With the nation of Krakoa established, mutantkind is ready to defend their new nation from threats of all kinds, but the X-Men have no idea about the mutant whose secret power of resurrection lies behind the entire thing. Live the Many Lives of Jubilation X in X-Men ’92: House of XCII #2, written by Steve Foxe, drawn by Salva Espin, colored by Israel Silva, lettered by Joe Sabino and designed by Jay Bowen.
A fun thing about me is that graphic design is my passion. Actually it isn’t, but either way this comic inspired me to make my own HoXPoX-style chart detailing Jubilee’s 10 lives as revealed in this issue. Some of the information is Grote-alistic license, but feel free to print it out, punch three holes in it and stick it in the back of your Trapper Keeper, my gift to you.
Tom Muller, eat your heart out.
In all seriousness, design is such an important part of what makes this decidedly gimmick miniseries work. In crafting the data pages for House of XCII, writer Steve Foxe told us on WMQ&A he shared screenshots with designer Jay Bowen of the opening credits to Saved by the Bell as inspiration. With Jubilee in the Moira role, that’s the perfect show to encapsulate the look-and-feel of how she would present information or want information presented to her, a long-lived 13-year-old girl presumably born in 1980 and raised by pop culture.
And were that the sole trick this book pulls with design elements, that would be enough, but the team’s not resting on its laurels. We also get a zine-style page advertising an Inner Circle mix tape made and sold by Boom-Boom and Whiz Kid, with year-appropriate songs for each member of this book’s iteration of the Quiet Council, similar to the vibe mix Kieron Gillen made for Immortal X-Men. Except not at all because Kieron didn’t use Madonna’s “Justify My Love” in tribute to Emma Frost. Missed opportunity, that.
Again, brilliant. Again, not the end of the design line. Because incorporated in this zine page is black-and-white photocopied line art from Jon Bogdanove’s X-Terminators, the 1988 “Inferno” tie-in miniseries in which Taki and Tabby were major characters.
The book cribs classic art again on a Tiger Beat-style page introducing the members of Orchis, including drawings by John Byrne, Brandon Peterson, Rob Liefeld and old issues of X-Men Adventures, the adaptation comic for the animated series. (There’s probably a conversation to be had about whether those artists were paid for the lift, but that’s a discussion for another time.)
I’m just glad George Washington Bridge is getting work again.
All of this is in service of an issue that is in part dedicated to synthesizing X-Men ’92 with House of X #2, the issue that plots out the 10 lives of Moira MacTaggert, probably the greatest modern twist in superhero comics. As with much of this series, the surprise lies in the substitutions. How does Jubilee die? When does she ally herself with the X-Men? What villains does she ally herself with? How can the team nod to post ’92 stories and characters while working within the parameters of the story?
(The answers, in no particular order, include Jim Lee’s swimsuit pinup from X-Men Vol. 2 #1, X-Men: The Arcade Game, Dracula, Stryfe, Generation X, Nimrod as Destiny, and Cable with Giant-Size Krakoa for a head.)
That’s enough of a meal for one comic, but being a five-issue miniseries, it has so much other ground to cover. And so we get looks at who’s running the Marauder in this world, who’s fighting in the Quarry, who’s on the Quiet Council, X-Factor, and of course, Wolverine. Another comic might not be able to pull off moving this quickly, but because it’s assumed the reader is familiar with the beats, it can focus on the note substitutions.
The reader, in turn, needs only a panel or two to fill in the rest of the lore themself. “Oh, Jubilee has a sniper rifle? This must be her seventh life, which she dedicates to hunting down Trasks but still ends with her realization that she can’t stop the machines from evolving to kill the mutants. And the experience radicalized her. Also, Jubilee, being a teenager in the early 1990s, would use the word ‘radical’ in the same manner as Bart Simpson and Michelangelo. Cowabunga.”
The how rules the telling, and the telling rules.
X-miscellany ’92: House of Miscellany
- “That made me a little … radical” is the line of the book.
- Oh, Logan, never stop holding photos of your friends and loved ones and looking at them wistfully.
- Happy Pride Month, Grizzly!
- No one has made the Inner Circle Jams playlist on Spotify, and that upsets me. Although I guess you’d have to record and produce that Dazzler/Lila Cheney song first.
- Next: X of Swords! With Arkon!
- … Oh, I get it, because he’s a bear.
Dan Grote is the editor-in-chief of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts WMQ&A: The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Winston Wisdom.
