Happy New Year!
Big things are happening at Marvel in 2024, and in this case the Krakoa Age of the X-Men is ending.
Whether you love it, hate it, or never really cared about it, you have to admit that the Krakoa Age was unique and did some really interesting things with the characters and mutant kind in general.
It all comes to end with “Rise of the Powers of X” #1
Written by Kieron GillenCover by: R. B Silva ad David Curiel
Illustrated by R.B Silva
Colored by David Curiel
Lettered by V.C Clayton Cowles
THE FIGHT FOR KRAKOA HAS BEEN LOST!
Ten years ago, the mutants returned from their exile to try and reclaim the Earth from the forces of Orchis. They failed. Now, within the victorious Orchis with their gauntlet choking the world, Nimrod and Omega Sentinel put their plan within a plan into action. They are to summon their binary god to consume everything in their accession. All that stands between them is the X-Men. What can they do? They’re the X-Men. They’ll find a way. That’s their power. So begins a story beyond time and space, with the rise of powers beyond our petty human intelligence. From writer Kieron Gillen (IMMORTAL X-MEN, UNCANNY X-MEN) and artist R.B. Silva (POWERS OF X, CAPTAIN AMERICA: SYMBOL OF TRUTH) comes half of the story that will bring the Krakoa Age to its conclusion!
Brace yourselves, because the synopsis of this book is going to be…interesting.
It’s ten years in the future and an organization called Orchis, an alliance made up of humans and artificial intelligence, has wiped out most of mutantkind. A handful of mutants and heroes have teamed up to strike at the heart of Orchis in an attempt to stop the machines from summoning their god before it’s created and winning the fight before it’s even begun. However, the machine’s plan is foiled by the counter plans of Mister Sinister, but it is revealed that THOSE plans were just a part of a multidimensional scheme that involves Moira Mctaggert and several alternate timelines that elevate the conflict from beyond the constraints of our universe and turn this into a fight for every reality across every dimension.
Are we all on the same page now? Good.
Needless to say, “Rise of the Powers of X” #1 is a bit confusing and can be difficult to follow, but long time comic book writer Kieron Gillen does a pretty good job of making things clear and easy to understand. Despite the truly massive stakes and dangers at hand, Gillen understands that the characters are at the core of the story, and he does a good job of keeping the interactions small and personal in the middle of the literal ending of the universe. The dialogue is well written and even if you don’t know who everyone is or what is going on, you can understand who they are and what they want from the action and dialogue. With that said, this book’s greatest accomplishment is the fact that a new reader could pick this book up and get something out of it having never read an X-Men book in their life, although why they would do that I don’t know.
While the writing is solid, “Rise of the Powers of X” #1 does suffer from the same problems that most of the X-Men books have suffered from over the past couple of years, and it’s mostly because of the infamous “Hickman exposition pages”, which long time X-Men readers should be very familiar with by now. For the uninitiated, the X-Men books have been doing this thing for the past couple of years where the book will include a random event or plot device and then have a single page dedicated to story exposition where it tells the reader about the new thing that’s happening. It’s an interesting narrative device that allows the book to explain the big picture quickly, but it kills the pacing of the story and at times it can leave the reader confused. Granted, it’s not necessarily a bad thing since it also forces the reader to take their time with the book and promotes a second or even third read through, but it’s also fair to say that these books aren’t for everyone and any upcoming changes might be for the best.
Continued belowThe artwork for “Rise of the Powers of X” #1 is provided by R.B Silva with colors by David Curiel. There isn’t much to say about the details of the art, mostly because it’s the same borderline photorealistic art style coupled with muted colors that has been used in most of the X-Men books for the past couple of years and has given the X books a similar look and feel. While it has done a great job of providing consistency to the dozens of titles and storylines, it will be nice to see if future books branch out and try something different.
While the art and colors were similar to the point of almost being boring, one of the things that they did do right was provide clarity to the story and allowed the reader to figure out what was going on. This is worth bringing up because “Rise of the Powers of X” #1 seems to forget this lesson, and the artwork decides to veer into the crowded and the abstract. Silva adds a lot of weird splotches and random hexagon designs to the pages, which makes the book look and feel crowded and messy. Again, it’s not necessarily a bad thing, this is a messy and chaotic book and the artwork does a great job of reflecting that, but sometimes it can be difficult to follow some of the action and figure out what is going on.
“Rise of the Powers of X” #1 is a massive send off to a massive event that involves alternate dimensions, timelines, and the destruction of years of mutant culture and history. As a result it’s a book that new readers may find daunting, confusing, and inaccessible without a lot of help from Wikipedia and other synopsis of the past few years of X-Men history. However, it’s helmed by a creative team that does a great job of limiting the confusion and manage to deliver an entertaining story that does manage to stand on its own.
Final Verdict: 8.5- It’s the end of a special age of mutantkind, but despite all the necessary baggage and backstory that comes with it, this book still manages to stand on its own and deliver an interesting story.
