This week in the Fall of the House of X, the mutants finally (finally!) prepare their final stand against Orchis, and Sinister remains inevitable.

PRELUDE TO THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X

Wolverine #48, The Avengers #13, Rise of the Powers of X #10, and X-Men: Forever #2.

RECAP OF THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X

Shortly after the fall, the Sabretooth war continues, with Wolverine depowered and Sabretooth Prime neutralized, but the latter has only allowed his son —Bad Seed— to usurp control of the gang. They push Laura out of their aircraft, but not before she disabled their cloaking gear, allowing the Stark Sentinels to pursue them. While the Sabretooths fight the Sentinels, Wolverine leads the Exiles to a secret bunker containing a last-resort security measure: the Muramasa blade, and a full-body adamantium suit of armor for him.

Not long after, the Avengers continue to assault Orchis as they attack the Impossible City, and the fight is not going in their favor… until Black Panther reveals 3-D Man was secretly hypno-programmed to feed the Avengers intel as a deep cover agent, using his bitterness towards the Avengers as cover. He awakens 3-D Man from his programming; the Avengers are able to destroy the Orchis base and escape.

After killing Rachel Summers, Xavier agrees to free Mother Righteous, kills Rasputin-IV, and then double crosses Mother Righteous by sending her into Orchis custody.. While Xavier begins to negotiate terms with Omega Sentinel, the remaining Quiet Council resurrect Rachel, and reveal they knew he would do this as part of their ultimate plan: force the Phoenix to return and use it to defeat Enigma. As Xavier sabotages humanity and sells them out to save mutantkind, Enigma tells Moira it refused to meet with Xavier directly because it does not trust him, but he makes it consider his blindspots. As the X-Men prepare for their final fight, the Council reveals they also resurrected Mister Sinister, Mother Righteous divulges the X-Men’s plan to Enigma, and the Phoenix is reborn.

Concurrently, some events are expounded upon. The Quiet Council are shown to learn about Xavier’s plan by him sending a psychic message to them through Mother Righteous double, who quickly dissolves into nothing after informing them of the plot. Mister Sinister is resurrected —the last one to do so— so he can serve as a number in their army. Rachel is informed about the plot and disapproves, but concedes it’s their own play. With the X-Men deployed, Hope sparks the fire that rebirths Phoenix.

ANALYSIS OF THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X

After some weeks that felt like the wheels were spinning, some forward movement finally happens in this quarter of issues — mainly in the two X-Men titles. Xavier’s questionable decision to kill Rachel is contextualized and explained —I’d sure hope it’d be— and it results in the grand return of the Phoenix as Jean’s counterpart. (What happened to Echo being the new Phoenix host? Literally don’t know.) In any event, we’re finally in Act Three of this story.

As for the other two tie-ins, they’re mostly unimportant to the overarching plot — Wolverine still plods along with the Sabretooth War storyline, while Avengers wraps up its part in the event only to immediately set up the next one (this summer’s Blood Hunt.) The 3-D Man stuff was interesting, though!

NEXT IN THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X

Invincible Iron Man #18, the penultimate X-Men #34, and the finale of Cable #4.

Fall of the House of X: Week 17

6.4

Wolverine #48

6.0/10

The Avengers #13

6.0/10

Rise of the Powers of X #4

7.0/10

X-Men: Forever #2

6.5/10

Credits

Writers: Benjamin Percy & Victor LaValle (Wolverine), Jed MacKay (Avengers), Kieron Gillen (RotPoX & XMF)
Artists: Cory Smith & Oren Junior (W), Francesco Mortarino (A), R. B. Silva (RotPoX), Luca Maresca (XMF)
Color Artist: Alex Sinclair (W), Federico Blee (A, XMF), David Curiel (RotPoX)
Letterer: VC's Cory Petit (W, A), VC's Clayton Cowles (RotPoX, XMF)
Cover Artists: Leinil Francis Yu & Romulo Fajardo Jr. (W), Joshua Cassara & Marte Gracia (A), R.B. Silva & David Curiel (RotPoX), Mark Brooks (XMF)