Tag Archives: Scarlet Witch

House of M: New X-Men – Academy X (2006)

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Quote:
“You’re a terrorist now?! People have been sent to kill you. My people.”

 

This book collects New X-Men 16 -19 and was written by husband and wife team Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir. The art was by penciller Aaron Lopresti and inker Brad Vancata. All of the creative team are new to me.

In this reality, the Hellions are a group of young S.H.I.E.L.D. trainees and the New Mutants are a group of non-combatant mutants being trained for leadership. After the Hellions break-up a terrorist incident at a New Mutants assembly, the signs point to the father of Surge, one of the Hellions, as being behind the attempted atrocity. When the Hellions are sent to Japan to investigate without her, Surge enlists the help of her New Mutant boyfriend to find out the truth of her father’s involvement and the super secret Project Genesis.

This was an enjoyable little side tale in the House of M universe. It explores more of the dark side of the seemingly perfect mutant ruled world created by the Scarlet Witch. Because the teams are made up of teens there is a bit of a juvenile feel to some of the settings and dialogue but the story is mostly good with mystery and intrigue in the form of the secret Project Genesis and super covert S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in both camps. one of the worthier House of M titles though it did feel like they ran out of room a little with an ending that borrowed from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

House of M: Uncanny X-Men (2006)

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Quote:
“And what is this? I swear, if I’m dead again …!”

 

This book collects Uncanny X-Men 462 – 465. It was written by long-time X-Men writer Chris Claremont and pencilled by two of my favourite arists – Alan Davies and Chris Bachalo. I know Claremont’s work from various X-Men books but primarily from the original Excalibur series from the late eighties. Davis also worked on that series as well as the fabulous, Alan Moore penned, D.R. and Quinch from 2000AD. I loved Bachalo’s work on the two Death mini-series on Vertigo as well as Shade, the Changing Man and The Witching Hour – in fact my favourite t-shirt to this day remains one that features a Bacholo image of Death (the only picture that I can find online is in the background of this image).

Captain Britain is swept up into the events of the House of M as this story shows that the actions of the Scarlet Witch on Earth 616 threaten the integrity of the whole omniverse. He is tasked with returning to Earth 616 to try and seal the breach in causality before the whole of the omniverse ceases to be. however once back on Earth 616 he he finds himself happy to play the role given to him by the Scarlet Witch’s changes. It is only through messages transmitted through Meggan and a hunt for fugitives from Magneto that he gets back on track.

This is the first book in the spin-offs from the main story that I have really loved. I think part of it is nostalgia for the original Excalibur series that I liked back in the day – and this story feels like an Excalibur story rather than an X-men story as a lot of the characters and the setting come straight from Excalibur. The other part of it is due my love for the two pencillers’ work who both have two chapters each in this story. The story from Claremont is good but the plot line featuring Juggernaut and Nocturne on the run from a bunch of Magneto’s hunters is left largely unexplained – possibly to be resolved in one of the remaining books. An early splash page shows Captain Britain and Meggan being blasted across the omniverse and shows familiar characters in unfamiliar setting and guises – some of these look intriguing and I wish there was a series that explored some of these further (like a Marvel version of DC’s Elseworlds books).

House of M (2006)

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Quote:
“They gave us what we always wanted, and … isn’t there an argument that we deserved to get this? To be happy for once?”

 

I have put The Walking Dead re-read on hold for the moment as I have reached the same point as the TV series mid-season break and I want to se what they do in the series before carrying on in the comics. Instead I am going to read the House of M books as I have collected most of them from one source or another – I am only missing the Excalibur prelude.

House of M was the Marvel crossover event from 2005 and features the New Avengers and the X-men. This book collects the eight part main story and I was looking forward to reading it as the creative team was writer Brian Michael Bendis and penciller Olivier Coipel. I recently read and enjoyed the first New Avengers book that Bendis also wrote in the same era and as an added bonus I loved Coipel’s work on Thor.

The story takes place after the Avengers Disassembled storyline. The Scarlet Witch is being stabilised by Charles Xavier in Genosha but he fears that he can do little to prevent her having another potentially disasterous breakdown. The Avengers – old and new – and the X-men are gathered together to decide the fate of their former team-mate and fellow mutant. But they arrive too late to prevent the Scarlet Witch from rewriting reality and creating a world in which mutants rule over homo sapiens. Wolverine awakes in this new reality but finds that he remembers the original reality too and sets out on a quest to find out what is going on, round up any of the powered human resistance that he can and put things back they way they were if he can.

This is another great book from Bendis that I enjoyed very much. The storyline was interesting as it offered an alternative few of a mutant dominated world where Magneto won his fight to have mutants rule over the human population. The concept of dreams coming true is explored most thoroughly through the experiences of Peter Parker who is put through the emotional wringer by Bendis when he regains his memory of his true life. The weakness of the book is that it is being used as a game changer in the Marvel universe so a lot of questions are left unanswered presumably to be further explored in the individual comic series, especially the mutant ones, after the legacy that the Scarlet Witch leaves behind. But if you can accept that then it is a fine crossover story and well worth a read.