In House of X #1, a masked figure, presumably Charles Xavier, is seen awakening a number of people from plant-pods. We are shown that over the past few months, the X-Men have been planting Krakoa flowers. These grow into Habitats– domains of Krakoa that acts as embassies for the country of Krakoa. The Professor has made an offer to the nations of the world: recognize Krakoa, and he will gift them drugs manufactured from the flowers of Krakoa.
The professor has changed all the old rules.
Project Orchis built The Forge in Space, from the remnants of a Master Mold. As research now indicates that humanity only has 20 years left to live before it becomes extinct, replaced by homo superior. On Earth, Mystique, Toad, and Sabretooth attempt to steal the extremely dangerous, classified technology by raiding Damage Control; they escape through a Krakoa Gateway, with the exception of Sabretooth, who is captured by the Fantastic Four. Cyclops confronts the Fantastic Four, noting that the Nation of Krakoa has granted amnesty to all mutant criminals– but he eventually relents, and allows the FF to take Sabretooth into their own custody. Speaking with ambassadors from around the world in Jerusalem, Magneto speaks the message of Krakoa:
You have new gods.
Chris Eddleman: Rob, dear lord this is a big giant comic and weâve got our work cut out for us. I think we should dive right in.
Page 2: Preface
Robert Secundas: Like many Hickman comics, we begin with a title page with some kind of symbol and epigraph. First of all, we see at the top of the page an X in brackets and at the bottom of the page one of the mutant letters for Krakoan, the mutant alphabet. Thatâs the letter for X. Also, surrounding the quote on the page are these weird brackets that look like some of the symbols at the end of the issue. As far as I can tell, those symbols do not translate to letters– they merely surround the first and last line of text. The use of similar symbols here surrounding the English text should clue us in. Finally, we have teeny text containing the letters âkraâ or âkoaâ next to decimal numbers in brackets; these look like system updates, and later weâll find that Krakoa, the island that walks like a man, is now a computer. This text is kind of making me uneasy– it seems like everything that happens in this issue? Itâs not a natural evolution of Krakoa– Krakoa didnât happen to evolve miracle flowers. Someone downloaded something into Krakoa to make him function this way. Finally, the programming text includes [Xavier_alpha], which I suppose is a username; why Xavier_alpha, and not just Xavier? Well, there might be a narrative reason– there might be important distinctions between Xaviers, given Hickmanâs love of alternates/ doubles– but weâre going to see that this comic covers wild ground, covering the First and Last Things, Creation and Destruction, THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA sorry sorry got carried away for a second there. Anyway.
CE: From a biological perspective, Iâm fascinated with the artificial, not natural, but still biological evolution that seems to have affected Krakoa. Weâll get into that later.
Also this being House of X is a firm juxtaposition with the earlier event House of M, aka Magnetoâs perfect world. This would imply that this is supposed to be Xavierâs perfect world but, as Hickman has told us, this is not an alternate universe story.
RS: OK, now letâs look at the actual epigraph. I love these in Hickman comics, because theyâre almost always never real epigraphs, theyâre never actual quotations of something/someone else. When you see an epigraph, you expect a reference to the outside– you donât expect the story to have already begun– but with Hickman comics, the title page already tosses you into the story. The text here seems pretty generic, but I want to call attention to a couple of things– first of all, âHumans of the Planet Earthâ sounds like something an alien would say– this Professor X, from the title page already, sounds weird, alien, distant, something removed from this world. âWhile you sleptâ introduces the possibility of something weâre going to see on the last page mentioned again– dreams. For a comic with a ton of concrete data, this whole issue really does feel dreamlike, the way it drifts from beautiful vision to vision, and the way that our primary viewpoint characters, the ambassadors, are completely out of control of their movements and have zero understanding of their environments. But I really think this is important, this dreamlike feeling, because from the start itâs telling us that we shouldnât necessarily trust our eyes. What we see might be illusion.
CE: Hickman has used this line before, said by another mutant leader- Namor in Fantastic Four #585. He said it, however, before brutally murdering a king of an old Atlantean tribe- so this line is EXTRA ominous in Hickman History.
Page 3:
CE: This is Krakoa, the island that walks like a man, which first appeared in Giant Size X-Men #1. The original Krakoa was mutated by nearby nuclear testing as seen in the recent Journey into Mystery: Birth of Krakoa and was a fierce enemy of the X-Men. Back in the day, radiation was kind of the catch all reason for mutations, which has since changed to the X-gene. I donât think itâs that Krakoa however. Another Krakoa appeared in Aaron/Bachaloâs Wolverine and the X-Men, and later became the lawn of the Jean Grey School. If it IS that second Krakoa though, a lot has changed.
RS: The imagery of this page and the next are downright biblical. This is an Edenic scene; we have a Tree of Life; we have the creation of humans; look at the details of panel 4– though more emerge, we have the man who is presumably Prof X standing over two people, who are drawn (and I know this is problematic) with the shorthand for a man and a woman– it looks like God walking in the garden before Adam and Eve. If Krakoa is an Eden, that might make its flowers fruits of the Tree of Life; but there was another fruit-bearing tree in the garden…
RS: The comparison to the Sistine Chapel is clear, but the composition here– vertical rather than horizontal– the black figure looming over them– is more reminiscent of something Hickman mentions in the script, the Monolith in 2001:
Page 4:
RS: Prof X touches the face of the Adam, and the newly born manâs eye flares red; this could be some kind of spark of life, or it could be one of the many mutants whose eyes do the rad 90s star thing, or it could be Cyclops, given the color.
CE: Iâm guessing Cyclops (or possibly Vulcan) but, that opens up a lot of questions. Are these new people, or has something been done to existing X-Men?
RS: As Xavier stands over his Pod People, again, like a God walking above his subjects, look to his helmet. The previews, I believe, exclusively showed him from the front. But when he turns his head– it just out very much like a certain multiversal villain, a man who comes in slices.
CE: I got Maker (evil Reed Richards who is a holdover from the Ultimate Universe) vibes from this Xavier way back when the art premiered and boy oh boy does it only get worse in this book. At a primal level, covering Xavierâs eyes makes him look inhuman and even a little sinister (not that one).
RS: Unless⌠MAYBE that one??? Anythingâs possible in HoXPoX!
RS: One other possibility Iâm going to mention, given the Jewish references in this issue, given what we see of life coming from the Earth, given the association between Adam and this type of being, and given the weird resistance to showing almost every characterâs forehead in this issue: GOLEMS???
Before we move on from the Eden scene, itâs important to note that isnât the first time Hickman has drawn on this kind of imagery; the first arc of Avengers vol 5 introduced Ex-Nihilo, who created such a garden on the planet Mars (and was this iteration of the Avengersâ first major villain, before joining them himself). [Ed. note: Hey guys, this is your friendly editor Zack! I’m going to be jumping in from time to time here in the footnotes. Just wanted to point out that Ex Nihilo creating Adam has A TON in common with Professor X creating his X-Men.]
Page 5:
RS: The letters here translate to âHouse ofâ X, and itâs kind of weird that Iâm already starting to be able to site-read this. The computer code includes references to âhouse of xâ, âthe house of Xavierâ and âthe islandâ; not sure if thereâs anything important there beyond the obvious. The title of issue 1 is “The House that Xavier Built.” This seems to be a reference to âThe House that Jack Builtâ which could refer to an 18th century nursery rhyme.
I donât know what to make of the content of the poem and the series, but I think the structure– where every verse you add something new that recontextualizes the previous, that each time you add something new then return to what you just read/heard before– matches up with Hickmanâs comments about the structure of HoXPoX, where each new issue recontextualizes what came before. It is also entirely possible that since âThe House that Jack Builtâ is an extremely common phrase, it was just an easy way to reword âHouse of Xâ for the first issue, where we just outline the general premise of the series.
CE: This theory is completely wild to me but, itâs really hard to know how in depth with something Hickman would go. Does it just sound cool, or is it very very very deep?
RS: We also have Krakoan on this page above the credits; it translates to: âONE.â
Page 6:
CE: The month per month timeline certainly indicates a great degree of planning. Important to note, is that the previous scene with godlike Charles is NOT given a time frame. Mysterious.
The X-Men placing habitat flowers in these panels are: Colossus at Krakoa, Storm at Westchester, Nightcrawler on the Blue Area of the Moon (although this one could be up for debate, his hands and feet arenât super visible), and Armor on Mars. [Ed. note: CALLED IT!]
RS: I think itâs also important to note that we donât see any of their faces; that could be an important detail, that seeing their faces would reveal some plot point– or it could just be to keep the uneasy tone going, ala the masked Professor.
CE: Yeah, and it makes it super hard to identify some of them.
Page 7:
CE: We continue, with help from the script: Beast in the Savage Land with Human Drug L, Kitty Pryde (still with Presidential aspirations I suspect) planting a gateway in DC , and the Cuckoos in Jerusalem planting a habitat. Later we see that it seems as though the Cuckoos who were previously dead are back, which should mean 5 of them but, there are only four figures walking in this panel.
RS: Note that the script calls for five (presumably all five of the Cuckoos); either some change was made between script and pencils, or there was just an error here.
CE: I think maybe one is in the front and thus difficult to see.
Page 9:
CE: âWhat should concern you is the amnestyâ
Also the Sun Tzu quote referenced is âAppear weak when you are strong, appear strong when you are weak.â
Page 10:
âItâs not a war if theyâve already wonâ
CE: Rob, I donât know about you but, this seems like a quote. But, boy could I not find it anywhere.
RS: I thought it was Sun Tzu, but I canât find the quote either. Itâs in italics, but not quotation marks– my guess is that itâs just Hickman (given also that heâs good at writing bomb-ass lines)
CE: Super important to note that these two are Esme and Sophie, otherwise known as the Stepford Cuckoos that have been dead for years. We get no explanation but, I suspect itâs pod people related.
RS: Esme and Sophie were most recently seen in X-23 (2018) #1-6, where they came back to life, briefly. Esme was a real jerk!
Also interesting is the idea of a human name that Sophie mentions. The idea of an opposition between oneâs birth-given Human Name vs a Mutant Name of oneâs own choosing (really, a superhero codename) appeared in Ultimate X-Men #1, and itâs the first glimpse of âMutant Cultureâ that we see in this issue.
Page 12:
CE: Rob, itâs our first infograph- this about the flowers of Krakoa that produce the Human Drugs. Wild Theory from Your Resident Biologist- the letters of these drugs (LIM) correspond to a binding domain in proteins that assist in things like cytoskeletal processes…as well as oncogenesis. I might be off base but that seems ominous.
The numbers on the side might mean something? They all add up to 100, which makes me think theyâre percentages.
RS: I am kind of in awe of your Biology Catch here! Could you also explain what oncogenesis is and why that is pretty ominous?
CE: Oh, of course. Oncogenesis is the process by which healthy cells turn into cancerous cells. This is generally caused by some mutation that leads to unchecked growth and proliferation. So is Xavier handing out carcinogens? Probably not, but the LIM letters are likely picked for a reason.
The big thing here to me on the mutant page is No-Place, the Krakoan tumor habitat that exists outside the consciousness— this is definitely is going to be explored later. Also, the order of these spell out GHN, which is a growth hormone gene in humans. Interesting!
Page 13:
CE: Westchester Habitat is named Graymalkin, after the street that the mansion is on. Jean Grey is making amends with a broccoli child, after destroying a whole race of broccoli people as the Dark Phoenix. [Ed. note: Note: she isn’t an actual D’Bari]
Page 14:
CE: Most of these characters are new, with the exception of Banshee and Marvel Girl. Banshee was just killed recently in Rosenberg and Larrocaâs Uncanny X-Men run, yet another resurrection.
Glad to see Sage and Cypher. Cypher looks to have gotten over his internet addiction [Ed. note: well that makes one of us] with the help of Daredevil back in Daredevil #606. He looks to have some Warlock on his arm, which while not explored further, is pretty par for the course.
RS: Sage is a bit of an obscure character, so just a quick primer: sheâs a telepathic mutant with a super smart brain and a specialized biokinesis which allows her to understand and manipulate DNA, particularly to mess with/enhance/unlock mutant abilities. Most recently she hopped around the multiverse with a team of multiversal X-Men in the second volume of that title (though she also made a brief appearance, among many, many dozen characters, on the Beach Battle with X-Man at the conclusion of X-Men: Disassembled in Uncanny X-Men vol 5 #10
CE: This is also the first we see of the computer technology merged with Krakoa. Maybe bursting my artificial biological motif.
RS: Iâm going to point out the line âYou need to bury all that cynicism and replace it with god old-fashioned hope. The Professor has changed all the old rulesâŚâ Because Hickmanâs work has been extremely interested in great men having great ideas that change history– and then exploring the horrors that follow.
Page 17:
CE: The square mileage difference between Krakoa (Pacific) and Krakoa (Total) is likely the addition of the remote habitats. There must be a lot of them.
RS: Thereâs a difference here of 53 square miles, which is about the size of 5 Cumberlands, Maryland (the home of Dr. McNinja), or 57.4% of a Baltimore.
CE: The island itself is a bit bigger than Guam (210 square miles).
The locations of note to me are the House of X vs the House of M, which seems to indicate Chuck and Mags have separate living spaces. The south area of Krakoa also seems strangely empty. I wonder if that will get explored.
RS: A lot of these have me curious (and thatâs the neat thing about his maps since way back in Secret Warriors— they make you go HMMMM). Arbor Magna is latin for âBig Tree,â so that might be the Tree of Pod Birthing that we saw in the opening (though I would be equally unsurprised if that was The Cradle). You might not have heard of The Wild Hunt, (though itâs more famous now, given the success of the Witcher franchise) [Ed. note: or from the Hellboy story]. The Wild Hunt, a very common European folk legend in which gods, ghosts, or, in my favorite variants, the Fey [Ed. note: faeries] sound trumpets for a great hunt, and any mortals who are caught out of doors– well, theyâre either impressed, they join the hunt– or they become the hunted. This and The Arena make me think that this Utopia is a bit less peaceful than Smiley Wolverine would lead us to believe…
Page 19:
CE: We have two agents named Gregor and Mendel, which put together is the name of the scientist who basically created the study of genetics. Makes me think these are code names.
RS: Gregor Mendel may be a great mascot for our partnership in this project, because he was also an Augustinian friar! Given that another agent is named Erasmus– which is either a reference to the Humanist whose writings were hugely important for the Renaissance, and thus, ultimately, the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution, or the lesser known Erasmus Darwin, Charles Darwinâs grandfather, a botanist, who wrote the 1794 book Zoonomia, concerning, among other things, evolution (of a kind) and pathology, and who speculated on the origins of the universe in a kind of big bang– I think these are definitely codenames!
RS: Maslowâs hierarchy of needs gets a mention, a psychosocial theory that comes down to, basically, folks have certain basic needs that need filling before others.
RS: Finally, note the costuming here. In a glimpse we see what weâre about to be told– that these people come from lots of different places. We got SHIELD jumpsuits and AIM beehives.
Page 20:
CE: Karima being back is interesting. Once an Omega Prime Sentinel, last we saw of her she was basically a baseline human…and also not evil.
RS: Quick rundown on Karima Shapandar: she debuted in X-Men Unlimited #27; she was revealed to be a Prime Sentinel, basically a human who had been unknowingly infected with Sentinel cybernetics; for a while she was deprogrammed and even briefly joined the X-Men. Her most recent appearance was in X-Men Vol 4 #12, when she left the X-Men.
Page 21:
âI see no brothers. I see no sisters.â
CE: Considering Karima means machines, maybe she is an Omega Prime Sentinel again.
Page 22:
CE: This is a new Mastermold. For those not in the know, Mastermold is a big Sentinel that makes little Sentinels. In this case, the Mothermold seems to be constructing the space station that theyâre using.
RS: This could be remnants of the sentinels from X-Men Vol 1 #59, waaaay back in 1969, when Cyclops convinced a bunch of âem that they needed to destroy the cause of all mutation– and so they blasted off to space to fight THE SUN.
Page 24:
CE: Of note here, some of the agencies that make up the Orchis Protocol…shouldnât exist anymore? SHIELD is gone as of Secret Empire, HAMMER is gone as of Siege, and STRIKE has been gone since the 80s. Well, I guess not anymore? Or these are very very old protocols.
RS: And SWORD was replaced by Alpha Flight after Secret Wars (2015).
CE: Also in one of the side âcodingâ boxes, the word Mothermold is used. I guess thatâs our new robot.
RS: I really wonder how much weâre supposed to pay attention to that coding⌠because if ORCHIS is getting coding like this too, that might be an indication that the same machine is running both sidesâŚ
RS: âOrchis is a genus in the orchid family […]The name is from the Ancient Greek á˝ĎĎÎšĎ orchis, meaning âtesticle.â” [Ed. note: Thanks Wikipedia] Knowledge is power! Anyway, itâs interesting that the people working against the Flowers of Krakoa are also named for a flower.
RS: The discussion here of the âCro-magnon problemâ parallels the opening pages of Grant Morrisonâs first issue of New X-Men, #114:
RS: âCro-Magnonâ in âThe Cro-Magnon Problemâ refers to homo sapiens, not Neanderthals.
CE: Also, biology Chris is back again- alphatypes is not a real world phrase as far as I know, but it sounds really cool here. But you can tell someone macho like Charles came up with it.
RS: The Genosha Event referred to here is a reference to the opening arc of Morrisonâs New X-Men, #114-116, âE is for Extinction.â In that story, Cassandra Nova, Prof Xâs evil disembodied super-psychic sister, found an abandoned Wild Master Mold and used a dentist to launch adaptive sentinels to massacre all citizens of Genosha, then a mutant haven ruled over by Magneto. They killed 18 million mutants in one day.
As far as I can tell, the names (besides Karima Shapandar) in the hierarchy here are all new characters and, with the exception of Alia Gregor, not references to historical figures. âKillian Devoâ could be a reference to the band Devo; âZaha Gehryâ could be a reference to the modernist architects Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid. Both seem unlikely. [Ed. note: Look we’re trying here]
CE: I dunno, âDevoâ for devolution as an X-Men bad guy is pretty good to me.
Page 25:
CE: Damage Control of course being the construction company that specializes in rebuilding wrecked places after superhero fights. This was a Dwayne McDuffie creation, and is a pretty great read. However, it seems like theyâre into storage here. Specifically storage of objects seized from Tony Stark and Reed Richards during their death and absence from the universe, respectively.
They say two of the smartest people in the world, because the actual smartest is Lunella Lafayette, Moon Girl. Take that old men.
RS: We last saw Sabretooth in Uncanny X-Men: War of the Realms #3, where he was serving as a lieutenant for Malekithâs army; Magik CUT OFF HIS HEAD AND LITERALLY SENT IT TO HELL. So presumably he was dead. We saw Toad last as a member of Magneto’s Brotherhood in X-Men: Blue.
Page 27:
RS: Hey look! Itâs the Fantastic Four! You might know them as the characters that created the formula for all of Marvel Comics as we know it. Hickman, of course, wrote the Fantastic Four for quite some time, then wrote an Avengers run which was, in many ways, a thematic and narrative sequel to his FF, and then concluded this huge narrative with Secret Wars, which was in large part a story about Reed Richards, Doctor Doom, and their very different ideas of greatness.
CE: This is our first example that the entire Marvel Universe is going to be affected, at least in terms of characters.
Page 28:
CE: A lot of objects to unpack here:
Solâs Anvil was built by a Council of Reed Richards in Hickmanâs FF run to counteract multiversal threats. It is highly powerful.
Solâs Hammer was a partial Dyson Sphere built by Tony Stark as a superweapon to deal with the incursions of different Earths in Hickmanâs Avengers run.
The Bridge is a viewing device that Reed made (again in Hickmanâs FF) to see and enter other universes. Not UNLIKE these Krakoan Gateways to be honest.
Iron Man Mark V-VIII and Rescue Mark I and II are Stark-built Iron Man style armors.
The Antiproton Sling was a device brought by the universe hopping Black Swan that destroys Earths. It was reverse engineered by TâChalla and Reed in Hickmanâs Avengers run.
The Multiversal Beacons were tracking/communication devices created by Reed Richards that work across universes.
Page 29:
RS: The detail here that really interests me is the geology. The habitats arenât purely organic, apparently. Here we see a chasm of giant pink crystals. HMMM. Where have we seen giant pink crystals in X-Men comics beforeâŚ..
CE: Well my guy, this might be a reference in the MâKraan Crystal, which is the Nexus of All Realities. This MIGHT not be that but what do you do.
RS: The text above the doorway reads âGALMâ; Hickman has confirmed that the G and H were mixed up on the initial printing of the Krakoa infographic. We had ideas for what HALM meant. We currently have nothing for GALM. [Ed. note: It’s obviously code for Galeem, the angelic boss of Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, plebs]
Page 30:
RS: We get another glimpse of mutant culture: Mutant language, something that we saw explored with Ultimate X-Menâs Magneto. This is really interesting; obviously the relationship between language and culture is extremely important (and extremely complicated); if youâd like to learn more about the ideas Magneto mentions here, that distinct culture relies on distinct language, I believe you want to look into research involving the âSapir-Whorf Hypothesis,â which holds that all thought (and thus, indirectly, the products of that thought, culture) are either to a degree or completely determined by language. It should be noted, however, that for the most part Marvel hasnât treated this as a Mutant language, but as a Mutant alphabet; in the ad materials/ paratext weâve gotten so far with these letters, theyâre just used as an English font. As more diegetic letters appear, we should get a better idea of whether Krakoan is closer to Doopspeak or Quenya.
CE: Here, here! But also thanks Hickman for giving us a cypher puzzle.
Page 31:
CE: In this first likely Australian panel, Iâm not sure these mutants are anyone weâve seen before.
RS: Hey! Itâs the Xorns! Both are back, I guess! Chris, do we want to explain the Xorns, and why there are two of them, or is that beyond our abilities?
CE: These are Xorn, and Zorn, the leaders of the Celestials and the Eternals from the Ultimate Universe. At least, it appears that way. Of note, Xorn specifically looks like 616 version (which is a whole can of worms) but Zorn looks like the Ultimate Zorn. Why? Who knows at this rate. They have a pretty complicated deal. [Ed. note: I love Xorn & Zorn]
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CE: Magneto was definitely started some pretty intense conflicts, so itâs odd to make this claim of never starting a war. Granted mutants as a people have never fully gone in on a war, so I suppose itâs true.
Mutant War was also the name of a planned Claremont event from the 80s that was heavily foreshadowed but never actually occurred. It kind of became X-Tinction Agenda. So yes, there has never been a Mutant War.
RS: âMan is not Welcome Hereâ extends the Eden parallels; after The Fall of Adam and Eve, God declares âTo them and to thir Progenie from thence/ Perpetual banishmentâ (Paradise Lost XI.107-108).
Page 34:
RS: Itâs Cyclops! In Blue! I donât think heâs hung out with the FF since he became a tyrannical god-king and conquered the Earth with a cosmic force!
CE: Definitely not. At first I thought old Cyke was being sarcastic but he is completely sincere in his conversation here. What a good lad. Not the militant leader weâve come to expect recently.
Page 35:
RS: Ben Grimmâs marriage to Alicia Masters occurred in Fantastic Four vol 6 #5. [Ed. note: mazel tov]
CE: Cyclops missed it, being dead and all.
Page 37:
CE: This Cyclops line is frankly the best line in the issue. Iâve already seen some talk of âThe X-Men Are Bad Guysâ and this line is the antithesis of that logic to me. Also, Cyclops is speaking to Sue about her son Franklin Richards, who is an omega level mutant with reality warping abilities. Heâs making a clear choice by calling him âfamily.â
Page 38:
RS: The long awaited Omega Mutant Infographic! Not much to explain here, but a few things that stand out. First of all, some real obscure folks: Mr. M appeared in just a handful of comics: one arc of District X (2004) and X-Men: the 198 (2006). Jamie Braddock is (I think) not very well known outside of Excalibur fans; heâs Betsy and Brian Braddockâs insane reality-warping brother, last seen inexplicably back from the dead in Black Widow: Infinity Countdown # 1 (2018).
CE: Proteus possibly being back is wild. He died in the recent Astonishing X-Men run. Plus he aligns with Krakoa, when he is basically always an antagonist. Note that Franklin Richards is in red, as the only human aligned Omega Level.
RS: That âOmega Protocolâ is a bit chilling: âAll efforts are to be expended in order to secure the future of the state.â Not very nice.
CE: Calling them a natural resource is…a choice. More creepy Xavier. [Ed. note: People aren’t talking enough about how this website/me personally is referenced on this page. More over, no one is legally allowed to tell me it is just a coincidence.]
Page 40:
RS: âTheyâre all plantsâ does not in fact mean that they are Krakoas, [Ed. note: unless…] as you might suspect given this comic thus far, as words can mean more than one thing. Red Sky is an organization of which I can find no previous reference; using our context clues, we can say itâs fairly certain that itâs a doomsday cult.
CE: Calling her an âoperatorâ makes me wonder if itâs some kind of agency. âRed Skyâ is a term used to refer to big event crossovers in comics, as well. [Ed. note: Red sky mean incursions…]
Page 42:
CE: The sun setting over Magneto to me feels like the sunset on humanity, especially with him as a towering figure.
Page 43:
RS: So, the majority of this issue is set in the Jerusalem Habitat/ Embassy of Krakoa. That has huge implications in a number of ways, and this page makes it clear that we really are supposed to be considering those implications, or, at the very least, characters in this issue are considering those implications. First of all, of course, Jerusalem is an extremely important Holy City for those Religions (perhaps problematically) referred to as the Abrahamic Religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It is at Jerusalem that the Temple is constructed and reconstructed, that Muhammed is taken into the heavens, and that Jesus is crucified. Before modern cartography and the discovery of America, it was thought to be the center of the world, between the three continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa; it and Mt. Purgatory were the top and bottom of the Earth in Danteâs journey through the cosmos. It is: important.
That it is Magneto specifically who points out this importance in the issue, I think, makes even more compelling the natural comparison between the fictional creation of Krakoa and the historical creation of the modern nation-state of Israel; I think we are very much supposed to comparing the two, in all of the latterâs complexity. I donât think weâre the best folks to make that comparison; I suggest checking out Nirâs thread on this issue and Judaism here.
What I can talk about is the parallels that this issue points toward in Christianity: specifically, it seems to inviting comparisons with not just the Apocalypse, but the modern, American, Fundamentalist, Evangelical Apocalypse [Ed. note: Very East Of West]. If âEmbassy at Jerusalemâ sounded weird to you, thatâs because almost no countries have their embassies to Israel there; most are at Tel Aviv. The US moving their embassy to Jerusalem was recently a major story. That move was lauded by certain Christians, due to the belief that such a move was necessary for the Second Coming of Christ and the beginning of the End Times. Vox covers this well here.
With this mind, a number of details in this issue become striking; this American version of the End Times features also the premillenian rapture of True Believers before a worldwide Great Tribulation (which you may recall from Chuck Austenâs âHoly Warâ). Here, Prof X works to remove all mutants from the world to his safe haven, before the time of calamity that Orchis predicts. The Antichrist is often framed as an ultra-Charismatic figure with the power to bend others to his will, who comes to political power after the Rapture by offering some kind of gifts or paths to peace and order in the chaotic world. Iâll go into more detail in future issues about parallels with the text of The Apocalypse of John itself if necessary, but for now Iâll just note that if Chris is right about the flowers of Krakoa, those humans who takes those drugs– who accept the gifts of Charles Xavier– their DNA is going to be marked. [Ed. note: 666]
CE: Is this Magneto proclaiming himself nonreligious? Does this have a history?
RS: Thatâs something I checked with Nir. The short answer is that Magnetoâs relationship with religion is complicated. He mentioned the Magneto story in the Marvel holiday special last year: âwhen they […] talk about the Hannukiah, Magneto is both dismissive and reserved about it, showing his disillusion but happiness that this tradition survived.â Nir also mentioned in our conversation that Magnetoâs comments here could be performative (as has been his dialogue/ actions throughout the issue).
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RS: Two details: just as the opening quotation closed with an [X] in brackets, this closes with the Krakoan letter for M in brackets, and just as the first opened with [Xavier_Alpha], this closes with [Magneto_Omega].
CE: Paralleling the sunset again.
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RS: House of X #2, House of X #5, and Powers of X # 6 are marked in red. Given what weâve been told about the series so far, these are likely the most important Paradigm Shift issues that cause us to re-evaluate what weâve read before (Iâm not going to make Zack edit a thousand word rant on paradigm shifts here [Ed. note: this is already so many words…] , just please go read Thomas Kuhn).
CE: Yeah Rob, I feel like red equals big important stuff in all of these graphs. We as your faithful annotators will pay close attention.
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CE: This page is previewing Powers of X #1. The Krakoan translation for this:
NEXT (likely in some kind of brackets or italics indicators?)
ITS NOT A DREAM IF ITS REAL (REAL being in the same bracket/italics)
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CE: This page seems to be previewing House of X #2. The Krakoan for this:
THEN (in the same brackets)
THE CURIOUS CASE OF MOIRA X (RA X being in the brackets)
CE: Looks like Moira is going to favor heavily in the next issue! Canât wait for her to get her proper due.
RS: I was really, really blown away by this issue. I think, on a pure craft level, the way images and text are incorporated into/ alter our experience of the structure and plot of this issue is just really, really well done. On a thematic level, this is addressing a lot of things weâve seen in the X-men before, but in a way that feels fresh, exciting, distilled, more powerful than before. Narratively, I canât wait to see whatâs next (and I canât even guess what itâs going to be).
CE: This was a pretty incredible and engaging start to our story. It seems like a ton happened even though only a few story beats were established. But this brave new X-Men world seems big and bold, and this oversized issue had plenty of meaty material even outside of the story. Iâm not going to call the X-Men bad guys (like some seem to have) but Charles Xavier seems to be at least pretty creepy. I canât dispel the pod people at the beginning from my head, but any theories I come up with seem to come up short. Frankly, I canât believe we have another series apart from just House. This seemed huge but itâs only going to get bigger. And Rob, weâll be there to hopefully explain it as best we can.
Chris Eddleman is a biologist and co-host of Chrises On Infinite Earths
Robert Secundas is a Private X-Investigator and amateur-angelologist-for-hire
Special thanks to Charlie Davis, Mikey Zee, and Nir Revel
Chris Eddleman is a biologist and co-host of Chrises On Infinite Earths.
Robert Secundus is an amateur-angelologist-for-hire.
