HoX vs. PoX

[Storm17]

I've read HoX three times now. Love it for some reason. Just a great book imo. However, I've tried to read PoX twice now. I just can't get into it. Should I? Has anyone felt this way?

[loke13]

I mean they're two parts of the same whole. Narratively speaking both are important to the status quo. So yeah you should definitely give it a chance. But I also feel like powers of X was Hickman really flexing his "big ideas" portion of his writing style which might turn a few people off especially since it involves characters that they barely know.

I think it helps thinking of powers of 10 as a complimentary tail to House of X. Two parts of the same whole.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Both of them are complimentary and cannot be understood without the other.

Heck they are both published in a single volume edition with the reading order mixing both.

On an issue-by-issue basis, I think HoX is better than PoX. PoX's first issues are really exposition heavy, but it closes with great final issues, with Mr. Sinister camping it up, and then the final PoX#6 issue with Moira and Charles and Erik, and then the final conversation where Magneto and Xavier gird themselves for the inevitable response from humanity.

[RachelGrey]

Both of them are complimentary and cannot be understood without the other.

Heck they are both published in a single volume edition with the reading order mixing both.

On an issue-by-issue basis, I think HoX is better than PoX. PoX's first issues are really exposition heavy, but it closes with great final issues, with Mr. Sinister camping it up, and then the final PoX#6 issue with Moira and Charles and Erik, and then the final conversation where Magneto and Xavier gird themselves for the inevitable response from humanity.

I think it comes down to a simple thing:
House of X = What is currently happening!
Powers of X = Why these things are happening!

Powers of X shows us the path that Moira went through that brought us to House of X. The despair she feels when she realizes that mutants always die at the hands of the humans, machines, and post-humans. The AI integrated into humans always wins and it always leads to the end of everything at the hands of the Phalanx!

House of X is Moira's one last desperate move. It's like Moira is asking can we survive if I unite Charles Xavier, Erik Lehnsherr, and En Sabah Nur under one banner, can I unite them in spite of their arrogance and lack of foresight!

Even after everything Moira was able to accomplish bringing Erik and Charles together at last, and getting them to bring Apocalypse on board as an ally. Even after all that, Moira still believes they are going to fail in the end and that there is actually no hope. She even mentions how they are making a grave mistake trusting Sinister, and it's an interesting comparison because Moira believes that Apocalypse will fall in line with Erik and Charles when he realizes the truth, but deep down she believes Sinister is going to stab them all in the back and betray them all to the machines!

Of course Moira is arrogant too, she has become jaded, and in that mindset she is closing herself off from other options. If Erik, Charles, and En Sabah Nur are part of the problem then might it not be better to put the House of X in the hands of Storm, Jean, Emma, and the others. Or might it not be better to bring back Irene and Ruth and try to find a way to a future with hope using the precogs as guides!

I do think it's telling that Ruth committed suicide because she could not foresee any future where she did not live in a state of constant pain and agony from endless torture and finally ending in death at the hands of the humans who would obviously do anything to possess a precog like Ruth!

This is the underlying dark cloud over Dawn of X, Moira Kinross has lived 9 lives where mutant kind was destroyed and purged by humans allied with the machines. Moira does not believe they are going to succeed. Moira also believes that a mistake was made bringing Sinister in that will doom the whole operation to failure because Sinister can never be trusted as far as Moira is concerned. That is the big secret that Charles and Erik are hiding, that there is a high probability that they are going to fail and mutant kind is doomed no matter what steps they take!

[AbnormallyNormal]

House of X was a bit easier to engage with, I think it used more familiar characters and it also contained the core plot.

Powers of X... a bit too wonky and science fictiony, had "out there" stuff and it was essentially all one big "trick" for a reveal by the end. I do believe that Powers of X #6 converges into the previously-established House of X storyline(s).

I don't think PoX was "skippable" or anything though.

[Vishop]

I think PoX is better than HoX conceptually and i think a lot of is needed for future referrence. Hickman tends to take time for worldbuilding and the ending of PoX #6 kinda makes it worth a whole read.

[pandafarmer]

I think the mistake made here is you read HOX 1-6 and then POX 1-6 separately. Think of it more like a large 1-12 issue spread and you absolutely need to read in the suggested and published order. If you read them as separate entities you absolutely will not enjoy them on the same level.

[Storm17]

I think the mistake made here is you read HOX 1-6 and then POX 1-6 separately. Think of it more like a large 1-12 issue spread and you absolutely need to read in the suggested and published order. If you read them as separate entities you absolutely will not enjoy them on the same level.

That's what I'm trying now. Thanks for all the input everyone!

[Wind Rider]

You need to read both in the correct order in order to follow the set-up but I did enjoy HoX a lot more than PoX.

[Astroman]

I think it comes down to a simple thing:
House of X = What is currently happening!
Powers of X = Why these things are happening!

That, and the rest of your post I snipped, is an excellent way of putting it!

[pandafarmer]

Since we're on the subject... anyone know if the HOX/POX trade paperback version is slated? I've been holding off on the hardcover in hopes there is like a standard window of release for the trade versions.