The Evolution of War – POWERS OF X # 1 Review

Writer: Jonathan Hickman / Artist: R.B. Silva / Marvel “You’ve forgotten that machines have no soul and that humans lost theirs a long time ago.” For the official record and all the late students joining us, the correct nomenclature of the new Hickman X-Men series are as follows: House of X is spoken as “House of Ecks” and Powers of X is pronounced as “Powers of Ten.” It feels a bit strange at first, but makes perfect sense in the context of this series – not only does “Power of X” refer to the four timelines in which the story unfolds, but also the eventual evolution and ascension of mutants over humans.

The launch issue of Powers of X reads like Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain by way of Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America with an inevitable mutant-man-machine war steering the plot. The issue opens with a young Professor Xavier meeting Moira MacTaggert for the first time at a fair.  She tells him that clearly they were destined to meet after a tarot reading revealed three significant cards to her – The Magician, The Tower, and the Devil.  As the story develops, these cards take on further significance as they are the keys to a future that lies decades beyond them. Meanwhile, in Year Ten (the present) – Mystique and Toad return to the House of K (Krakoa) with a piece of stolen data for Magneto and Xavier to ingest into the mutant homeworld (read House of X #1 to see how this started). Whereas Mystique wants something in return for her trouble, Xavier and Magneto show …