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

[Username taken]

I thought Prof. X would try to cut a deal with the Dominion, not Nimrod.

This is what I thought as well.

[JB]

I am not opposed to the idea of Xavier doing something radical like this, because he made clear in Rise that the alternative to killing Moira was going to be much worse. A man like him wouldn't say that sort of thing so lightly and he seemed genuinely torn over it at that time.

Thus the problem is not the concept, on paper. Rather, the issue is with the execution. This wasn't a very convincing presentation of his reasoning.

Perhaps Gillen will be able to salvage this turn and introduce more nuance, such as Xavier having a much more elaborate plan in mind and this is only a part of the puzzle, but for now...it feels awkward.

Agreed. He did say the final alternative would be much worse and you're right, it's the execution that is lacking. Since Gillen has been the one mostly steering Xavier hopefully he will indeed make more sense of it all for us.

[sidekick77]

Its not being rushed. They've been writing Fall of X since last summer. The wasted time with all them minis that didnt move the story last fall and thats on Marvel. There was plenty of time to craft a decent story. This end has been dragging on forever

Exactly. That bizarre R&G mini from last year is a prime example of this. If you were a Rogue or Gambit fan, you could not tell who this storyline was intended for, but the last issue seemed to justify the book's weaker elements with a plot point meant to ominously shape the outcome in FoX. It was also designed to lay down emotional stakes for Rogue who was compromising her ethics and lying to her husband.

For all that tension, nothing really popped. Manifold's contributions as a teleporter were not so unique, nor was Rogue challenged on what she and Destiny did, making her ethical crisis seem like a waste.

[CGAR]

Please let this be over soon



Its not being rushed. They've been writing Fall of X since last summer. The wasted time with all them minis that didnt move the story last fall and thats on Marvel. There was plenty of time to craft a decent story. This end has been dragging on forever

That’s literally my point instead of jamming everything into these last two FotHoX/RotPoX minis they had the last 2 years to not drag it out and make it better but they didn’t.

[Rev9]

I concur with your assessment. Having Apocalypse killing mutants to feed Krakoa was the height of stupidity. Krakoa can only be strengthened by the killing of mutants? Couldn’t siphon off the hundreds of mutants with Apoc?!!! So bad.
Having Emma brush off Scott with a statement about “handsy-men” is just so bad and reeks of what I have been reading in Marvel for the last two years. I am not even going to mention Xavier.
This story and writers of this series can’t end soon enough for me.

For those who've been seeing this agenda for years now, it doesn't come as a surprise.I'm not that optimistic about a better 'era' ahead

[Til]

The difference in quality and character nuance between Duggan and Gillen is incredibly. It's sad that the Krakoa era is ending with a whimper. They really should have let Gillen and Ewing write the whole finale by themselves.

They really, really should have. Alas, it was more important not to bruise egos or hurt feelings than it was to close the era on a high point.

This issue was better than previous ones, but that's not saying a lot. Much like his X-Men issues, it feels like Duggan is just running through a checklist of things that have to happen.

Apocalypse saves Krakoa - check. (What happened to Juggernaut, btw? Wasn't he defending Krakoa?)
Wrap up Wrongslide so Santo can come back - check.
Destroy the Summers House - check.
Bring in Sentinel City then immediately destroy it - check.

And on and on. It's such a shame that a truly interesting and daring era like Krakoa is ending with this mess. Gillen is doing a good job on RotPoX and Forever, but even those two books can't put a shine on FotHoX and X-Men. Even the Iron Man book is struggling now, and I've been a defender of Duggan's work on it. I think it's obvious that he bit off far more than he could chew, and all his books are now suffering for it.

[Phoenix Raptor]

So now Xavier's gone from being willing to displace every single mutant on Earth to (so he was told) "off world" in order to save the comparably small number of humans at the Hellfire Gala, to telepathically making a spacecraft full of humans kill themselves in order to save mutants? WTF?!

It could pretty easily be argued that the mutants at the HFG could've beaten Orchis there, had Charles not surrendered on his behalf of his entire race. Yes, Jean and Bobby were gone but there were still plenty of Omegas present. Exodus once held the combined might of the X-Men and the Avengers to a standstill on his own... Hope is capable of mimicing multiple mutant powers at once (as she demonstrated in Second Coming) and Synch can access the powers of dead mutants he's synched with before... Proteus can literally warp reality... Elixir can kill with a touch... hell, the Five could probably resurrect on the fly as they did during AXE, bringing Jean and Bobby back within minutes... the Krakoans could've completely monstered Orchis if Charles hadn't folded like a cheap suit.

But now, Chuck's willing to sacrifice humans and (according to him) any mutants who don't toe the line? I'm sure it's all a ruse and he's playing the long game, but this issue makes a complete mockery of the events and sacrifices of the HFG. Maybe his POV's been changed once he learned that 250k mutants were in the White Hot Room and not dead as he originally thought, but it still makes no sense at all that he'd now be not only willing to sacrifice humans, but psychically control one of them to kill the rest and make himself solely responsible for their deaths... it's just absolute character assassination.

The end of this era can't come soon enough for me.

[Exodus]

Soooooo, Xavier like Moira before just turned evil….for the sake of turning evil. Seriously, WTF?????!!!!!

[Technopriest]

They really, really should have. Alas, it was more important not to bruise egos or hurt feelings than it was to close the era on a high point.

This issue was better than previous ones, but that's not saying a lot. Much like his X-Men issues, it feels like Duggan is just running through a checklist of things that have to happen.

Apocalypse saves Krakoa - check. (What happened to Juggernaut, btw? Wasn't he defending Krakoa?)
Wrap up Wrongslide so Santo can come back - check.
Destroy the Summers House - check.
Bring in Sentinel City then immediately destroy it - check.

And on and on. It's such a shame that a truly interesting and daring era like Krakoa is ending with this mess. Gillen is doing a good job on RotPoX and Forever, but even those two books can't put a shine on FotHoX and X-Men. Even the Iron Man book is struggling now, and I've been a defender of Duggan's work on it. I think it's obvious that he bit off far more than he could chew, and all his books are now suffering for it.

At this point it is obvious that Duggan was basically given a checklist of things that needed to be wrapped up so the toys could be put back in the box for the new era. At least Gillen is doing his best with what he has, but Duggan at this point checked out and is going through the motions. FoX is more enjoyable if you just ignore his contributions to it.

[Rev9]

At this point it is obvious that Duggan was basically given a checklist of things that needed to be wrapped up so the toys could be put back in the box for the new era. At least Gillen is doing his best with what he has, but Duggan at this point checked out and is going through the motions. FoX is more enjoyable if you just ignore his contributions to it.

I actually don't know if Duggan comes up with his stuff on the fly.To me what seems at odds is Gillen has Xavier aware of the SoS timeline, Enigma and going through a lot of effort to annihilate Enigma. To the point of even hiding out of time(meaning with all his time jumps he knows what Nimrod is doing or at least attempting to do) So it is jarring to see him try to make a deal with Nimrod.It's not just Duggan checking out, Werneck's art is piss poor(bar the odd panel here or there)to the point that I doubt he wanted to be part of this.

[Rev9]

Agreed. He did say the final alternative would be much worse and you're right, it's the execution that is lacking. Since Gillen has been the one mostly steering Xavier hopefully he will indeed make more sense of it all for us.

I actually think his 'traitor' label seems to stem from the fact that he first wanted to erase Moira from existence , and when he failed to do that he probably erased her memories of Krakoa. So though Rachael may engage the Phoenix to re-write reality ..it will be affected by this 11th life not recalling the other 10. At this point it is hard to understand why Xavier shot Rachael, maybe he doesn't want the Phoenix to give the mutants a do-over. I don't know if Hickman envisioned Chuck and Eric swapping places and ideals at the end of this age, but seems to be what the writers are set on,now. Did telekinesis appear in the nick of time to make Xavier more formidable going forward perhaps? The writers could invoke some mummudrai 'lore' to give Chuck a clean slate eventually( or maybe Sinister is still in him), but if they are down with this cognizant slide into villainy who knows where this goes?

[CGAR]

They really, really should have. Alas, it was more important not to bruise egos or hurt feelings than it was to close the era on a high point.

This issue was better than previous ones, but that's not saying a lot. Much like his X-Men issues, it feels like Duggan is just running through a checklist of things that have to happen.

Apocalypse saves Krakoa - check. (What happened to Juggernaut, btw? Wasn't he defending Krakoa?)
Wrap up Wrongslide so Santo can come back - check.
Destroy the Summers House - check.
Bring in Sentinel City then immediately destroy it - check.

And on and on. It's such a shame that a truly interesting and daring era like Krakoa is ending with this mess. Gillen is doing a good job on RotPoX and Forever, but even those two books can't put a shine on FotHoX and X-Men. Even the Iron Man book is struggling now, and I've been a defender of Duggan's work on it. I think it's obvious that he bit off far more than he could chew, and all his books are now suffering for it.

Wait I have to go reread this then so When was the Summers House destroyed. And that explosion in the issue was Sentinel City?

[MythicalChicken]

[QUOTE=rward777;6785371]So Xavier is the X-traitor.[/QUOTE

On the other hand, beginning Krakoa being Kitty's concerned aunt, to this, is one hell of a journey/return to form for Storm. For all its faults and wtf, that is a gorgeous page and has me excited for the followup.

[JB]

Wait I have to go reread this then so When was the Summers House destroyed. And that explosion in the issue was Sentinel City?

In Fall #3 when Dr. Gregor takes Cyclops to see Nimrod it's at the Summers House. That's where Nimrod leaves Cyclops and then it explodes just after Magik teleports them out.

[Frobisher]

This is just bad.