[REVIEW] FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X: WEEK NINE

With sentinels, cybernetics, and (as always) Wolverine, it’s another jam-packed week in the Fall of the House of X.

PRELUDE TO THE FALL OF X

Chunky week with new issues of Invincible Iron Man #15, Dead X-Men #2, Resurrection of Magneto #2, Cable #2, and Wolverine #44.

RECAP OF THE FALL OF X

Slightly before the start of the war on Orchis, Tony Stark presents his wife, Emma Frost, with a parting gift before she sets off to join the fight. Soon thereafter,  he’s faced by the Orchis agent reanimated from one of Wolverine’s dead bodies, and they fight. After a few assists from Kingpin and Emma, he defeats the agent, but they are then confronted by a Stark Sentinel. Emma helps him destroy the machine with her gift –a set of brass knuckle repulsors— and they finally go their separate ways for the mission at hand. After successfully luring Feilong (with his new War Machine Sentinel) to the Australian outback with the help of Ironheart and Forge’s fleet of ships, Stark arrives on the scene to reveal that those weren’t actually flight vessels — they were the components of a Sentinel Buster.

Some time later, the “Dead” X-Men return to the White Hot Room after securing enough of Moira’s biological brain matter to continue Xavier’s mission, but Prodigy thinks there could still be more to do — specifically, the idea that he could find someone from a timeline where the Dominion AI was stopped, thusly allowing them to stop it themselves in this one. After some coaxing, Aksani agrees to send them into one of Moira’s past lives despite knowing the risk involved: that they may not be able to be resurrected if they die in them. The team is flung into what Prodigy learns is Moira’s seventh life —wherein she tried to wipe out the Trask bloodline in the hopes of preventing the creation of Sentinels— and they find a dying Emma Frost, who telepathically shows them what happened to her. It turns out they accidentally gave the cybernetic Moira they previously encountered the means to escape her timeline, and she laid waste to a hearing regarding Dr. Hank Pym’s Ultron bots who’ve gained the ability to detect mutants. Emma dies, and the team decides that the risk of letting the cybernetic Moira float around the timelines is too severe, and they must eliminate her. 

Back in the afterlife, Storm finds Magneto, wallowing in misery and regret over his life choices in a fiery mausoleum inlaid with the names of all the people whose deaths he was responsible for. She tries to convince him to return to living with her, but he refuses and fights her off. She shows him what has happened since his death and this makes him more violent, but it’s not until she shows him all the names of people he saved —which vastly outnumber the deaths— that he starts to soften. Finally he agrees to return with her, but the Key of Resurrection he won possession of doesn’t lead them out of the afterlife, but rather, into the realm of the Shadow King.

After discovering Grey Gargoyle was responsible for the developments at Parvenue Industries, Nate is turned to stone, but Cable is able to resist the transformation because of his powers and the Techno-Organic virus. Cable defeats Grey Gargoyle and gains a new lead from his AI, Bella, that Parvenu took control of all assets previously owned by Jonathan Chambers, AKA Empyrean — the mutant whose parasitic powers eased the pain of those afflicted with the Legacy Virus but became redundant when Beast found a cure for the disease. The Cables locate him at an abandoned facility, where he is weak and hooked up to various power sources of energy-based superhuman DNA. While investigating, Cable’s T-O virus goes berserk and he’s taken away to parts unknown. It’s then that Amanda Müeller —Black Womb— reveals herself to the young Nate as the mastermind of the plot, and that she’s created clones of several powerful mutants (Apocalypse, Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Magneto) to do her bidding.

Elsewhere, X-Force picks up the pieces (and to some degree, literally), of the Sabretooths’ massacre on the Greenhouse. They’re able to detain one of them, “Captain” Sabretooth, before he can get away far enough, but he refuses to talk. A distraught Phoebe Cuckoo (who was dating Kid Omega before he “died”) offers to telepathically probe him, but she’s then psychically attacked by a projection of Sabretooth, forcing Domino to kill the Captain to release her. While in a daze, however, Phoebe sees Kid Omega astrally reaching out to her, begging to send help on Krakoa. Wolverine takes the hint and immediately leaves for Krakoa, despite the threat of Stark Sentinels there.

ANALYSIS OF THE FALL OF X

Another pace-setting week in this storyline, mostly following side plots that will lead back into the central narrative but not without some major implications. The big one here —literally and figuratively— is the revelation of the Sentinel Buster, which will undoubtedly be a boon for the mutants. It’s a classic homage/callback to earlier material, obviously riffing on the now-iconic Hulbuster armor seen in various Marvel media, and it’s a killer payoff to the Iron Man arc throughout this event. (Also, the cover of the issue is hilariously misleading after reading it.) It’s hard to say what will carry through to whatever Marvel has prepared for the X-Men after this era is complete, but I wouldn’t mind seeing his relationship with Emma continue since they’re arguably the perfect match for one another and they’ve got a fun dynamic.

Another big movement is the potential idea of the mutants defeating Dominion before (or after?) they kill Moira, because that would be a huge pivot from the currently stated plan and give them a different win condition they hadn’t yet considered. 

NEXT IN THE FALL OF X

X-Men #32 and the launch of Ms. Marvel: Mutant Menace #1.

Fall of the House of X: Week Nine

0.00

6.9

Invincible Iron Man #15

7.6/10

Dead X-Men #2

7.0/10

Resurrection of Magneto #2

7.0/10

Cable #2

6.5/10

Wolverine #33

6.5/10

Credits

• Writers: Gerry Duggan (Invincible Iron Man), Steve Foxe (Dead X-Men), Al Ewing (Resurrection of Magneto), Fabian Nicieza (Cable), Benjamin Percy & Victor LaValle (Wolverine)
• Artists: Crees Lee & Walden Wong (IIM), Peter Nguyen, Bernard Chang & Guillermo Sanna (DXM), Luciano Vecchio (RoM), Scot Eton & Lan Medina, Cam Smith w/ Victor Nava (C), Cory Smith & Oren Junior (W)
• Color Artists: Bryan Valenza (IIM), Frank Martin (DXM), David Curiel & Jesus Aburtov (RoM), Java Tartaglia (C), Alex Sinclair (W)
• Letterer: VC's Joe Caramanga (IIM), VC's Cory Petit (DXM, W), VC's Joe Sabino (RoM, C)
• Cover Artists: Kael Ngu (IIM), Lucas Werneck (DXM), Stefando Caselli & Jesus Aburtov (RoM), Whilce Portacio & Alex Sinclair (C), Leinil Francis Yu & Romulo Fajardo Jr. (W)

Credits (cont)

• Editors: Darren Shann (IIM), Jordan D. White (DXM, RoM), Lauren Amaro (C), Mark Basso (W)
• Publisher: Marvel Entertainment