to point out the similarities between a nation like Israel to a Mutant nation. About how ideals can clash with the reality of world politics. Is it condemning? Not really (at least not as much as it could be) it's more of a wake-up call both in and out of the text: good intentions can only get you so far. And Magneto being the active member here makes it look intentional (also about the speech at the end and Magneto's religious standing is probably a different discussion but overall it seems both in character and somewhat theatrical) but the meat of the story and what cements it in my mind as a very specific Jewish/Israeli allegory is Magneto saying "There has never been a Mutant war". Well, there has never really been a Jewish war when we were a minority. But when we have gotten a nation things changed. Because for good or ill your responsibilities changes once you become a nation. And that's partly why this feels more like Krakoa is more a Utopia than actually real. Why the Mutants are falling into the same traps Humanity/Israel has fallen to in the past.
• Awesome Art: Pepe Larraz and R.B. Silva's artwork on House of X and Powers of X are positively gorgeous. The comics are just fascinating to look at, whether it's the scenic vistas of today or the wartorn wastelands of tomorrow, it's easy to get distracted by the art when reading the story. At the same time, all the characters are very distinct and detailed, and look just as they should with total consistency across the board. Impressive, as there are many characters to draw.
• Awesomeness Withdrawal: This is widely seen as the most interesting and addicting X-Men has been in a very long time. It also makes each week between House and Powers feel like forever.
• Broken Base:
  • The extremely creepy and cult-like undertones of the group have split the fans into multiple camps of varying approval or disproval. This is likely intentional, given how Krakoa is getting this treatment in-universe.
• Continuity Lockout: Hickman himself stated that both House of X and Powers of X are needed to be read in order as to have a clue as to what's going on in the books launching afterward, as those two stories set up a status quo that the rest of X-Men will follow. That's a major reason why they didn't go into heavy detail as to what the initial six titles were going to be about at SDCC 2019.
• Creepy Awesome: Destiny in House of X #2, for totally owning Moira and her attempts to justify and dial down her participation in making a mutant cure. Her attempt to teach Moira a lesson is extreme, but her Breaking Speech is awesome and as she says, since she is acting to preserve mutant, she is "not without cause".
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Character-wise, Sinister's new take as a comedically camp, yet terrifying villain has made him the highlight of every story he appears in.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • Because of Xavier coming off as being evil and very suspicious, and because of his helmet bearing an uncanny resemblance, it's speculated by some that the Xavier we see isn't actually Xavier, but rather the Maker. The idea is that the Maker is impersonating Xavier through high-end inventions, such as being able to block out telepaths, replicate Xavier's abilities, and take the appearance of Xavier, to conduct an Evil Plan that involves playing the mutant population like a fiddle. The heavy themes of pushing towards the future, which fits very nicely with the Maker's motives as a futurist, further draws the comparison.
  • Another theory being peddled is that the body is Xavier's, but the mind is actually Moira, suggesting that she pulled a Grand Theft Me in some way to get where she is. The main clue people are using is the suggestion that no one has tried putting a different mind inside a shell of a body with the thought that it has been done, but the idea has been secreted away. This theory was subsequently discarded with the last issues of House of X and Powers of X, which revealed that Moira is still around in her own body, but is simply keeping a low profile.
  • Yet another theory is that Xavier is either Cassandra Nova (based on the somewhat suspicious use of the pith hat outfit that Nova favored), or Onslaught, based on Moira's journals making reference to 'breaking' him and the potential consequences - and last time Xavier's idealism was broken, he became Onslaught.
• Funny Moments: The all-text pages all contain little bracketed words at the top denote where the contents are from^{For Example...}  When an entry from Beast's Logbook is shown it reads [NOTE]...beast][SCRAP]....log]. When a page comes from the Quiet Council it starts with [Shhhhh].
• He's Just Hiding: The possibility that Rasputin and Future!Zorn survived getting sucked into the later's black-hole head. Especially since A: the series makes a big deal about the Phalanx entering black holes, B: other characters have survived it before (as seen in Chuck Austen's Uncanny X-Men) and C:... they're X-Men.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • During Brian Michael Bendis' last run with the Miles Morales Spider-Man, he had Ganke be a humongous fan of Goldballs despite his lameness. Come House of X #5, many other people now see how awesome Goldballs is.
  • In the book itself, Magneto Blasphemous Boast compares the mutants to gods. In Moira's sixth life, one thousand years from now, humans, thanks to technology and genetic engineering, are close to divinity themselves as mutants remain stationed as they were.
  • The method of resurrecting mutants, using brain engrams saved to Cerebro and uploaded into clones of deceased X-men, with their entire history and personality intact, is exactly what Dr. Venture from The Venture Bros. did when he resurrected Hank and Dean, who are nearly as death-prone as the X-Men, possibly more so. Dr. Orpheus even said the machine Venture used housed their (Hank and Dean's) souls as well.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Non-X-Men fans are here for the run just to see what Hickman will do with it, having won a lot of love and esteem for his major run on the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, with some noting that he stands to become one of very few writers to do a defining run on all three of Marvel's major teams.
• Like You Would Really Do It: The huge number of deaths in House of X #4, especially those of Wolverine, Cyclops, and Jean Grey. Not only would the death of one of those characters otherwise be a storyline defining event (not to mention all three have died and come back in the last year and a half), but they were also featured in the cover of the then-upcoming X-Men #1, meaning fans were not convinced this would stick. Sure enough, they — and the other casualties of the battle — are brought back in House of X #5 as part of The Reveal of Xavier's resurrection technology.
• Memetic Badass: Magneto. Mind, the Master of Magnetism was never not a badass, but the first issue of House of X alone cements him as a memetic one in the fandom for three reasons. First, he acts as the Ambadassador to all of mutantkind on Krakoa, speaking volumes considering just how many superpowered beings live there. Second, he calmly yet with no holds barred shows the human ambassadors that mutants are not to be trifled with, holding one in the air when they're revealed to have a gun, shrugs off the "it was for my protection!" comment like a lame excuse, and then closes out the issue with an epic Blasphemous Boast where he compares mutants to gods. Third, the graph that established just what an Omega-level mutant is confirmed that Mags himself is one (rather than "just" an Alpha-level mutant-like before), and then proceeds to use him as the go-to example as to why he's Omega compared to Forge. By the end, the message was made clear: you don't mess with Magneto.
• Memetic Mutation: Nightcrawler's "make more mutants" decree, along with the casual nudity in the series, have led fans to portray the X-Men as being incredibly horny and constantly having sex. When it turned out that Cyclops, Jean, and Wolverine happened to have their bedrooms connected, this led to further jokes about them being in a polyamorous relationship. Then it turns out to not be a joke.
• Narm: In the X² timeline, there are "only" roughly 10,000 mutants left. It's treated as a dire situation, and while the war itself certainly is, it's still funny considering that this is over twenty times the number of mutants that existed from Decimation until this run. ^note Before, the peak level was still under 500. In real-world terms though, 10,000 is definitely a very low number for a sentient species. With that being said, this ends up being justified in-universe: these events happen in an alternate timeline where Apocalypse led the X-Men, in which the events of Decimation never happened.
• Shocking Moments:
  • House of X #2 and The Reveal that Moira MacTaggert, always once thought to be a human, is in actuality a mutant with multiple lives and spent those lives trying to change the path of mutantkind.
  • House of X #5 reveals that Cerebro's secretly been copying the data of every living mutant down for years, with the explicit goal of resurrecting fallen mutants... Including the over sixteen million that died in Genosha. The issue ends with several villains joining the X-Men, including Mister Sinister and Apocalypse.
• Spiritual Successor: Hickman admitted that House of X is one to House of M, and the title is a direct shout-out to that event. Likewise, one of the settlements inside Krakoa is identified as "House of M".
• Unexpected Character:
  • Omega Sentinel was discarded years ago and Karima Shapandar returned to normal, and the marketing gave no indication that she would return. Yet in the first issue of House of X, she's been restored and is operating as Omega Sentinel once again.
• Values Resonance: The reprints of Stan Lee's letters to the readers have been featured in many of Marvel's books since his passing, but they are as right as they were nearly sixty years ago.
• WTH, Costuming Department?: Professor X's new design (black spandex bodysuit with a helmet with an "X" for the eyes) has been divisive, to say the least. Additionally, Jean Grey's return to the Marvel Girl outfit has received a lot of criticism compared to her X-Men: Red uniform - enough that the artists got the hint and gave her back the latter uniform, but with the colors of the Marvel Girl uniform.
• Win Back the Crowd:
  • Making the X-Men franchise a core pillar of Marvel after years of shafting due to film rights was widely praised, as is having acclaimed writer Jonathan Hickman be the one behind it. The promise that it'll reinvent the X-Men, much like Giant-Sized X-Men and New X-Men before it, with Hickman being given as much control as Chris Claremont, also drew a lot of interest.
  • Many, many people thought Hickman was going to be the sole Uncanny X-Men writer when the series relaunched in 2018, and were disappointed when it launched and, not only was he not involved, but the series became an Audience-Alienating Era. But less than a year after its launch, Uncanny X-Men (2018) was canceled and Hickman would end up as sole X-writer. Furthermore, after the conclusion of House of X and Powers of X, Hickman will be the writer of the main X-ongoing.

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