House of X and Powers of X

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House of X
House of X #1
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Format	Limited series
Genre	Superhero
Publication date	July – October 2019
No. of issues	6
Main character(s)	X-Men
Creative team
Written by	Jonathan Hickman
Penciller(s)	Pepe Larraz
Inker(s)	Pepe Larraz
Letterer(s)	Clayton Cowles
Colorist(s)
Editor(s)	Jordan D. White Annalise Bissa

Powers of X
Powers of X #1
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Format	Limited series
Genre	Superhero
Publication date	July – October 2019
No. of issues	6
Main character(s)	X-Men
Creative team
Written by	Jonathan Hickman
Penciller(s)	R.B. Silva
Inker(s)	R.B. Silva Adriano Di Benedetto
Letterer(s)	Clayton Cowles
Colorist(s)
Editor(s)	Jordan D. White Annalise Bissa

House of X and Powers of X^[a] (abbreviated as HOX and POX) are two X-Men comic books created by writer Jonathan Hickman and artists Pepe Larraz, R.B. Silva and , published by Marvel Comics in 2019. Both comic books are part of a crossover storyline within the Marvel Universe that lead to the "Dawn of X" relaunch.

Publication history[]

After Jonathan Hickman completed his run on Avengers and New Avengers with the 2015 crossover Secret Wars, he stepped away from Marvel Comics for a time to focus on creator-owned projects. His return was announced in March 2019.^[1] Some days later, it was revealed that he would write two interlocking miniseries entitled House of X and Powers of X, with penciling by Pepe Larraz and R.B. Silva respectively. Marvel Editor in Chief C. B. Cebulski said that "We are excited to have Jon back with the Marvel family, and we could not have asked for a better creative team to help usher the X-Men into a whole new era"^[2]

The comics marked a company-wide relaunch of the X-Men. To this end, all ongoing X-Men comics - Uncanny X-Men, Mr. and Mrs. X, X-Force, X-23, and the Age of X-Man miniseries - were cancelled.^[3]

Plot[]

This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (September 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Reading order[]

1. House of X #1: "The House that Xavier Built"
2. Powers of X #1: "The Last Dream of Professor X"
3. House of X #2: "The Uncanny Life of Moira X"
4. Powers of X #2: "We Are Together Now, You and I"
5. Powers of X #3: "This Is What You Do"
6. House of X #3: "Once More unto the Breach"
7. House of X #4: "It Will Be Done"
8. Powers of X #4: "Something Sinister"
9. House of X #5: "Society"
10. Powers of X #5: "For the Children"
11. House of X #6: "House of X"
12. Powers of X #6: "I Am Not Ashamed"

Part 1: "The House that Xavier Built"[]

Somewhere, X (Professor X's mind is in Fantomex's body and wearing a different type of Cerebro helmet) watches over several beings emerging from cocoons. "To me, my X-Men," he says as they crawl towards him.

Starting five months ago, members of the X-Men began taking flowers from the island of Krakoa to various locations, notably Westchester County, New York, the Blue Area of the Moon, the Green Area on Mars, the Savage Land, Washington D.C., and the Jerusalem Habitat. Since then, they have grown into large bio-masses of plant life.

Now at the Jerusalem Habitat, several ambassadors arrive to the area, responding to a telepathic message sent by Charles Xavier to recognize a new sovereign nation of Mutants....Krakoa. The ambassadors are met by the newly appointed Krakoan ambassador Magneto.

As Jean Grey leads the mutant residents of the X-Mansion to Krakoa, information is given through diagrams on the layout of Krakoa as well as the main items of trade it produces: flowers designed for various purposes such as extending the human lifespan or creating portals directly to Krakoa.

Near the sun, spacecraft approach the station known as "The Forge," home base of a human group called Orchis. Orchis is the self-proclaimed "last hope" for humanity, made up of various members of human organizations such as A.I.M., S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra, Alpha Flight, and others, allied to prevent the extinction of homo sapiens to mutants. The Forge is based on the remnants of Sol's Hammer (a planet killer designed by The Illuminati during the lead-up to Secret Wars) and a Mother Mold (a Sentient machine designed to create "Master Molds" which in turn create Sentinels). Orchis was activated when Xavier's message went out to the world, seemingly a "trigger" for the eventual extinction of humanity.

Meanwhile, a team made up of Mystique, Sabretooth, and Toad infiltrate the base of Damage Control searching for information in the databases. While they get what they searched for, Sabertooth maims several guards in the chaos and is eventually captured by the Fantastic Four.

At the same time, Magneto leads the ambassadors through several worldwide Krakoan habitats, connected through portals. The ambassadors question the war-like capabilities of the instantaneous travel, which Magneto declares is instead of an "instrument of war" an "unassailable refuge." He also reveals that the ambassadors will not be going to the island of Krakoa, for "Man is not welcome there."

While the Fantastic Four are about to take away Sabretooth, Cyclops arrives to bring him back to Krakoa due to diplomatic immunity. While tensions arise between him and Mister Fantastic, Cyclops decides to leave Sabretooth to them to avoid a situation. While leaving, Invisible Woman asks if Cyclops and X are sure about what they are doing. Cyclops states that he believes in X and offers Invisible Woman's mutant son Franklin Richards a place to stay with his "family" on Krakoa before leaving.

Back with the Ambassadors, Magneto reveals to the Stepford Cuckoos that he is aware of the true nature of the ambassadors as potential plants within Krakoa (while hinting that one member has a true alliance to Orchis). While he claims he is not threatening them, Magneto declares that he wants humanity to understand that they "have new gods now."^[4]

Part 2: "The Last Dream of Professor X"[]

Year One (The Dream): At a fair in Oxford, Charles Xavier meets Moira Kinross (eventually MacTaggert) who asks why he is smiling. Charles explains that recently, he has had the "most wonderful dream," of his place in a better world referring to the eventual creation of Xavier's School and the X-Men. Moira stops for a second, before stating, "Well, here's the thing Charles... It's not a dream if it's real." Charles questions whether they have met before, which Moira responds to by asking him to read her mind. Charles reads Moira's mind, and his eyes go wide.

Year Ten (The World): In present day, Mystique and Toad arrive on Krakoa after the infiltration of Damage Control. Mystique takes the flash drive with their findings on it to X and Magneto, who enter it into a computer to view the contents.

Year One Hundred (The War): In a dark future Earth, humans and mutants are locked in an apocalyptic, decades-long war, ultimately stemming from the creation of the mutant nation-state on Krakoa. A series of journal notes interspersed throughout the issue provide historical backstory:

• Both sides engaged in an arms race focused on hybridizing themselves with better technology. Humans at first relied on robotic Sentinels to fight mutants, but over time they became increasingly reliant on cybernetic upgrades, mixing the best of man and machine. Eventually a "Human-Machine Supremacy" came to dominate the planet, ruled by a man-machine called Nimrod the Lesser and his Sentinels. Mutants, meanwhile, developed "Chimeras" - mutants genetically engineered by Mister Sinister to mix-and-match powerful abilities from other mutants.
• For a time, the Supremacy genetically engineered Hounds to hunt other mutants (like in the Days of Future Past timeline), but they generally proved unreliable, often defecting back to their own kind, and the last production facility was shut down ten years ago. As their emphasis shifted from hunting mutants to fighting frontline mutant armies, the last generation of Hounds were programmed to be infiltrators and double-agents, though they were also for the most part ineffective.
• Originally the mutant side succeeded by using hit-and-run attacks, but eventually this worked too well: when they had to overtly hold captured territory, there were too many mutants to simply hide, so they shifted to a more aggressive, militaristic stance. The mutant faction even established a foothold on Mars, as the war spread throughout the solar system. Needing more of a frontline army, they turned to Sinister, who established breeding vats in a facility on Mars. The first generation he made were simply mass-produced clones, but taking inspiration from the genetic engineering used by the humans' Hound program, the second generation were Chimeras that combined the genetic templates of two to five different mutants. The third generation mixed the genetic material from up to five different mutants in one person, and was highly successful. Sinister's creations managed to protect Krakoa for thirty years after their introduction.
• In circumstances only vaguely described, Mister Sinister orchestrated the near-universal death or disappearance of mutantkind's senior leaders, as he had been acting in his own self-interest from the start. Soon afterwards, disaster struck the Mars base: the fourth generation of Sinister's mutants (the third Chimera generation) had an inherent flaw that led to them developing a psychic hive-mind while still at the production facility. The spontaneous awakening of this hive-mind unleashed massive energies that destroyed them and the Mars facility - just as Sinister had planned. This was soon followed by the "fall of Krakoa". Sinister betrayed mutantkind in order to defect to the Man-Machine Supremacy, in return for promised reward, but instead they publicly executed him. In one fell swoop, the Sentinel-cyborgs essentially won the war.
• The "present" day of the X2 timeline is set 90 years after the formation of the mutant state on Krakoa (the present-day in the X1 timeline). The fall of Krakoa and the Mars disaster occurred within the past decade. Barely 10,000 mutants are still alive - all having fled to the protection of the Shi'ar Empire in space, while mutants have been totally eradicated from the Solar system itself. A small team of eight mutants remains on a local asteroid seeded by Krakoa, dubbed "Asteroid K", from which they open gateway portals to Earth and launch missions against the Man-Machine Supremacy. Earth itself has been left devastated by decades of war. The surviving mutants hold out vain hope that they can eventually convince the Shi'ar to annex Earth and be used to spearhead the invasion.

A small team of mutants led by a Chimera named Rasputin IV (who was made from the genetic templates of Shadowcat, Colossus, Quentin Quire, Unus the Untouchable, and X-23) escape from a group of Sentinels but lose two of their own in the process; Percival is killed, and Cylobel is captured. Cylobel is taken to Nimrod, who charismatically apologizes to her for everything he has done, before trapping her within an experimental hive-mind creator and killing her. Rasputin and the remaining mutant Cardinal (who was made from the genetic templates of Francis Fanny, Nightcrawler, and Rachel Summers) escape to arrive at their base through a Krakoan flower, where they are met by the only remaining mutant resistance, including the Last Horsemen of Apocalypse members Wolverine as War, Cypher as Famine, North (who was made from the genetic template of Emma Frost and Polaris) as Pestilence, and Xorn as Death. Rasputin IV and Cardinal confirm their mission was not in vain, and Wolverine leads them to "the old man."

Year One Thousand (Ascension): In the archive of Nimrod the Greater, a blue-skinned being known as the Librarian converses with Nimrod on the final fate of his hive-mind experiment, which proved pointless due to the 'surprising' final fate of the war. He then looks at a nature preserve where two nude human figures reside, reflecting that it is important to keep a record of "the great sins of history" so that "they never have Dominion again."^[5]

Part 3: "The Uncanny Life of Moira X"[]

Moira I: Moira Kinross (later Cowan) lives an unassuming life as a teacher, with a husband and three children. Moira later dies peacefully at the age of 74 from natural causes.

Moira II: After her death, Moira suddenly finds herself back in her mother's womb with all the memories of her previous life. Moira is actually a mutant with the ability of resurrection. While she conceals her nature as best she can, she is nevertheless considered a prodigy and decides to become an academic in biology and psychology at Oxford to understand what she is. After two decades of research, she spots her former classmate Charles Xavier revealing himself as a mutant on television. Realizing this opportunity, she takes a flight to America that proves fatal after it crashes in the ocean.

Moira III: In this life, Moira instead decides to focus on anthropology and genetics and seeks out Xavier while at Oxford. However, Xavier's arrogance and Moira's distaste for her own nature leads her to devote her life to creating a cure for mutation. She succeeds only for her lab to be destroyed and her colleagues to be killed by Mystique, Pyro and Destiny. Destiny's precognitive powers allow her to realize Moira is actually a mutant invisible by standard mutant detection methods. She warns Moira that if she ever decides to act against mutants again, Destiny will kill her before her X-gene activates at the age of 13, which would kill her permanently. She also tells Moira that she cannot resurrect indefinitely and that she will only have ten lives or eleven "if [she makes] the right choice in the end". Destiny then orders Pyro to burn Moira alive slowly so that she will never forget this encounter.

Moira IV: Moira decides to throw herself headfirst into the cause of mutant-human co-existence and once again pursues Xavier at Oxford, with the two becoming lovers. They go through what is implied to be the pre-House of X history of the X-Men before finally being killed by Sentinels in a Days of Future Past-like future.

Moira V: Having become radicalized by the experience, Moira decides to meet Xavier even earlier and convince him to create an isolated haven for mutants. Nevertheless, the Sentinels eventually attack the haven and destroy it and Moira.

Moira VI: Not revealed at the time.

Moira VII: Moira forgoes science entirely and instead becomes an assassin dedicating her life to exterminating the entire Trask family to prevent the creation of the Sentinels, but they arise as an inevitable consequence of technological development and humanity's fear of mutants. They once again exterminate mutantkind.

Moira VIII: Further radicalized, Moira decides to ally with Magneto instead of Xavier. They are both defeated by the combined forces of the Avengers and the X-Men, and Moira dies during a failed prison escape.

Moira IX: Even further radicalized, Moira decides to ally with Apocalypse and go to war with humankind.

Moira X: Facing her last life and looking back at all her experiences, Moira decides that in this timeline, she and Xavier will "break all the rules." She meets Xavier in Oxford and tells him to read her mind showing him all she has done.^[6]

Part 4: "We Are Together Now, You and I"[]

Year One: Professor X and Moira McTaggert visit Magneto on his island base in Bermuda. Despite initially mistrusting him, Professor X has resolved his differences with Magneto, and Magneto agrees to open his mind to them. Moira reveals her true nature to him, giving Magneto a glimpse into her previous lives. Seeing the many ways in which he has failed, Magneto agrees to Professor X and Moira's proposal, a long-term plan to guarantee the future of mutantkind.

Year Ten: Magneto and Xavier show Cyclops the plans of a Mother Mold. They believe that it will usher in a new generation of Sentinels and the emergence of Nimrod. They order a strike on the Mother Mold, which is on a station orbiting the sun, and Cyclops leaves to assemble a team.

Year One Hundred: Cardinal and Rasputin IV return successful from their mission, having retrieved an indexing machine which will allow them to know the location of key machine intelligence. Krakoa manages to successfully decrypt the index, revealing the location. Wolverine's war form points out that the information is useless since they would have to hold off the Sentinels in order to access the information (i.e. a suicide mission), but Apocalypse assures them that they will succeed as he will personally lead them.

Year One Thousand: The Librarian and Nimrod have been successful in their plan. In order to prove their value to the higher civilizations in the universe, they create a replica Worldmind, which is found by the Phalanx who successfully consume it and come to Earth to find its creators.^[7]

Part 5: "This Is What You Do"[]

Year One Hundred: At the Temple of Concordance, the X-Men attack the Church of Ascendancy, an organization dedicated to the worship of the machines. Omega Sentinel watches from the Human-Machine Monolith and tries to convince Nimrod the Lesser to investigate, but he refuses. Omega confronts the X-Men, and when where she and her squadron of Sentinels gain the upper hand, Rasputin IV removes the mask of Xorn's Death form to unleash the black hole contained within his head, killing all the remaining X-Men and the Sentinels.

Meanwhile, Apocalypse leads Wolverine's War form and Cypher's Famine form into an old machine databank to find an information crystal. They are successful in finding it but are intercepted by Nimrod. Famine opens a portal for them to retreat, and Apocalypse stays behind to buy time before escaping himself. Back in the safety of Asteroid K, War releases Mother Akkaba, also known as Moira, from her stasis. He presents her with the information crystal, force-feeding the information into her mind. Apocalypse requests War kill Moira, and with her consent, he kills her to resurrect knowing the precise time of when Nimrod emerges. The Year One Hundred storyline is thus revealed to take place during Moira's ninth life.^[8]

Part 6: "Once More unto the Breach"[]

Cyclops informs X and Magneto that he has assembled a team (Wolverine, Husk, Archangel, M, Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, and Mystique) in order to attack the Mother Mold facility orbiting the Sun. After meeting, they embark on the mission.

In the superhuman prison known as Project Achilles, a trial is being held for Sabretooth. The trial is interrupted by Emma Frost who presents the judge with a pardon from the U.S. Supreme Court as the U.S. government has agreed to a general amnesty for all mutants on American soil in anticipation of Krakoa becoming a sovereign nation. Despite the protests of the human officials at the court, Emma and Sabretooth are allowed to walk free and return to Krakoa.

On the Orchis Forge where the Mother Mold is being constructed, the human scientists detect that the X-Men are inbound. Nightcrawler is sent in for recon and encounters the chief scientist and Omega Sentinel. Omega Sentinel deduces that the X-Men plan to attack the control collars in order to send the Mother Mold hurtling into the Sun. The X-Men dock onto the station and attempt entry. The chief of security, Erasmus, sets off a bomb and kills himself while destroying the X-Men's vessel.^[9]

Part 7: "It Will Be Done"[]

On Krakoa, X and Magneto contact Marvel Girl to monitor the mission. Jean reveals that Archangel and Husk were killed in the explosion set off by Erasmus while Wolverine and Nightcrawler were injured. Deciding that they still need to finish the mission at any cost, Nightcrawler teleports Cyclops, Wolverine, and Mystique into strategic locations in order to destroy the control collars, with Nightcrawler himself taking the last one while Jean and M staying on the ship in order to maintain the connection to Krakoa.

Wolverine and Nightcrawler are successful in destroying the collars, but the ship is boarded by Orchis forces. Monet ensures Jean leaves in an escape pod while remaining on board to cover her escape. She transforms into her Penance form and begins fighting the humans. Cyclops finds and disengages his control collar, but Mystique is intercepted as she finds hers and is killed when Doctor Gregor opens an airlock.

Desperate, the humans activate the Mother Mold, not knowing whether it will be sane or not. X tells them to do whatever it takes to stop it. Wolverine and Nightcrawler volunteer to head to the final switch which is now in a vacuum. Nightcrawler teleports Wolverine onto the collar before being instantly evaporated by the sun. Wolverine's healing factor allows him time to carve through it before he too is evaporated as the Mother Mold hurtles into the sun.

With the mission complete, Cyclops tries to locate Jean's pod, but Doctor Gregor executes him. The Sentinel drones arrive, intercept Jean's pod, and work to kill her. As his proteges have seemingly all died at the hands of humans once again, X cries and vows "no more."^[10]

Part 8: "Something Sinister"[]

Year One: X and Magneto head to the island of Bar Sinister to seek Mister Sinister's assistance to build a database of mutant DNA. He declines, but is promptly killed by another Mister Sinister clone with the mutant gene. That version readily agrees to help. Xavier then wipes the memory of their meeting from Mister Sinister's mind.

Year Ten: Several months ago, X and Cypher traveled to the sentient island of Krakoa. X brought Cypher deep into the island to meet the entity of Krakoa. Cypher conversed with Krakoa as he learned its language and some of its history. He revealed to X that Krakoa was once one island Okkara that was split into two islands named Arakko and Krakoa by the arrival of an enemy. This enemy sought to destroy the world and was stopped by the arrival of Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen. Later, X telepathically revealed his plans to Cypher. He tasked Cypher with building an interface system on Krakoa to allow the mutants to communicate with the island, and Cypher successfully creates a program that allows mutants to interact with the island without his help. Additionally, Cypher helped create four systems, transit and monitoring, defense and observation, secondary and external systems, and overwatch and data analysis, controlled by Sage, Black Tom Cassidy, Trinary, and Beast. There are rumors too that Forge built a large subterranean laboratory to help build biological machines as well.

Year One Thousand: The Librarian offers himself to the Phalanx in hopes of ascension and offers an orb. The Phalanx assimilates it and transforms into a large, spherical shape, confusing the assembled group. The group explains that the Phalanx only absorb machine intelligence they find useful, and the Librarian has created an empty vessel and copied himself over into it in the hopes of ascension. They await for the Phalanx to decide if the form is acceptable.^[11]

Part 9: "Society"[]

On Krakoa, X, Magneto, Storm, and Polaris assemble and are joined by five other mutants: Eva Bell, Proteus, Hope Summers, Elixir, and Egg.

Magneto explains that the five mutants, collectively known as The Five, are able to revive deceased mutants. Egg creates unviable eggs, which Proteus in a Professor X husk makes viable using his powers. The preserved DNA of a mutant is then injected into the eggs, and Elixir initiates cellular replication while Eva Bell uses her powers to accelerate their growth. Hope uses her powers to help the others operate at their peak and in unison allowing them to revive any deceased mutants.

Magneto further explains that X has been using Cerebro to copy the mind of any mutants found, so he can put their mind back in these empty shells as needed. X watches over several beings emerging from the eggs. "To me, my X-Men" he says as they crawl towards him. He places Cyclops's visor on him and watches as the group stands, thanking them all.

Storm brings The Five and the revived mutants out, proudly announcing that The Five has allowed the nation of Krakoa to defeat death. She then introduces the revived mutants individually to the assembled crowd, assuring the crowd that they are the mutants they've known. X and Magneto watch the events from afar and discuss what remains unfinished. They discuss the upcoming United Nations vote on Krakoa's inclusion into the organization. Magneto asks if Charles is worried, but Xavier simply says that today, he is filled with hope. The revived mutants enter the crowd as Storm calls them the "Heroes of Krakoa".

At the U.N. Headquarters, X, Beast, and Emma Frost celebrate with other ambassadors for gaining recognition of Krakoa as a nation. X and Emma telepathically discuss the events as Emma hints she manipulated the Russian ambassador to abstain from the vote. X thanks her for her work and promises that he has bold plans for her in the future. Informational pages reveal that over 100 countries accepted a trade deal with Krakoa and that several others are still negotiating trade deals. They also reveal that several countries rejected a trade deal for ideological and political reasons, including Iran, North Korea, Latveria, Russia, Brazil, and Honduras. Wakanda alone rejected a trade deal, stating that they did not need the mutant drugs, as did its three economic protectorates - Azania, Canaan, and Kenya.

Two days after the U.N. vote, X, Magneto, and Wolverine wait at several portals. Wolverine expresses his misgivings about the upcoming event, but X and Magneto assure him all will be alright. Soon after, several villainous mutants, including Mister Sinister, Sebastian Shaw, Exodus, Selene, and Apocalypse arrive through the portals. Apocalypse expresses satisfaction at arriving, and Krakoa responds in the same way. Magneto and Xavier reveal that they have invited all mutants to Krakoa to form a society, including past opponents. The assembled villainous mutants agree to their terms, and Xavier shakes Apocalypse's hand, welcoming him and the others to their home.^[12]

Part 10: "For the Children"[]

Year One: X meets with Forge and asks him to modify Cerebro to allow it to store duplicate mutants' minds. Forge claims the storage and power required are far beyond anything on Earth, but X reveals he has access to Shi'ar technology capable of overcoming that limitation. When Forge asks if he must redesign a new system or build it onto Cerebro, X leaves the decision in Forge's hands and simply asks, "Are you--or are you not--going to build it for me?"

Year Ten: X and Magneto meet with Emma Frost in the Louvre in order to recruit the Hellfire Corporation to aid in the establishment of Krakoa. Emma believes the idea of establishing another mutant nation-state is a recipe for disaster, but she is ultimately convinced by seeing Krakoa first hand. X explains that they need the Hellfire Corporation's help in distributing Krakoa's exclusive drugs to the rest of the world which Emma compares to becoming "the East India Trading Company of mutantdom". X offers Emma a seat on Krakoa's council along with Sebastian Shaw, so he can run black book operations in countries that reject Krakoa's sovereignty. Emma accepts on one condition: She will need an additional seat on the council. Later, X sends a telepathic message worldwide summoning all mutants to Krakoa. The only one shown rejecting it is Namor, who claims that X doesn't truly believe that he is superior to the rest of humanity and tells him to come back when he "really means it."

Year One Thousand: The Phalanx accept the Librarian's offer and destroy his group's leader. The Librarian asks Nimrod why they did this, and Nimrod speculates that the Phalanx are part of a truly massive intelligence hosted in a network of black holes. By adding other intelligence to their own, they consume their own physical form, which they will now do to Earth.^[13]

Part 11: "House of X"[]

One month prior to the events of the series, X, Magneto, and Moira meet in Moira's No-Space underneath Krakoa. Xavier uses Cerebro to offer Krakoa's miracle drugs to all of humanity in exchange for three conditions: Krakoa's inclusion in the United Nations, Krakoan citizenship for all mutants, and amnesty for all mutant criminals. His message is heard by everyone around the world, mankind and mutants alike.

Information pages reveal that the Quiet Council of Krakoa includes 13 members: X, Magneto, Apocalypse, Mister Sinister, Exodus, Mystique, Sebastian Shaw, Emma Frost, Storm, Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, and the Red King, with Cypher speaking for Krakoa itself. They are assisted by the four Great Captains who lead in times of conflict: the Captain Commander Cyclops, Gorgon, Bishop, and Magik.

In the present, the Quiet Council meets to design the laws of their nation. After much deliberation, the Council devises the first three laws of the nation of Krakoa: mutants must make other mutants, mutants shall not murder humans, and the land of Krakoa must be respected. The Council finds Sabretooth guilty of violating the second law and sentences him to exile deep within the bowels of Krakoa. Krakoa swallows him up as X laments the business of running a nation.

After the Council adjourns, they celebrate the birth of their new nation with the other residents of Krakoa as X and Magneto proudly look on.^[14]

Part 12: "I Am Not Ashamed"[]

Year One Thousand: The Librarian strolls through the Preserve, which is revealed to hold mutants, not baseline humans as previously hinted. He comes across Wolverine and Moira (who has survived via blood transfusions from the former for the past millennium) and informs them he is arranging for them to be taken off the planet before Ascension. It is revealed that the Librarian and his race are post-humans (homo novissima), humans who have used genetic engineering and technology to direct their own evolution and thus outnumber mutant kind. The Librarian explains that if Moira dies when the Phalanx destroy the Earth before Ascension, she can use her powers to stop them. However, if she is left behind, the Dominion can use their consciousness spread throughout all of space and time to stop Moira instead. Wolverine kills the Librarian and then kills Moira so she can use her knowledge to stop the ascent of post-humanity. This is then revealed to be Moira's sixth life.

Year One: When Xavier sees all of Moira's lifetimes, Xavier is crushed by the experience and the revelation that mutant-kind will always lose. Moira explains that the one constant throughout all her lives is that Professor X is a good person and that she had to break that part of him to ensure mutant survival.

Year Ten: X and Magneto meet Moira at her No-Space to inform her about the new Council. Moira is suspicious about Emma not having named her extra Council seat yet but X trusts her. X also informs Moira that in order to convince Mystique to join, they made a promise that they'd resurrect Destiny. Moira is opposed to "pre-cogs" in Krakoa since they will end up revealing mutants' ultimate fate and jeopardizing the project. But X and Magneto promise this will be different and that the time has come for Moira to step aside. X and Magneto renew their commitment to fight for mutant-kind. Magneto proclaims "I am not ashamed of what I am. Let's see them try to stop us this time."^[15]

Reception[]

House of X holds an average rating of 9.2 by 130 professional critics,^[16] while Powers of X holds a rating of 8.8 by 121 critics on review aggregation website .^[17]

Prints[]

House of X issues[]

Powers of X issues[]

Collected editions[]

References[]

Note[]

Footnotes[]