Through various back and forths on Twitter, Steve Foxe wasn’t lying to me and the rest of his audience when he said that he and Espin had some surprises in store for the finale of House of XCII. Everything falls into place with this finale pitting familiar faces in rightful places that have never been seen before in X-lore but feel like they should already be in history.
Take for example Jubilee becoming the Phoenix. Her kinetic powers and name alone make her a shoe-in for such an honor, or Storm actually being designated the Queen of a planet. Whereas in “X-Men Red” and “Planet X” before it, writer’s almost pulled the trigger on giving the Kenyan Goddess a new (deserved) royal title, but flaked and now have her sharing power with a whole new circle/brotherhood of mutants, which essentially is the same political democracy that (I predict) will one day see Krakoa fall apart. Foxe allows audiences to get their easter egg fix with glimpses of the Blob, the gorgeous Shard Bishop (who needs to make more appearances than her brother throughout the Marvel Universe in my opinion), and a composite version of Master Mold and Senator Kelly that is meant to rival Hickman’s Omega Sentinel.
It doesn’t stop there though as Dark Beast becomes the Mr. Sinister that made “Hellions” so good and creates a menagerie of the Quiet Council that would pluck out Orchis like the weed that organization is. Formed almost like a Megazord for millenials like me or Voltron for X’ers, this is the classic deus ex machina to cap off the glorious throwback that is “House of XCII”. The X-Men cabinet at the end that could usually be found next to the Simpsons beat ’em up in this reality is just the cherry on the top.
I had a NES, no Super, in my first year of college, played the X game for that system and it was the most confusing puzzle game that I’ve probably ever played. From first play I ordered a pizza, hit the skate shop with a girl who could be mistaken for Jubilee to try and repair my Globe, then we skated back to my apartment, hopped in my bed and dusted off The Punisher shoot ’em up instead. That is what I remember whenever I see the X-Men cabinet any of the random arcades I visit nationwide, and I am grateful for Foxe and Espin reminding me of that experience with the closing pages of this series.
I was still drinking out a rubber nipple when X-Men ’92 was airing re-runs on that Sharp T.V. set with the rabbit ears that had a picture which was anything but what it’s logo advertised. Knowing that the series was convoluted in it’s original order, I never took the time to fully revisit it. But when the first ’92 series came out during the revival of Secret Wars, it was my freshman year of college, I hit Collector’s Paradise in Pasadena got the digits from the Mary Jane look alike behind the counter slid into my Ant-Man variant with none other than Jubilee on the cover. Jubilee, as a character completely revamped for that Animated Series is the spirit of the show, the spirit of that entire of X-Men. No, she’s not some ex-flame of Professor X that turned herself into a Terminator. Not that that’s not cool, but Hickman’s run is heady and whenever I read it, it feels like a soundboard for the daily bullshit the physical realm already presents.
Foxe and Espin’s House of XCII might be simplified, but it’s intended to be just like the animated series in successfully interpreting the deeper works of Claremont, Byrne, Kirby, and both Lee’s (Stan and Jim). House of XCII continues that tradition by giving that treatment to the Hickman-era and at the book end a legion of mutant rights supporters inner children smiled the whole way through. I’m just happy to say I was one of them.
Score : 5/5