It’s the end of an era as the Krakoan Age of X-Men reaches its epic conclusion. Mutantkind has never had a greater fall. From the highs of Krakoa — their own glorious nation, a place where they were safe and happy — to the lowest of lows. Outlawed, hunted, most of their kind missing or dead, and now one their greatest leaders, Cyclops, is on trial facing the death penalty. Ready or not, the time has come to make their final stand against the forces that have struck them low — in two different eras! In the present, Polaris returns to guide the X-Men home, bringing a wicked surprise for Orchis! A decade from now, Nimrod and Omega Sentinel are on the verge of summoning their binary god to consume everything in their accession. All that stands against them is the X-Men.
Since 2019, the Krakoan era of the X-Men comics has taken the series in a bold new direction which reestablished the group as top of the food chain in the Marvel Universe. Jonathan Hickman’s House of X/Powers of X saw the abandonment of the X-Men’s long dream of mutants coexisting with humans as Professor X and his fellow children of the atom established a sovereign nation for mutants on the mutant island Krakoa. These past five years has seen the X-Men on a streak of dominance that they had never previously experienced. But that has all come crashing down as the actions of Orchis has left Krakoa disbanded and public opinion of mutants at an all-time low.
Fall of The House of X/Rise of The Powers of X sees longtime X-Men writers Gerry Duggan and Kieron Gillen bring this saga to a close along with original Powers of X artist R.B. Silva and Immortal X-Men artist Lucas Werneck. Duggan and Werneck focus on the present for Cyclops’ trial and the X-Men’s showdown with Orchis, whilst Gillen and Silva look at a future where Orchis has nearly wiped out the X-Men with a small collective still fighting against Nimrod and Omega Sentinel whilst in the present, Professor X contemplates taking further drastic action to fix the present.
Both Duggan and Gillen are well-versed at this point with X-Men lor with both using this opportunity to tell two different styles of story. Duggan (who is best known for his more humourous work – particularly Deadpool) conveys a very bleak scenario which does a great job of highlighting the hopelessness of the X-Men’s current situation. He has a particularly good handle on Cyclops which is no easy feat given the different directions Scott’s character has taken over the years from by-the-books field leader to borderline dictator. Gillen meanwhile uses his future scenario to tell a thoroughly entertaining sci-fi story that not only presents a fun take on what the future holds for the likes of Kamala Khan and the surviving X-Men, but also to show how far Professor X has gone off the rails and the lengths he is willing to go to in order to stop Moira McTaggert and Orchis.
The art remains strong with both Silva and Werneck maintaining their high level of work from their previous X-Men titles. Both are given a lot to sink their teeth into with Silva leaning heavily into the sci-fi aspects of the series whilst Werneck gets to showcase some terrific action in the X-Men’s final showdown with Orchis.
This is a worthy conclusion to the Krakoan era of X-Men and a great springboard into what is coming next for both them and the Marvel Universe as a whole. A must read for all X-Men fans!
Fall of The House of X/Rise of The Powers of X is out 27 August from Marvel (9781302956585, p/b, £44.99)
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