With the last issue of POWERS OF X arriving on shelves this Wednesday, October 9th, 2019, this reviewer felt that it would be beneficial to bestow a quick recap of each issue in order while showcasing the incredible Skottie Young Covers to tantalize your taste buds. Reviews for each issue to date can be found by simply clicking the title of the issue below. Let’s dive in!

HOUSE OF X & POWERS OF X #1-6

Writer: Jonathan Hickman

Art: Pepe Larraz (House of X), R.B. Silva (Powers of X) Marte Garcia, VC’s Clayton Cowles, and Tom Muller

HOUSE OF X #1

Readers are introduced to Krakoa, learn about its ability to instantly transport from one Krakoan location to another, the concept of manufacturing drugs for the human race using Krakoa, and the idea of Krakoa becoming a safe haven for all mutants. Fans are also introduced to people coming out of these pods covered in some type of sludge as well as a large floating space station that seems to be an oversized Sentinel head hovering around the sun. The issue concludes with Magneto giving a group of ambassadors a mini-tour of a few “parts” of Krakoa while Mystique and Sabretooth steal data and almost get away scot-free. However, the Fantastic Four capture Sabretooth while Mystique escapes with the data ending the first issue.

POWERS OF X #1

The issue opens with a young Moira MacTaggert talking to a young Charles Xavier on a bench. Eventually, he reads her mind with permission and it appears as though his mind is literally blown! The story jumps to Year 10 with Mystique coming back with the data she recovered. Next, the story lunges forward to Year 100. Similarly, there is a group of mutants from the future that are also trying to recover some type of data. However, they are meeting a bit more resistance in the form of futuristic Sentinel-like machines. One of their comrades is left behind while the remaining group escapes through what appears to be a Krakoan portal.

The story then moves to an explanation of the mutants that readers just saw earlier. Turn out, the mutant population was becoming extinct so they attempted to breed and replicate their own mutants splicing various abilities and powers together in order to survive. Readers discover that the captured mutant’s mind becomes one with Nimrod’s A.I. thus creating some sort of joined consciousness. However, as the story jumps to the Year 1000, fans still see this same captured mutant floating in a tube gradually disintegrating.

Meanwhile, back in Year 100, readers discover that there are only 10 total surviving mutants and that number continues to drop. Wolverine is one of them along with Chimera mutant hybrids of past mutants that fans would all know and love. The issue concludes with this blue Librarian Elder looking out over a Bio-dome that appears to be recreating the Garden of Eden.

HOUSE OF X #2 (red)

Readers learn about Moira MacTaggert’s mutant ability. Turns out, she is able to have photographic memory AND repeats her life over and over again if she dies. Each time she is reincarnated, she has memories from before and ultimately alters the outcome of her new life. Intuitively, Moira is born immediately with the knowledge prior but has to wait until her body can catch up with her mind in order to do anything with the information. Readers are given glimpses into multiple attempts that Moira has made to help the mutant race and eventually, fans are given multiple timelines as a map to roughly catalog each life she has had so far. The issue ends with Charles Xavier reading her mind. However, the big speculation is which life she is currently in…

POWERS OF X #2

This issue opens with Moira and Charles confronting Magneto and asking him to join their cause while explaining the situation that Charles was able to decipher from reading Moira’s mind earlier. Magneto willingly lets Xavier into his mind and the rest is history. Next, the story jumps to Year 10 where Cyclops and Charles are going over the data Mystique uncovered. Turns out, a Nimrod could be on the horizon and it’s up to them to destroy it before it can be built.

The story skips ahead to Year 100 where readers find out that another one of the surviving 10 mutants whose attempting to save all of mutant-kind is Apocalypse and he’s working with the future mutants to stop Nimrod and this horrible future. Apocalypse and Xorn, another O.G. mutant, realize that the data they recovered wasn’t enough and that they need to head back in to get exactly what they’re looking for. The data retrieved is helpful but not exactly what they need.

Lastly, the issue ends with a jump to the Year 1000 storyline as the Phalanx arrive at Earth and confront the Blue Elder Librarian. Turns out, our societies Hive mind grew enough through Nimrod’s conscious downloading that it drew the attention of the Phalanx, which is kind of like the Borg from Star Trek. They only arrive when they’re truly interested in cultivating another Hive mind and growing with its goal to become a Universal Being of one consciousness through space and time. Therefore, what readers witnessed the last issue of POWERS OF X was Nimrod collecting enough humans and mutants into his Hive mind that it has now attracted other life.

POWERS OF X #3

This issue opens with what happens to be the remaining humans attempting to become more machine while readers watch some type of mechanistic baptism in the Year 100 storyline. At first glance, we see the last remaining mutants on the scene to put a stop to this right there and then. However, fans later find out that it was all a ploy to attract Nimrod and his goons away from his base so a secret team of Wolverine, Apocalypse, and the Chimera Krakoan-mutant hybrid would be able to let them escape back to Asteroid K.

During the fight, Xorn’s singularity in his head explodes creating a black hole that wipes out Nimrod’s cronies. However, Wolverine and Apocalypse are left to deal with Nimrod. Wolverine grabs the data the mutants need and escapes back to Asteroid K while Apocalypse stays behind sacrificing himself in a fight against Nimrod. When Wolverine arrives with the data safe and sound on Asteroid K, readers get the reveal that one of the other surviving mutants was actually Moira MacTaggert. Wolverine takes her out of status, downloads the knowledge they need into her chest, and then kills her so they can restart this process all over again ending her 9th life.

HOUSE OF X #3

In the present Year 10, Cyclops gets a team together and heads to space. Readers find out that he’s actually heading to that large floating Sentinel head that’s orbiting the sun, which is called an Orchid Forge. These Forges are capable of creating Mother Mold’s that could produce Master Mold’s, which will pump out Sentinels nonstop in order to whip mutants off the face of the Earth. Basically, machine worlds that can produce machine factories that can establish Sentinels on a much larger scale.

Meanwhile on Earth, Emma Frost confronts the human court systems to take Sabretooth back with her to Krakoa because it’s a mutant matter for their nation. She is able to leave with him however there is some hesitation from the human government representatives. As the issue ends, one of the soldiers on the Orchid Forge sacrifices himself to blow up the X-Men’s quinjet that docked trying to stop Cyclops’ team in its tracks.

HOUSE OF X #4

The explosion from the soldier on the Orchid Forge worked… sort of. It killed Archangel and Husk while severely injuring the remaining members of Cyclops’ team. Nightcrawler teleports each remaining member to their spots in order to take out the Orchid Forge. The idea is to simply release all latches and have the giant floating head land into the sun. Wolverine succeeds as well as Cyclops and Nightcrawler. However, Mystique is stopped and sent floating in space. So, Nightcrawler and Wolverine sacrifice themselves and teleport into outer space to cut free the last latch sending the gigantic sentinel head into the sun killing themselves in the process. As the issue ends, Cyclops, Jean, and Penance are also killed leaving no surviving member. Readers are led to believe before the issue ends that the X-Men were successful.

POWERS OF X #4

This is the issue where Magneto and Charles venture to Bar Sinister earlier on in the overall story to get Mister Sinister to collect the DNA and genetic codes for all mutants, including Xavier and Magneto themselves. After aligning themselves with Sinister, and wiping his mind, the genetic codes are gathered and Xavier heads out with Cypher to learn the language of Krakoa, it’s history, and to set up roots for the eventual sovereignty of their nation.

The story jumps to the Year 1000 storyline where a conversation turns violent with the future blue Librarian beings and the Phalanx. It appears as though the Blue Elders want to be assimilated into the collective of the Phalanx and become higher-order brings/ God-like. However, the Phalanx appear to only be able to assimilate machines. Thus, the issue ends with the Phalanx attempting to assimilate one of the Blue Elders but it isn’t certain if it works.

HOUSE OF X #5 (red)

5 mutants are introduced into the story. These mutants are Goldballs, Proteus, Elixir, Tempus, and Hope Summers. Together, these mutants are a means to resurrect mutants when they die. With the help of Charles’ Cerebro that he basically wears all day and night, he can place the mutants’ minds back inside these husks that are recreated from these 5 mutants. So, each mutant that was killed in space has been reborn and essentially cloned.

After the resurrection process, Storm is shown reintroducing the mutants that died to the people of Krakoa and Hickman portrays each scene in a very cult-like manner. The issue ends with Charles welcoming some of the X-Men’s most hated and ferocious rivals to Krakoa as a safe haven to them as well. Sinister, Apocalypse, and more are welcomed to live with Xavier and the other mutants. As the issue ends, readers are led to believe Apocalypse has been on Krakoa before many long years ago and has a deep connection with the living land.

POWERS OF X #5

This issue opens up with Charles and Forge going over all the minor details about the behind the scenes nuances of the resurrection process. Readers discover the depths to which this process has been thought out, researched, backed up, and categorized. Charles has planned for every possible eventuality and has taken every measure possible to see this vision through. Fans learn how frequently the minds of mutants are backed up and additionally learn that all mutant minds are backed up numerous times throughout the year. Moreover, readers learn that it’s possible to take minds from and point in time as well as place minds in other bodies. At this point, it has not been done successfully and it was made clear that the repercussions could be disastrous.

Lastly, as the issue ends, we see Charles beginning to create his Quiet Council for the nation of Krakoa. He invites every mutant from every corner of the planet (good or bad) and ultimately gives Emma Frost 3 seats on the Council. One of the seats is for her, the other is for Sebastian Shaw, and the other remains a mystery. However, as this issue closes, readers jump to the Year 1000 storyline where it appears as though the Phalanx successfully assimilated the biology of the Librarian/ Blue Elder and has accepted the terms to assimilate everyone.

The advanced Nimrod from the Year 1000 storyline discusses the idea that the larger the Phalanx gets, or the more any culture assimilates the conscious mind into one large brain, the closer they become to a singularity/ black hole. Therefore, if the Phalanx, already a large intellect, assimilates with the Blue Elder people of our future planet, it could result in a Blackhole/ singularity capable of traveling through space and time. Therefore, it would establish a being capable of universal knowledge, as well as possible omnipresence if these singularities connect across space and time. The issue concludes with the idea that the Year 1000 storyline will be complete due to the Phalanx assimilating their civilization.

HOUSE OF X #6

Charles uses his Super Cerebro to basically tell all of humanity that mutants are now their own nation and that they need to let them be. If humans stop trying to kill them and leave them free to do their own thing on Krakoa, then Xavier will sell them the drugs they have made which will help cure multiple diseases for the human race. Later, readers are introduced to the Quiet Council of Krakoa, who has many unsettling mutants on it from Sebastian Shaw, to Sinister, and even Apocalypse. There main objective is to begin making laws for their new sovereign nation.

The Council begins by stating that mutants will be fruitful and multiply (like the Bible), will murder no man (also like the Bible), an will respect their land and make it sacred (Biblical as well). Sabretooth becomes their first guinea pig and is sentenced by the Council to be imprisoned in the center of Krakoa, in status, indefinitely. The issue ends with a layout of Krakoa and where all the land is divided.

POWERS OF X #6 (red)

The finale opens where POWERS OF X #1 opened; Moira talking to Charles on the bench describing the tarot cards. Charles reads her mind where we instantly jump to the X-Men Year 1000. This is an implication that the Year 1000, as well as the Year 100, storyline/Life happen to be the visions Charles is reading in Moira’s mind since issue one. Yes, these stories/ Life’s have already happened. Readers are just watching Moira’s Lives through Charles’s mind.

In the X-Men Year 1000, fans find out that the Garden of Eden was actually a Preserve and inside that Preserve were some un-evolved humans as well as two mutants; the original Wolverine and Moira Kinross (MacTaggert but not married in this life). The Blue Elder/ Librarian enters the Preserve and talks to Wolverine and Moira. The discussion is about humanity itself being the problem. For 1000 years, Moira thought machines were the problem… then the Sentinels, and even Nimrod. However, the real problem is humanity’s hubris and desire for power, greed, and change. Humanity always strives for more in its desire to become like God. The machines simply bought time to heed off evolution so that humanity could become God.

Moira and Wolverine see the error of their ways after 1000 years of survival, kill the Librarian, and eventually, Wolverine kills Moira before the Ascension happens ending her 6th Life (notice that the 6th Life was never listed in HOUSE OF X #2). The Elder was going to keep Moira alive just long enough to become one with the machines and fully ascend becoming a God, which would transcend time and space. Therefore, if Moira continued to change her Lives over and over, this future would live on because it already ascended and can literally travel through time and space via black holes through a universal hive mind.

Fans jump back to X-Men Year 1 on the bench and readers see Charles’s mind is literally blown away. A journal is written by Moira summarizing the events of this current 10th Life, what has happened so far, and her thoughts on everything to date. This takes us to our present, which is the X-Men Year 10 storyline. Lastly, the series ends with readers seeing that Moira is actually alive in the current landscape of the Marvel Universe. However, she is hidden in a private, secret space that only Charles and Magneto know about in order to keep her safe. Otherwise, everything they worked for will be rebooted and begin again if she dies.

The present happens to be the moment of the huge party after Cyclops’s Team was resurrected. Moira, Charles, and Magneto discuss the Quiet Council, who the surprise member might be, and the fact that Mystique wants to bring back Destiny from the dead. However, Moira is firmly against any precognition in or around their plan. The issue ends with fans realizing that every mutant is joined together in Unity and war, or at least something big is going to happen soon. Are the X-Men/ mutants the heroes or the villains of this story? We shall find out. Either way, heads are going to roll real soon and the true plan will be revealed with time. The relaunch is set. Now, the Dawn of X is on the horizon beginning NEXT WEEK!