Reviewer: James Hatton
Story Title: House of M(iramax)
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciler: Olivir Coipel
Inker: Tim Townsend
Colorist: Frank D’Armata
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Publisher: Marvel Comics
There is… a House… in Salem Center
They CALLLLL THE HOUSE OF M.
And it’s been – the ruin, of many Avenger,
And nothing will be the same.. again.
(With apologies to The Animals and my readers who saw me do that joke a few months ago.)
How does one read a review about a title that is the lynchpin of a comic book company for the next year and a half? How can one dissolve what is supposed to be the biggest comic event Marvel has put on in the last three years? You can’t. YOU CAN’T!!!!
IT’S NOT POSSIBLE…
Okay, maybe it is.
Sit back and enjoy what is not as much a review of House of Magnesium, but the beginning of an era of Marvel comics that I get to tell you about the Prologue.
Welcome to the House. Wipe your feet on the way in.
Six months ago, the Avengers had their worst day ever. Because of one crazy broad: members were killed, their home was destroyed, and the team dissolved. A note that without this dissolution, which some thought was horrible and poorly written (and in my opinion was more rushed than anything) has caused some great comic books, so I’m willing to let it go.
New Avengers is tasty.
Young Avengers is incredible.
Well at the end of said mass-murder, a former genocidal maniac (Magneto) picks up the crazy broad (Scarlet Witch) and heads off to Genocide Island (Genosha). We begin here.
(NOTE: I have not read a single spoiler at all. If you know something I don’t due to these – know that I have no idea.)
STORY!
The Scarlet Witch once had children – she had her husband, the Vision, and everything a superheroed Mommy would want. Sadly, none of that was real. Her want of a family, and the twins that came out of her love were a lie. As far as Avengers fans were concerned, this story had been handled and taken care of, but sometimes not all is what it seems. Bubbling beneath the surface the Scarlet Witch was a woman who never accepted that her kids were nothing more than her power gone awry.
As anyone who has dated a ‘less than stable’ person knows that sometimes it’s the stupidest things that set them off. Years after this horrible event in her life, Wasp makes an off handed comment that throws her into a tizzy. A big tizzy. Ok, fine – a tizzy that ends in the aforementioned worse day ever.
Wanda Maximoff has become completely and utterly unhinged, and nobody can fix her. Xavier, master psychic and mutant can’t help her. He’s tried. This is the man who can change the thoughts of a nation… yet this mentally broken women eludes his powers. If he doesn’t do something with any sort of finality – she will break out of his hold on her… and it will begin another seriously bad day.
Rightly so, Avengers and X-Men alike join in the newly created Avengers Mansion to decide her fate. Why the X-Men? Because she’s a mutant. Why the Avengers? Because she has been the mother, the sometimes leader, and figurehead of the team for decades. Together they need to decide.
The team goes and she’s gone.
Then there is the big surprise.
No, I’m not going to tell you, that’s not nice.
What is the merit of this book? It is the fact that the relationships of these characters is tangible. There is a scene where Father & Son, Magneto & Quicksilver discuss the fate of Scarlet Witch (daughter and sister respectively). ‘Silver pounds on his father’s chest screaming “THEY ARE GOING TO KILL HER” because that is what he truly believes what they are going to do. A good showing of what he believes friends will do.
The way that Bendis has callous characters like Emma Frost face against the steadfast beliefs of Captain America.
The moment that Xavier must admit to the one X-Man he treats as his son, Cyclops, that he is without option.
This book isn’t about high action or superheroics. This is a book about people who live in the same world, dealing with a situation that affects their lives. They are the judge and jury on a woman they all relate to or love.
That is the power of House of Marzipan…
(Note: Yes, I realize that I wrote that long dramatis and killed it with a marzipan joke. Yes, I went there.)
ART!
On rare occasions, I talk about the cover of a book – I gave up on that given that most covers (specifically Ultimate books) don’t have anything to do with the internals. Let me just make a note that with the cover of the biggest event of the summer… the cover is useless and I was bothered that the Scarlet Witch and Magneto don’t appear anywhere on it. This is the company that puts Colossus on a book that has him returning from the dead. They could be a bit more considerate about the subject matter.
On the inside though, the art is fine. Coipel and Townsend are a perfect combination. You don’t want somebody too crazy, even someone like Maleev would be too dark and speckly – Bachalo, too cartoony – Finch would take forever. The choice of two men who can draw a convincing comicbook sequece with dramatic and easily visible faces. In a book where the thoughts of characters should be apparent on their face – they are perfect.
OVERALL!
House of Mordor recieved one of my longest reviews ever, not because it was the greatest book ever, but because it is the culmination of (without knowing) years of story. I could speak it’s flaws, which I’m sure you people will debate until next month’s issue – but I wanted to convey to you the power that is this story moreso than it’s flaws.
I recommend this book to you, my readers. If I don’t, you’ll probably be lost all year. You deserve the right to know what’s going on – and read spoilers for the rest.
I, personally, loved it – and am giving it a score that reflects that.
