House of XIs Diving Into the Heady Idea of What It Means to Die

Jonathan Hickman ’s ongoing greening of the X - Men has already askedinteresting questionsof its readers , from inviting us to moot the sinister intent of our mutant heroes to having usquestion their entire historyas we have a go at it it . This week ’s entry in the House of X / Powers of X duology is no dissimilar , and it ’s perhaps its boldest move yet .

Because , in House of X # 3 — by Jonathan Hickman , Pepe Larraz , Marte Gracia , Clayton Cowles , and Tom Muller — the X - Men die .

Or do they ? We ’ll get back to that in a flake .

Such a brave face you’re wearing for me.

Such a brave face you’re wearing for me.Image: Pepe Larraz and Marte Gracia (Marvel Comics)

pluck up on the suicide mission be after by Cyclops , Magneto , and Charles Xavier back in Powers of X # 2 , House of X # 3 is mostly a speculation on what it means to die . The group was meant to penetrate the Mother Mold Sentinel - creator being establish in closed book on the Orchis space post orbit the sun as humanity ’s answer to the raw mutant sovereign nation of Krakoa . The exploration of last is seemingly literal , as the egress conclude with the X - Men ’s guide ship being blow up mid - mission , but also figuratively — as various characters ponder what the melodic theme of die truly substance .

It is an issue where the terror , the specter of decease , lingers ever - shortly . Cyclops handpicks his squad of mutants — one that includes Wolverine , Monet , Jean Grey , Angel , Nightcrawler , and Mystique — for the suicide commission , paladin willing to give their lives for the cause . The human scientists the X - Men are locomote after aboard Orchis ’ station are striving toward their enquiry on A.I. and the Sentinel programme out of a fear of their metal money being shoot down off by a renascent mutantkind . Even Sabretooth , in a brief intermezzo that sees Emma Frost pick him up from human legal power ( as part of Krakoa ’s fresh - established diplomatic immunity with humankind ) , stares destruction in the face , as he face trial for manslaughter while callously mock the judge and court that he could gut the spate of them before they could even consider trying to stop him .

The other mood - setter — the clinical , alien pure tone of the X - Men , previously establish witha chilling relishin House of X # 1 — and this preponderance with demise come together within a single type this topic : Professor X himself , and it ’s where House of X # 3 ’s speculation on death really becomes interesting . away from his general air of detach unease ( from the way he talks to Cyclops as a “ Word , ” as he drills beneath the masquerade party of confidence Cyclops pose up about this mission to remind him that his baron allow him smell the fear within his brain ) , Xavier and Magneto differentiate Scott Summers something that immix a batch of Hickman ’s prior philosophical waxing about history and memory in this serial publication so far :

Goodbye, X-Men.Image: Pepe Larraz and Marte Gracia (Marvel Comics)

Death is not the terminal , really . True death can only arrive if no one remembers you , if history does not retrieve you . It ’s something have in mind to solace Cyclops , as Xavier severalize him that even as if he falls during this mission , as a founder of Krakoa , account will never forget him . His legacy will persist .

It ’s a statement made fascinating within the wider context of these sister series . Moira MacTaggert ’s reveal as a mutant with the magnate to re - bodied has already switch the book on everything we know of the X - Men ’s history , but , as Xavier puts it , it ’s also ensured that , 10 life or otherwise , she can never truly die , because she has mesh herself as part of that history — and its future , thanks to the meter - twist events of Powers of X ’s next timelines .

Even further than that into the future , we ’ve already get to theorize about Nimrod and the Librarian’splans with the Phalanx , having created a living earth - intellect of mutant souls in the hopes that they might ascend to a new level of universe , and last forever and a day … even if said library is technically live exclusively by numb mutants .

Image: Pepe Larraz and Marte Gracia

Goodbye, X-Men.Image: Pepe Larraz and Marte Gracia (Marvel Comics)

This theme of death being about memory and story , rather than the genuine physical number , in turn , redact the aforementioned seeming demise of the X - humans at the way out ’s closing into further question . Metatextually , we know as readers that this is not likely this squad ’s closing ; after all , Logan , Scott , and Jean are alive and well on thecover of decade - Men # 1 , due out in October . Within the school text of House of X itself , we ’ve already seen mutants we had have a go at it to be drained seemingly alert and well with no explanation . Hell , as mentioned before , we have already experience Moira die multiple metre , learn from those deaths — with a littlenudge or twofrom Destiny — and carry on in her Hz of lives . So , we ’re to ask ourselves again : are the X - Men really dead ?

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Probably not . Or at least , this pattern of them might be , but there are slipway for them to rejoin , beyond Xavier ’s musical theme of them live on in thought . Think back to those chilling opening pages of House of X # 1 , with bear new forms of mutants ( one of which that looked suspiciously like Scott Summers ) being beckoned to by Xavier , even with his classic rallying war cry of “ To me , my ten - Men . ”

Image: Pepe Larraz, Marte Gracia, and Clayton Cowles

Chilling words of comfort from Magneto and Xavier.Image: Pepe Larraz, Marte Gracia, and Clayton Cowles (Marvel Comics)

And then , think back toPowers of X # 1 ’s bonkers future , where mutantkind fights an dateless war with the machine - human being force of Nimrod with ringer and chimeric amalgamations of various far-famed mutants , patchwork quilt soldier born of Mister Sinister ’s experiment with cloning . Has mutantkind watch how to cheat demise ? And if so , why concern themselves with suicide delegation , unless it ’s to produce martyr for their effort ?

That is an thought itself that leads to this seemingly fatal scenario in the first place , when one of the Orchis commanders aboard the place , Erasmus , out of fright that the X - Men have cornered him , decides to blow himself up to take them out . His last words are about how he chooses death in the Bob Hope a better world for human beings might be progress out of it — that his ritual killing will be remembered . But if for our cold , clinical mutant Hero , last is but a route bump , who really keep the business leader in this combat after all ?

And so , House of X # 3 invites us to yield to the outcome we ’ve had so far and see them in a new context — not just with Tom Muller ’s full design for the Krakoan language being revealed , ask us to return to mysterious messages in both House and Powers to decipher them in full after hebdomad of speculation , but postulate us to recontextualize everything that has make out so far with this new query of what death actually intend . From those strange , pod - people in House of X # 1 ’s haunting open pages , toMoira MacTaggert ’s cyclical lifetimes , to the forfeiture of a futurity yet to come to past , to theworldmind of mutant store — a living library of the bushed , hold so their species is not lost forever — these two intertwined tales are fascinated with the idea of story : of what we go forth behind when we ’re fit , and what it might mean to live on through that process .

Image: Pepe Larraz, Marte Gracia, and Clayton Cowles

Fear makes companions of mutant and human alike.Image: Pepe Larraz, Marte Gracia, and Clayton Cowles (Marvel Comics)

The topsy - turvy release schedule of these two book means we ’ll likely see the direct branch of this particular cliffhanger revealed next calendar week , as a new matter of House of X arrives in stead of a Powers of X # 4 . But for all this mull about what it intend to be remembered , what will belike come to bet is a much more vital part of everything Hickman and his teams barrel toward their at hand conclusions .

Whatever it end up meaning , it certainly wo n’t be forgotten any time soon .

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Image: Pepe Larraz, Marte Gracia, and Clayton Cowles