Reign of X, Vol. 4

X-Men: Krakoan Era (Anthology Trades)

by Benjamin Percy (Writer), Adam Kubert (Illustrator), Tini Howard (Writer)

Old friends and new faces in the Reign of X! Wolverine finds himself in a jam alongside his former Team X compatriot Maverick, but the reunion won’t last long if they can’t break free of the Legacy House! As the members of Excalibur reckon with their losses, two heads of state seek to restore the status quo. All hail...Queen Elizabeth III?! Meanwhile, Siryn is dying over and over, and X-Factor must follow the screams! Cable teams up with Domino again — for the first time! But will fortune favor Nathan, or has he met his match? And who are the young heroes with familiar powers breaking the law against teenage vigilantes? Can the X-Men find the mysterious Children of the Atom before the authorities do? Collecting WOLVERINE (2020) #10, EXCALIBUR (2019) #17, X-FACTOR (2020) #6, CABLE (2020) #8 and CHILDREN OF THE ATOM #1.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, X Men, Superheroes, Comic Book, Science Fiction

152 pages, Paperback

First published September 28, 2021

About the author

Benjamin Percy is the author of seven novels -- most recently The Sky Vault (William Morrow) -- three short fiction collections, and a book of essays, Thrill Me, that is widely taught in creative writing classrooms. He writes Wolverine, X-Force, and Ghost Rider for Marvel Comics. His fiction and nonfiction have been published in Esquire (where he is a contributing editor), GQ, Time, Men's Journal, Outside, the Wall Street Journal, Tin House, and the Paris Review. His honors include an NEA fellowship, the Whiting Writer's Award, the Plimpton Prize, two Pushcart Prizes, the iHeart Radio Award for Best Scripted Podcast, and inclusion in Best American Short Stories and Best American Comics.

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spring 2020 (April);

Dawn of X (Vol. 11-16)
X of Swords (full)
Reign of X (Vol. 1-7)

** As a spoiler warning, do not read this review unless you've read all of the above issues, not just the volume where you've found this review. **

I did a massive multi-volume, multi-arc blitz recently and so I'm going to just drop a lot of what's hot here & going to be copying it down across a million books. My favorite thing literally is now and forever the Polycule going on in Summer House. I love his universe and am certainly very curious about the things still hiding in the shadows.

I'm glad Kitty found her way through that thing. I'm glad we didn't lose Betsy while we were in the other universe where death *sort of* sticks. Excalibur remains the most arrestingly gorgeous art. I'm still not interested in the one and only story comics know how to tell with Beast. I love the whole council and can't stop cooing over Erik as the Left Hand/Charles as the right (and even more so the bits where/how Jean & Scott are off to reform the X-Men #goodboy).

Jeanne & The Twins, in general, are back and I'm super duper in love with that. I really madly adore that there isn't any vast soap opera drama with any relationships or old bad blood that can't be given a new chance in Krakoa. There's such a breath of fresh air reading a lot of the choices Hickman and his writers have made. Illyana remains a badass demon-sorceress at all times, and Ororo remains a goddess. I loved all the Giant-Size art across Emma, Jean, Ororo.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Getting bored while reading adventure comics is never a good sign. The Wolverine installment was alright, but not awesome, though I really did enjoy some of the easter eggs in the warehouse scene. Excalibur felt like a bit of a mess in this installment, but the scene with Betsy and Kwanon was interesting. X-Factor was fun, but I couldn't help but feel disenchanted with the plot as I know the book has since been cancelled. I simply have no interest in the new young Cable and even having Domino guest-star didn't help. As for the Children of the Atom installment, there was nothing about it that made me care about any of it. Based on the stories alone, this was a two-star read for me, but the art in most of the stories was good enough to bump it up an extra star.

[Judah Radd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wolverine and Cable are still pretty decent, but the rest is definitely not my kind of X-Men.

Excalibur is a big convoluted story I don’t care about, X-Factor is way too preteeny for me (any time a comic has the unironic usage of the word “jerkface” as an insult, it’s a good sign that it just isn’t for me.) Children of the Atom is categorically uninteresting.

I don’t judge anyone else’s taste, but there’s a specific style of mutant stuff that I like, and this wasn’t it.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wolverine and children on the atom were a bit boring plot wise but x-factor is still very enjoyable

[Adam Stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another mixed bag of fun from Marvel's Krakoan section.

Wolverine #10 by Benjamin Percy is fun continuity porn for those of us who read X-Men in the 90s. I care a little less that they're using Maverick with each passing issue. Still, it's got some interesting consequences for both the X-books and maybe even the larger Marvel Universe. Plus, Adam Kubert's layouts in this book are the best I can remember in the modern X-books. 3/5*

I've spent many of the reviews mentioning that it's not Tini Howard's fault that I'm not into their Excalbir run (issue #17 appears here). The whole Otherworld/Magick/Captain Britain portion of the Marvel Universe just isn't my thing. But in this issue, Howard focuses on a conversation between Psylocke and an alternate universe Kwannon, and has some Rogue/Gambit/Wisdom shenanigans. And while I don't feel like a lot happens in this particular issue, the writing is so solid that I really wish Howard was writing a title I was more interested in. I enjoy their style of dialogue, and sense of pacing. The art was sometimes weirdly staged but not distracting. 3/5*

Leah Williams 's X-Factor was the highlight of this collection for me. Since returning from the Mojoverse, this book is contantly improving. The Siryn/Polaris storyline here is fun, classic X-Factor, but the focus on Prodigy's powers and his desire to study what happens to mutants as they go through the resurrection process is the most intriguing thing happening right now in any of these books. I also love her dialogue. The art was a bit too green for me (literally, I'm not inferring the artist is new...the color palette just seemed off) but otherwise great. 4/5*

If you like Cable/Stryfe/clone/time travel shenanigans, this will probably be your bag. Gerry Duggan knows how to write a fun X-romp. And I love when Domino is involved but isn't Serious Brooding Domino. But while the story was just good, Phil Noto's art was, as usual, the highlight of the book. I just love the way he shoots body language and facial grammar. 4/5*

Vita Ayala writes like a four year old in need of a tutor for the first ten pages, then like 21st century Chris Claremont for the rest of the book. I now understand why every customer in our store who subscribed to Children Of The Atom dropped it after the first issue. I couldn't name or care about a single character in this book. 0/5*

[Blindzider · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wolverine - final part of a three-part story that adds more mystery to the Desk of X
Excalibur - Still lost on what is going on in this title. It's cleaning up a loose end from previous arcs
X-Factor - a mystery with Siryn and her recent "death". The title has a lot of banter and camaraderie between the characters, I just don't really identify with any of them.
Cable - I don't read this title
Children of the Atom - more "new" mutants, who are newer versions of their favorite X-Men members, both in powers and costumes. I don't get the point of having younger versions of basically the same classic heroes. I didn't like some of the dialogue between the original members, discussing what to do with them. Not sure I'll be reading this title either. I'm too old to get into the teen characters.

[Charles Korb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wolverine: the panel layout emphasizing the missing memories was a fun touch. Otherwise an extremely standard wolverine story

Excalibur: I'm unclear why Betsy woke up in the Queen's body and this isn't really explaining it

X-factor: it's interesting but I feel like this issue could have been half as long

Cable: probably my favorite ongoing series at this point, right amount of art quality, humor, and heart

Children of the atom: not sure what's going on here, it's interesting that they felt the need for another teen story in addition to new Mutants, I guess these are "normal" teens?

[Martijn Van · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Wolverine #10: Nice to read how far Logan had come. Good story, art and characters. 3,5☆
-Excalibur #17: So yeah this happened, bla bla bla. Just a bit of confusing action. No real story. 2,5☆
-X-Factor #6: What a blast! Nice detective story! 4☆
-Cable#8: Getting better and better. Favourite of this Reign of X issue. 4☆
-Children of the Atom #1: Not yet sure if we need another storyline in the reign of X especially another teenstory. Overall this is a mixed bag. The first part (all out action) is a mess, the second part (background) is the better part. 3☆

[Nick Callebaut · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hate the fact that they keep raking up Maverick whenever they want to establish a link with Wolverine's past in Team X. Maverick lost his eye in issue twelve of his own series, which was splendid, back in 1998.

Every single writer that used him seems to have simple omitted this, even when they lazily mind-wiped him the last time to become %£¨*% Agent Zero in the Weapon X series.

Besides that, none of the other X-books in this TPB could stir much interest in me.

Ok, Children of the ATOM was kind of fun and looked great.

[Sarospice · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is still the best way to read the X books - GIMME THE HIGHLIGHTS! Unfortunately, we're at a dip in the continuity. Coming out of X of Swords, too many boring Captain Britains, not one F for young Cable, and they bother to put that mess Children of the Atom.... However, Prodigy wanting to start a bone yard for folks who don't die... Creepy interesting.

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume debuts Children of the Atom, and I just don't like it. I called the twist immediately, and the characters are frankly kind of cringe. The other issues (Wolverine, Excalibur, X-Factor, and Cable) are all still pretty good. I remain surprised that I'm enjoying Cable as a series.

[Carl Printer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Betsy’s moments with different-dimension Kwannon were a bit wrenching to say the least. So much left unsaid and at the same time no words to say them. The intro to Children of the Atom was a bit meh, but more wonkiness at the Coney Island Krakoa gate has me intrigued.

[Afreen Aftab · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wolverine (2020) 10 - 4/5
Excalibur (2019) 17 - 2/5 (meh...too much dialogue with boring panels that had potential but lead nowwhere)
X-Factor (2020) 6 - 4/5
Cable (2020) 8 - 4/5
Children of the Atom (2021) 1 - 3/5

[Sohrab Rezvan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mediocre at best. Children Of the Atom was my least favorite X-title from the entire Krakoa age. I did enjoy the Wolverine storyline with Maverick. Some interesting things with Cable and X-Factor, but still on the weaker side overall.

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Mix of stories. X-factor is leaving me with a mystery I want more on.

[Sonic · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag.

[Nico · Rating 2 out of 5]

a lot of weak issues this volume

[Sam Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reign of X has been pretty fantastic so far. I’m also interested in the children of the atom book and I was worried I wouldn’t be

[Bekka · Rating 4 out of 5]

TW for death/potential murder/hints at suicidal ideation, grief, mentions of a dead son, violence.

[Malum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly fine issues but it's easy to see why Children of the Atom was cancelled so fast; it's awful.

[Pete Minto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed most of the issues contained in this volume. However, X-Factor continues to be god-awful.

[Malcolm Fraser · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring. I might start skipping the stories I'm not interested in. The only good thing in here is Cable, and even then I only understand half of that story.

[Zachary Waxman · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of the same. Disjointed and randomly put together. Too much Excalibur.

[Jonathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really not a fan of Excalibur, or the Children of the Atom.

[Bertazzo · Rating 1 out of 5]

This volume is so bad that Children of the Atom is the highlight.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

not sure yet how i feel about the children of the atom but in other news leah williams once more proving she's the best thing to ever happen to polaris i am forever in her debt

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Proper magic vs. mutant powers. Cable clone dilemma. Broken Gate?

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a weird mix of stories with X-Factor and Cable doing most of the heavy lifting. The Excalibur story wasn't too bad either, but it's still not my favorite comic.

But this new Children of the Atom book left much to be desired.