As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X #1
“The Trial of Cyclops”
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Lucas Werneck
Colourist: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White

FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X. This is one of two linked miniseries to complete the Krakoan era, the other being Rise of the Powers of X. The format echoes the twin minis House of X and Powers of X that launched the Krakoan era.

The title also alludes to the Edgar Allan Poe story “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839), though there’s no terribly obvious significance to that fact.

COVER / PAGE 1. Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler and Shadowkat in action. We can see a couple of Orchis footsoldiers reflected in Colossus’s first.

PAGES 2-4. Cyclops dreams about being hung after an Old West show trial.

Timely was the name of Marvel’s Golden Age predecessor. It’s not immediately obvious what that has to do with anything either. Marvel does have an established Old West town called Timely – it was the setting of the 2015 miniseries 1872, which was part of the “Secret Wars” event, and was basically “the Marvel Universe, but a Western”.

“Your Destiny.” The masked figure in the booth, presumably a dummy, is wearing the mask of the actual Destiny from Immortal X-Men.

The judge. Four of the people on the bench are Moira X, Dr Stasis, Omega Sentinel and MODOK – all major figures in Orchis. The fifth appears to be Professor X, though he’s also quite similar to the actual judge that we see on page 20. Cyclops’ narration says that the judge “throws me to the wolves”, which presumably ties to Professor X calling Rasputin away later in the issue.

Obviously, the woman in the crowd who prevents Scott from being hanged is a version of Jean Grey.

PAGES 5-6. Cyclops arrives at his trial.

Cyclops has been given a blanked out version of his visor, presumably because sewing his eyes shut (as in previous issues of X-Men was deemed too gruesome to do in public).

“I was thousands of miles away from the Hellfire Gala when I felt Jean die.” In X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023.

“This is Paris – where they tried Magneto.” In Uncanny X-Men #200 and X-Men vs Avengers #4.

“This time, the trial will go their way, but the war will not.” Uncanny #200 ends with Magneto leaving the trial before a conclusion. However, in X-Men vs Avengers #4, Magneto does return to finish the trial, and uses mind control to make the presiding judge acquit him on a purely legal argument. (The story then points out that none of the other judges on the panel raise any objection to this outcome, implying that they were going to acquit Magneto on the same ground anyway.)

It’s not obvious from the dialogue – or, if you prefer, the blindfolded Cyclops just doesn’t notice – but the protestors on the right hand side of page 6 are actually pro-mutant protestors.

PAGE 7. Flashback: a generic example of the Fastball Special.

The idea of the Fastball Special as the earliest form of a mutant “circuit” has come up before – in X-Men Red, I think? – though if you want to be nitpicky, the end of Giant-Size X-Men #1 sees the X-Men combine their powers to eject Krakoa into space. And it’s even called a “circuit” in dialogue.

PAGES 8-10. Colossus and Wolverine under the courthouse.

We last saw Colossus in X-Force #47, where he was with X-Force and had yet to meet up with the rest of the X-Men after being freed from Mikhail’s control. In fairness, though, we already know that Wolverine goes on from that story to team up with the rest of the X-Men in X-Men #28-29, so X-Force was lagging slightly behind X-Men on any view.

PAGES 11-13. Alia Gregor and Karima Shapandar visit Cyclops.

Alia Gregor hasn’t been seen in a while – in fact, I don’t think we’ve seen her since Inferno. Her husband was killed during the X-Men’s attack on the Mother Mold station in House of X #3; Cyclops doesn’t remember these events because he died on the mission, and was then resurrected with his memories restored from an earlier back-up. She attempted to revive him as Nimrod, but interference from a Krakoan assassination attempt led to his human personality being mostly lost.

By Orchis standards, she’s a comparatively sympathetic character who Hickman was very, very explicitly positioning as a parallel to Krakoa (specifically, Mystique’s efforts to resurrect Destiny). She seems to be unaware of Orchis’ plans to move on to other superhumans once the mutants are out of the way.

Omega Sentinel, as we established back in Inferno #3, is possessed by the mind of herself from an alternate future; she’s come back in time to save the machines from being wiped out by mutants, in an inversion of “Days of Future Past”. Cyclops’ final question is apparently directed at her.

PAGES 14-15. Professor X summons Rasputin IV to him.

The Green Lagoon is the former Krakoan bar.

Professor X evidently returned to Krakoa after visiting Muir Isle in the last issue of Immortal X-Men. This is the first we’ve heard of him working with Rasputin IV in any capacity. Presumably there’s some pressing issue of timing that requires her to visit Krakoa right now, but it’s unclear what that is, or why Professor X knows anything about it.

PAGES 16-19. The X-Men fight Orchis.

We don’t know yet what the “invasion of Earth” is, but since the mutants presumably haven’t made contact with the Krakoan exiles in the White Hot Room, the most likely source of any invading force would be Arakko (where the civil war has now ended with the final issue of X-Men Red).

PAGE 20. Cyclops refuses to defend himself.

Presumably he declined to enter a plea and was treated as pleading not guilty. God only knows what country’s legal system he’s supposed to be being tried under, given that the trial seems to be in English. Is there a jury? The prosecutor is presumably meant to be talking to someone, unless he regularly addresses the judge while facing in the opposite direction.

For what it’s worth, there are no “capital cases” in France. The death penalty was abolished in France in 1981 and made unconstitutional in 2007.

PAGE 21. Orchis celebrate their win.

For some reason that I don’t follow in the slightest, Cyclops’ conviction of something-or-other provides the justification for Nimrod to try and kill Krakoa. Um… why?

Ben Urich has been writing supportive articles about mutants over in X-Men and Uncanny Avengers.

Alia seems to be reacting badly to the fact that Nimrod (the reincarnation of her husband) shows more interest in Karima Shapandar than in her. She’s presumably being set up for a face turn.

PAGES 22-24. Nimrod attacks Krakoa.

Oddly, Krakoa is awake. It’s seemed to be dormant every other time we’ve seen it since the Gala, but maybe this is connected with whatever Professor X is up to.

PAGE 25. Alia Gregor addresses the world.

The opening of Alia’s speech mirrors the opening words of Professor X’s speech to the world announcing Krakoa, which was quoted as the start of House of X #1. Frankly, none of this makes a great deal of sense – why is an attack on Krakoa “uncomfortable” in a way that merits a worldwide announcement? What’s Krakoa going to do that could have that sort of significance, by Marvel Universe standards? Where did Orchis suddenly get the authority to openly announce that they’re going to kill all mutants who refuse to leave the planet (which, until now, is something they’ve publicly denied)?

PAGE 26. The X-Men discuss the need to accelerate their plans.

This is a very, very, very traditional-looking X-Men line-up, certainly by the standards of recent years: Colossus, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Kate Pryde, Rogue and Gambit. Nobody with less than 30 years’ tenure.

Why is it “all falling apart”? This all feels terribly handwavy.

Iron Man’s plan is footnoted to two issues of Invincible Iron Man that haven’t come out yet, but over in that book, he’s mainly been assembling a large stock of mysterium in order to build something or other that will defeat Orchis.

PAGE 27. Kate Pryde visits assorted characters.

• In panel 1, Iron Man and Emma Frost from Invincible Iron Man. Although Shadowkat calls them “Mr and Mrs X”, Iron Man actually married Emma’s fictitious “Hazel Kendal” persona for cover reasons.
• In panel 2, Shadowkat checks in on Woofer, the mutant who was exiled to Arakko and who she entrusted with preparing a census of fellow exiles in X-Men #25.
• In panel 3, Juggernaut, who’s been raiding Cable’s armoury at the former X-Men Mansion. We saw that armoury in Children of the Vault.
• In the main panel, Ms Marvel and Captain America (Sam Wilson) fighting a Stark Sentinel alongside some other heroes who are too small to clearly identify. Sam’s home book right now is the regular Avengers title, but it’s hard to tell if it’s then.
• In the final panel, Polaris turns out to have been around on Earth (again, I don’t think we’ve seen her during Fall of X). She’s been hanging out on Magneto’s old Island M headquarters.

PAGES 28-30. Polaris recruits Broo and his Brood to help.

Jean evacuated Broo and the Brood under his control to Knowhere in X-Men #21.

PAGE 31. Recap and credits. Bit of an odd choice to put the detailed plot recap right at the end.

PAGE 32. Trailers. The Krakoan reads RISE OF THE HOUSE OF X.

PAGES 33-34. Data page – or back matter, really. An open letter from Cyclops for release after his conviction. Naturally, his lawyer is the She-Hulk. (Daredevil’s tied up in other plots right now.)

“When we breathed life into Mars, I was concerned that the worst in humanity would seize upon our actions and use them as pretext to forcibly deport us off-world.” Cyclops did indeed voice this concern in Duggan’s X-Men.

“Ben Urich’s expose.” The article he wrote in Uncanny Avengers with the Kingpin’s account of Orchis’ attack on the Hellfire Gala.