Foxe and Espin just need to do a X-Men Grand Design book and call it a day, because they have been on a roll with this return to the beloved animated series world and melding it with Hickman’s groundbreaking run.
The toybox of the 90’s runs wild throughout the Hellfire Gala as the New Fantastic Four make an appearance, with allusions to Asteroid X and even the Thing rocking a metal paper bag over his head ! This is the type of goodies that will make any Marvelite smile from ear to ear.
Yeah, it’s good fun, but there still is a degree of danger at the House of XCII : Mojo pops up trying to get the whole Gala on taped on Betamax, Sabretooth is still out here leading Wolverine to take a peek into rooms where women that he cares about are residing in, and Dark Beast is out here using his greatest power, intellect, to move things behind the scenes for only the audience to see.
Yeah the Gala outfits aren’t the level of the Hickman era, but Espin still has Storm looking great and instead of having the letterhead inserts that makeup most of the Hickman X books, their literally is just one here, which I think has been the only one featured in this entire series.
Yes, House of XCII is heavily simplified, but so was X-Men The Animated Series, which is what is was intended for in the first place – to retell the complicated tales featured in the original comics, and inspire newcomers to go back and read and buy those stories. Essentially, by keeping the essentials and putting a casual reader friendly art style while dropping rare factoids like Madame Web being a mutant for the Marvel faithful is a recipe that is economic gold for a medium of art that often finds itself on life support. iven that this is Foxe and Espin’s penultimate issue and that I’ve never seen them on an X-title, this out the (Krakoan) gate magic is a joy that can rarely be found in retellings of classic tales, especially in a way that can surpass the original.
I’d rather own and recommend this House of XCII run than any of the Hickman books for anyone looking for a good X-Men story for any era, because House of XCII is like a hoagie or a pizza for the blue collar worker looking to fulfill all the necessary food groups on a half hour lunch to fuel the rest of the work day – it’s all here.
Score : 4.5/5
Writer: Steve Foxe
Art: Salva Espin, Israel Silva, David Baldeòn, and VC’s Joe Sabino