Fall of the House of X #4 - Review/Spoilers

[H-E-D]

Al Ewing has mentioned that Genesis War was originally going to be a year-long arc, so clearly things were accelerated.

Was that a Feige decision? I don’t know. I’m more inclined to think it was Dan Buckley, Marvel President and Publisher, seeing as we know he was the one who asked Brevoort to take over X.

Why? It could be as simple as thinking that mid-summer was a better time for a relaunch than mid-Winter.

[charliehustle415]

Yeah the only person I genuinely feel bad for is Lucas Werneck, because he switched from working with Gillen to doing this finale and his work has never looked more rushed. While you can tell Gillen and Ewing may have quickened the pace on some things, their quality has stayed fairly consistent. On the other hand… it’s like Duggan and editorial (would putting out a reading order/ guide have killed them?) got their two week notice and said we’re just gonna turn in whatever.

This section, I am hoping, will read better in trade form. It's pretty wild how convoluted it all is, especially coming from Hickman who was brought in to simplify the line under a cohesive banner, so much so that all the logos, trade dress, and fonts were all brought together.

I do feel for Werneck, because he is best known for beautiful static shots or pin ups, but an artist should know what their limits are if you can't be on time and turn in quality allow other artists to step in.

And that's the thing that's irksome. Gillen and Ewing pivoted and came out strong. We still have a little more of Gillen's work to go but I feel good about where he's taking us. Duggan understandably had a lot on his plate with Uncanny Avengers, Iron Man (which to me is his strongest work), adjectiveless, and Fall. The weight of all that work is felt for sure.

I keep seeing this, but the X-Offices had nearly two years of runway to get their ducks in order? I mean how many excuses can we make for them? Even if it was cut short, shouldn't writers who work for the big TWO anticipate changes like this? I mean superstar AAA writers aren't even guaranteed years long writing stints.

[CGAR]

Definitely. We had two years of treading water and waiting that they got us to a point where we were always waiting for the next (Title) of X era. A lot of us were already at the "get to the point" mindset because they kept trying to milk the story and I feel its because they all got to friendly with eachother and forgot it was a business. They got to comfortable being stagnant. No offense to them. Writers should have been pushed out soon and not given multiple chances. And new writers should have been brought in but they started acting like a Krakoa clique of writers.

And Duggan definitely got ego when he was elevated to "head writer" since he was driving the Krakoa storyline.

[Frontier]

Can someone clarify something...were sales really sagging for X-Books around this time and that was part of the motivation for ending it so quickly and transitioning Brevoort in as Editor to help build back sales?

[cranger]

I have too many wild ideas in my head that I do not want to actually lay blame on anyone specifically or act like I know their intentions, but I do know that writers/editors move on from titles all the time and we have seen examples in this same office that managed to make it work with regards to story cohesion.

[charliehustle415]

Definitely. We had two years of treading water and waiting that they got us to a point where we were always waiting for the next (Title) of X era. A lot of us were already at the "get to the point" mindset because they kept trying to milk the story and I feel its because they all got to friendly with eachother and forgot it was a business. They got to comfortable being stagnant. No offense to them. Writers should have been pushed out soon and not given multiple chances. And new writers should have been brought in but they started acting like a Krakoa clique of writers.

And Duggan definitely got ego when he was elevated to "head writer" since he was driving the Krakoa storyline.

100% exactly! There needed to be a strong hand in editorial, I mean even the most meandering X-Books from back in the day still was driving at something. I mean Claremont, Fabian, Morrison, Bendis, and the rest had lulls in their tenure, but they still pushed forward.

[Anduinel]

Nah Wrongslide was sweet. The heart to heart he had with Sunspot in X-Men Red was really touching imo. But I do hope this paves the way for Santo's return.

I liked Wrongslide as a concept; the possibility of coming back as an amalgam of your AU selves was one of the few ways writers came up with to give death stakes once the Resurrection Protocols were in place. And like so much other world-building, neither it nor the character were explored well at all.

[Viteh]

I think the main issue was sales. They were too low and so the X-Office was ordered to be overhauled and Brevoort was brought in. My guess is corporate said the Krakoan era had to end by this date/timeframe and the new era had to start shortly thereafter/asap.

I'd be genuinely surprised if this new era will have higher sales after the initial launch bump. Other than the Phoenix book, nothing sounds like a "must-buy".

[cranger]

I'd be genuinely surprised is this new era will have higher sales after the initial launch bump. Other than the Phoenix book, nothing sounds like a "must-buy".

I doubt the goal is to just have the sales be higher per book, but to have more books overall. It seems Marvel really wants about a dozen books out each month from this office and if you look around the rest of Marvel it is not about having a lot of 'must-buys', just lots of 'oh that might be interesting to someone'.

[king of hybrids]

I'm torn on that; I don't understand the impulse to vilify Charles Xavier to this degree, though at least this time they foreshadowed the hell out of it -- "what good men will do to prove their good" and all.

To be cynical? Because the WASP Dilettante makes a better scapegoat that the pair of narcissistic sociopaths at they’ve decided to market as their answer to Ivy&Harley, the unironic pharmabro girlboss, the mass murdering ancient war criminal because now he’s a sad boi/because he fought the Norse gods once; and Magneto, who they will literally break their own backs to move goalposts for

[JamJams]

My theory is that Xavier is betraying them to get near Orchis so he can get close to Moira and activate whatever he put in her head. However him sacrificing all those people in the ship and all the decisions he's made behind everyone's back is going to keep the 'traitor' label on him.

If we're in a completely ridiculous world its because either he or someone from the X-Men decides to TELL the world what xavier was doing (mirroring the end of A.X.E. with Cersei telling the world about how the Eternals revive) which turns humanity against mutants. And mutants themselfve sturn against Krakoa cause I bet they were not all aware that it was literally feeding off of them this whole time and it was weird of [-A]- to just sacrifice mutants in order to keep something like that alive when they could just...you know... move somewhere else.

[JB]

Can someone clarify something...were sales really sagging for X-Books around this time and that was part of the motivation for ending it so quickly and transitioning Brevoort in as Editor to help build back sales?

It was somewhere around or just after Sins of Sinister that it seems they were looking for someone else to take over the office. By August 2023 Brevoort announced that he was approached by Buckley and Buckley, according to Brevoort, said he probably wouldn't like the idea but duty and need called. They usually won't overhaul an entire office unless there was a sales issue and the Sins mini era seemed like a pretty rough time with a bunch of odd mini series that were running with the event. I just know that at my comic shop Sins titles weren't moving like the books were moving before so that's my educated guess on the matter.

[king of hybrids]

I get the impression the original plan was probably an AvX II for its 10 year anniversary or a general Marvel Universe vs the X-Men that corporate stamped in

[JB]

I get the impression the original plan was probably an AvX II for its 10 year anniversary or a general Marvel Universe vs the X-Men that corporate stamped in

Possibly something like that.

EDIT: No, it was Brevoort that said there was a post Krakoa era being planned by JDW I think? Where did we hear about that? Somewhere recently it was revealed that JDW was planning a post Krakoa era.

[Malachi]

It’s such a weird comic. Some pages feels like Duggan were forced to write, others as he is finally doing what he wanted and others like he has forgotten what he is doing. I am not only talking about issue 4 now.

Apocalypse felt like the part Duggan wanted to write but beyond the salvation of Krakoa itself it feels surplus. Could have been in X-men. Could have been anywhere really.

The Nimrod fight is so freaking boring. They are literally running or flying towards him and he knocks them down. All to set up whatever happens in issue 5. As of now it should be used as a prime example of what not to do when writing an action scene. So damn boring.

In the end it’s Emma, Xavier, Cyclops… and me falling asleep through the sentence. Rogue and Gambit are afterthoughts, Gambit doesn’t even get to speak, we just see his ass and trenchcoat as Nimrod takes him out.

I am so clearly not in the target group for this comic.