I got back into comics in 2005. It was mainly because of New Avengers. At the time, I couldn't believe they finally put Wolverine & Spider-Man in the Avengers. It seemed like a no-brainer and they finally did it. You can definitely see a shift in Marvel at the time. Brian Michael Bendis was beginning his unprecedented run. The events cycle which has driven Marvel for the last ten years began with House Of M. Secret War came out around this time too, but it doesn't have too much to do with the grand scheme of things. House of M came out of Avengers Disassembled and New Avengers, which was Bendis revamping the Avenger in his image, to great success. In Avengers Disassembled, Scarlet Witch is revealed to be mentally ill and abusing her reality altering powers, of which she is revealed to be an omega level mutant, previously, her powers were best described as "probability altering," which no one could really quantify. She fired "hex bolts." That was pretty much it. Now she can re-write reality if she wants to, which kind of makes her the most powerful being in the Marvel U? So, she's gone insane by the loss of her children years earlier, which as it turns out, the children were only "magical constructs the Witch had subconsciously created from the demon Mephisto" in classic convoluted fashion, using her powers were driving her crazy, somehow. It's best not to think too hard about this. So she decimates the Avengers, killing off some minor characters and Hawkeye. It was controversial at the time, and not a GREAT story. Bendis was just getting started and it was mostly him doing housekeeping. So at the end of that story the Avengers, with help from Dr. Strange, take her down. Magneto arrives, cites his failure as a parent, and takes her away.
The New Avengers emerge, consisting of Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Luke Cage, Spider-Woman, & Sentry.
The X-Men were also rebooted lightly, with the main team consisting of Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Colossus, Kitty Pryde, & Beast.
(Wolverine pulling double duty)
House of M pulls these teams together because Scarlet Witch is a mutant and Avenger. Which team has say over her?
ACTUAL REVIEW:
Wanda's condition has stumped Dr. Strange, Magneto & Xavier. You know, this entire series is mostly forgettable. It's super padded and the only memorable issue is #7. The rest is really kind of unnecessary. Bendis' dialogue is always strong, but this decompressed style is not really a good fit for these events. The interesting aspects (Magneto ruling the world) are barely illuminated. We get Wolverine dicking around for a couple issues trying to figure out what's happening, and then everyone is pissed that they were forced to live in this new reality where they are happy. Wha? Pocket universes, alternate realities have been done to death, and HOUSE OF M isn't super compelling. Age of Apocalypse was " What if Apocalypse won, and Xavier was dead?" Cool concept. Magneto winning is also a cool concept. Genosha is transformed into a citadel. If anything, Genosha in general was one of the more interesting ideas brought up during this series. The vignettes establishing this new reality are mostly throwaway. Not memorable stuff. Not bad, just not memorable. Bendis does have good ideas though. Steve Rogers being a non-factor was interesting. I think this would have been better as a What If? issue. What if the mutants weren't the minority? That is kind of what this is. As an aside, Olivier Coipel's art is KILLER. A major plus for this series. Coipel's rendering of Genosha, the helicarrier, and more is beautiful stuff. He's the star.
There area lot of characters in this story, and no one really gets to shine. Wolverine is the main character, I guess? Emma Frost also has some good moments. Spider-Man wines a lot. I guess Quicksilver is the "villain"of this but he actually has some really good motivation to do what he does. It's not so hard to sympathize with him. That's actually some good character work by Bendis. Layla Miller is introduced as a plot device, and she doesn't really develop into more thatn "the plot dictate that someone needs this power set so it can move forward" but I hear that she does get fleshed out in X-Factor by Peter David.
House of M takes it's sweet time. That might not be everyone's cup of tea. For me, it just doesn't work. These events are the comic equivalent to popcorn movies, and that is *okay* This story is a vehicle to roll out a new status quo ( No More Mutants) and potentially plant seeds for future Avengers storylines, which it kind of does. The payoff doesn't happen for like 5 more years though, which makes me laugh thinking about it.
Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver get thrown under the bus, which kind of sucks. Their characters don't recover for a couple years. Them getting the spotlight this is deserved, but as the villains, it's kind of a pyrrhic victory. Wanda's mental health issues are assigned stigma, just like Sentry later on. It's a little disconcerting.
I gotta say, Cloak never gets the credit he deserves. He's always the utility guy in these crossovers. An unsung hero, for sure. He basically shows up in this, Civil War, and Secret Invasion, does somebody a solid, and is forgotten. A cool character who deserves much better.
Some of the more interesting aspects of this story to me were;
Genosha. An abandoned city where Magneto hangs out depowered and depressed? Could be interesting.
House of Magnus. They only touched upon how Magneto was basically royalty for like, less than 20 pages in this. It is a very interesting concept, seeing Magneto get what he wants. (It's weird they are doing this exact same thing with Doom in Secret Wars 2015.) I'm not sure if they expand on the concept in some of the miniseries that followed or any of the tie in issues. Perhaps they are doing that with the new Secret Wars mini. The idea has a lot of potential.
Issue 7 was really the only one needed. You can cut out 2-6 or for sure cut those in half and not lose anything.
Bendis' first big event and he does okay. He definitely improves a lot in future events, so giving him a grade here isn't too hard. He does his best, but I would probably have to give this event a 4/10.
4/10.
Not one of Marvel's best events.
Coipel's art is always a treat though. His Hawkeye design is top tier.
Moment of Zen:
