Let's Talk About House Of X #6- SPOILERS

Hi, I’m David Harth and we’re here to talk about the last issue of House Of X #6. So, let’s do that.

Let’s start in the place I devoted a paragraph to in my review- the death of the dream. Xavier acknowledges that his dream of human and mutant equality is dead and I was floored. There’s something that is so heartbreakingly tragic about this to me and it’s hard to put my finger on why. I’ve been reading X-Men books for close to thirty years and seeing Xavier just straight out say that the dream is dead is like having a favorite pet die.

The thing about it is that he’s not wrong for this and he’s not suddenly some cackling villain, looking for revenge against humanity. In fact, he’s rising above humanity. Put in a similar spot, would humans give mutants medicines that would help them live longer better lives? No, but the thing is, at one point, Xavier would have done it for free because he wanted humans to love mutants. Mutants saved the world multiple times and how have they been repaid?

Genocide.

A lot of people forget that Xavier was hooked into Cerebra (the iteration of Cerebro that was in Morrison’s New X-Men run) when three Mega-Sentinels destroyed 16 million mutants in Genosha. He felt them die. Can you even imagine the trauma of that moment? There has always been a part of Xavier that was kind of terrible and secretive, but you can’t really deny that he cared for both mutants and humanity. His dream benefited both of them. For him to give that up, well, that’s a huge thing.

For my money, that moment gutted me. In fact, I can honestly say that this comic in general affected me emotionally in a way that no X-Men comic has since Morrison left Marvel. I think a big part of that is that Hickman is doing something that is so very new and it changes the game to such a huge degree. There’s the big party scene at the end where all the mutants are celebrating and Xavier is monologuing in caption boxes over an extended sequence with Wolverine bringing a six-pack to Cyclops and Jean, then taking two beers and giving one to Gorgon, who killed him, resurrected him, and turned him against his friends, and drinking with him, while Jean goes and gives a beer to Emma Frost that is emblematic of the change Hickman is bringing to the X-Men. This is a new era and it’s full of hope.

Hope has been dead for mutants for a long time, both in the universe and for us fans. Remember, just a few short years ago, Marvel had squandered Jeff Lemire on Extraordinary X-Men while pushing Charles Soule’s two different Inhumans books. Mutants at Marvel were on life support. This book, though, represents a whole new dawn for mutants. Hickman has reinvigorated the franchise and all he had to do was kill the dream and dare to do something different. Xavier, even though his dream has been destroyed, wants to help humans have better lives, but he also wants them to acknowledge mutants as a part of their world. He’s tired of burying his children.

Beyond all that, we finally get a glimpse of Moira in the present day (well, it’s a flashback, but it’s still the present day as opposed to when we’ve seen her at other times in this book), but only a glimpse. She gives Xavier his Cerebro helmet and we never see his face at all. Both of these things are intriguing. One, for my money, it implies that Moira had something to do with the creation of this new helmet and as I’ve discussed in this series of articles before, Moira is a very different character now that we know what she’s been through in her lifetimes. We know that Xavier had Forge help him with Cerebro’s mind downloading abilities, so it’s not that. What else could she gave added to it and what does it mean for the future? I don’t know, don’t have a theory, but my curiosity is piqued. As for not seeing Xavier’s face, I feel like that’s more of a characterization choice than anything else. Like, I don’t think there’s a huge scar there or something like that. Hickman is trying to make Xavier into something bigger than what he was, more than a man. Taking away most of his face, not letting readers see it, gives him an aloof quality. This is a new Xavier.

We get to see the Quiet Council and they set out the laws of Krakoa. Sabretooth broke those laws waaay back in issue one, so they punish him by putting him stasis in Krakoa. He’ll still be aware, but he won’t be able to do anything, which is pretty horrific if you ask me. Still, it’s nothing major and anyone who believes this is the last we’ve seen of Sabretooth is being naive. The laws of Krakoa are also pretty standard- don’t kill humans, respect the land that is Krakoa, and make more mutants. I got a weird Asimov vibe from these rules. They don’t really copy the rules of robotics from his books per se, but there are three of them and one of them involves not killing humans. It’s a synchronicity that probably won’t be picked up or mean very much in the long run, I just wanted to point it out.

There’s a bit of a focus on Apocalypse on the last page of the story that I find odd. I’m pretty sure that at some point, Apocalypse is going to betray them all and these two panels, of Apocalypse standing alone, with an almost sad look on his face, reinforce that for me. I know that Apocalypse isn’t the type to go and join the revelry, but seeing mutants together like this should set off his old “survival of the fittest” thing. Krakoa is suddenly one of the most powerful nations in the world. They’re fit. So, why would he be sad?

I think he knows that he’s going to destroy it all in order to make sure that only the fittest of them are in control. That this unity is going to be short-lived. I just can’t believe that he’s suddenly changed his spots and is all-in on mutant unity because not all of the mutants are fit to survive in his worldview. Of course, that’s not my only thought on that. It was revealed that Apocalypse and his original Horsemen saved Krakoa from a powerful enemy millennia ago. Perhaps he knows that the enemy will return and wreak havoc on the mutants before him.

Either way, he knows the celebration in front of him, the unity is short-lived.

So, there you have it. Those are my spoiler-riffic opinions on House Of X #6. I feel like there are some people who might not like this book. It’s not an action-packed romp and it doesn’t have any mind-blowing changes to the continuity in it. It’s more quiet and thoughtful than that. It’s about a damaged man and his people coming together to make something greater than they’ve ever had before. It’s about trying to heal the wounds of the past. It’s about knowing the worth of what you have and getting what you both need and deserve for it. It’s nothing short of brilliant. Hickman has reinvigorated the X-Men.

Join me here next week for a chat about Powers Of X #6, to see how this whole thing ends before the main books start back up again.