Sunday, November 06, 2005

House of Eh?!

Okay, I bought and read the last issue of House of M (# 8). Spoilers ahead.

So that was it? Eight issues, and it doesn’t tell a complete story. The Scarlet Witch is still crazy. She depowered about a million mutants, and there are only 198 left (although that number was never mentioned here; it was announced elsewhere). She’s hiding somewhere in Europe, seemingly happy that she rendered her dad Magneto powerless. Half of Xavier’s school is affected by her reality-altering spell too, including Iceman (ah, he’ll be back) and some New Mutants (I liked Sofia!). Wolverine remembers everything now (he wasn’t depowered, as he appears in five monthly books). There were powerful character moments (i.e. Spidey enraged by his HOM memories; Emma using Cerebra to confirm the loss; Wanda and Pietro’s drama last issue), but the feeling of incompleteness is undeniable. The new status quo presents a lot of new story ideas for months to come, mostly in the mutant books, but that's about it. It feels like another story that inevitably portrays the New Avengers as clueless losers.

So who or what the hell is Layla Miller? What happened to Professor X? What’s the deal with Hawkeye? Why was he blaming Wanda for his death when he practically committed suicide? Why did it take 8 issues, when it could’ve been told in four? Does this mean the mutant titles will significantly be cut down to just a few? No to this last one; HOM # 8 directly leads to the next mega-event, Decimation, and new limited and ongoing series. Oh well.

The art was good (Coipel has improved a lot since Legion), although there were confusing panels (I didn’t notice ‘til much later that the heroes popped out of the party-crashing Sentinel head) and wasted pages (the full-page, glowing white holes in issues 1 and 7!). Attractive designs though, and dynamic action scenes.

But I still feel cheated.

Good thing Runaways isn't affected by this (I hope... one of them's a mutant).

Will be looking forward to something that doesn't involve a massive crossover event in January, like the 544-page Essential Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, reprinting and compiling the classic character sourcebook. There's also the All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z # 1 (that's a mouthful!), an updated monthly series that will be released two months from now, too.

5 comments:

rmacapobre said...

What happened to Professor X?

what did happen to professor x?

gumby said...

I have to give you a salute for sticking it out with this mini-series! :D

I'm excited on getting the ESSENTIAL HANDBOOK, even though it's in black and white (and I have like 16 of the original 20-issue series).

I also hope the new HANDBOOK series won't disappoint - I mean I hope they retain the ultra-detailed info on each character (like this character can lift this much tons or this character can only project this much energy in so many inches, etc). :)

OLIVER said...

Max- He was held captive by three hooded figures throughout the story. The heroes have yet to find him.

Gumby- Yeah, I finished it. I thought it would undo the messes Disassembled and Excalibur made (Wanda, Hawkeye, the resurrected Magneto-Xorn, etc.). But well, will wait for the next Avengers writer to do that. The lineup, I'm beginning to like it, but the team hardly did anything in this story, even if they shared the billing with the X-Men.

The old Handbook power specifics were way better than the colored chart stats, I agree. :)

Dean said...

It was just so disappointing... gah. I also feel robbed. At least on the other side, Infinite Crisis#2 was delicious for an old time reader like me :)

OLIVER said...

Dean- IC # 2's out! Will get it asap.

Bendis has a 2-part interview in Newsarama right now. He was explaining the story, because the ending raised a lot of questions... I kind of pity the guy because a lot of the posters were unsatisfied with HOM, too, and are very vocal about it.