House of M #8

Background

Wanda said three words: "No More Mutants." and the world burned to white again...

Story Details

New York City in the real Marvel Universe. It seems everything is back to normal. Layla Miller wakes up in her room and looks out at the world. Does she remember how big a part she played in House Of M?

At New Avengers Tower Peter Parker is waking up as MJ is reading a magazine. He remembers the whole Wanda situation but she doesn't. It's the same with everyone else. Some remember, some don't. Peter gets frustrated at this and nearly breaks the meeting table.

Xavier Mansion. Emma Frost wakes up in the garden of the mansion and enters the mansion to find that lots of young students have lost their powers. Rushing to Cerebra, she discovers that it isn't just them.Where tens of thousands of mutants used to show, now only scant few remain. And no one knows where Professor Xavier has gone. Also in the garden Wolverine wakes up and he remembers everything. Everything about his life he now remembers. Then, it seems one of the original X-Men has lost his powers: Iceman.

Doctor Strange is at Avengers Tower now and he explains that only the heroes protected by Emma's psycic bubble and his spell-casting remember the events that transpired back on the House Of M world. Spider-Man then has another stress at Doctor Strange because he would not make Spider-Man forget the events.

An odd twist then happens when they discover a newspaper clipping and Hawkeye's old costume pinned up at the ruins of the old Avengers Mansion.

Genosha. The X-Men confront a wandering Magneto about the whereabouts of Professor Xavier. Turns out he doesn't know where Xavier is and he's lost his powers also. In a small (looks European) village, a disguised Wanda Maximoff blends in witht the crowd like any normal citizen.

Doctor Henry Pym speaks on the TV about the effects of this sudden decrease in the mutant population. Many of them controlled and produced energy. And it couldn't have all just dissapeared. He wants to know where it all went...

General Comments

This is basically just an aftermath issue. And I'm glad Marvel actually made some changes to the Marvel Universe. And I'm glad that instead of just killing all mutants they just took away their powers. But I'm not glad that the majority of the X-Men got away with their powers intact. Iceman and Magneto are the only major X-Men in this isssue that have lost their powers. Yet Cyclops, Emma Frost, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Beast, Shadowcat and probably many more X-Men got away. I think it could make even more new stories and actual big changes if some of the big members were suddenly without their powers. Also, it's probably just me but I found the Hawkeye scene very odd and confusing. Bendis didn't explain what the costume being there meant or anything. Whether Bendis plans to follow up on this I don't know. I did like the revelation that Wolverine now remembers though. The 'not-remembering' part of his life has been done to the ground and it's about time he knew what is real and what is not. And of course, this leads into Decimation and from what Quesada is hinting in interveiws more 'big' events that will change the Marvel Universe. I'm not happy about that. I'm getting tired of big events in the industry lately. Dissasembled, House Of M, Decimation and this one Quesada is hinting at. I'd just like the Marvel books to go on normally on their own without being tied to some dramatic change for a while. (And while I'm on wishing I'd like the title count to be cut down...but that's just a dream.)

Of course, Olivier Coipel continued to do a fine job on pencils as he has done this whole series. Though Colossus and Cyclops in particular are looking especially square-jawed.

Overall Rating

Not enough changes to the main X-Roster and a confusing scene isn't getting this book a very high mark. And since this is all a lead up into another crossover (which'll probably lead into another crossover)...well, I'm just getting sick of universe-changing events. 3 Webs.