This week in the Fall of the House of X: an X-Man resurrects, an Avenger falls, and Sinister’s girlboss clone hits a wall.

PRELUDE TO THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X

Just two chonky issues: Resurrection of Magneto #3, and X-Men: Forever #1.

RECAP OF THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X

In 1899, Destiny first encounters Engima —the Dominion of the original Nathaniel Essex— and sees glimpses of the future and it nearly renders her completely blind. Twenty years later, she meets with Mister Sinister and reveals his ultimate goal of becoming a super-powerful AI. Enigma incapacitates Sinister, warns Destiny that he is invincible, and implies that Mystique will eventually choose to leave her.

Decades later, after the disastrous Hellfire Gala, Mother Righteous realizes that she has accidentally helped Engima complete his plot by being the last of Essex’s clones to attempt Dominonhood. Elsewhere, a duplicate of herself is stuck in the White Hot Room with Jean Grey’s body and the remaining Quiet Council members (Hope Summers, Destiny, Elixir), who offers to help them with magic and to communicate with their allies in the living world — and to help Destiny find Mystique. Mother Righteous Prime watches this happen through a portal, when she’s then confronted by her fellow Essex clones. She fends them off but then runs into Selene, whose magic greatly overpowers her own. She escapes yet again, but this time she’s captured by Xavier, whio recruits her to the X-Men in captivity. After transferring the remaining traces of Sinister within his brain into Cypher’s cloned body, Xavier learns all of the mutants he presumed dead are in fact alive. The two Mothers Righteous help Xavier commune with the Quiet Council; Destiny realizes Mystique read the book of secrets that would cause her to distance herself from them. Weeks later, the No-Place X is complete, and Xavier begins his plan to stop Enigma and kill Moira.

In the realm of the Shadow King, Storm and Magneto confront the Shadow King in various guises meant to taunt them, notably the face of Annihilation, Charle Xavier, and Magneto himself. As the face of Annihilation, Shadow King suggests to Storm that he and various other destructive forces (including himself, Annihilation, the First Fallen, and the Phoenix Force) are all distinct entities yet aligned in the goal of endless war. Meanwhile, Shadow King taunts Magneto for defending Xavier’s mission and wanting to redeem himself after years of inflicting suffering on others. After overpowering Shadow King by conquering their inner rage and fear of abandonment, respectively, Storm and Magneto defeat him —for now— but at the cost of their combined powers nearly killing her. She awakes back at Defenders HQ alive and conscious, but she’s not alone; a reborn Magneto emerges through a portal.

A little later, Iron Man fights Feilong in the Sentinel Buster, but the tide quickly turns against him and his armor is critically damaged, giving Feilong an opportunity to enter the Sentinel Buster.

ANALYSIS OF THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X

Just three issues this week, but two of them are both written by Al Ewing and Kieron Gillen, which means they’re hella dense and require lots of focus to get through. (As for Invincible Iron Man, there isn’t much to say about it, since it’s mostly just a giant fight scene.)

In Resurrection of Magneto, the titular resurrection finally occurs, but not before he and Storm have truly earned it in a battle against the Shadow King. The conflict is mainly ideological and psychological with only some actual fisticuffs, but it gets into some really heavy stuff, particularly regarding Storm and Magneto’s respective flaws and fears. For fans of both characters, it’s incredibly powerful.

X-Men: Forever, on the other hand, turns back the clock and fills in some gaps that previously went unaddressed. Anybody who hates Mister Sinister —which is apparently a lot of people?— will not enjoy this issue, but I really appreciated seeing how some pieces came into place between Immortal X-Men and the main storyline currently unfolding. I’m very interested to see what gets covered in this limited series, which seems to be something of an anthology specifically about filling the aforementioned gaps that have recently gone unexplained.

NEXT IN THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X

Cable #3, Wolverine #46, the finale of X-Force #50, and Rise of the Powers of X #3.

0.00

6.5

X-Men: Forever #1

6.5/10

Resurrection of Magneto #3

7.5/10

Invincible Iron Man #16

5.5/10

Credits

Writers: Al Ewing (RoM), Kieron Gillen (XMF), Gerry Duggan (IIM)
Artists: Luciano Vecchio (RoM), Luca Maresca (XMF), Crees Lee & Walden Wong (IIM)
Color Artists: David Curiel & Jesus Aburtov (RoM), Federico Blee (XMF), Bryan Valenza (IIM)
Letterers: VC's Joe Sabino (RoM), VC's Clayton Cowles (XMF), VC's Joe Caramanga (IIM)
Cover Artists: Stefano Caselli & Jesus Aburtov (RoM), Mark Brooks (XMF), Kael Ngu (IIM)