A review by billyjepma
House of X/Powers of X by Tom Muller, Jonathan Hickman, Adriano Di Benedetto

adventurous mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

For what is quite possibly (probably?) the first X-Men comic I’ve read, this is stellar. A dense, rich, often convoluted, but always compelling exercise in how to properly “reboot” an iconic, long-running series. I read a lot of comics with the expectation that most of them won’t be very good, so it’s always exciting to find myself immersed in a book that isn’t content to coast off its brand and name recognition. Despite my lack of history with the X-Men books, I still knew enough to find my way into Hackman’s story, which would be laudable on its own considering how much ground its lore covers. Chunks of it definitely went over my head—although it seems that was probably the intent, too—but the emotional, thematic, and narrative foundation rarely wavered for me. Not everything comes together since this is, by design, the inception of something larger. But even with the semi-unfinished nature of the series’ conclusion, it still feels satisfying, for the most part. It’s probably not an ideal reading experience for anyone looking for a one-and-done book, but for me, it absolutely worked as intended. I was interested from the start, and by the end, I was wholly immersed and ready to dive into the rest of Hickman’s run with the series. 

The book has a ton of visual heft, too, which gives the environments and other settings a properly epic scale. I don’t always love this kind of style (I’m not educated enough to verbalize it, but it seems like the inks and/or colors are heavier), but this is the best it’s looked, I think. It’s a grand, dramatic book, and Larraz gives it the visuals to match, so even if the style and moments of action aren’t always my favorite, it’s still a winner.