Throwback Thursday: Starting the journey through House of M
Since newcomers and MCU converts are about to get a new faceload (we hope) of Wanda Maximoff, I decided to delve into an event that I have been sort of avoiding as a whole for quite some time. Not because I’m afraid I won’t like it (like some others I’ve been avoiding), but because it’s really long and I’m afraid of my life getting eaten as I accidentally read it in the wrong order. (I already accidentally read the Captain America one when I was binge-reading the Brubaker run. It was an interesting detour from the story.)
But the great thing about Marvel Unlimited is that they have this thing called Suggested Reading Order.
So, I sucked it up, put on my big girl dress and Book Riot hoodie, and settled in for a long winters’ read.
Ladies and Gentlemen, House of M.
I love it when people screw with two things: timelines and realities. As I’ve mentioned before, What If and Otherworlds are always big sells for me. So when I read the description of House of M several years ago, I knew that was something for me. Before the timeline begins, the brilliant, beautiful, talented and powerful Scarlet Witch has completely screwed up and done some serious damage to the Avengers, all centered around her altering reality and creating children of her own–which of course could never have actually happened considering the whole Vision thing.
Her reaction to the prior events has left her mentally cracked; her father and brother, Magneto and Quicksilver respectively, are lost, and Charles Xavier can’t really do much to help.
Their father-son interactions are something I seriously wish could happen in one of the film Universes. But alas. It’s not to be.
Even though I tend to pick up 616 runs in bits and pieces, and still haven’t actually read the destruction of Genosha and the remaining fallout, I have read enough around those events that I know what happened and what the world looked like for the X-Men, Fantastic Four and Avengers afterwards. So I wasn’t incredibly shocked to discover that Hawkeye, Ant-Man and Vision had been “killed”.
Bendis’ presentation of the full cast left me bouncing between sympathy and scorn in the perfect way, so much so that I just had to admire people for sticking to their guns, instead of hating them.
Some people find the resolute, unwavering determination of Captain America boring. I, like some wall crawlers, just want to carry his books.
Finally, for the most part, the art is acceptable, pretty run of the mill. But um…
Pardon me, Ms. Frost. Your weapon is up *there*. Tuck those bad girls back in.
By the end of the first issue, not much has happened, but oh so much has. As the event proceeds, my thrill continues to rise as people’s altered timelines consume them.
I’m still making my way through this behemoth event, but I am so ready for this.
What are you reading today?
