Fantastic Four – Secret Society Comics

Geopolitics, genocide, drugs, religion, corporate entities, Magneto — House of X #1 has it all. This is the kind of story that requires you to pay attention.

That one promo image for HOUSE OF X that you’ve seen 5,000 times.

The Most Important Things from HOUSE OF X #1

Humans of the planet Earth. While you slept, the world changed.
Professor X, epigraph

What is Krakoa?

Krakoa is Charles Xavier’s perfect mutant habitat, a garden of Eden with no snake, no fruit of knowledge, no Eve, no Adam — and especially no God. The island is the seat of the sovereign mutant nation-state established two months ago.

Cyclops says that “New beginnings demand a wide berth.” In the opening pages, we see X-Men planting flowers around the world over a five month period. They’re planting roots in the natural world to grow the infrastructure of their sovereign mutant nation.

Only mutants can access Krakoa. Advantageous gateways allow mutants to travel all around the world via the Krakoan ecosystem, but only mutants can access those portals. If humans are present, the gateway grants or denies permission for them to enter — but only if a mutant asks on the human’s behalf.

Make no mistake: Charles Xavier is creating a distinct culture, with its own language, land, economy, environment, and drugs.

The Flowers of Krakoa

This chapter title refers to the flowers/drugs that allow mutants to access different environments and states of consciousness unavailable to humans.

We learn that Xavier acquired a pharmaceutical company to produce pills that enhance the immune system, lifespan, and mental health of humans exclusively.

This sets up an interesting contrast between humans and mutants. Mutants: natural (flowers), community-centered. Humans: synthetic (pills), self-centered.

Krakoa Pacific

The introductory pages provide a geography of Krakoa, with indicators to 12 key locations.

According to Dr. Gregor, who is a pretty foundational character in the series, humans only have 20 years left before extinction.

Pan to outer space, where we see The Forge — a space station shaped like a giant Sentinel head. This outpost will help humanity “survive the coming days” in accordance with the Orchis Protocol (explained below).

Orchis Protocol: Build for Doomsday

This protocol is a response to a unique scenario when human population is threatened with extinction, the moment when natural selection finally chooses mutantkind over mankind.

The word “Orchis” is derived from Greek for “testicle.”

Three triggers cause this doomsday scenario, and they’re distinctly political:

Population: mutant gene rates are escalating
Financial: Charles Xavier acquired the seventh-largest pharmaceutical company in the world to make cure-all pills, a move predicted to destabilize the industry and provide him a unique advantage
Territorial: the nation of Krakoa is established

After this context, we see mutants obtain a copy of the combined database from 2 smartest people in the world. They are confronted with the Fantastic Four upon their escape. The contents of the data are unknown, and it makes a solid cliffhanger.

Damage Control

There is a corporate entity weaponizing Iron Man’s and Mister Fantastic’s technology. They add this ownerless intellectual property to an archive of similar assets where there is no clear chain of custody over that intellectual property.

Scott Summers/Cyclops tries to diffuse the situation with the Fantastic Four. using it as an opportunity to state Xavier’s politics. This moment draws an interesting and deliberate line between Marvel’s heroes and their ideologies.

Omega Level

The book ends by suggesting Magneto finally has his chance to be a god.

Omega Level mutants are an elite class of the world’s most powerful mutants, of whom the Krakoan state is especially protective. Magneto is one of these rare beings.

Charles Xavier has made you an offer — one full of grace and brotherly love — but one that is also written in stone. This is not a negotiation. Things will be different now, and the sooner you realize the finality of your situation — and the inevitability of ours — the sooner you will be grateful for the things we are so generously giving to you.
Magneto

Mutants are the new gods, so it’s fitting that the ever-dramatic Magneto needed to make this statement in Jerusalem, the birthplace of the three Abrahamic religions: Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.

Time is a Flat Circle

The book, after starting with a quote from Charles Xavier, ends with a Magneto quote.

I have a new word for the lexicon of man: KRAKOA. And in the future, when you speak it, make sure you do so softly and with proper deference. For we will be listening.
Magneto

This speaks to the unity of mutants, and also makes the reader question just how aligned Xavier and Magneto really are. Would Xavier threaten humanity this blatantly? Is he already doing that?

HOUSE OF X & POWERS OF X Reading Order

“Two Series That Are One.”

House of X #1	July 24, 2019
Powers of X #1	July 31, 2019
House of X #2	August 7, 2019
Powers of X #2	August 14, 2019
Powers of X #3	August 21, 2019
House of X #3	August 28, 2019
House of X #4	September 4, 2019
Powers of X #4	September 11, 2019
House of X #5	September 18, 2019
Powers of X #5	September 25, 2019
House of X #6	October 2, 2019
Powers of X #6	October 9, 2019

Rating 9.5/10

Jonathan Hickman writes a unique premise that engages a lot of contemporary social and political issues.
Incredible graphic design from Tom Muller.
Bright and luscious colors from Marte Gracia softened the heaviness of Pepe Larraz’s lines, creating art that is on par for Marvel.

Susan Storm is one bored MILF.

I assume that bored moms let their minds wander to the past, a time when they were less bored. If a bored mom is unemployed now, she might think about former career highlights. If her children are young, and if there are a lot of them, she might fantasize about the days when all she had to worry about was herself. If she’s unhappy in their marriage, she might think about more emotionally and sexually attentive boyfriends and lovers from the past.

From what I can see in issue #1 of Invisible Woman, Susan Storm is a bored mom. This is very clear, and yet I think I’m the first one to come out and just say it already. The creative team connects the past and present in issue one to explore Susan’s determination to break free from matronly routines.

What happens in issue #1?

Writer Mark Waid opens the series with a flashback to back to more than a decade ago, during Susan’s espionage mission for S.H.I.E.L.D.. What happens in that mission doesn’t matter at all. The scene merely exists to establish her relationship to her handsome partner, Aidan Tintreach (whom she calls Squarejaw), and their differing approaches to their line of work. He is fine with killing if it means surviving a mission; she isn’t.

That’s not where their differences end. Aidan/Squarejaw wants to be with his beloved “Stormy” romantically. She denies him that honor because she’s busy with the Fantastic Four. She’s also engaged to Reed Richards.

Fast-forward several years later, during which Susan doesn’t age at all. There’s some internal monologuing about she’s fine with being stuck in a routine before she is summoned to the C.I.A. headquarters. There, she learns that Aidan has been captured by terrorists/spies and is being tortured for intel. As he was being captured, he left a coded message: Stormy. How romantic!

Naturally, the old, white C.I.A. man tells her that she is not to intervene whatsoever. Naturally, Susan flies to Moravia, the fictional Marvel country where Aidan is likely being held hostage. Once she’s there, she meets the Black Widow, who bears a freaky resemblance to Nicole Kidman. Marvel just can not resist a crossover.

Rating 5/10

Until the series concludes, I’ll tag along for the distinct pleasure of looking at Mattia de Iulis’s art. It’s as if he’s spent his whole life analyzing the way light bathes objects and people. The way he renders fabrics — cloth, suits, cotton, denim, and leather — is overwhelmingly satisfying, better than real life. If someone from 1910 saw the realism of his art, they would have died from shock.

Mark Waid, if left to his own devices, might make this a story about Aidan and Susan’s chemistry, which might boil over into something physical when they inevitably meet again. Marvel, if left to its own devices, will not let that happen. Marital infidelity is not part of Disney’s (and by extension, Marvel’s) brand. I expect some lukewarm compromise between these two possibilities, filled with mostly action scenes.

Tag: Fantastic Four

Everything You Need to Know about House of X #1