Welcome back to Mutantversity, a class offered at the stately Xavier Mansion. This isn’t a place to find big reviews of X-books, (that’s what our Review section is for!) but it’s a great way to keep up with one of the most complicated superhero series around. We’ll learn, we’ll laugh, maybe we’ll make some new friends, maybe we’ll reincarnate those friends in golden eggs. Most of all, we’re going to dive into the deep end as we try to parse all the secrets of this new era of “X-Men” comics. As your designated X-Pert, I will do my best to help you work through everything Marvel’s Merry Mutants have to offer!
It’s been an especially busy month for the X-Men. First we’re going to recap the last month of the ongoing superhero soap opera that is “X-Men,” which continues from this earlier recap. Next, I’ll tell you which X-Men books I looked at this month, and whether I thought they were worth reading. Then, we’re going to spotlight a creator who brought a rare level of X-cellence to the line. Finally, we’re going to award our Monthly Mutantversity Medals of Merit. Stick with me true believers, and maybe we’ll survive this experience!
This Month In X-Men
With so much story and so many breadcrumbs hidden throughout the story, we’ve broken out coverage of HOXPOX up into two halves. Again, to catch up on the first part of this month’s story, then by the dream, click here, and may Apocalypse take mercy upon you.
If you’re all caught up then:
Let’s talk about interstitials. Charts. There are a whole lot of them in “House of X” #5. They serve an obvious purpose- to convey information- but they also have a less obvious purpose. Some of the bombshells in this issue are huge, and the charts give us a chance to process. Some people probably skim right past them, but in doing so they have a moment to reflect on what they learned on the previous page. For others, the pedantic rules of comic continuity are super important. (Would you believe that I, the person writing this column, falls into that category?) These charts help answer the many questions raised by the revelations in this issue, and assure us that these developments were written thoughtfully.
Magneto and his one child, Polaris, have a very Hickman conversation. She wonders if humans have ever been good for anything and Magneto reflects on ancient history- humans created civilization. They did so when they stopped being nomads, when hunting and gathering was replaced by farming and building. I don’t know about you, but I found this to be a very strong argument for the work the mutants are doing on Krakoa, and why Magneto believes so strongly in the newfound cause.
It’s good that the issue opens with such a wise, solemn reflection, because the next revelation is frickin’ bonkers and the biggest buy-in we’ve been asked to do in all of HOXPOX. We learn that Goldballs’ doesn’t produce balls at all… he makes eggs!
Let’s back up for a second. We are introduced here to a group that I’ve immediately started thinking of as the RessureXion Five. But let’s quickly run through the members of this squad, and reflect on who they used to be.
First, we’ve got Fabio Medina aka Goldballs. He was one of the mutants who joined Cyclops after ‘Avengers Vs. X-Men.’ He’s a nice, but sort of basic dude, from San Diego with the power to shoot gold colored balls out of his body with a signature “Poink” sound. His heroics led to sudden fame, and he became a sort of superhero YouTube influencer-type, though he was constantly held to a double standard because he was a mutant. Fun fact: he became a classmate of Miles Morales, who is a huge Goldballs fan!
We’ve also got Proteus. He has the vague power of “warping reality.” He’s Moira’s son, and he likes to hop from body to body, but in doing so he burns them out into desiccated husks. We learn by the end of this issue that Professor X has solved that particular problem. Proteus is a tragic character, but he’s also scary as hell.
Continued belowElixir is interesting, because he was raised by his family to be an anti-mutant bigot. He went to rallies and stuff before realizing that he was a mutant himself. Then things took an even darker turn. He started hooking up with Wolfsbane, who was his teacher, and when she quit the school in shame, Elixir joined X-Force, the mutant black ops squad where his healing powers often came in handy. He’s sort of an entitled brat, and most recently was rolling with the queen mother of entitlement, Emma Frost and her new Hellfire Club.
Tempus is Eva Bell, who joined the X-Men alongside Goldballs. She was a nice, if sort of intense kid from Australia with time manipulation powers. At first she would just pause or slow down the flow of time, but eventually she learned full mastery of it, and in doing so became even more intense, almost a cosmic, spiritual being.
Finally, there’s Hope. She was the first mutant born after M-Day, and she’s so powerful, the moment of her birth exploded Cerebro. There was a huge war to capture her as a newborn, but it ended when Cyclops allowed Cable to take her into the future, where she was raised in a constant state of war and danger. Her mutant power is to be able to tap into any mutants within a vicinity of her, and using the Phoenix Force, she helped Scarlet Witch re-power the Earth’s mutants. Hope has been called the Mutant Messiah, a title she continues to live up to in this issue.
That’s because these five mutants, along with Professor X, have conquered death. We get a brief sequence explaining how each of them contributes before returning to the very first moments of “House of X” #1, given new context. This is an incredibly important development, and Hickman goes over it again and again, in dialogue and through charts. It’s also an incredibly spiritual experience in mutant culture, and a lot of the issue is devoted to Storm leading the mutant people in a ritual of resurrection.
It’s going to be important, so let’s sweat the details. Professor X had Mister Sinister create a library of mutant DNA, including the powers of every mutant who has ever lived. Goldballs produces eggs, which Proteus makes viable (and if I’m being honest, Proteus’ role is the only part of this process that strains my suspension of disbelief, because it’s silly). After injecting those eggs with the mutant DNA, Elixir’s powers are used to replicate cells, and give all that biological material the spark of life. Finally, Tempus warps time to age the mutant to the age they were at the moment they were killed. Professor X, using Cerebro, can essentially copy the souls of any dying mutant, a process I imagine is difficult and painful for him. Hope can tap into all their powers at once and be the dynamo that drives the ressureXion process.
This means that any mutant who has ever died can be brought back, and indeed, it is implied that a number of them already have. Matt Rosenberg’s run of “Uncanny X-Men” ended with the deaths of Multiple Man, Wolfsbane, and Strong Guy, among others, but all of them can be regrown. The charts also imply that Mimic and Synch have been brought back, so there’s no limit. If you’re a mutant, you will be alive. This also means that Proteus can continuously be placed into fresh bodies, which are copies of his mom’s ex-boyfriend Professor X. Well, that’s nice and normal.
So why don’t they just revive the millions of mutants murdered on Krakoa? Hickman and Muller walk us through the math. The mutants can currently revive about 200 people a day. At that rate, it would take about 300 years to restore all who were lost. Professor X is the slowest worker in this regard, but it sounds like Krakoa is considering expanding the process, and trying to get other mutants involved, particularly psychics and those who can replicate or enhance powers.
A lot of this is creepy, but one aspect of it is very creepy. The RessureXion Five have become an inseparable family. The ritual of conquering death seems like a deeply spiritual experience, but in performing it together, their old personalities seem to be fading. Hope was always passionate and burdened by responsibility. Tempus has always understood that her powers mean she could never live a normal life. Elixir always thought he was better than other people. Proteus has never been treated as normal. But Goldballs is just a dude, and now he’s been completely swept up in the adoration. A few months ago he wanted to go to high school and play video games, now he wants to be an engine of resurrection and consort with cosmic agents of change.
Continued belowThe issue gets into more than just technicalities. We see what the resurrection ritual is like for the mutants, and again, it is very moving and spiritual. It should also be noted that it is occurring at the exact time Magneto is giving the humans the Krakoa tour in “House of X” #1. He told them that Charles was “otherwise occupied” and it was in presiding over this ritual with Storm.
“We see them,” the mutants call out, “But do we know them?” And so the ritual begins. First Storm greets Cyclops.
“What is your name?” she asks, and the X-Men leader answers with both his mutant and human names. “Cyclops. Scott Summers.”
“And how do I know it’s you brother?” Storm asks. “Once I thought I was strong,” Cyclops answers, “a leader of mutants. And then you showed me what strong was.” Storm smiles and kisses his head. “I learned it from watching you,” she tells him. This is all in reference to their epic throwdown in “Uncanny X-Men” #201. Storm challenges Cyclops for the leadership of the team in light of the birth of his son. She’s worried his loyalties will be divided. They have a duel, and Storm snatches Cyclops’ visor. Not wanting to hurt her, he closes his eyes, and is easily defeated. Normally, Scott is ruthless, determined, willing to do whatever it takes. But Storm proved that she had learned those tough lessons, and Scott left the team for a while.
The ritual is all about the mutants asserting themselves as themselves. We see it happen two more times. Next, it is with Storm’s best friend Jean. “How do I know it’s you Jean?” Storm asks. And Jean replies, “Oh… I’m the only “me” that ever was, Ororo.” Jean has been cloned and copied by Phoenix force, so she’s come to terms with resurrection. It doesn’t impact her sense of self. And that’s how Storm knows she’s the genuine Jean.
Finally, she turns to Monet. “What is your name?” she asks again. “Penance. Monet St. Croix,” is the answer, and that’s friggin’ interesting. Monet has a complicated history, not least of which involved being forced into becoming a red bladed monster named Penance by her terrible brother (more on him in a bit). When she’s in her gorgeous humanoid body though, her code name is typically just the letter M, which makes X-Men themed Sporcle quizzes kind of a pain sometimes. In “House of X” #4, we saw that she can revert to her Penance form at will, and here we learn that she’s fully accepted it as her codename.
“And how do I know that it’s you child?” Storm asks, reaching for Monet, who flinches away. “No touching,” is what Monet says and Storm laughs. Each time the exchange is completed, Storm turns to the crowd and says “This is my sister/brother. I know her/him. As do you. Yes her/his name is Cyclops/Jean Grey/Monet, but she/he is more than that. What is she/he?” And the crowd shouts, “Mutant!” If anyone has ever been on the outside of a ritual like this, it can be pretty scary to see. But if anyone has ever participated in one, you know that it can be genuinely powerful. Both sides are effectively realized here.
This is a wonderful role for Storm. She is so powerful, she has been occasionally worshiped as a goddess, and she’s always been connected to the spiritual side of mutant powers. She’s also, as we discussed a moment ago, always been a leader. So making her the spiritual leader of the mutant state/culture/race is something that she would find fulfilling and she would be good at. And clearly, she is!
The next day, the United Nations convenes, and Krakoa is recognized as a sovereign state. It’s not stated outright, but it’s pretty clear that Emma Frost had something to do with this. She’s the most subtle telepath on Earth. As past and future X-writer Leah Williams has said, Jean Grey is like an atom bomb, and Emma Frost is like a scalpel.
Not every world nation signed off on Krakoa. The chart on the next page gets into which nations have rejected it, and why. Iran and North Korea claimed ideological differences, while the nation of Madripoor (often portrayed as a criminal island for X-Men to adventure on) rejected Krakoa for Political reasons. Latveria also failed to acknowledge Krakoa, along with Russia. In the Western hemisphere, Brazil, Venezuela, and Honduras all reject Krakoa (and are all of which share recent right-wing political movements in our real world). The fictional Santo Marco rejects Krakoa, and that one makes the most sense. In his very early days, Magneto briefly took over the country. Terra Verde also rejected Krakoa, the setting of a “Fantastic Four” adventure in the 70s. Fascinatingly, Wakanda (ruled by Storm’s ex-husband T’Challa) does not acknowledge Krakoan sovereignty simply because “they do not need mutant drugs.” They’ve got fine medicine on their own. Other nearby countries are part of the Wakandan economic protectorate such as Azania, Canaan, and Storm’s former home of Kenya.
Continued below
When you put all these places on a map, you can’t help but plan a complex sea route to reach each of them. Maybe those places have people who want or need mutant drugs. Maybe there are mutants who need to be liberated. Maybe this calls for a seafaring gang of mutant Marauders…
The final act of this issue takes place two days later. Wolverine joins Magneto and Professor X at the Krakoa gate. They are about to welcome in new residents. Now that they are a sovereign nation, they can be a haven for persecuted mutants everywhere… or criminal mutants who wish to escape the repercussions of their crimes. And sure enough, a veritable army of mutant villains arrive. Who are they? We broke it all down in a previous installment of Mutantversity! But we’ve got to take a moment to talk about the heaviest hitter…
Apocalypse is the one who gives Wolverine pause. Not only is he powerful, he’s completely unyielding. But it seems that he views Krakoa as a personal victory. “You have finally become what I intended you to be,” Apocalypse says. “I could not be more proud.” The mutant who wishes to take over the world, to foster strength through conflict, sees Krakoa as a haven for conflict. Not only that, but he warred on the island millennia ago, and you can’t help but feel that he sees the threads of fate leading mutants there… or his plans are more practical. After all, this is where he lost his original horsemen, who Sinister said he would drop everything to be reunited with.
But for now, Apocalypse is swearing fealty to Charles Xavier and the nation he is creating. Him and all the villains, some of whom are violent and psychotic, some of whom are ideologically opposed, some of whom are simply selfish, and some of whom have very personal problems with other members of the nation. You can see this sitting poorly with many of the X-Men and leading to irreconcilable conflict… exactly what the Big A wants!
At the beginning of this master plan, when Xavier was having secret meetings with Sinister and Magneto and Moira, he had another secret meeting, this time with Forge (who somehow has an aquarium that houses a humpback whale in Dallas, Texas). Xavier is commissioning the Mutant Maker to build a better Cerebro. Beast has designed the machine up until this point, but he is limited by mortal intellect. Forge has the power to build anything he can imagine, and doesn’t have the ethical scruples to stop himself. This is the moment Cerebro went from a machine to find mutants, to a machine that can backup their souls and resurrect it.
To do so, Professor X needs to bring Forge something a little more hefty than a Solid State Hard Drive- Shi’ar Logic Diamonds. Cool. Fine. Okay. Not only that, but he’s going to back up the whole data (which to reiterate, is the digitized and regularly updated souls of every mutant on the planet) five times.
Five is a really important number to the X-Men. There were five original X-Men (Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel, Beast, and Iceman). There were the Phoenix Five (Piotr, Emma, Namor, Ilyana, and Scott, who’s initials tell the whole story). There were the Five Lights (Oya, Primal, Transonic, Velocidad, and Zero). ‘Age of X’ had the five Force Warriors (Hellion, Revenant, Legion, Psylocke, and Stand-Off). We were originally introduced to five Stepford Cuckoos (Celete, Mindee, Irma, Phoebe, and Sophie). Krakoa has The Five (Goldballs, Proteus, Elixir, Tempus, and Hope).
And now there are five backups of the mutant soul record. One of them is in the House of X, which is Charles’ lair on Krakoa. The next is on Island M, Magneto’s castle, also called Octopusheim. We haven’t been to the Summer House yet, but it sounds like a place where Cyclops might live, along with whatever members of his extended family can tolerate him this month. The Pointe sounds mysterious and French, like Fantomex? Or Gambit? The St. Croix family? Keep an eye out. And the last one is in Moira’s No-Place.
Continued belowOh you know, Moira’s No-Place. That. We’ve been wondering for months where Moira is, and apparently it’s nowhere. This is the place you can only access through the black flowers of Krakoa, the place Apocalypse’s original horsemen were banished to, and perhaps as we learn later in this issue, the place on the other side of a black hole.
Oh, also Charles Xavier has rebooted his consciousness and then started it in compatibility mode for Windows XP with Service Pack 2, twice now. Cool. Cool, cool, cool.
Meanwhile, in the early days of the Krakoa project, Emma Frost enjoyed some time at the Louvre. Being Emma, she made sure she was the only person who got to enjoy the museum that day. Until she was approached by Professor X and Magneto, who tried to recruit her to Krakoa. Emma raises objections, good ones that no one has brought up yet, and I’m really happy it was Emma who got to say these things. After all, she was there for two traumatic instances of mutants trying to form an island nation. Once on Genosha and once on Utopia. It’s basically the source of all her trauma and sadness. So nah, she’s good thanks.
Then they make her an offer she can’t refuse. “This is the day you’ve been waiting for,” Xavier says. “To make right all the things that went wrong,” Magneto says. They’re offering her a world where bad things don’t need to have consequences. It’s a world where all of her many, many dead students can be resurrected, the one thing Emma Frost truly desires.
“One more time then,” Emma says after a sigh. “For the children.” I’ve got chills. I hope she ends up happy with the choices she’s making. Emma deserves better.
We then get a conversation that serves two purposes. The first is to establish the upcoming “Marauders” series. Emma Frost, with the assistance of Sebastian Shaw and the Hellfire Club’s resources, will distribute Krakoan drugs around the world. The other is an establishment of a shady mutant government, an oligarchical council that Xavier promises he might consider replacing with something more democratic or whatever. Totally.
The Quiet Council has twelve regular members, plus Krakoa and Cypher. They are divided up into 4 groups of 3, each named after a season. Most of the names on the list are redacted. Autumn includes Professor X and Magneto. Spring includes Emma Frost and Sebastian Shaw. And through the black bars, you can make out a member of Winter, and it is Mystique. Now, you can speculate as to who else is on this council, but you don’t have to. Thanks to a promotional image, and the sleuthing work of Comics Beat, we know everyone on the council. But we’re going to wait until next time to discuss them.
I’d also ask you to think back to our Sinister Secrets entry of Mutantversity. There I wrote: “Keep an eye out for when a character uses the word “Inferno.” It’s the name of one of the most famous Sinister stories ever, and I’d bet he’s using it as an activation phrase for when he triggers his master plan.” Why do I bring that up. Oh no reason, just this line by Magneto in “Powers of X” #5: “What begins as a fire will grow to an inferno.” Aw geez Magnus, you’re gonna get us all into trouble.
There’s a fun sequence where we see Professor X reaching out to various X villains. We see Exodus and the Acolytes, Sinister standing on a mountain of Sinister corpses, Omega Red with members of the Omega Clan, Gorgon all by himself, and one of Hickman’s favorite characters in the Marvel universe: Namor, the Sub-Mariner. The King of Atlantis thinks this Krakoa thing is cute, but has no faith that Charles Xavier is embracing mutant supremacy. Namor tells him to call back when he gets serious.
Finally, we whisk 1000 years into the future, where the Librarian is contemplating the Phalanx. A whole lot of high concept sci-fi happens here, but one aspect in particular stands out. Beyond a technarch, beyond a worldmind, beyond even the Phalanx, comes even more advanced intelligences. These are beings with so much knowledge that they have become dense enough to collapse space time and become black holes: singularities. A being that is so smart they collapse into a black hole? That’s called a titan. Like Thanos? Uh yeah? I guess?
Continued belowBut what if multiple titans were linked in the place beyond black holes? That would be called a stronghold. And all of those strongholds connected? That’s the dominion, an entity on par with Galactus and the Phoenix.
A place that is not a place on the other side of a black hole? That sure sounds like a No-Place to me. Is Moira chilling with and/or merging with the dominion in her No-Place? Is the collection of mutant souls so dense, it collapsed into a black hole? Is that what the freaking M’Kraan Crystal is? What about Xorn, who’s head is a singularity, is he part of all this? A lot of questions, and not a lot of answers.
This Month’s Books:
“House of X” #4 – Powerful, provocative stuff. An expertly crafted issue.
“Powers of X” #4 – Next to the Moira reveal, the Sinister stuff was my favorite part of HOXPOX.
“House of X” #5 – Secrets are revealed and charts are read in this tremendous issue.
“Powers of X” #5 – The kind of setup that makes you ravenous for the next installment.
Special Spotlight: Marte Gracia
“House of X” and “Powers of X” are called “two series that are one.” Jonathan Hickman loves weaving narratives like this. He did it with “Fantastic Four” and “FF,” and he did it again with “Avengers” and “New Avengers.” It also is handy for getting an “X-Men” issue out every week. It’s amazing that the artists are managing to draw two issues a month; it would be impossible to ask them to do twice as many. Pepe Larraz and R.B. Silva aren’t as stylistically different as say, Marc Silvestri and Humberto Ramos (who both did issues of the ‘Messiah Complex’ story), but they’re definitely not the same artist. That’s where colorist Marte Gracia comes in.
Gracia does the colors for both “House” and “Powers,” and he does a lot to unify the two titles. He does a lot to draw your focus in each panel. Larraz has a busy, detailed style, with lots of light sources, particles, sparks, smokes, and sprays of water. Comparatively, Silva has a much more Saturday-morning-style. His figures are broad, and transform to fit the story beat. When Mister Sinister gets angry, pixels shoot out of the side of his head. When the Steward Sinister gets scared, he’s surrounded by glowing clouds. Gracia helps guide your eye to the most important part of each panel. Even when Sinister is spraying visible emotions out of his ears, the colors are never as vivid. When the artist has rendered something especially impressive like say, an island palace made out of crystals, the sky is overcast to get that structure to pop.
More than acting as our guide though, Gracia also does his fair share of storytelling. In “House of X” #4, he uses color to lend or deny humanity to the casualties of battle. Jean, alive, and emotive, is in striking green and red. But Cyclops cradling Archangels dead body? An almost uniform shade of grey. When Wolverine kills a heap of humans, their corpses fade to monochrome- and so does he. He’s a weapon, they’re just faceless victims. But Kurt Wagner spares the lives of his targets, and he disappears into a glowing blue light. His captives are detailed and bathed in gold. Doubtlessly the script called for two panels that present the differences between the two characters, Larraz figured out how to frame the figures, but Gracia added an essential focus that brings the theme to the forefront of readers’ minds.
If you look to his greater body of work, Gracia is prolific at Marvel. He’s done colors for nearly every single character. But if there’s a unifying aspect of his work, it’s his strength as a storyteller. Whether coloring cartoonish Spidey villains, “Guardians of the Galaxy” weirdness, or a horrifying battle between Wolverine and Sabretooth, he more than carries his weight as a member of the creative team, like few other colorists do. Without him the “two series that are one” would not work nearly so well, and HOXPOX might not have blown up to be the smash hit that it is.
Continued belowThe Mutantversity Monthly Medals of Merit:
The Cable’s Pouch of X-Treme Grittiness Award
Given to a mutant for demonstrating badassitude and commitment to the 90s aesthetic
Monet/Penance
Previously, this award went to Stryfe for his choice to wear armor made of knives. But you know what’s cooler than armor made of knives? Being made of knives. And as we learned in “House of X” #4, Monet can now turn into her Penance form at will, meaning that when she fancies it, she can turn into a diamond hard, unfathomably sharp red demon of pointiness. That’s pretty X-Treme!
“Call Me Alex” Award
Given to a mutant filled with self-loathing about their identity
Emma Frost
She’s strong, she’s confident, and she loves herself. She’s also flawed, fragile, and full of regret. Emma Frost is just so good y’all. In “Powers of X” #5, we saw that she’s still sitting with the trauma of watching her students die, again and again. All of those doubts you might feel about Krakoa? Emma feels the too. Politics aside, she knows that a mutant island is a target for bigots, and as we learned in the most recent run of “Uncanny X-Men,” Emma is just ready to hide from the world. Her motivation? She wants to resurrect her students, all of whom were killed because they were mutants. The fact that Emma can continue to be so fabulous is an inspiration, but the fact that she has to live with so much sorrow and pain should be acknowledged.
“Professor Xavier is a Jerk” Award
Given to a mutant who acted like a real jerk
Forge
I once heard about this experiment where a professor asked their engineering students to design a pipe that could carry gallons of blood from one city to another. They submitted good designs, but not a single one of them questioned why such a thing was needed. And really that’s the operative question, right? Forge would be delighted by that sort of challenge. When he was asked to invent a gun to take away mutant powers, he had it ready by the weekend. And when Professor X came calling with his villainous smirk, asking for a soul harvesting machine, Forge asked about hard drive redundancies. My dude needs to get better about asking the important questions.
Merriest Mutant Award
Given to a mutant who found a rare moment of happiness
Mister Sinister (The Mutant One!)
Bar Sinister seems to be a terrifying place, but I can’t deny that Mister Sinister seems to be having the time of his life. He loves himself, and he gets to spend lots of quality time with himself. He murders his copies like a Looney Tune, writes gossip rags for himself, and spends the day talking about capes and shoes. I can’t claim Sinister is living his best life, but he’s living one that makes him happy.
Fastball Special Award
Given to a duo who exhibited great friendship, collaboration, and teamwork
Cyclops and Storm
Though they are probably the two greatest leaders of the X-Men, things have often been rocky for Scott and Ororo. When you’re the leader of a team of heroes, you have to make tough life or death decisions all the time. For the X-Men, those stakes often involve tricky racial politics, and the ethics of time travel. That’s what made the exchange between these two so moving. Since the day they worked together in the original mission on Krakoa, Cyclops and Storm have constantly been pushing each other to be better. Storm shocked Scott when she called him out for losing focus (in “Uncanny X-Men” #201), but she was right. But, she only knew how to recognize Scott’s weakness because of the lessons Scott taught her. And Scott could have thrown a hissy fit, quit and never looked back. But Storm taught him about real strength, the kind of strength to admit you’ve made a mistake. Even in the face of all these cosmic stakes, these two classic X-Men remind us how important friendship and teamwork are.
Continued below
Let’s Talk About X Baby Award
Given to the sweetest, sexiest, bestest romantic couple
Wolverine and Nightcrawler
We all remember the Wolverine/Nightcrawler cover to “Wolverine” #6 right? (If not, Google the whole story!) I guess my point is, there’s text, there’s subtext, there’s canon, and there’s shipping. But then there’s something that exists between all those things, and that’s pure chemistry. And that’s what Wolverine and Nightcrawler have. It’s the devotion they share, that goes beyond death parting them, the confidence that they will always end up back together. It’s hard for Wolverine to love. He’s a violent man, and the best thing he can hope for is to watch his loved ones die of old age as he continues to persist. But sometimes he can’t help falling in love, and his heart has been stolen by a fuzzy blue elf man, who will stick with him no matter what.
MVX: Most Valuable X-Man
Given to an X-Man who embodied the values of the team and showed all around X-cellence
Goldballs
We all just thought Fabio would Poink his way through life, lovably bumbling from one adventure to the next. Maybe he’d shoot his gold balls at evildoers. Maybe he’d figure out a way to sell them, make some cash. Maybe he’d just figure out a way to monetize his Twitch channel and enter a Super Smash Bros tournament. Nope! Turns out this good good boy was laying eggs the whole time, and was the first step in unlocking the secret to everlasting life. I hope he is happy, because he left everything behind to become one part of Xavier’s crazy Krakoa scheme. It’s that kind of sacrifice that makes Goldballs this month’s MVX!
Part of the fun of talking HOXPOX has been all the cool people I’ve gotten to know and all the crazy ideas rattling around their heads. Next time Mutantversity convenes, it will be the end of these two miniseries, and hopefully we’ll know a whole lot more. So I wanted to give everyone the chance for one last minute theory. Share your answers in the comments, or shout them at me on Twitter @Rambling_Moose.
Once and for all: is that Xavier under the helmet? Or is it someone else? Perhaps someone more… Sinister? Or is it his evil twin, Cassandra Nova? Or is it Moira? Fantomex? Beast? Erik the Red? No theory is too crazy for Mutantversity!
