This week in the Fall of the House of X, war draws ever nearer, while others on the fringes fight their own battles.

PRELUDE TO THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X

This week: Wolverine #45, Dead X-Men #3, and Fall of the House of X #3.

RECAP OF THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X

Sabretooth and the head of Kid Omega arrive on Krakoa, which is under intense scrutiny from Stark Sentinels. Omega leads the way to the “treasure” Sabretooth thinks is on the island while the remaining Sabretooths try to find a variant of his son, Greydon Creed, and the Exiles chart their own way to Krakoa for revenge. Upon arrival, Sabretooth is attacked by security measures placed by Forge, but he pushes forward enough into the secret underground base. Meanwhile, Wolverine’s aircraft is attacked by the Stark Sentinels, and he crashes down to Krakoa… where he’s then mind-controlled by Kid Omega, who helps him masquerade as the shape-shifting Sabretooth variant.

Some time after, the “dead” X-Men are flung into the “Moirapocalypse” timeline, wherein she rules with Apocalypse. Aksani —currently helping fight off an attack on their base— manages to pull them back to the White Hot Room, where they disagree about their methods and planned goals. The X-Men clarify that the cyborg Moira is also hopping between timelines, which Aksani expresses great concern about. Cannonball theorizes that they’re being pulled towards the end points of these Moira timelines; Prodigy concludes they need to travel back to Moira’s first timeline because it’s the least eventful one and that must also be where the cyborg Moira is attempting to go. They don’t actually end up in the first timeline when Aksani sends them off again, though —the fifth one instead— and there they find a team of remaining X-Men who meet them with hostility. Also there? The cyborg Moira.

Elsewhere, Juggernaut attempts to protect and relocate Krakoa (the sentient tree) amid an intense Orchis assault, while Cyclops (and Dr. Alia Gregor) are found by Magik, who helps them escape. On Arakko, Apocalypse heralds the planet’s mutants to S.W.O.R.D. Station II, where Rogue, Gambit, and Manifold greet them to prepare their attack. Meanwhile, Iron Man presents Emma Frost and Shadowcat with a recent hologram message from Firestar, who claims her cover has been blown and that she placed a tracker on Doctor Stasis for them to find him with. They locate Stasis and fight; Stasis doesn’t notice when Shadowcat removes his psi-blocker, thus allowing Emma to read his brain and find Firestar’s location. Emma kills Stasis, and sends Firestar’s coordinates to Synch, who is able to rescue her. On the moon, Cyclops, Gregor, and Magik find “Sentinel City” — a secret mining base where Nimrod is recharging after his most recent battles. Unfortunately for Gregor, Nimrod takes advantage of her love for him and kills her instantly. He then reveals Sentinel City is not the base they’re on, but rather, a spacecraft created to sterile and eradicate mutantkind on Earth… one that’s just been activated.

ANALYSIS OF THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X

Another week of setting things in motion as we head into the next act of this event, but quite a few developments nonetheless. “Sabretooth War” in Wolverine mostly remains off to the side since it technically happens closer to the Hellfire Gala; Dead X-Men and Fall of the House of X provide most of the forward movement.

In the former, the “dead” X-Men prepare for their rematch against the cyborg Moira, and it’s not looking great for them. Let’s hope Xavier’s talks with (our) Moira are more fruitful…! And as we see in the latter, the mutants are preparing their attack on Orchis, and it’s all hands on deck for the mutants. With Apocalypse and Arakko now entering the fight, there’s not much time left till s-word goes down.

NEXT IN THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X

Invincible Iron Man #16, Resurrection of Magneto #3, and the launch of X-Men: Forever #1.

Fall of the House of X: Week Eleven

6.7

Wolverine #45

6.0/10

Dead X-Men #3

7.0/10

Fall of the House of X #3

7.0/10

Credits

Writers: Victor LaValle & Benjamin Percy (Wolverine), Steve Foxe (Dead X-Men), Gerry Duggan (Fall of the House of X)
Artists: Geoff Shaw (W), Lynne Yoshii, Bernard Chang, Javier Pina & David Baldeón (DXM), Lucas Werneck & Jethro Morales (FotHoX)
Color Artists: Alex Sinclair (), Frank Martin (DXM), Bryan Valenza (FotHoX)
Letterers: VC's Cory Petit (W & DXM), VC's Travis Lanham (FotHoX)
Cover Artists: Leinil Francis Yu & Romulo Fajardo Jr. (W), Lucas Werneck (DXM), Pepe Larraz & Marte Gracia (FotHoX)