This Is The End, My Friend: Reviewing ‘Rise Of The Powers Of X’ #1

Krakoa’s end is nigh, but the mutants who remain aren’t going to take the machinations of the machines lying down. Existence itself is at stake, across all of time and space and what lies beyond.

It all gets a bit timey-wimey in Rise Of The Powers Of X #1 from Kieron Gillen, R.B. Silva, David Curiel, and Clayton Cowles.

Let’s address this off the bat. Trying to be a thematic follow-up to House Of X and Powers Of X, undeniably one of the best one-two punches in all X-history, is a tough mission. Those books altered everything and gave us one of the best eras of X. We already got the first of two companion books meant to capture this feeling, Fall Of The House Of X, and it was the furthest thing from House Of X that one could get (for good or bad is subjective).

This second one though? Well, that’s a much different story.

No surprise that Gillen is the type of writer who can match much of what Hickman brought to the page. It still has a bit of an uphill battle being a book which means to bring an end to an era that many do not want to see end, but it’s chugging along pretty well so far.

Everything began with a tangle of timelines, lives lived, and the revelations of how Moira MacTaggart was at the heart of everything. Only fitting to end things with just as many tangled weaving timelines/lives, and the focus that Moira’s place as the key might still have some power.

I have to rewind to a comment made recently in the Immortal X-Men #18 review. I spoke about how disappointing it was that Doctor Stasis’s attempt to achieve Dominion was a throwaway line rather than something we got to see. Oh look, it was something we got to see as that was the twist of this whole issue.

I don’t retract my statement, since I had no way to know we were getting that in an issue coming out after. Just noting that it turned out to be a bit of a premature, though accurate at the time, critique.

If we’re getting a callback to the books that kicked this off, showing off the end of those characters, timelines, and plots, well, Silva is the best choice.

While it’s fully understandable, the man is busy, it’s a bummer we’re not getting bookends that are by Silva and his HOXPOX companion Pepe Larraz. At least we got half of the duo, and Silva does just what he did as things all kicked off and turns the wildest biggest ideas into pure gold.

Every space, from burned-down former prisons to cosmic vistas, to places outside of time and space, just looks so damn epic. The mere pages they’re drawn upon can barely contain them, threatening to burst off and consume us all at any moment. Hell, we’d probably welcome it really.

I know I would live in a world rendered by Silva, even if it’s not the ‘real’ world.

So many little details like choices for how to place or shape panels, really play to some of the concepts the issue is pushing. Just look at that page with Statis entering The Vault (where the Children Of The Vault reside) with the hexagon and circle panels. Giddiness levels are rising just thinking about that glorious page amongst others.

Plenty of energy flows in the fluid fight scenes, and the emotional beats land every single time. We witness numerous characters dying, sharing personal moments, and more washing over us like big waves at the beach. Paired up with Curiel makes it all the sweeter.

We’re in the endgame now, and things are a heavy mix of dystopian horror and hopefulness, Curiel finding the balance between them. Plenty of bigger permeating vibrant colors as needed dominate the space, alongside the weightier darker colors that consume as they grow. Curiel has been one of the throughlines of Gillen’s time back in the X-Side of things, at least when it comes to the importance of Immortal X-Men, which was the building blocks of this event. Everything he’s done in the other issues is continued and magnified here, creating such a lush and lived-in effect for everything on the page.

Another person who has helped bring so much of what led to this moment to life is Cowles. Peppering all the right bits into the mix so that every word hits the way it’s meant to. Emotional, personalized, and epic in scope. Volume and tone are eternally clear, as various bits of lettering are expanded to allow things to have a fun larger-than-life aspect to them as well. Especially the SFX or bigger words, even some of the bubbles that throw in colors to personalize unique character voices.

Slow clap and all the points for the issue title. ‘Data Pages’ indeed. Gosh I’m so going to miss this era, the pages, Gillen et al, and so much when this is all over.

Can we just freeze ourselves in time and live in Krakoa forever? I’m being told there isn’t a budget for that. Damn, I had to try.

The Rise Of The Powers Of X #1 is now available from Marvel Comics.