Dex's Comic Awareness

House of M #6(of 8)
written by Brian Michael Bendis
pencils by Olivier Coipel
cover by Esad Ribic

So we finally get to the thick of things. Well in true Bendis fashion, no not really. We get a few chaotic scenes of battle and more conversation that really only sets up the next battle. Six issues in and we are just now getting down to actually doing something. You would think that they would try and mind wipe the other characters there, Pietro, Ororo, Namor, and so on but they didn't because they had her out trying to find Prof. X. And his tombstone is not where his body is.

Always more questions than answers out of this kind of thing but hey, at least the dialogue is fairly good. So is the art as usual. I just don't like how he makes Cyclop's head look like a large block of wood.

Speaking of ol one eye, his little speech about holding nothing back does seem appropriate but what about all the countless times before when the world was going to end? Was it ok to hold back then because there was a chance someone else might be able to fix it? I liked it and was totally psyched to see Nightcrawler port someone to N zone and leave them there or see Luke Cage strangle someone. Not gonna happen, at least not yet. BOO! I say. You talk about no restraint, I want to see no restraint, and I want to see some out and out killing. Logan at least was good for it. But that's nothing new.

Rating - Good

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House of M #5(of 8)
written by Brian Michael Bendis
pencils by Olivier Coipel
cover by Esad Ribic

This issue is the predictable but necessary issue of the heroes running around NY trying to make all the disparate heroes "remember" using that mutant’s powers. Emma's attempt to discover why and how the little girl does what she does produces no results. She even contradicts herself and says she doesn't know what she's doing to everybody to make them remember. At least the characters recognize her as an obvious plot device too.

Everyone's reactions to the remembering are fairly well done. I'm not sure why Emma is upset that she is married to Scott. It hurts Scott because his dream would be Jean but instead he's with Emma. Its obvious why Magneto would leave Jean out of this, her power would keep her from being mind wiped. Pretty much all the heroes, with a few noticeable exceptions and additions, of the first issue get together. We lose Captain America to old age (he never got frozen) but we gained Cloak, Rogue, Mystique and Daredevil. We also gained Hawkeye but then he disappears, as we know he does in the Pulse. But here's the kicker, he didn't get his mind cleared in this issue. He even yells at Emma and calls her a “damn mutant.” So he just knows that he's supposed to be dead but he doesn't know how or why. Read that issue of Pulse that came out prematurely to find out the rest of his story.

The team is set and the slow crawl towards resolution continues. I will say that the scene with Peter was nice. He had some of the biggest changes happen to him, he has a son, Gwen’s not dead, and his Uncle Ben is alive. Out of all the people present, Logan was the right one to go calm Peter. If Matt Murdock had been turned then I would have said it should have been him. But I think they wanted Logan no matter what, he is the "star" of this show anyway. They all pretty much want to kill Magneto now. None of them seem up to giving him mercy.

The last scene isn't too much of a shocker really. We find out that Xavier is dead. Of course he would be because his presence is too easily damaging to the world. This is building to a major confrontation and anything less than the death of some major characters is going to be a letdown in the extreme. Marvel has a lot of hype to live up to.

Rating - Good

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House of M #4
written by Brian Michael Bendis
pencils by Olivier Coipel
cover by Esad Ribic

This is the best issue yet of this limited series. The opening scene itself is beautifully done and sets a wonderful tone for the issue. This issue is a true step forward in the plot as we meet the Human Resistance headed by Cage but full of the low level heroes, and some villains, that Marvel is known for. This issue also read the most like a movie and all the techniques it used to that effect actually worked.

The only truly confusing set of panels was during the brief battle with the new Sentinels where I'm still not exactly sure in what order to read the panels. They seem to work more like a set of disparate images rather than the usual slideshow, sequential idea. Looking at them backwards and forwards doesn't really seem to change their effect or impact. This may be a deliberate attempt to recreate the chaos that characters are going through. This is a distinctly cinematic effect and would be consistent with the rest of the comic's style.

This comic out of all the House of M comics is going to hold the most interest for most people. It's the story of what happens every time someone messes up reality and time, they try to put it back the way it was. So this comic actually matters while those like Mutopia X have a feeling about them that it really doesn't matter what happens. Plus this is a fairly competent script with amazing pencils. Coipel is just downright amazing here. He has that cool factor that I talk about from time to time.

The one character I didn't know was the little girl. I'm assuming I'm not supposed to know who she is. But she is a key part because her mutant power has something to do with unlocking memories or some kind of telepathic ability. I'm not really drawn to her as a character and she makes some weird comments at weird times, like when she freaks out when they break into Emma Frost's place but not after half her friends die from Sentinels?

It ends with Frost "awakening" to what's going on with the help of the mutant girl. It also gives the idea that maybe reality can't be fixed because to do it, they supposedly have to get Wanda to change it willingly. And I'm not entirely sure why Wolverine would remember that this isn't the "real" reality just because his wish to remember his past was granted by Wanda. I mean honestly, if she can change reality this much, why couldn't she just make him forget the old reality? But evidently everyone has the 616 memories in them and only need them released. I understand there wouldn't be a story if they didn't do this but it's still a little weak.

I just had a thought, what if they bring back all the dead Avengers cause if Wanda is gonna fix reality...Yeah, THAT would be stupid to the nth degree. Now that we acted like we were SO different for killing main icons, we're gonna bring them all back a year later. Let's hope this doesn't happen. Despite its problems, this was a great issue with amazing art and a good pace.

Rating - Great