The X-Men fight back in Fall of the House of X #2, but whose X-Men are they?

The latest Fall is a wall-to-wall brawl, y’all!

The X-Men fight for their lives and find unexpected allies amid their breakneck race toward their latest ending in Fall of the House of X #2 written by Gerry Duggan, drawn by Lucas Werneck, colored by Bryan Valenza, and lettered by VC’s Travis Lanham.

Anna Peppard: Happy Valentine’s Day! To celebrate, I got you the gift of reviewing a comic book you don’t like with time you don’t have. And I can only assume you got me a World’s Greatest Girlfriend mug. 

Adam Reck: Happy Valentine’s to you, my love! I’m glad we’re taking time to review Fall of the House of X #2, because it does not feel like anyone had anything resembling time in the making or publication of it. It’s less that I don’t like this issue than I keep thinking about what it could have been. 

Anna: This is a terrible time for unrequited passion. So let’s not tarry in honestly professing our feelings for this latest installment in the X-Men franchise’s messy breakup with Krakoa. 

All Hail the New Master of Magnetism

Anna: Fall of the House of X #2 opens with what was teased at the end of FoHoX #1: the Ecstasy of Saint Lorna, with a giant Celestial skull at her back and a razor-toothed army of Brood at her feet. And I gotta admit — this part had me at full attention. If there’s one thing Werneck is good at, it’s drawing X-Men looking fabulous, and Polaris gets plenty of opportunities to do that very thing, sashaying through barrages of bullets with power hair that’s worthy of her power cape, threatening horror-stricken guards with deadly caresses and sipping coffee over the vanquished bodies of her foes.

Part of the joy of full-throttle Polaris is that we so rarely get to see it; historically, she’s sometimes been her own worst enemy when it comes to reaching her true potential. But here, the passion — or perhaps the sadistic — streak that’s sometimes held her back isn’t a weakness, it’s a strength. This situation needed full Lorna; she and Werneck bring it. 

Or at least — they try to bring it. Would this opening sequence be better if it wasn’t thoroughly upstaged by Pepe Larraz and Marte Gracia’s extremely awesome cover? Probably.

Thoughts on Lorna’s calamitous catwalk, Adam?

Adam: Lorna’s arrival at the Bloom station with weaponized Brood is a fun use of a bit from all the way back in Hickman’s X-Men vol 5 #9. It is weird to me that Broo is not there? He was last issue. How exactly Lorna is commanding this alien horde isn’t particularly clear, but it doesn’t matter. The aliens are here to munch and crunch Orchis fodder. The best part of this is Lorna announcing herself as the “New Master of Magnetism” in the wake of her late father. Of course, we know that won’t last too long with Papa Eisenhardt on his way back from the other side. 

Elsewhere, we’re flying at a breakneck and very sketchy pace through (checks notes) Juggernaut freeing a trapped Krakoa from a net because he borrowed one of Cable’s guns? We really have forgotten that Juggy is unstoppable, haven’t we? This guy toppled the World Trade Center. Now he needs a Cable gun to free a tree? The scale is all wacky here too. I have no idea how big Marko is. Krakoa looks like he’s Groot sized until you realize he’s flanked by Orchis Sentinels. 

Similarly, I have very little sense of where any of this is happening. Characters are talking telepathically through Emma Frost who is walking Orchis soldiers on a leash, barking commands at Rogue and Gambit, and getting a largely offscreen assist from Synch. I could not tell you if the Juggernaut rescue, Emma & Synch attacking a Sentinel, and Rogue & Gambit flying overhead are happening in the same airspace or whether they’re worlds away. 

Anna: So much happens so quickly and haphazardly that I completely forgot Juggernaut was even in this comic! And I’ve read the issue like three times!

I think the unresolvable questions I had about that scene made me block it out of my mind, traumatic-memory style. Krakoa was an island nation heralding a dramatic new status quo for a then-stagnant franchise. Now it’s just a gangly tree-guy in a net. Also, remember when Synch, aka future leader of the X-Men, was supposed to be a big part of this event? I couldn’t decide whether to laugh or sigh about Synch’s single panel appearance here, especially given the drastic whiteness of the first issue of this comic book about the genocide and desperate rebellion of a persecuted minority group.

Adam: This highlights another problem with this mini in general — X-Men vol 6 is still being published! So while this is supposed to be the grand finale, if you want to know what’s happening, there’s an “ongoing” picking up bits and pieces of story in between. Which only adds to the confusion. Nimrod has been trapped in amber since FoHoX #1, doesn’t escape until the end of Fall of the House of X #2, and yet attacked Synch and Co. in X-Men #31. You would think that since these two books are both written by Gerry Duggan this wouldn’t be a problem — and yet! 

Anna: Let’s talk about the stuff with Manifold. More accurately: let’s let you talk about the stuff with Manifold. I regret to say my familiarity with this character is rather limited. I definitely read the Krakoa era SWORD book but that was like 15 years ago (I’m being told it was actually like 2 years ago but that can’t be right, I demand a recount). [Ed. Note: I double-checked the math and concur with Anna, that can’t be right].

Adam: Okay, Manifold is an incredibly powerful character who can speak to the Universe and shape it to his will. He was key to the SWORD team being able to mine Mysterium from The White Hot Room. Destiny previously told Rogue that Manifold was key to mutant survival. Readers who did not read Rogue and Gambit (vol. 2) #5 might not know that Destiny and Rogue put Manifold in a little silver casket in a pond at the old Xavier Institute for safe keeping so Black Panther wouldn’t find him. I suspect a lot of readers might have skipped that mini and will be similarly confused when Rogue and Gambit return to said pond to wake Manifold up. 

Manifold then has a vision suggesting that Rogue was Destiny oh wait just kidding LOL Destiny is Manifold’s “older sibling” Lactuca (!) who reassures Manifold that these well-meaning white folks had the best intentions in knocking his ass out and locking him in a water coffin for safekeeping. How exactly Manifold will be key to saving mutantkind isn’t clear; I just hope the X-Office knows the answer. Manifold teleports Rogue, Gambit, and himself away, evading a suddenly-there Orchis Sentinel who gets the empty satisfaction of punching the ground. 

I don’t know if that was helpful or just made things more confusing. . . 

Anna: Well it definitely made me feel less guilty about being confused! Unfortunately, my favorite part of Fall of the House of X #2 was also the first part of the issue, meaning things went downhill from here…

A Bloody Bad Time

Anna: So… a lot of X-Men kill a lot of people in this comic, including some X-Men you wouldn’t expect to see killing any people, let alone A LOT of people. 

In life and in stories, I’m not against using violence to defend against violence, especially genocidal violence. Pacifism can be a privilege; sometimes, you need to fight back.

However, I’ve been finding myself increasingly uncomfortable with the ways lethal violence has been deployed in the Fall of X books. For some characters, this new lethality makes sense. While I don’t personally love what’s been going on with Kate Pryde, I can (mostly) buy her character arc, and the idea of her being pushed past her breaking point into a darker version of herself. There’s history and context to back up this change.

But since when does Kurt Wagner kill people? And he’s not just killing people here — he teleports a dude into the vacuum of space with what I can only describe as devilish zeal. The world knows Kurt’s my guy and as such, I’m hardwired to be hyper-vigilant about his characterization. But anyone who’s read a Nightcrawler comic should be shocked by this scene and the very casual way it’s introduced — like an afterthought within the larger breakneck battle.

Maybe Kurt’s similarly been pushed past his breaking point. But if so, it happened off panel (same place he re-grew his beard and went back to his classic costume). This definitely isn’t where we left him in Uncanny Spider-Man, a series that concluded with Kurt drinking wine on a rooftop with his funtime friend Silver Sable, warm in the glow of motherly love (or at least revelation), waxing whimsical about there being more good in the world than bad. I can’t help but feel that this, the first time in 49 years that Kurt Wagner has intentionally killed a bad guy on panel, deserves a little more pathos. 

Adam: This is a problem that’s carried over from the past issue. Story-wise, Duggan wants an X-Force-style hit squad to infiltrate the Bloom and help kill as many Orchis goons as possible. But he doesn’t want to use actual X-Force, whose pre-FoHoX story is still being told in the pages of X-Force and Wolverine (again, why are these series all being published at the same time?!?), he wants to use the Classic Trio of Wolverine, Colossus, and Nightcrawler.

Therein lies the problem: Two out of these three characters are not casual killers. Colossus is less of a stretch since he did just murder his brother, Mikhail, but Piotr is no longer under the control of the Chronicler, and the original recipe character we know is an angry brawler, but not necessarily a killer. 

Nightcrawler is another can of worms entirely. Kurt Wagner does not kill people. It’s not his thing. For him to be pushed this far on the moral spectrum, we would need to see some kind of motivation to force him to take the leap. And I would argue this series has not made the emotional stakes of the current conflict clear at all. We know Orchis has announced their plan for mutant genocide, a more than good enough reason to fight back with every mutant available, but our characters don’t look like they’re responding in rage or desperation, instead — like you said — they appear to be filled with glee. 

Anna: Again, in this story, the X-Men are responding to an institutionally-sanctioned genocide; this can forgive a lot of killing, which becomes de facto self-defense. It’s kill or be killed and all that.

But one of the core things I’ve always loved about superhero comics is the dream — impossible though it may be — of finding other ways to win. Some superheroes have knives or guns for hands or pockets full of bombs, others can deploy forcefields or teleport. I’ve never wished the world had more knives or guns or bombs. But I’ve often wished it had more forcefields and ways to BAMF people out of danger. Reading this story, where the power of escapism is almost invariably used to kill instead of save, made me sad and then apathetic — if all superheroes now kill, and all superpowers are now used for killing, I might as well watch any other generic action movie (or the news). 

Adam: I think our issue with this has less to do with the act of our heroes offing genocidal fascists (by all means, go for it!) than the fact that there is no gravitas to any of it. It’s flippant. We’re moving so fast through this story there’s no moment of reflection, no “at what cost” thought bubble, it’s all just action movie slaughter. I suspect this is supposed to excite us in the same way we might experience joy watching John Wick take out leagues of anonymous baddies, but these are still characters who we know and love, and deserve some interiority. If it’s going to just be blind rage, I need to know how they made that leap and why. 

Anna: Related to that, can we talk about the jokes for a sec?

We’re all familiar with the concept of gallows humor, but here, amid all this murder, the quips and other attempts at comedy feel very flat to me. The levity isn’t earned or expository unless it’s meant to make my friends the X-Men feel even more soulless than they already do. Case in point: Logan cackles in the same font as MODOK, who cackles a LOT (which isn’t terribly unusual, but this dude designed only for killing really has the 80s cartoon villain vibes cranked up to 11 today). Overall, the tone is just weird, like — we’re supposed to take the genocide very seriously, because it’s the seriousness of the threat that supposedly explains why a famously compassionate character like Nightcrawler is suddenly willing to kill to survive.

At the same time, doing cool kills is a fun buddy bonding experience, but without the sharp nihilism of a good X-Force comic or the self-reflexivity of a good Deadpool comic. Tonally, as well as narratively and spatially — this comic is trying to do too many things, go too many places, leaving us no-place. (I suddenly feel tremendous empathy for Manifold.)

Adam: Gerry’s strength is in writing quippy, fun stories. Go back to his run on Deadpool or Uncanny Avengers vol 3, heck even Dark Web: X-Men and you’ll find great examples of solid jokes and silliness mixed into the action. To lean on that skill here, in the midst of what should be something dark and serious, confuses the stakes and the tone and adds to our general uncertainty about how seriously we should take any of it. 

What’s the Rush? 

Anna: In the ComicsXF Slack, there’s been one adjective to rule them all when it comes to talking through the Fall of X books, and that adjective is: rushed. From the plotlines to the publishing schedule to the art — this Fall feels frenetic, but not in a fun way. While reading this comic, instead of frantically flipping pages to marvel at the next fabulous spectacle, I more often found myself flipping backwards to see if I missed something only to realize no, the transition from one emotional beat or location in space-time to another radically different one was exactly as abrupt and jarring as it initially seemed. But let’s do something this book doesn’t, which is slow things down enough to show as well as tell. What do you mean, Adam, when you describe this book as “rushed”?

Adam: There are a few things of note here, so let’s start with the artwork. Lucas Werneck is a very talented artist whose work I like very much, but for any artist, doing interiors is not the same as doing polished covers. Often, artists have to work faster and take certain shortcuts to generate a complete 22+ pages in several weeks. Based on what we’re seeing here, Werneck is not being given the time he needs to properly complete his work.

The first sign he was in a hurry drawing this is that the Celestial skull behind Lorna on page 2 is clearly traced from Pepe’s cover. Elsewhere, we’re seeing a lack of backgrounds and even costume details that leave that work to colorist Bryan Valenza. Wolverine slashes through empty space in front of blood splatter wallpaper and I have no idea who he’s cutting beyond context clues. 

Anna: For me, the dealbreaker was that Synch panel. We have Emma fighting Stark Sentinels with snow and ice flying around her, and because Emma’s panels overlap a panel in which Rogue and Gambit are soaring through the sky in front of an empty, nebulous blue-gray backdrop that’s almost the same color and texture as Emma’s panels, I actually thought, for a moment, that all three characters might suddenly be in the arctic? But then we have that single Synch panel, which is just a torso-high shot of him flexing his arms surrounded by wavy energy lines on a blank background, with the dialogue doing the work of explaining that actually, Emma is still in New York, Rogue and Gambit are elsewhere, and Synch has borrowed Iceman’s powers. There are definitely better ways this could have been visualized. But the script isn’t doing the artist any favors. 

Adam: Some of this is deadline driven, for sure. But as you said, the script is also proceeding at a breakneck speed and not allowing for scenes to breathe. For me, nowhere is this worse than the transition between Lorna magnetically lifting Wolverine, Colossus and Nightcrawler from the wreckage of the Bloom to the Paris execution of Cyclops. Cyclops’ trial already happened largely off-panel, relying on a data-page-style letter from Scott to the world. We have been told that his execution is a global event for Orchis, one that will be a signal to the world that mutants have lost utterly and completely.

And yet, the script calls for Werneck to jam it into the lower two thirds of the next-to-last page of the book. We see the Eiffel Tower but have no idea of the crowds, the media coverage, the sheer spectacle of this supposedly massive occasion. There is no time to anticipate Kate’s foreshadowed rescue, meaning my reaction to Dr. Gregor’s double-cross of Omega Sentinel is one of sheer confusion. What is the context of this scene? Did Omega Sentinel just take Scott out back by herself to kill him? Wouldn’t there be a literal army of Orchis soldiers guarding this execution? And yet, Dr. Gregor seems able to EMP Omega Sentinel and walk away with Scott unimpeded. 

Anna: I was very baffled by that execution scene. Because we don’t see any crowds or cameras, I assumed Omega Sentinel was doing this on her own, unsanctioned? But the dialogue suggests otherwise. I get that the world hates mutants, but this scene seems to posit that international criminal courts are now a-okay with robots wielding big swords slicing people in half in the middle of the street with the entire world cheering them on? More context would be nice to understand why France, a country which does not have the death penalty, is suddenly embracing another Revolution that’s about killing American superheroes instead of kings. 

I also have Feelings about Dr. Gregor’s heel turn (or I guess her face turn?). We all know the trope, the enemy of my enemy, etc. But her sudden appearance here, and the expectation I should be happy to see her because hey, she just saved Cyclops, made me a little queasy. I think it speaks, once again, to those tonal problems. Sometimes, this comic is trying to tell a serious story about prejudice and ethnic cleansing. Other times, it wants to be that quippy action spectacle.

If you’re reading this as the latter, Dr. Gregor’s turn will hit differently than if you’re reading it as the former. Because I can’t help reading this comic a little more seriously — the suggestion that mutant survival is still, at the end of the day, apparently dependent on making compromises with genocidal fascists is… well, it’s a lot to throw into the final page of this already over-stuffed comic.

Adam: I do have sympathy here for both Werneck and Duggan, as they’re being put in an impossible position. The original Hickman roadmap of the Krakoan era called for six years of story. Instead, Marvel has tasked the X-Office with cramming the conclusion of these books into five years to clear the decks for Tom Brevoort’s summer relaunch. As such, we’re seeing confusing overlaps of books like I’ve already mentioned. Add to that the fact that unlike Hickman’s House of X and Powers of X, Duggan and Gillen have each been given five instead of six issues to conclude the tale. That’s one less full issue each for the story to breathe. 

What made HoXPoX so special was that Hickman, Larraz, Silva, and Gracia were given ample time to make a beautiful book on Hickman’s terms that was published weekly as the kickstart to a thrilling new era of X-books. Compare that to now, where Duggan is breathlessly writing FoHoX at the same time as X-Men and Invincible Iron Man (seriously, we’re still doing Iron Man as part of this? WHY?!) and the art teams are on the same monthly schedule as any other book. Need further proof? Take a look at how many times the truly exceptional RB Silva relied on silhouettes in RoPoX #1. 

Marvel is cramming as many books into the release schedule as they can and forcing it onto shelves as fast as they can without any concern about quality or storytelling (this is not unique to the X-line, this is a monthly problem for the publisher). It’s a race to new #1s, and frankly it’s pissing me off. The rush to the reset button is a disservice to the readers and fans who deserve a better conclusion to the last five years of storytelling. 

Anna: Our colleague Jude Jones described this comic like reading a synopsis instead of a story, and that’s definitely how I feel. Of course, this problem is hardly specific to this event; lots of superhero comics events similarly struggle to achieve some semblance of cohesion amid the obligations of delivering bang for your buck. But this gets us back to fundamental disappointments with this event as a capstone for this era.

While I’ve sometimes been critical of the Krakoa era’s messy worldbuilding (I will never, ever forgive some of the storytelling decisions around reproductive rights), my heart’s always harbored a soft spot for Krakoa’s spark of promise. This era, which, at its best, did offer something genuinely different, deserves a less generic conclusion. FoXHoX isn’t raging against the dying of the light. It’s just raging, a rebel without a cause that doesn’t have enough style or swagger to make its emptiness seem cool.

X-Traneous Thoughts

• That Celestial skull is none other than Knowhere, which Forge and Monet rescued from a Black Hole and gave to Broo and his kin as a home instead of letting a genocidal Scott Summers eradicate the species in X-Men vol. 6 #21.
• If you don’t remember the Blightswill Orchis is dipping their bullets in, it’s the same stuff from Otherworld that Moira used to stab Jean with at the Hellfire Gala, obtained by Coven Akkaba’s Reuben Brousseau. 
• In another comic, MODOK’s resignation letter might get a chuckle out of me. As the final page of this comic, it left me cold and sad. The blood-soaked preceding issue was a decidedly terrible warmup for this kind of flippant comedy.
• While I enjoy Lorna’s new costume, it’s worth noting that she wears a different costume on the cover than within the issue. More evidence of deadline crunch?
• Who is going to help save Juggernaut and Krakoa now that Rogue and Gambit went on their Manifold sidequest? 
• Sentinel City was introduced way back in X-Men vol 5 #6, perhaps on the surface of Mercury. It was mining heavy metals and creating an “Orchis Bunker.” Dr. Gregor’s suggestion that we’re finally going to find out what’s there is exciting. 
• Still waiting on “Forge’s fleet coming from deep space” mentioned by Shadowkat last ish.
• Oh, Nimrod’s on the loose again after freeing himself from Krakoa’s sap spit. I’m sure that’s not good. 

Anna Peppard

Anna is a PhD-haver who writes and talks a lot about representations of gender and sexuality in pop culture, for academic books and journals and places like Shelfdust, The Middle Spaces, and The Walrus. She’s the editor of the award-winning anthology Supersex: Sexuality, Fantasy, and the Superhero and co-hosts the podcasts Three Panel Contrast and Oh Gosh, Oh Golly, Oh Wow!

Adam Reck

Adam Reck is the cartoonist behind Bish & Jubez as well as the co-host of Battle Of The Atom.