The final fight for mutantkind has begun! Find out if the X-Men can finally stop Orchis and live in peace in Fall of the House of X #2 by Marvel Comics!

FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X #2

Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Lucas Werneck 
Colorist: Bryan Valenza 
Letterer: Travis Lanham 
Editor: Jordan White 
Publisher: Marvel Comics 
Cover Price: $4.99 
Release Date: February 14th, 2024 

Previously in Fall of X: On the brink of eradication, the X-Men will fight to the very last moment. Orchis has managed to frame mutantkind for a massacre, lace Krakoan drugs with a kill switch, and use Stark technology to create Stark Sentinels. On top of that, Orchis tried Cyclops and found him and all of mutantkind guilty, allowing them to deploy Stark Sentinels to carry out Orchis’ decree.

Fall of the House of X #2 starts with Polaris leading the head of a dead celestial and a swarm of Brood onto the Bloom, Orchis’ space station. She then starts to kill the Orchis soldiers but gives them a chance for the noncombatants to escape. Wolverine, Colossus, and Nightcrawler also arrive to rescue Firestar on the Bloom space station, but Doctor Stasis escapes with the secret to Firestar’s location. Elsewhere, Juggernaut tries to save the physical manifestation of Krakoa from Nimrod, and Shadowkat heads to save Cyclops from execution. Gambit and Rogue are sent to help Juggernaut, but they change their plans to bring Manifold back from under stasis. Manifold is initially angry, but Latcura shows up, and suddenly, Manifold understands and teleports them out before Sentinels arrive. Meanwhile, Omega Sentinel is about to kill Cyclops, but he is rescued by Dr. Gregor, who reveals there is a Sentinel City!

There is so much action within Fall of the House of X #2. We are trying to wrap up all these loose threads that we have just moved from story beat to story beat without giving the characters a chance to react. This is a narrative choice but not one that I particularly enjoy. I want to see the characters respond to the situation a little more and watch them try to manage the danger that they are in. But I think what irked me was the introduction of Sentinel City, which I’ve only read about in passing in early 2000 comics. Why introduce a new plot point that must be addressed when there are so many pieces to the war already? We could have taken that two-page reveal and given more characterization to one of the plot points, like addressing Synch’s appearance again after the loss of Talon or more conversation between Gambit, Rogue, and Manifold.

The art also felt a little chaotic, and my senses were overwhelmed going from page to page. There have been a few inconsistencies in the storytelling and art style, and I desperately want this to slow down so we can better understand what is going on. But with only a few issues in this series, it probably is difficult for the creative team to include what they must.

This is a weaker issue of the Fall of X event. The event made a lot of narrative promises that the creative team now must answer, but hopefully, the finale will be worth the chaos of these middle issues. Fall of the House of X #2 gets 3 out of 5 stars.

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Fall of the House of X #2

60%

60%

Weaker Issue

Fall of the House of X #2 applies too many plot points for the reader to keep up with and lacks the characters' reactions to situations to create more nuance in the conflict.

• Writing

  6
• Art

  6
• Coloring

  6
• User Ratings (2 Votes)
  1.2