The Fall of the House of X continues in two titles: Wolverine #41 and Rise of the Powers of X #1.

PRELUDE OF THE FALL OF X

This week: Wolverine #41 and Rise of the Powers of X #1.

RECAP OF THE FALL OF X

Shortly after the Hellfire Gala, Sabretooth (recently escaped from The Pit) and a team of his own multiversal variants seek revenge on their mutant brethren, but are surprised to return to a deserted Krakoa. Stark Sentinels survey the island but don’t notice the Sabretooths; they’re using stolen Orchis tech and are effectively invisible. They make quick work of eliminating Omega Boy and Black Tom, who are running security on Krakoa with Sage, Logan, Laura, and Daken. Logan senses something is amiss and goes to investigate, finding the message “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” (spelled out in Daken’s savaged remains) as the Sabretooths approach in the distance.

Elsewhere, ten years into a dystopian timeline: Emma Frost, Mystique, and Gambit sacrifice themselves to Nimrod and Omega Sentinel, who are on a mission to “become” their God. Meanwhile, the final X-Men, consisting of The Professor (Synch), an AI imprint of Tony Stark operating as Iron Man, Captain Krakoa (Kamala Khan), Shadowtiger (an undead Kate Pryde), and Logan (no frills, just original recipe Logan) pursue them.

Nimrod and Omega Sentinel meet Moira X and Doctor Stasis Stasis (a Sinister clone) at the Orchis Forge, where the former reveals he’s developed a “Worldmind” that will attract the attention of an entity (“Dominion”) that will proliferate their knowledge across the universe and help them finally defeat all mutants. Moira is glad to finally be on a winning team, but they’re quickly interrupted by a breach from the aforementioned X-Men. Nimrod hastily activates the Worldmind and Doctor Stasis fetches Cadena (a Child of the Vault) while Iron Man is quickly taken out. Doctor Stasis (living up to his duplicitous nature) prepares to kill the Worldmind, stating his goal to further the development of post-humanity rather than follow Nimrod’s whims.

Meanwhile, the X-Men neutralize Nimrod (at the cost of the Professor’s life) and Wolverine locates the original Sinister, weakened and imprisoned — but kills him almost immediately rather than save him. Doctor Stasis succeeds in killing the Worldmind, but is confused to see that his plan did not come to complete fruition… only to then realize he’s been impaled by Rasputin IV. It’s then that the X-Men’s plan is revealed: original Sinister has instead become the Dominion (now calling himself Enigma) and exists to ensure that none of his clones will ever bend the universe to his will. With this, the timeline terminates. [A complicated timeline graph explaining the state of things follows.]

Back at No-Place X, which exists out of time and space, Rasputin IV returns to Xavier and Cypher. They knew they could not prevent the “inevitable” Enigma from being born, but they have succeeded in stopping Doctor Stasis from succeeding in his plan nine times prior. An infographic explains that the three mutants are working alongside two other (REDACTED) names. Although Xavier will not full divulge his plans with Rasputin, he does let her in on their next move: kill Moira before her mutation activates at age thirteen, which will thus prevent Krakoa from ever happening.

ANALYSIS OF THE FALL OF X

Wolverine #41 was pretty easy breezy and not difficult to follow. Sabretooth and his variants want to kill the mutants, not knowing Orchis has already been taking care of that for them. Nothing too deep or worth thinking overly into.

But the other issue this week? Honestly I had to read Rise of the Powers of X #1 about three times before even halfway understanding it, but hasn’t that been the appeal of the Krakoa era? Ludicrously dense writing that you probably won’t completely get even with all the attention and effort in the world? I’ll miss this era of X-Men…

But the main takeaway here is likely the main plot of this companion piece: killing Moira in the past so that they can avoid the dark future indirectly caused by Krakoa’s formation. It’s a logical extension of the original House of X / Powers of X arc; she had to live for the X-Men, and now she has to die for them. I’m very interested in seeing how this develops. Also, I love that they’re wasting no time putting Kamala in as much X-Men media as possible. We stan, etc.

NEXT IN THE FALL OF X

Coming up in this saga: X-Men #30, Invincible Iron Man #14, and Cable #1.

Fall of the House of X: Week Two

6.5

Wolverine #41

6.0/10

Rise of the Powers of X #1

7.0/10

Credits

Writers: Victor LaValle & Benjamin Percy (Wolverine), Kieron Gillen (RotPoX)
Artists: Geoff Shaw, Cory Smith, Oren Junior (Wolverine), R.B. Silva (RotPoX)
Color Artists: Alex Sinclair (Wolverine), David Curiel (RotPoX)
Letterers: VC's Cory Petit (Wolverine), VC's Clayton Cowles (RotPoX)
Cover Artists: Leinil Francis Yu & Romulo Fajardo Jr. (Wolverine), R.B. Silva & David Curiel (RotPoX)