Do the Evolution: On House of X #1 and the Power of Reinvention

By David Harper

July 27, 2019

This piece is about House of X #1.

But it’s also not about House of X #1.

There are plenty of things to say about the first issue of Jonathan Hickman’s new direction for the X-Men, almost all of which would be positive. It’s a comic I loved, and one that has me more excited about the direction of a franchise I adore than at, well, pretty much any point in my adult life.

But the interesting thing about that first issue from Hickman, artist Pepe Larraz, colorist Marte Gracia, letterer Clayton Cowles and designer Tom Muller isn’t anything qualitative. That’s not notable. Comics are good and bad each and every week. That’s ordinary, and for a storytelling medium that’s often rather decompressed, it can even be a fluid idea.

It’s that it’s doing something new with a concept built on the idea of evolution for the first time since at least Grant Morrison’s run, and how it’s forcing one of the most rigid structures in the world of comics – what a superhero comic is – to be something different.

Those ideas to me are where things get very interesting indeed. 3

The rest of this article is for subscribers only.

Want to read it? A monthly SKTCHD subscription is just $4.99, or the price of one Marvel #1.

Subscribe Monthly

Or for the lower rate, you can sign up on our quarterly plan for just $3.99 a month, or the price of one regularly priced comic.

Subscribe Quarterly

Learn more about what you get with a subscription

Already a member? Sign in to your account.

As a heads up, no spoilers are discussed in specific from House of X #1. However, art from throughout the issue is used, so tread lightly.↩
As a heads up, no spoilers are discussed in specific from House of X #1. However, art from throughout the issue is used, so tread lightly.↩
As a heads up, no spoilers are discussed in specific from House of X #1. However, art from throughout the issue is used, so tread lightly.↩

Notable Replies

blank99 says:

July 27, 2019

I, too, loved it, for all the reasons you mentioned. I’m so excited about this. Something new! Hooray!

FYI - I would move the " Start the discussion at [community.sktchd.com]" to above the “Read More for Sktchd” links.

I think more people will see and click.
SKTCHD says:

July 27, 2019

That’s a very good suggestion! Thanks for that idea, Scott. I certainly want more people to route onto the forum, so I will work with my developer on that. And yeah, I’m obviously on the House of X hype train. It’s going to be so good!
levi says:

July 28, 2019

It’s sort of remarkable to me, in retrospect, that Marvel hasn’t embraced this level of graphic design and data pages before this point.

Whenever I talk to people about Silver Age Marvel - or listen to podcasts about the same subject - the blueprints of the Baxter Building or the detailed breakdown of the web shooters design are the kinds of things that really stick out to people and that we most geek out about.

What’s one of the most beloved 80s series? Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, of course.

Marvel, in particular, has a lineage of this sort of thing. It’s sort of baked into their DNA.
actualtotoro says:

July 28, 2019

I was thinking about Stu’s comments as well, especially the fact that the bulk of his customers who had expressed interest in HoX were Hickman readers, not X-readers, as the latter had lapsed almost entirely after years of getting burned. And I really wonder, short of an outright apology from Marvel (which, never gonna happen), what would get the attention of those lapsed readers enough to get them to come back right now.

Sure, store owners can attempt to handsell it – though the onus shouldn’t be on THEM to bend over backwards on Marvel’s behalf. And that doesn’t address X-readers who stopped coming in, period, because they felt like the thing that had once gotten them most excited about comics had stopped existing years ago.

I am pretty confident that any even minor fan of X-Men would be pleased with this book and with the direction it signals… I just wonder how hard it will be to get those folks to open said book.
actualtotoro says:

July 30, 2019

This (most recent) discussion makes me think that eventually you’ll want to get some info on how folks are using the site. For me, a link to the discussion is somewhat a moot point, because I come to the discussion board more regularly than the main site and thus usually I am only at the article because I clicked through to it from the message board.

Since I’m (clearly) such a discussion-oriented person, it hadn’t even occurred to me how many readers you might have who check the site for new articles but don’t bother to follow up on them here on the board. I wonder if I’m the norm or the outlier, here.