The premise of X-Men : House of X is pretty simple. If you take the early 90s world of the X-Men, not just the comics, but more specifically the Mutants of X-Men: The Animated Series, you can thrust it into the story told by writer Jonathan Hickman.
Although the first issue of the series is very specifically about that one half of the duology told through the 92 lens, the other half of the twin, Powers, is still being told. In the fourth issue of that book, a team of X-men fought and died to try and stop the Sentinel MasterMold, which was developed by ORCHIS, from its latest attempts to kill Mutantkind. There is resurrection here, but there is no examination of the religiosity of it.
That's not a bad thing, because X-Men books have always worn their gleefully retro hearts on their sleeves. You're here to punch things and use the word "Sugah" like that. You are here to be a moody git hovering around Scott and Jean, who are there to be romantic towards each other, and yell. You are here for big walloping fights, simple action banter, and just a hell of a bright, fun, time, and HoX is absolutely that, and does not try to apologize for it. Taking the loose framework of House of X and turning it into a gleeful action romp packed with candy-coated colors is a heady idea.
It would be a disservice to say that HoX is a weightless take on the title. While there is a lot of fun in the first issue, it is also at its strongest when it chooses to dive deep and offer its own take on its predecessor. There is an example of the identity of the person who appeared in The Animated Series. Jubilee, who led her fellow X-men to believe she was killed in a Sentinel attack before the process of resurrection, is the secretive rebirthing Mutant.
This is an incredibly funny idea and the face of the X-men was a kid. There are brief seeds sown in the climax that threaten to complicate things for this, which is why the current comics have Moira's downfall and vengeful ascendancy in them. We get hints that the loss of the teen in the first place was the catalyst for mutankind to come together and attempt its own society again. It works because it mines that relationship in a way most X-characters don't really have with Moira in the current books, beyond Charles and Erik, creating something much more personal to the wider X- Team.
It may be the synthesis that makes X-Men: House of X more than meets the eye. It uses the simple strengths of its nostalgic roots, the bright action, the fun character dynamics, and doesn't try to do-over the headier ideas of its contemporary inspiration. Making it its own thing is leading to something very fun as the mainline X-books head into something of a darker, more tempestuous chapter.
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