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With nearly half the votes, the group has chosen House of X/Powers of X by Jonathan Hickman to be our November 2021 Book of the Month!

What did you think of this one?

As a reminder, this thread is FULL SPOILERS for House of X/Powers of X.

Finally the X-Men comics are good again. It's a great starting point for new readers while satisfying the itch for long time X-Men fans. I thought it was very clever how Hickman rebooted the X-Men and there's some really cool concepts in here. I love how he used a lot of the X-Men's history while still making it accessible to new readers. I know diving into the X-Men can be daunting for new readers.

The infographics pages drive me nuts though and I don't like how they waste pages in every X-book. Long term since HoX/PoX, I don't think the X-Men books have held the same quality, particularly as Hickman has become less and less involved. When he completely leaves the X-titles, I probably will as well.

OK to Air

Besides the amazing retcon of Moira, which centralized her as one of the most important mutants ever born... Hickman inserts mutant information throughout the book in the form of documents showing power levels or related events. The genius of the mutants creating goods that mankind would want in exchange for equality is mindblowing. From the ability to bring the dead back to life... to having all mutants bonded together as one... to the way Hickman pieced the story telling together Pulp Fiction style... it is a master class in comics. Hickman is a beast. Bravo!

Full ready to read this book for the� 5th time(?).

More to come this month on IRCB’s Patreon!

You can't post nice clean links on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ comments anymore, but you can find the book at:

Comixology Unlimited -

Hoopla -

I bought the hardcover when it came out and have yet to crack it open, looking forward to finally reading it! I have about 0 X-Men knowledge so should be interesting!

Have not read yet but noticed the Comixology Unlimited listing specifies 430 pages while the Hoopla listing specifies *304*. Turns out the Hoopla version is actually 431 pages. Not sure where the single page diff comes in. The beginnings and ends look the same in the page overviews, but at least it's not 126 pages different.

So now you know, borrow at will.

So excited to see this chosen as this month's book! A really thrilling re-invention of the X-Men. Love the new backstory for Moira -- I want a whole series just about her! And I love the various sci-fi elements incorporated into the universe, like the cloning / reincarnation stuff. I do think the data file pages really hurt the pace though.

OK to air

TL;DR: I am ambivalent about X-Men (and Big Two in general). I did vote for HoX/PoX as BotM because I'd read many of the other nominees and been ambivalent about them as well. This book did not change my mind, but I am almost definitely not the target audience.

The art (linework, colors, and lettering) was beautiful, beyond the occasional Xavier pose that looked like he was about to break into interpretive dance.

So. Many. Mutants. As an X-Men dilettante, I have no idea who was strictly following type, who was rewritten, or who was entirely new. As typically happens to me with Big Two books, I felt overwhelmed and uninformed, even though this is being touted as a reboot and jumping on point.

I found the Year One Thousand storyline very numbing. It did pay off in the end, but I have read far too many mind-numbing ascendancy/cataclysm/void stories in comics and sf, so my brain just refuses to get involved.

I really enjoyed “The Uncanny Life of Moira X� chapter. If I had just been reading HoX/PoX outside BotM, I probably would have given up before reaching it so thank you. The Moira timeline graphics were also the most useful data pages, really well done.

Which finally brings me to the data pages. Ugh. There were a few bits in there that would be almost impossible to convey graphically, but so much of it I would have preferred to see as sequential art pages. I kept waiting for them to be revealed to be a character, but other than the pages explicitly Moira's notes, they were� script and background. They came across as process scripts usually found at the end of a trade, but inserted like the “rough storyboard deleted scenes� in a movie bonus feature. When inserted in the storyline with such great care of design including side annotations I felt I needed to find connections for (and failed miserably), I found it very offputting. If I'd been paying for paper editions, I could also see myself becoming grumpy about the number of sparse pages each with a single pull quote.

OK to air.

I wanted to give this book a chance for X-Men (& ElfQuest) brought me into the comics world years ago- but this book is just too much. In Paul's above review, he mentioned it was supposed to be a reboot and jumping on point, and I agree with him that it was not. While I haven't followed the X-Men much in recent years I still have a solid base knowledge (or so I thought) of who is who, but I was confused as to who some of the mutants were and their current or former affiliations. While the Moira timelines & Krakoa utopia for the mutants were interesting, it wasn't enough to hook me for the entire book.

A high point was the lush artwork, but I hated when Prof X wore that ridiculous helmet, and what was the deal with his pose on the opening page? The data pages were overkill, although a few were helpful for background knowledge. The variants at the end were steller.

Overall, this story didn't cut it for me. I have to admit I didn't even read the entirety of it, for it overwhelmed me and I didn't want to force myself to slog through it all. The X-Men still hold a special place in my heart, but I'll have to read other stories for my X-Men fix. *Ok to air*

Someone can correct me, but I did read Astonishing X-Men, Vol. 1: Life of X, in which Fantomex basically gives up his body so that Charles Xavier can be reborn.

I don't know if this explains "X" walking around with that Cerebro helmet on his head, but I know Fantomex was pretty shy.

For anyone who missed it, here's our discussion for this month's BotM on Patreon!