Friday, November 23, 2007

UXP # 137: "Decimation # 4: Son of M"

Son of M # 1-6

Quicksilver is feelin’ pretty crappy after what he did. After rescuing a pre-198 Johnny D from some thugs, Pietro is the rescued by Spider-Man – who proceeds to yell at him for messing up Peter’s life. This itself concludes with Quicksilver leaping off the side of a building, only to be rescued by Crystal and Lockjaw. She takes him to New Attilan on the moon, where Pietro is reunited with his daughter, Luna. Pietro then decides to use the Terrigen Mists on himself. He does, and with some crazy-ass time travel techniques, steals some of the Terrigen Crystals and he and Luna head to the Earth, shunning the Inhumans.

On Earth, Pietro gives Luna some of the mists, which grants her powers. They then travel to Genosha, where the former Excalibur crew is juiced back up. The Inhumans and General Lazer and ONE track Pietro down to Genosha. Pietro, after an emotional confrontation and rejection with Magneto, realizes that the mists actually cause former Mutant’s powers to go extreme. The Inhumans show up battle with the former Excalibur guys (resulting the death of Unus) and then turn to find that Lazer has taken the crystals and is unwilling to return them. Black Bolt declares a state of war, Pietro sends Luna home where her powers diminish, and Pietro finds that he himself has merged with some of the crystals. He then goes the Mutant Town to help former Mutants get their powers back.

First of all, the story is top-notch. David Hine does a fantastic job of layering different parts of Pietro’s history upon him. The reintroduction of Luna and the time spent with not only the Inhumans, but Spider-Man and the former Excalibur guys all make for nicely-done highlights. The characterization for everyone is spot-on. About the only thing I was unsatisfied with was the question as to why Luna was not in the House of M reality; as in, it wasn’t asked.

The art is beautiful and simple, with a nice beat and pace to it. What really drew my eye were the designs applied to the Inhumans. They all look bizarre and exotic. Human, but yet not. Martinez really hits the nail on the head with this one.

As an overall, “Son of M” is the highlight of “Decimation.” It’s the best Quicksilver story since probably “Magneto Rex,” if not his former on-going.



~W~

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