Post Civil War II & Marvel Now 2016 Spoilers & Review: Death Of X #1 BIG Surprise X-Death On Road To IVX Inhumans Vs. X-Men & ResurrXion!

News, Reviews, Spoilers, Top Story

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Post Civil War II and Marvel Now 2016 Spoilers and Review follow for Death Of X #1!

The book opens with the usual “how we got here” page blurb and dramatis personae.

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I recognize only a few of this cast of X-Men and Inhumans, but I’m a casual Marvel reader prefering my Squadron Supreme and Thunderbolts to a seemingly toxic and once mighty X-Men franchise and resistant to Marvel’s efforts to force me to like and think the Inhumans are the next big thing.

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Despite this book being called Death of X, this might as well be IVX: Inhumans vs. X-Men #0 as the Inhumans get almost 1/2 the face time in this book and are a big reason for the escalating tension between the factions that lead ultimately to ResurrXion. Does that mean that whomever dies here gets resurrected soon?

We’ll see, anyhow, the book’s action starts as the X-Men are heading to Muir Island. An important island how to x-scientists of olde as I recall.

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The X-Men find blood and the stench of death on Muir Island within the Terrigen mist and some X-Men are feeling ill being on the island.

There’s a nice contrast to the X-Men heading into a Terrigen mist infested Muir Island to the Inhumans heading to Japan where the Terrigen Mists are soon to kiss the populace.

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The Inhumans are out-in-the-sun embraced in contrast to the historical discrimination that the X-Men as mutants have felt throughout Marvel’s history. The book doesn’t explain why one cohort is feared and loathed while the other is embraced. However, we do learn how the world’s embrace of Inhumans and their mists have evolved over time to where it is today.

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A grotesque corpse is foud on Muir Island by the X-Men while…

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…Hydra attacks Japan as the Inhumans supervise the creation of new Inhumans from the Terrigen Mists.

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We pivot back to Muir Island where we get the unexpected slow and painful death of Jamie Madrox the Multiple Men; he indicates he’s the original and all his copies are dead. He becomes the second corpse on the island, but not before revealing the Terrigen Mists can kill some mutants.

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Cyclops confirms that with the Best and collapses presumably being affected by the mists.

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Back in Japan a new Inhuman subdues Hydra…

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…while back on Muir Island a revived Cyclops blames the Inhumans for the death of mutants lighting the fuse on their big rivalry.

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The book ends with another juxtaposition with Crystal of the Inhumans in Japan and Cyclops of the X-Men on Muir Island vowing to protecting their own in very different contexts.

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The book ends with Marvel teasing their next mini-series IVX: Inhumans vs. X-Men as well as Death of X #2.

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Death of X leads to Inhumans vs. X-Men and…

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…ResurrXion.

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Now a farewell (for now?) to Jamie Madrox who I enjoyed in anything PAD did with him in his various Madrox and…

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…X-Factor related works.

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So…

We have known for some time that Marvel wanted to have a conflict between the X-Men and Inhumans to not only differentiate the two, but also elevate the Inhumans. We’re now on that road in earnest. Beyond the death of Jamie Madrox, most of Death of X #1 was set-up as we knew prior to to Death of X #1 that the Inhumans’ Terrigen Mists harm mutants while in some cases create Inhumans too. That said Lemire and Soule are great writers, as the respective Marvel X-Men and Inhumans architects, and Kuder remains a fave artist of mine. I’ll sample Death of X #2 when it comes out. I give this book 6 out of 10 simply as much of the major plot points were already known going into the issue.

John is a long-time pop culture fan, comics historian, and blogger. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief at Comics Nexus. Prior to being EIC he has produced several column series including DEMYTHIFY, NEAR MINT MEMORIES and the ONE FAN'S TRIALS at the Nexus plus a stint at Bleeding Cool producing the COMICS REALISM column. As BabosScribe, John is active on his twitter account, his facebook page, his instagram feed and welcomes any and all feedback. Bring it on!