House of M

[Velorath]

Just read this myself.  Pretty much consisted of Layla "plot device" Miller waking people up, while Emma Frost repeats a lot of what Bendis has said in interviews, explaining various plot points.  Peachy.

Edit:  Just glanced at a review topic on another board and someone pointed out something I missed.  These characters, even after having their memories restored still have memories of the House of M world.  With that as the case, given what was shown on the last page they should know exactly why they can't find Xavier as that seems like an important event in the history of HoM, but they act like it's a big mystery what's happened to the Professor.

[Velorath]

6 issues into an 8 issue mini, and we've almost got to a point where something is happening.  Something tells me this story is just going to keep this pace all the way through that Decimation epilogue or whatever that shit is.

[HaemishM]

Best part of issue 6? Magneto stopping the Sentinel flying at him in mid-air. Worst part? The entire rest of this useless issue. They spend 24 pages to find out one thing. And there isn't even a good fight scene. They spent like 2 pages just emoting in some useless anime yaoi way about if it's right or not to try to set the world straight, before just going ahead with it anyway. Bendis is better than this entire series.

[Velorath]

Bendis is better than this entire series.

I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry at the "cliffhanger" at the end of issue 6.

Issue 5 twist ending:  OMG Xavier is dead in this reality!
Issue 6 twist ending:  OMG Xavier isn't dead in this reality!

[HaemishM]

#7 down.

Still shit. Only now, the artist seems to be rushing things, and I can't tell the difference between Magneto and Quicksilver. Which is important in this issue.

Ugggg.

EDIT: A character dies in this book. And the words cockmonkey squared don't even begin to describe my contempt for the way in which it's done.

Hint. I should put AGAIN on the end of that sentence.

[Velorath]

#7 down.

Still shit. Only now, the artist seems to be rushing things, and I can't tell the difference between Magneto and Quicksilver. Which is important in this issue.

Ugggg.

EDIT: A character dies in this book. And the words cockmonkey squared don't even begin to describe my contempt for the way in which it's done.

Hint. I should put AGAIN on the end of that sentence.

We know from advanced solicits that Hawkeye will make some sort of appearance in the first issue of She Hulk's relaunch.  Also I couldn't really tell from the story if Magneto killed Quicksilver or if Wanda brought him back, or what the heck was going on.  Worst art in the series so far and this issue had actually been delayed a week.

[HaemishM]

We know from advanced solicits that Hawkeye will make some sort of appearance in the first issue of She Hulk's relaunch. 

I am frustrated to the point of apathy.

[HaemishM]

Having just read an interview with Chris Claremont about the relaunching of an Excalibur title that actually fits the name (one with Capt. Britain, Dazzler, Juggernaut, Nocturne?, Pete Wisdom and Sage), I have figured out two things.

1) House of M was done to reduce the number of mutants in the Marvel Universe. It was essentially a rebooting of the Marvel universe back to a more mutant-hating time.
2) Magneto from the pages of Excalibur was a creation of the Scarlet Witch's. The real Magneto is dead. (Or alternately, the real Magneto is the pussy from Excalibur and the Xorn/Magneto mix that tried to take over New York in the end of the Grant Morrison one and was killed was created by the Scarlet Witch).

Either way, they've both made me realize a third thing. Or re-realize.

House of M sucks ass.

[Velorath]

Having just read an interview with Chris Claremont about the relaunching of an Excalibur title that actually fits the name (one with Capt. Britain, Dazzler, Juggernaut, Nocturne?, Pete Wisdom and Sage), I have figured out two things.

1) House of M was done to reduce the number of mutants in the Marvel Universe. It was essentially a rebooting of the Marvel universe back to a more mutant-hating time.
2) Magneto from the pages of Excalibur was a creation of the Scarlet Witch's. The real Magneto is dead. (Or alternately, the real Magneto is the pussy from Excalibur and the Xorn/Magneto mix that tried to take over New York in the end of the Grant Morrison one and was killed was created by the Scarlet Witch).

Either way, they've both made me realize a third thing. Or re-realize.

House of M sucks ass.

Yeah, as far as 1 goes a lot of people have pointed out what a bunch of shit that is.  We already know from real life that a minority doesn't have to have miniscule numbers to be persecuted, and Morrison's run had already succeeded in wiping out a large number of mutants anyway in Genosha.  All it comes down to though is Marvel wanting to move backwards rather than forwards.

There's no way they can fix the Magneto thing at this point, and we've known for a while now that every crap plot device the doesn't make sense is going to get blamed on Wanda now.

Oh, and Nocturne is the daughter of Nightcrawler and Wanda from an alternate reality.  She was one of the main characters in Exiles (a group of reality hopping mutants led by Blink from AOA) until she got dumped off in the normal Marvel reality (and joined the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants for some unexplained reason).

[Llava]

Oh, and Nocturne is the daughter of Nightcrawler and Wanda from an alternate reality.

I knew he wanted to tap that.

[Velorath]

We know from advanced solicits that Hawkeye will make some sort of appearance in the first issue of She Hulk's relaunch. 

I am frustrated to the point of apathy.

Just picked up the issue of She-Hulk actually and I'll be interested in seeing where Slott goes with this.  Dan Slott is one of my new favorite writers after his GLA mini this year, and probably the best comedic writer in comics right now.  I first read his work over a decade ago when he was writing the Ren and Stimpy comic for Marvel.  I'm not sure what he's done since then, but his 12 issue She-Hulk series last year got great reviews (I've only read a couple issues, but I'm going to order the trades at some point).  The Hawkeye plot doesn't turn up until the last couple pages of this issue, but you can already tell that Slott is going to be having fun with this one.

Oh and pick up the GLA trade in December.  It's funny shit, but Slott also manages to be serious at times and actually makes you care about a group of 4th-string losers.

[HaemishM]

Ugggghhhh. Just read that She-Hulk. It's got some funny bits, particularly the parts about trade paperbacks. I don't really like the artwork, though. And if that's their way of bringing back Hawkeye for good, I just have to shake my head.

You know, I just don't think there's any good way to bring back a character that was killed so badly.

[Velorath]

Ugggghhhh. Just read that She-Hulk. It's got some funny bits, particularly the parts about trade paperbacks. I don't really like the artwork, though. And if that's their way of bringing back Hawkeye for good, I just have to shake my head.

You know, I just don't think there's any good way to bring back a character that was killed so badly.

Knowing Slott, he probably won't be bringing Hawkeye back for good.  He'll get some jokes out of the whole situation and then Hawkeye will probably go back to his own time.  I think She-Hulk is entertaining, but I'll say once again that I loved GLA.

[Velorath]

Read the final issue of HoM.  Everyone wakes back up in the normal MU, except now almost all the mutants are gone.  Magneto and Iceman are the only major characters who have lost their powers so far, Hawkeye may be back regardless of what happens in She-Hulk, the heroes continue to seem inable to actually affect the plot rather than watch it go on around them, and Layla "Plot Device" Miller makes an appearance suggesting that Bendis has further plans for this "character".

Of course now Marvel would have us believe that Decimation is the real event, and that HoM was just the over-hyped, padded-out, 8 issue long fucking prelude to the actual story, so we should all go rush out and buy all those one-shots and mini's that'll be out soon.

[HaemishM]

Read it. More UGGGH.

While there are hints of something interesting that MIGHT happen (Iceman losing his powers), it's all just a muddled cluster fuck of stupid. Some of the heroes remember, and some don't. And instead of just removing the mutants, it removes their powers. And the Scarlet Witch is still alive, just hiding as a fucking gypsy. And Magneto has no powers, but there's still no fucking explanation about how he isn't the Xorn-dead Magneto or dead from the gigantic Sentinel nuclear explosion on Genosha during Grant Morrison's run. And yes, they do hint about Decimation now being the big event, but I just don't fucking care. It's awful, awful writing.

[Special J]

And instead of just removing the mutants, it removes their powers.

And of course none of them REALLY lost their powers. They just 'forgot'.  That way any writer can come along and have them 'remember'.

Damn they made a mess of Magneto.  One of my favourite bad guys ruined to the point where I wish he were dead and stayed that way.  I haven't really followed HoM put I'm sure half the point of this whole exercise was to retcon the whole Magneto clusterfuck.

[HaemishM]

The thing with Magneto was that Grant Morrison handled him well. He sort of killed him off, then brought him back in the Xorn/Upside Down/Drugged-out version, which Wolverine then killed with a satisfying snikt. He left it wide open enough so that later writers could come and do something with the character to explain the whole Xorn thing.

But instead of explaining it, Claremont just had him shrug his shoulders and turn into Bosom Buddies with Xavier in Genosha. That Excalibur book was dreadful, and turned Magneto into even more of a wimp than ever before. I'd have been better off with the House of M if it HAD been Magneto who put the ideas into the Scarlet Witch's head.

[Hoax]

Every once awhile I go to this sub-forum for a reminder to why I dont touch comics anymore.  I used to read Sleepwalker (from issue1) Iron Man and various non DC/Marvel offerings (Aliens, Predator, Armorines and some other random stuff from image/valiant).  When they killed iron man, then cloned him, then had the clone fight the oringal one, then the original one kill the clone.  I said fuck this, went outside, and never bought a comic again.  Threads like this assure me that I made the right call.

[Velorath]

Every once awhile I go to this sub-forum for a reminder to why I dont touch comics anymore.  I used to read Sleepwalker (from issue1) Iron Man and various non DC/Marvel offerings (Aliens, Predator, Armorines and some other random stuff from image/valiant).  When they killed iron man, then cloned him, then had the clone fight the oringal one, then the original one kill the clone.  I said fuck this, went outside, and never bought a comic again.  Threads like this assure me that I made the right call.

Actually threads like this exist because it's easier to make fun of bad comics that a lot of people are reading than it is to talk about good comics that no one is reading.  I could make plenty of topics about good comics and tpbs but they don't tend to get many responses, but we can keep a topic like this going for months.

[HaemishM]

Also, House of M is one of the truly bad comics out there. Really, really bad. There's some good work being put out. If you want to see a blockbuster event done (mostly) right, read Infinite Crisis.

[Velorath]

Read through Generation M which had some interesting bits including some specifics on the mutants being depowered.  Apparently there was some randomness as to the effects and while some of the non-human looking mutants became completely normal, some just lost their powers.  Chamber for instance is pretty fucked up and being kept alive by machines as he has a big hole in his chest and no heart.  There is also mention of mutants crashing to their deaths after loosing their powers in mid-flight and other such tales of tragedy.  The rest of the issue is dragged down by focusing too much on a new character, the journalist who is writing a column about the ex-mutants.

Over in X-men 178 there some more shit with the Sentinels parked outside the mansion.  Polaris has lost her powers but is trying not to let anyone know.  Meanwhile Bobby is out in the woods surrounding the mansion and gets attacked by some anti-mutant group looking to attack the mansion.  Emma, back in the mansion using Cerebra at the time senses the attack, and with some mental prodding is able to activate Iceman's powers, and the issue ends with Cyclops and Rogue finding Bobby in his (now kinda fucked up looking) Iced-Up form, with him apparently not even knowing he's Iced.  I assume the implication here is that Bobby's power loss was more of a mental thing (which would make sense since he's had a lot of control issues with his powers in the past).

[HaemishM]

I haven't read the X-Men lately (I'm only up to about #171 so far) but man has that book taken a nosedive in quality since Chuck Austen left. I like Peter Milligan, but the whole Golgotha storyline was just scattershot.

I read Gen M and almost wept at how badly they've handled Chamber. He's reduced to a fucking vegetable. Sure, it makes sense, but I'd like to see a good character get used instead of abused like he's been.

[Velorath]

Bendis interview.

I'll avoid using Haem's trademarked large red type, but there were parts of this interview that did stir up the Rage in me (apologies in advance for SirBrucing Bendis).

"House of M" was born when Bendis was relating his plans for the Avengers in "Avengers: Disassembled" to another Marvel writer. "I was telling the story to Jeph Loeb, this was before I wrote it, and he said, 'When does Magneto show up?'" Bendis told CBR News. "I wasn't even going to go there and I wasn't sure what was happening with Magneto at the time because of Xorn and all that stuff. So, the minute I started writing that scene I realized, 'Oh this about all of this. This is about all of that stuff.' So I was very happy to have that inspiration and take it further."

Good to know that Bendis didn't actually have any long term plans and that a throwaway comment from Jeph Loeb was the basis for a big MU changing event.

The most difficult part of "House of M" for Bendis was coming up with all the details required to bring to bring the alternate Marvel Earth to life. "It's like taking a huge dump," Bendis joked.

Never a truer word spoken.

The New Avengers will face another mysterious threat to Earth that arises from the fall out from "House of M" beginning in the pages of "New Avengers" #16. The threat is called the Collective. "There were thousands of mutants and some of them controlled energy fields," Bendis explained. "Magneto controlled magnetic fields. Some of these people controlled other kinds of fields like radiation fields. This energy, now that it's not being controlled by this person doesn't disappear because their mutant genes disappeared. The energy was forcefully shoved away from either its source or the Earth. So you have all these different kinds of energy. Some of them could be sentient energy. It's all being pushed off the planet in an unnatural state. It's being pushed and pulled to places it wasn't supposed to go.

Thank God that Wanda's power to completely change reality somehow still has to obey the law of conservation of energy, otherwise we might not get stories about such inspired sounding threats as the Collective.  I can't wait to see how Iron Man single-handedly stops that one.  Or maybe Bendis will have Emma Frost or Dr. Strange step in again so none of the Avengers have to get their hands dirty actually doing something in their own book.

Readers will also be learning more about the of the New Avenger's latest member, Ronin, who was recently revealed to be Maya Lopez AKA Echo. "There's going to be a whole fleshing out of her in the future," Bendis explained. "Not in the issue just released. We introduce her and her place and what the Avengers are going to need from her. When we next come back to her, which will be soon, we're going to get the whole story."

Maybe if you'd condensed the Ronin arc down to the one issue it could have been told in you'd have time to introduce her place in the Avengers before moving on to the next Big Event, jackass.

Echo first appeared in the pages of "Daredevil," in a story that wowed Bendis. "This was before I was on 'Daredevil.' David Mack is one of my oldest and best friends and when him and Joe [Joe Quesada] created Echo, I was like, 'Oh it's a female Taskmaster with this great Indian mythological origin," Bendis stated. "I'm like, 'God damn that's a great character.' It's so rare that you see that and go, 'Wow that's really new.'"

No, it's not new.  You just said it yourself, she's a fucking female Taskmaster!  I don't know why people at Marvel seem to think existing character + female = radically new concept.

Another Bendis penned book will also serve to set up the summer's big events. "'Secret War' #5 is finished," Bendis stated. "Issue #5 really sets up a lot of the push and pull that's going to be going on with these characters. I gave the story a lot of wok at the end to make sure it matches with what's going on in the Marvel Universe today, which is very different than when I started. I started "Secret War" before I did "Disassembled." So with stuff like Joss's "X-Men", "House of M" and "New Avengers" the entire landscape of the mainstream Marvel Universe has changed in almost every area."

When you're horribly late with the last issue of your mini, just bite the bullet and release it.  Don't try to make it seem more relevent by shoehorning a bunch of other crap in there to make it look like it leads into the next events, and especially don't tell the readers that you're doing it.  It feels cheap and forced.

[HaemishM]

Fucking hell. What the fuck happened to Bendis? What happened to the guy who wrote AKA Goldfish and Jinx, two of the best comics I read in the 90's?

WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?

I mean, no it isn't at all that the Collective sounds like ohhhhh CRISIS. And the Illuminati? That doesn't sound anything like what's happening at DC with the conflicting ideologies of the Big 3 heroes. He sounds like a fucking snake oil salesmen nowadays. It's like he can't be arsed to have an original thought and he knows it, but he's got to keep the sales up so he keeps tossing this idiotic, out there bullshit at comics fans to piss them off. I love the fact that Jeph Loeb came up with Magneto showing up at the end of Disassembled. You know, the part that made NO FUCKING SENSE WHEN COMPARED TO CURRENT CONTINUITY. The part that still isn't resolved. I mean, they really haven't spelled out who the fuck the Xorn/Magento was, or even how he survived the fucking Genosha Super Sentinel Cassandra Nova attack.

Is there not one cockmuffin at Marvel who gives a shit that none of their universe makes any fucking sense anymore?

[Ironwood]

Overwork.

Seriously, they found a good writer that everyone liked, so they made him write everything.

You try it.  See how long before you're pushing out 'derivative shite number 62'.

Or that's my take anyway.

[HaemishM]

The worst part isn't so much that it's derivative, it's that like I've said all along, it doesn't fit the characters he's using. And it's boring and badly done. Yeah, Bendis is doing WAAAYYYYY too many Marvel books, and it shows. Geoff Johns is starting to push that limit, but at least he's got a few other guys (Winnick and Rucka) who are just as good taking up some of the slack.

[Velorath]

I mean, no it isn't at all that the Collective sounds like ohhhhh CRISIS. And the Illuminati? That doesn't sound anything like what's happening at DC with the conflicting ideologies of the Big 3 heroes.

Take a look at another one of Marvel's next big crossovers, Annihilation.

Marvel Comics has stars in its eyes as it announces the impending approach of ANNIHILATION, a major new comics event. ANNIHILATION, beginning in March ’06, encompasses a prologue one-shot, four 4-issue limited series, and a 6-issue concluding limited series

They've got to be fucking kidding me.

[HaemishM]

Wooga. I love Nova, but I somehow think this is destined to be mediocre. Though with Giffen and Abnett/Lanning on some of them, they might not be bad.

But overall, /meh. And yes, they do sound like the 4 series that preceeded Infinite Crisis.

[Velorath]

Wooga. I love Nova, but I somehow think this is destined to be mediocre. Though with Giffen and Abnett/Lanning on some of them, they might not be bad.

But overall, /meh. And yes, they do sound like the 4 series that preceeded Infinite Crisis.

Yeah, Giffen does seem to be one of the only bright spots in this whole thing.  This is the kind of event Starlin probably could have done well if he could ever do a cosmic Marvel title that didn't revolve around Thanos.  His Dreadstar stuff was really well done Sci-Fi.  Unfortunately that series was killed by the writers that followed him.

[Velorath]

On another note, just read X-Factor #1 (the new series), and Son of M #1.  I expected X-Factor to be good, since I like a lot of Peter David's stuff and his Maddrox mini was some of his best writing.  If David keeps up this level of writing for the series it could challenge Whedon's Astonishing X-Men for best X-book on the market right now (Astonishing is actully coming back in a few months).

More surprising though was how much I liked Son of M.  Can't say that I've read a lot of David Hine's stuff, nor did I like the sound of the solicits for Son of M, which suggest that he's going to be betraying people in an effort to get his powers back.  I'd rather Marvel stop shitting on some of their characters for shock value.  So while I still expect to dislike the eventual outcome of this book, it gives you a good understanding of Quicksilver's situation, and even more surprisingly deals with Spider-man's aftermath from House of M better than any of his own books did.