Thanks to Marvel’s popular and successful foray into films with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I’ve finally decided to get back into comics. I grew up a big fan of X-Men and other superheroes but haven’t really kept up since the 90s. Thus begins my grand catching-up of the last ten years of Marvel comics, events and stories.
Thanks in large part to trade paperbacks and the digital convenience of Marvel Unlimited I can make relatively quick progress, and I’ll write down my Final Thoughts for each collection here on my blog. Like my gaming Final Thoughts, this will be full of spoilers. You’ve been warned!
Writer: David Hine
Artist: Roy Allan Martinez
Issues: Son of M #1-6
Though I’m still constantly adding new series and comics to my reading list, I’ve learned to become much more choosy about where to apply my precious comic-reading time. I was originally going to skip the Decimation tie-in Son of M, which dealt with the now powerless Quicksilver.
One of the big twists at the end of House of M revealed that it was Pietro Maxmioff (Quicksilver) that convinced his sister Wanda (Scarlet Witch) to make the House of M world, which eventually lead to its destruction and the decimation of nearly every mutant on the planet. Pietro rightly comes off as a huge asshole and it’s karmic retribution that he’s one of the powerless mutants in the new world. When Issue #1 starts with him feeling super sorry for himself and longing for his speedy powers, he gets no sympathy from me.
But I’m glad I dived into it, as Son of M is deeply wrapped up in the Inhumans, a large isolationist group of superpowered people that gain their abilities by exposing themselves to their sacred Terrigen Mists. It’s increasingly looking like Inhumans may replace mutants in the MCU with both an upcoming film and major hints and teases in Agents of SHIELD. I knew very little about them, so when Crystal shows up at the end of the first issue (via their giant teleporting dog, Lockjaw) asking for her husband, I was intrigued (still kinda wish Spider-Man had just let him kill himself by jumping off a building).
The Inhumans have moved their city onto Earth’s moon – doesn’t get much more isolated than that, and generally stay away from anything to do with Earth. Pietro and Crystal have a daughter, now a little girl named Luna, and Peitro continues to be a huge jerk to everyone. We get some fun glimpses into Inhuman society as well as the bigger characters such as Videmus, Gorgon, Medusa and Black Bolt.
Quicksilver takes two seconds to decide that he should sneak in and use the Mists on himself, which does allow him to regain his powers – sort of. Now he can move so fast he can travel through time, which always makes a plot that much more convoluted and strange to follow. In this case it’s even worse as Pietro makes a copy of himself when he does and frequently talks to a slightly older version of himself, which is even more confusing. Eventually he decides to steal the mists and kidnap his daughter (semi-willfully, she wants to see Earth but he’s totally manipulating her). His goal – to return to Earth and use the Mists to restore lost powers to mutants.
Pietro and Luna arrive in the ruins of Genosha where he meets up with the mutants from Excalibur. This is one of the first times where I was delighted to have prior knowledge of another comic as I recognized who they were. Unfortunately they don’t do all that much aside from take some hits of Mist that is a heavy-handed way of painting Quicksilver as a drug-dealer on top of everything else (oh and he exposes his too-young daughter to the mists and gets her hooked on them. Great guy, Quicksilver).
Magneto is also on Genosha and also depressed, but he correctly sees his son as a dangerous threat. Quicksilver uses his time-teleport power to beat the crap out of his old man and he’s only saved by his granddaughter intervening. Despite Magneto’s offensively fast resurrection between Morrison’s storyline of the early 2000s and the events of Excalibur, I’ve enjoyed his characterization as an older, wiser mutant filled with regrets and reflection, and generally still wanting to help his people, even without his powers.
Of course the Inhumans weren’t going to stand idly by, and they reach Genosha around the same time as the Office of National Emergency. The Inhumans battle the Genoshan mutants and promptly kick their ass, while the O*N*E take down Quicksilver and grab the mists. The final confrontation occurs as the Inhumans demand the Mists returned and the US government refuses. In a rather awesome scene, Medusa says that Black Bolt will give his answer shortly, and the rest take off. The O*N*E commander starts freaking out, for Black Bolt’s voice is so powerful he can never speak lest he destroys everything around him. He whispers one word, “War,” and the entire army is utterly demolished. As someone that’s read about Black Bolt’s power but never seen it in action, it’s incredibly satisfying.
Thus the Inhumans officially declare war on the US, and the series ends as they have a final meeting with the Fantastic Four. Chronologically Civil War happens next, which would’ve been a great time for the Inhumans to attack, but they nicely waited until that mega-event was done to begin the limited series, Silent War that acts as the followup to this one.
If you couldn’t tell I despise Quicksilver even more after reading this comic. He’s easily my most hated person in the Marvel Universe after these events, essentially starting a horrible war and hurting his own daughter (most of the mist effects on mutants restore powers but only temporarily, and in undesirable ways). The real treat was seeing the Inhumans in action, and I very much look forward to Silent War to see even more.
The writing was well crafted and the art style had an interesting, washed-out, pencil-heavy look to it that I kind of dug. It’s just too bad our protagonist is such a horrible douche canoe.
RogueWatson 