By Harry Kassen — Happy New Year everyone, and welcome back to Comics Anatomy. Stepping into my new role as Features Editor here at Comics Bookcase, I wanted to start the year with a bang. To do that, we rolled out two new ongoing features: Comics Comparisons and On the Strip. On top of that, today marks — almost to the day— the two-year anniversary of the first ever Comics Anatomy column. For those reasons, I knew I had to go big for this one and cover something big, so I’ll be writing about House of X.

Before I launch into the analysis proper, I want to introduce the broader subject of the article. Today, as with many of my longer and more in depth pieces, I will be talking about context. On a certain level, that’s what all comics are about. Words against pictures, pictures against pictures, all creating meaning through context. That’s all true, but superhero comics, especially long-running series with decades of history, incorporate another form of context. When done well, they take elements from previous incarnations of the characters and use those as a starting point for the new version. They can combine past elements previously regarded as separate in ways that make the whole series feel new and refreshed. Oftentimes they’ll introduce new elements, and when taking both the new and old into account, these elements, at their best, completely recontextualize every bit of the old stories, casting them in an entirely new light. House of X, and the entire Jonathan Hickman/Pepe Larraz/R.B. Silva/Tom Muller House of X/Powers of X (HoXPoX) endeavor, is a comic that does just that, and it does it supremely well.

Going into HoXPoX, I didn’t consider myself much of an X-Men fan. I’d seen a bunch of the movies and read a handful of higher-profile storylines, but I certainly didn’t know most of the history. The new run sounded interesting though, and a friend assured me that it was a fine place to start with my minimal X-Men knowledge, so I picked up House of X #1 when it was released. In order to explain why this series is so effective, I need to illustrate the headspace I was in as I read that first issue, and to do that, I’ll walk through my initial thoughts on the first few pages.

First, the cover. To start things off, it’s a great cover. The art, coloring, and design all come together to give it a sleek, modern look. There’s a mix of new and classic costumes for a group of characters who have really come to represent the franchise. There’s a sense of mystery too. Where are they? What’s that stuff around them? Who’s that guy in the X-faced helmet (presumed to be Xavier, but not confirmed yet)? As a cover, and especially a first cover, it sends a message. This is going to be a bold and modern take on the franchise that incorporates its history while also setting up new and exciting stories.

Now, for the first page proper. Yet another interesting, slightly out of the box choice. The design here is stark, but not clean. And the message. While not totally out of the blue, sets the tone for the series as being something of a departure from its history. Excited to see what comes next. But enough talk about design and trade dress. Let’s get into some story pages.

Alright, hold up, what the hell was that. I know I’m not tremendously familiar with X-Men but I don’t think I missed giant underground trees growing pod people X-Men and a dome-helmeted, oddly-lithe Charles Xavier. Now that I say that, it does totally seem like something that could have happened, but I’m pretty sure this is new. Is it a flash forward? A retcon? An alternate reality? I’m sure it’ll be explained on the next page (skipping the credits page).

Well then.

And scene. That’s roughly what I was thinking as I read through that issue for the first time. It was something of a bumpy ride, but it served to do a few things. It made clear to me that this was, in fact, the beginning of something new, and as lost as I was, disorientation was the plan, not a result of my own ignorance. It also intrigued me. I had no idea what was happening or how or why, and I wanted to keep going.

I’ll get to my broader point in a second, but let’s stop and talk about what this scene does in isolation for a moment. Important to understanding how this book uses context is understanding how it makes use of a lack of context as well.

I’ll take just this one page, so as not to drag this out too much. This one has most of the stuff I want to talk about anyway. The first panel has a man, most likely Cyclops, given the eye beams, covered in an unknown goo, looking up at a man who’s cupping his chin tenderly. It’s...a little weird. The next panel keeps up that vibe with the Professor X figure, well, dancing? He’s got one leg bent a little, and he’s got his shoulders and wrists held just so. It looks like he’s doing a little shimmy. The pod X-Men are reaching up for him from the ground too. Even weirder than the first panel. And that last panel with the closeup on that smirk seals the deal. This is a weird page. The whole thing radiates a strange energy. It’s ominous and confusing and eerily sexual. Not unfamiliar territory for X-Men comics, but not well trod ground either, at least not in this way.

Anyway, that’s what that page looks like at first. Obviously, there’s more to it than that.
Moving right along from that sequence, the first House of X issue establishes the new status quo for the X-Men, the second reveals Moira’s whole deal and part of how it relates to said new status quo, and the third and fourth issues show a crack team of mutants mounting an assault on a facility that is creating a massive anti-mutant weapon. That’s what I want to talk about for a bit.

The third issue functions like the planning phase of a heist movie. The plan of action is discussed, the strike team sets out, and the necessity of the attack is outlined, all intercut with what’s happening back on Earth and at the Mother Mold facility orbiting the sun.

The fourth issue, while not the main thing I’m trying to talk about here, is the more interesting of the pair, showing the majority of the assault on the Mother Mold itself. The issue opens with an accounting of all the mutant mass death events on record, and it’s a harrowing total. It serves to, dare I say, contextualize the X-Men’s desperate attempt to shut down the Mother Mold, and offers a glimpse at the death and destruction awaiting them if they fail. It’s a well done bit, and it’s a part of why the historical storytelling in this series works so well. The present is informed by the past, but never bound by it.

As with most things in this series though, there’s never just the one context for this issue. There are always more ways to look at something. In this case, the list of all the mutant genocides serves as a counterpoint not just to the broader concerns of the mission but to the strike team itself. As the issue goes on, the attack doesn’t go well. The mutants achieve their goal but are completely wiped out. Every single member of the team is killed in action. It’s a tough moment, as all of the characters sent along are beloved members of the X-Men, with some having been members for the entirety of their history. Seeing them die strikes a huge blow to the reader and to Professor Xavier, who considered these mutants his family.

In this sequence, the info pages with the death tolls are spliced onto art from the issue. It pulls the two threads together in a new way that hasn’t been a focus of the issue so far. No More means that mutants need to band together to prevent another genocide, yes, but it’s clear from this scene that it also means that not even one more additional mutant death is acceptable. Not a single one more. It’s a great move, and does a great job of marrying the large, impersonal design pages with deaths in the millions with the immediate and exciting human storytelling of the sequential pages, even going so far as to combine the two visually. Another brilliant example of how history and new material can be combined and recombined in amazing ways.

Alright. That’s the heavy stuff out of the way. Now we can have some fun.

House of X #5 starts off kinda strange. You think they’d address the fact that several staple X-Men characters were killed off in the last issue, at least a little, but it starts up with Polaris and Magneto talking about morality and then mentioning a group of mutants known as The Five.

Magneto explains that they’re a group who have been assembled because their powers work together. He outlines the process by which each one adds their own talents to the mix in a sequence that culminates with this:

We’ve seen this before, but frankly, by the time I got here, I’d totally forgotten the opening of House of X #1, and seeing these pages again brought it all back. The first thing I noticed about these pages this time through is that the art and coloring is identical to the way it is in the first issue. My assumption is that they just reused the files and made the single lettering change to the first page, and honestly, that was the best way to do it. Far more effective and also less work for the team.

What’s so arresting about these pages the second time through is how the exact same page can feel so different. The fact that it is the exact same art really makes it feel like the first scene was a moment plucked out of time, and seeing it now, in its proper context, it all makes sense. What read as creepy or sinister before now reads as touching, loving even. The jaunty angles in Xavier’s body are a result of genuine happiness. The smile isn’t a smirk at all but a genuine, heartfelt grin. There’s nothing to fear here. It’s a celebration of life and reunion. It’s a beautiful moment.

The rest of the issue is a further exploration of those elements of reunion, life, resurrection, and so forth, and this issue in particular got to me in a way the rest didn’t, even as someone who doesn’t have much of a history with the characters. That opening just can’t be beat though. The way the resurrection is explained and then shown off with the pages repeating from the beginning is a perfect microcosm of the series as a whole, and almost functions as a mission statement: “What came before was the truth, but it was not the whole truth. Look now with new eyes and nothing will ever be the same.” That’s the heart of this run here. That history is one thing, an important thing, but hope lies in the future. For the characters and for stories. And it’s baked right into the craft of the book, sown through the pages, that all you have to do to see the future is to take a hard look at what’s in front of you and believe.

Before I sign off for a bit, I want to take a moment to acknowledge a few things. If you follow me on Twitter you may remember that I mentioned I’d be taking some time off from Comics Anatomy this year as I move into the role of Features Editor, and I will be doing that. This is the last Comics Anatomy you’ll see from me for a while. Not to worry though, I’ll be editing lots of great features for the site, including new Comics Anatomy articles by a host of excellent guest writers. That being said, this is still a big occasion for me, and I want to mark it a little.

As I said at the beginning of this article, this is almost two years to the day from the publication of the very first Comics Anatomy and if you’ve been following these since then, I can’t thank you enough. I’ve written 15 of these at this point, each more self indulgent than the last, and I am shocked every time to find that people read and enjoy them. I cannot overstate how much I appreciate your support, and the support of all the other readers. If you’ve written a guest article, or plan to, thank you for hitching yourself to my wagon and making me look good in the process. This column is far stronger with you than it could ever be without you. And lastly, Zack here at Comics Bookcase, I owe you this whole thing. You saw something and believed in me and I can’t thank you enough for the opportunity. Thanks everyone. Keep your eyes out next week for another article that I think you’ll all like. Until next time.

Harry Kassen is a college student and avid comic book reader. When he’s not doing schoolwork or reading comics, he’s probably sleeping. Catch his thoughts on comics, food, and other things on Twitter @leekassen. You can support his writing via Ko-fi.