House of X #4: Flow My Tears

Fair warning, before you begin reading this issue: have Kleenex and a glass of cold water at the ready. I read my copy in the gym and I wound up being awkwardly hugged by the cleaning lady. She’s as old as my grandma, and she only speaks Mandarin, so it was a little awkward. But, yeah, I needed the hug. 

This is probably the most brutal, beautiful X-Men story of the last decade. 

Look, I absolutely cannot write this review without spoilers. So I’m just going to lay it all flat for you. In this issue, everybody dies. They die one at a time, in ways which are almost impossibly painful and cruel. You have to watch these people you love (fictional though they are) burn up in space or get torn apart by sentinels while their friends watch (and feel it all) via a psychic link with Jean. 

The characterisations, considering what we know now, are all incredibly well done. Each character gets a moment to reveal themselves. Logan and Kurt exchange a moment of existential comfort. Jean and Scott express their love. Monet is Noble and brusque. Even the baddies have flashes of (excruciatingly human) rage or pain. 

This is a difficult read, in part because it is so perfect.

The good news is that, now, we know that life X is not 616. These are not our X-Men. Not quite. I’m becoming ever more convinced that life 11 is the 616: Moira’s last and final incarnation — the one which cannot be undone. I expect that the next books will reflect this by dealing with Moira’s other lives before bringing up to speed with what’s happening in the world that we know in the final issue. 

But even with that knowledge clanging around in my brain, this book was terrible (in the ancient sense: beyond earthly reckoning) to read. 

As for the art: I’ve been saying this whole time that the images, the tone and flavor of the lines, are absolutely perfect for the voice f the text. Pepe Larraz just keeps getting better. And Hickman lives up to him.

Now, go get your copy. Settled down. Start reading. 

I’m going to go drink something with a lot of electrolytes.

Reviewed by Bethany W Pope