Excalibur # 13-14; House of M # 1; Uncanny X-Men # 462; Mutopia X # 1 (up until page 3); The Pulse # 10 (page one only); House of M # 2 (up until page 19); Mutopia # 1 (rest of issue); Iron Man: House of M # 1-3; Black Panther # 7; Spider-Man: House of M # 1-5; Mutopia # 2-3; Fantastic Four: House of M # 1-3; Thunderbolts # 11; Incredible Hulk # 83-86; Uncanny X-Men # 463-465; Exiles # 69; House of M # 2 (rest of issue); House of M # 3 (up until page 15); Wolverine # 33-35; New X-Men # 16; House of M # 3 (rest of issue); House of M # 4; The Pulse # 10 (up until page 12); House of M # 5 (up until page 19, panel 5); Captain America # 10; House of M # 5 (rest of issue); The Pulse # 10 (rest of issue); New X-Men # 1-19; Exiles # 70; House of M # 6; House of M # 7; Exiles # 71; Cable and Deadpool # 17; Mutopia # 4; House of M # 8
As you can see from my read order, I got pretty particular in regards to how I read it. As this is a rather large and complex story, I found myself weaving in and out of various House of M stories and subplots. This read order allowed me to soak up all of House of M in one fell swoop, with a nice, world-view of the recreated Marvel Universe.
It’s difficult to define House of M, in some ways. Basically, it’s the story of the Scarlet Witch recreating the Marvel Universe into a place where she and her family and friends and even enemies could be happy. Unfortunately, it all comes tumbling down when Wolverine remembers what’s going on and with the help of a girl named Layla Millar, assembles various X-Men, Avengers, and other heroes to put an end to it. And what an end – turns out that everyone suspected Magneto telling Wanda how to create this new world, when it was really Pietro. And on top of that, a disgusted and unstable Wanda sets the world right . . . only with 98% of the Mutant population now reduced to humans.
I’m going to go through all of the satellite books and just kinda touch on them real quick:
Excalibur # 14-15
Mainly, this is all just set-up. I’ve pretty much ignored the whole Zanzibar story, concentrating on the parts that were the most important – the House of M prelude work. Doctor Strange is approached by Professor X in the hopes of getting help with Wanda. They go through a series of obstacles set-up by Wanda in Professor X’s mind, but get no further with helping her.
The art is decent. I’ve been a fan of Lopresti and I’m eagerly awaiting the day when he can really blow us away. The cover to issue 15 is probably my favorite out of all House of M. The story is not bad, but gets a little slow. We get nice insights to Xavier and Magneto, though, which really was the best that the second series of Excalibur had to offer overall.
Uncanny X-Men # 462-465
When Wanda remade the world, it created a trans-temporal tsunami that spilt all of the cross-time worlds into each other. It was all going to impact our world, and come smashing in due to a breach in England. Captain Britain and Meggan were dispatched to take care of it, but when they arrived, they were swept into the new reality. Likewise, Marvel Girl and Psylocke were spared from the change-over for some reason and were swept into it. While Brian deals with this unknown mission that he seems to not really remember, the gang is brought in to track down a rogue Mutant that has Magneto’s genetic signature. Turns out it’s Nocturne, who conveniently leads them to the breach. The mission now known to Brian, he attempts to seal the breach, but can’t. Meggan does and “dies.”
The story kinda goes on and on until it rushes itself to conclusion. It’s not that great. The art shift from Alan Davis to Chris Bachelo is harsh. The sacrifice of Meggan was nicely done, though. Everything was just kinda blah.
Spider-Man: House of M
Here we have Peter Parker living his dream life. Married to Gwen Stacy, with a little boy named Richie. Ben, May, and George are all alive. He’s making movies with MJ and is super-popular. J. Jonah Jameson is his bitch. Rhino is his bodyguard. But Peter begins to screw over his whole life by giving Jameson his old journal that contains his old life. Everything comes tumbling down for Peter until he eventually pretends to kill himself to save human/Mutant relations.
Bah, that’s a terrible description, but basically, this is nicely done, emotionally complex story by Mark Waid. It’s a highlight of House of M, despite it being a hard fit with the rest of the over House of M crossover. The art is good, but the coloring is rather spotty.
Iron Man: House of M
Hank Pym has found a way to kill Mutants with a biologically bomb. While Tony straddles the line of Mutant/human relations and dresses up in an Iron Man costume with Johnny Storm, Howard Stark is a jerk to him, trying to target Magneto. It ends with a bunch of people in robot suits saving Mutants.
This is not good. The art is decent . . . except for anyone not a robot. The writing is hackneyed and lacks any sort of insight or energy. It’s basically about Iron Man in House of M, drinking, being jerked around by his Dad, and flying around as Iron Man. There are two or three shining moments, but nothing great.
Fantastic Four: House of M
Doctor Doom, ruler of Latveria, is sick of being at Magneto’s beck and call – and so is his mother. So, with his Fearsome Four, Doom uses an opportunity given to him by Magneto to create an extra-dimensional prison to stop his rival. He succeeds, but Ben “It” Grimm rebels, releases Magneto and the gang, who promptly kill all but Doom – and makes his Mom beg to take her away from Doom.
This is another House of M highlight. Doom’s role in the House of M is great. He’s like his 616 counter-part, expect pissed at Magneto instead of Richards. It’s great. The Fearsome Four are a nice evil compliment to their goody-goody two-shows counter-parts. The art is nice and simple, too, offering nothing but support for such a fine read.
Hulk # 83-86
The Hulk and AIM overthrow Exodus and his anti-human government on Australia. Then, AIM starts to build an anti-Mutant army of cyborgs. Hulk smashes, Banner rules.
This was a fun one; yet another great story from House of M. The scenes with Gateway added nice introspection and insight into the Hulk/Banner. The battles were nice and action-packed. The pacing was good, the art was fantastic and there was just enough drama and comedy to keep it all popping. Kudos on this one.
Black Panther # 7
Black Panther and Magneto aren’t seeing eye-to-eye. After an attempted alliance fails with the other kingdoms for T’Challa and Sabretooth is sent back to Magneto, head only, Apocalypse is brought in . . . only to be defeated by Black Bolt.
It’s an interesting premise, but generally fails to take itself seriously. By the time Namor shouts “You’ve grown gills!” and Shanna and Monica start fighting, the whole story just falls apart. The art is too flaky and sketchy. And Apocalypse does say “old-school.”
Cable and Deadpool # 17
Deadpool returns to 616 thinking it’s an alternate reality in the hopes of retrieving Cable – who is now a baby under the care of Mr. Sinister. Eventually, Cable – because he is so powerful – defeats Sinister and Deadpool takes him back “home” . . . which is really . . . yeah.
Okay, see this is funny because it’s supposed to be funny. Deadpool is a funny character. I can take this seriously even though it is tongue-in-cheek. The story in it of itself isn’t much to offer either the characters or the overall House of M storyline, but it’s enjoyable all the same.
Thunderbolts # 11
I don’t quite understand this story. Some stuff happens. Captain Marvel kinda half-shows everyone what’s happening. Yeah. That’s it.
Captain America # 10
At a party honoring his first moon walk, an aged Captain America looks back upon his life and career, which eventually completely fell apart.
Another great book here. It’s adds a nice sense of texture and history of the recreated Marvel Universe. I like Caps’ POV of the entire rise of Magneto and whatnot. Very well done
The Pulse # 10
Kat Farrell tries to find a story in a SHIELD operation, only to come across Hawkeye – who is dazed and confused because he was dead and now is quite alive. He confronts Kat, talks to her about whatnot, then blows the crap outta this Sentinel monument.
This is a nice piece, working well to compliment the main series, while at the same time telling a decent character piece. Hawkeye’s irrational behavior and emotional confusion fits in very realistically to him being up and alive after a trusted and loved friend/teammate killed him.
New X-Men # 16-19
There seems to be some competition between the New Mutants Institute and the SHIELDS’ Hellions training units. Despite this, the blah blah blah.
I’m not impressed with this story at all. Again, it suffers from the same problems that has plagued it since it’s inception. There are too many characters and too much going on for me to invest my time and energy. The characters are lacking here, just basically carbon-copies of their 616 counter-parts – except for the ones that are the clichéd “We’re best friends really, but in this reality, we hate each other” characterization.
Exiles # 69-71
The Exiles seek to return Beak to his home-Earth (616, which is currently the House of M), only to find, well . . . duh. Here, Angel is a hawt model and Beak pines for her. However, when Proteus goes after Angel, Beak and the Exiles are drawn in. Eventually, Proteus and the Exiles manage to leave the reality while Beak and Angel face a re-shaping reality.
This was a pretty decent story. The Exiles questioning whether or not they should change the House of M is nicely handled, as well as Blink’s comparison with it and the Age of Apocalypse. Proteus is a neat villain and seeing Moira again is pleasant. Overall, a good comic.
Wolverine # 33-35
Wolverine has gone nuts and Shaw brings his girlfriend Mystique in for questioning. We’re quickly showed a flashback to a botched mission a few weeks ago that allowed Wolverine to have fuel to continue on – a feud with Nick Fury.
I found this story confusing, boring, and overall inconsequential. The journey down memory lane is nice in an alternate reality, but in this case, it’s just a big misfire. No thanks.
Mutopia # 1-4
What we have is police officer Izzy Ortega, who during a gig protecting mogul Daniel Kaufman, ends up hooking up with Kaufman’s wife, Laura. Meanwhile, Ortega’s home life sucks as his daughter hasn’t turned into a Mutant yet and his wife comes off as having a problem with that. Izzy is offended and when the affair comes to life . . . well, yeah, the shit hits the fan. Plus, there’s this terrorist after Izzy. It all culminates at this place called Mutopia, where Izzy and his wife hope that Mr. M will activate his daughter’s powers. The terrorist – now working for Kaufman – goes in to shoot Izzy, misses, and hits the newly transformed daughter. Then the House of M ends.
At some point, I plan on picking up all of “District X” and thus appreciate this story a little more. Overall, it’s good. It adds a lot of ground-level texture to House of M. The characters are all very well-realized. A good book.
House of M
Ah, and here we are.
The X-Men and the Avengers gather at Avengers Tower to discuss the fate of Wanda Maximoff. Killing her is even brought up. Quicksilver goes to Genosha to talk to his father about Wanda, only to find him unable and unwilling to do anything. The X-Men and the Avengers go to Genosha themselves to deal with the problem. Shortly after arriving, the world gets turned upside down with everyone living out their dreams. And there is the flaw in the world. Wolverine, who gets all his memories back, ends up with the memories of what really happened. He abandons the SHIELD helicarrier and eventually hooks up with Luke Cage and his gang, who have been told by Layla Millar about the real world. With them is Hawkeye. This group then goes after Emma Frost and Cyclops, then collects She-Hulk, Daredevil, Spider-Man, Sentry, Doctor Strange, and a bunch of others and again goes to Genosha to crash Magneto’s birthday bash. Once there, everyone takes care of the guests (many of them friends) while Doctor Strange confronts Wanda. After it’s discovered that it was Quicksilver that told Wanda to make this world and not Magneto, Magneto goes after Quicksilver. Wanda stops him and turns the world right – except for that key phrase “No more Mutants.” The world goes back to normal with 98% less Mutants.
I remember reading this the first time and finding it to be good, if not far too drawn out. However, now that the story is done and the issues have been sitting around waiting for me, I’ve found it’s a much stronger as a whole. Bendis delivers a strong story here, one that really reaches out and impacts the overall Marvel Universe – but still has strong characterization. I found the House of M reality very interesting and nicely detailed. For all the criticism Bendis gets about characterization, he really nails a lot of the characters well here. Spider-Man’s angst over what this new world/new life means to him. Cyclops stepping up and taking command, with Emma Frost by his side. Even characters like Doctor Strange are very well portrayed.
Quicksilver, Magneto, and Wanda are all very good here. Wanda especially comes off as very sympathetic and much more interesting a character than she did in “Disassembled.” In an overall sense, the Maximoff family is constantly self-destructing. We consistently see these three characters crash into each other. Scarlet Witch is almost as always the victim, Quicksilver is the trouble maker with all the father issues, and Magneto is the one looking to take advantage of it and often times lashing out at his son. It’s no different here. In fact, the best scene in this crossover is the emotional confrontation between Pietro and his father. It’s raw and emotional and quite effective.
There are few other nuggets out there. I really liked Spider-Woman’s comments that this may just be how Mutantkind is supposed to rise to power and take its place at the top of the evolutionary food chain. Layla Millar is a fun character, though a little convenient.
For all the Bendis love, though, there are some problems here. First of all, wouldn’t it have been simpler to take the sample of the Mutant cure and give it Wanda, effectively shutting down her Mutant powers? Sure, Magneto might have a problem with that, but it’s the X-Men and the Avengers. They can handle him while someone pokes her with it real quick. Unfortunately, it’s not even mentioned.
Secondly, this is billed as Avengers/X-Men crossover, when really, it’s more like “The X-Men guest-starring the New Avengers.” The Avengers have a role, but in a way, it’s kinda like they’re passing the Wanda problem off the X-Men and then just sticking around and hanging out. In fact, there’s more impact in this story for the X-Men then the Avengers, which I know irks Avengers fans as it made the ending seem rather flat to them.
Finally, I liked Hawkeye role in the “you killed me, brought me back yadda yadda yadda” character position, but it was rendered ineffective. We don’t see him fully return for what, a year? It’s pointless. I would have rather seen Hawkeye pop back up at the end, say “I need a vacation” and run off. It would have made the tie to Avengers a lot stronger and would have been better in the long run.
Now, as for the art, this book is beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous. The designs, the facial expressions, the lay-out, the colors . . . everything.
As an overall, House of M is a little mixed. There are some nice golden stories, but some stinkers too. It had a nice, strong impact on the Marvel Universe – which is odd, as it is basically an alternate reality tale.
Next up: Decimation!
~W~
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