magneto – Eric Watson

Marvel Comics Final Thoughts – New Avengers (2005), Vol. 4-5

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: Brian Michael Bendis

Artists: Steve McNiven (#16), Mike Deodato (#17-20), Howard Chaykin (#21), Leinil Francis Yu (#22), Olivier Coipel (#23), Adi Granov (#24), Jim Cheung (#25)

Issues: New Avengers (2005) #16-25

If you were looking for a series heavily mired in ongoing Marvel continuity and events, I’d be hard-pressed to recommend anything before New Avengers. Writer Brian Michael Bendis has been instrumental in ushering in the age of events that has dominated Marvel comics for the last decade, and New Avengers was his main ongoing series that picked up after “Avengers Disassembled,” leading through the events of Civil War and Dark Reign and culminating in Siege.

The first three story arcs (see Final Thoughts – New Avengers, Vol. 1-3) set up the reason for the new team and gave them some room to stretch and grow. The next two arcs – Volume Four’s “The Collective” and Volume Five’s “New Avengers Disassembled,” are very reflective of the state of the Marvel universe, and would be incredibly confusing for anyone that wasn’t also keeping up with other trades and series.

Thankfully I’ve been diving into Marvel comics whole-heartedly. “The Collective” finally answers the question that was posed at the end of House of M – If so many mutants lost their powers, where did all that power go? Turns out they were all absorbed by a quiet mutant living in Alaska. Michael Pointer had no idea he was a mutant – his power was to absorb other powers (Like Rogue I suppose) and he had never lived near any other mutants.

The resulting influx of millions of mutant powers makes him an energy being of god-like power, and he destroys his poor hometown and everyone in it in a sudden rampage. Alpha Flight is called in to stop him as he travels through Canada to America, and he promptly wipes them out (Which begets a new team called Omega Flight at the end of Civil War). The Avengers are called in to deal with them, as well as some guest stars like Ms. Marvel. Most of the story is spent simply keeping him at bay (mainly using Sentry’s equally god-like powers) while they figure out just who the hell he is, and the mystery and reveal is quite cool.

The combined mutant powers eventually leave Pointer’s body and enter’s Magneto, now powerless and writing his memoirs in the ruins of Genosha. I’ve mentioned previously that I’ve enjoyed Magneto’s older post-war attitude, so it’s fitting that he fights the possession every step of the way. It all ties back into Xorn, which is the overly confusing and frankly terrible plot web that tangled up the X-Men just before the era I returned to in Marvel continuity (circa 2004).

Thankfully it’s handled much better here – Magneto/Xorn raises the dead bodies of mutants while our New Avengers battle them in an epic climax. Agent Daisy Johnson (whom is apparently Skye in the Agents of SHIELD TV show) is brought in by SHIELD to cause a localized quake in Magneto’s mind, ripping Xorn from his body. Sentry then hurls the energy ball into the sun. Does this effectively destroy the last vestiges of all those lost mutant powers? Either way it was a fun, action-packed story and neat way to tie into a dangling thread from House of M.

On the other hand the “New Avengers Disassembled” story arc is nothing more than a series of single issue tie-ins that attempts to shed some background light on some of the team members during the events of Civil War. Each issue is drawn by different artists with very different art styles, so it’s a bit jarring to read them one after the other. The five issues serve as one-offs for Captain America, Luke Cage, Spider-Woman, Sentry and Iron Man. Luke Cage and Spider-Woman were the best; Cage and Iron Man have a deliciously tense discussion over the Superhuman Registration Act (Luke Cage would go on to join Captain America’s resistance team), while Spider-Woman’s personal arc with Hydra fits nicely for a one-off adventure where they try to openly recruit her – and her answer involves driving a speedboat away from an explosion.

The Civil War stories are a good example of when an event completely stalls another series. While the event itself is fantastic, New Avengers definitely suffered and was hamstrung into doing side stories with little to no actual plot development. In my perusal of more than half the Civil War tie-ins, it was definitely one of the worst.

However, I do look forward to the new world order that’s created after that massive event as Tony Stark creates his own officially government sanctioned Avengers team in Mighty Avengers, while New Avengers continues on as an underground resistance still fighting the good fight.

Marvel Comics Final Thoughts – Son of M

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.

Marvel Comics Final Thoughts – House of M

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Artists: Olivier Coipel

Issues: House of M #1-8

While Avengers Disassembled may have kicked off the current era of massive crossover events that continue to dominate Marvel comics ten years later, I think it was House of M that really solidified the months-long event series as a viable and popular story-telling device.

House of M centers around the fallout following Avengers Disassembled – the Scarlet Witch had gone a bit insane and several Avengers had lost their lives in the battle with her reality-shifting powers. In the very first issue we get a fun crossover as the X-Men visit the Avengers to basically decide what to do with her. Wanda Maximoff is currently being guarded and treated by Professor Xavier, Magneto and Dr. Strange in the ruins of Genosha (as detailed in the final two issues of Excalibur – read my Final Thoughts), but they’re unable to help her.

There’s a neat scene where some of the most popular heroes in the Marvel Universe get to argue about whether to ‘take care of’ Wanda; some are horrified at the concept (Captain America) while others are more than ready to do what’s necessary (Wolverine: “How many more of you need to die?”). When our heroes arrive on Genosha, however, something strange happens as Wanda’s powers reach a height we’ve never seen before – she reshapes the entire world to give them all their hearts’ desires.

A new reality is created where the previously persecuted mutants are now the dominant species on the planet, and a benevolent Magneto is the supreme ruler. Mutants openly walk (and fly) the streets with all manner of powers, abilities and unique appearances and the world is littered with House of Magnus propaganda – referring to Magneto and his family.

The second issue gives us a fun look at this strange new world and where our heroes fit. Dazzler is a talk show host, Captain America is just an old man (never frozen), Kitty Pryde is a teacher, Gambit is a petty thief, Falcon is a detective, Dr. Strange is a psychologist. Wasp and Beast (sans fur) are scientists working for Tony Stark, while S.H.I.E.L.D. is Magneto’s (and thus the world’s) personal police force – with sentinels! It’s a super fun alternate reality glimpse.

Writer Brian Michael Bendis writes the majority of the story from Wolverine’s perspective. Since his heart’s desire is to regain his memories, Scarlet Witch accidentally started the chain reaction that would eventually bring about the downfall of her fantasy world. Logan wakes up in bed with Mystique – both operatives of the new S.H.I.E.L.D., and seemingly the only person that knows that this world isn’t right.

The story then follows Wolverine’s mission to seek out the others and make them see the truth, which is greatly accelerated thanks to the introduction of a young teenage girl that also knows the truth, Layla Miller. Her powers, from what I understand, are a specialized telepathy that allows her to reveal the true memories to everyone.

Once Wolverine meets up with the Resistance (mostly comprised of non-mutants, or as this world derogatorily calls them, Sapiens, such as Luke Cage and Hawkeye) they quickly move to a montage of visiting all their former allies, like the happily married Emma Frost and Cyclops, and a Spider-man that’s enjoying life with the not-dead Gwen Stacy and Uncle Ben. It was these moments that were the most intriguing, as for many of our heroes that have faced innumerable hardships in their life to suddenly have their perfect fantasy world revealed as a lie is heartbreaking (Spider-Man’s is especially brutal – he has a son in this world).

Since I read the months-long event in a matter of days things seemed to move very quickly to me, as Wolverine and company gather more allies and find a way to strike at Scarlet Witch by directly attacking the House of Magneto at a summit meeting. It definitely paints our heroes as the bad guys in terms of launching an assault at a peaceful political meeting (with other global leaders like Black Panther, Storm and Dr. Doom).

However, Bendis goes out of his way to show that this world is far from perfect. Tensions between mutants and sapiens are as strained as ever, and now a terrorist group called The Sapien League strikes out at the mutant population. It’s an interesting and satisfying concept that even if the roles between mutants and humans were reversed the result is still the same: hatred, fear and death.

Eventually our heroes mount a massively awesome attack against Magneto and company, and Dr. Strange discovers the truth. While previously Wolverine had blamed Magneto for using Scarlet Witch to create this world (seeing as he’s the new head honcho), Strange finds out that it was actually his son and brother to Wanda, Pietro (Quicksilver) that convinced Wanda to reshape reality to avoid being imprisoned or executed.

Magento is furious when he learns this and goes on one of the more satisfying rampages I’ve seen. The combination of dialogue, art and lettering meshes together into an amazing climax as Magneto turns on his son. When Quicksilver falls, Scarlet Witch, who was finally convinced that her toddler children are nothing but figments of her imagination (made sort-of real by her powers), cradles him in her arms on the cover of the 7th issue. At the end she utters three of the most powerful (and now legendary) words the Marvel Universe has ever heard: No More Mutants.

The final issue sets up the future of the universe as things revert back to normal – only not quite. The Scarlet Witch obliterated the mutant gene from most of the world’s population, reducing the number of mutants from millions to less than 200 (most of our main heroes and villains are still powered, of course). This ended up creating a huge shift and world state change in every Marvel book, but especially all the X-Men series, and helps make House of M one of the more beloved and interesting events to happen in the last two decades.

I’d been hyped up to read House of M ever since I began this grand Marvel comics catch-up, and can satisfyingly report that it more than lived up to it. The alternate reality world is incredibly fun and interesting, Wolverine plays an awesome starring role, and the final climax and fallout are some of the greatest scenes I’ve read in any comic. It helps that I’m a huge X-Men fan and this series directly affects their future for years to come, especially in the months following (known as Decimation).

Bonus: I read a few House of M tie-ins, and though not enough to write a full Final Thoughts for each I’d like to mention them here (I did mention Cable & Deadpool’s tie-in issues in my Cable & Deadpool Book 1 Final Thoughts).

Issue #10 of Captain America takes place right in the middle of the Winter Soldier arc (Final Thoughts here), and is a super boring, fairly pointless issue about what old man Steve Rogers is doing while Wolverine and friends are gathering allies. It was poignant I suppose, but ultimately awkward as Cap has absolutely nothing to do and no role to fill in the House of M world.

Wolverine #33-35 acts as a minor backstory to Logan’s character and situation in the House of M world, though it’s a little strange as his story in House of M begins with him waking up and realizing the truth. The three issue arc centers on Logan’s past joining up with S.H.I.E.L.D., being trained by Nick Fury and having a relationship with fellow agent Mystique. The story is just okay and unfortunately barely takes any advantage of the unique setting. Not terrible but easily forgettable.

I read the five issue Mutopia X without realizing it stemmed from another ongoing Marvel series, District X (which I need to check out since I adore Bishop). Now this series very much took advantage of the unique world state of mutant domination, and it was super interesting seeing the world’s politics and people from the common man’s viewpoint, human police detective Ismael Ortega and his new partner Lucas Bishop. Izzy is married to a mutant and has mutant children, and the implications create some great dynamics and dramatic moments. It all ended a bit confusingly however, as I was unaware it tied into a larger series at the time. Still a fun tie-in and probably the best one I read.

Marvel Comics Final Thoughts – Excalibur

Writer: Chris Claremont

Artists: Aaron Lopresti, Igor Kordey

Issues: Excalibur (2004-05) #1-14

2004 was a huge year for X-Men (and the original time period I attempted to jump back into comics). The X teams were split into three ongoing series (X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, and the decades running classic Uncanny X-Men), though technically Excalibur could be considered a fourth.

Excalibur (not to be confused with the British Marvel superhero team and series) ties directly into the aftermath of Morrison’s run on New X-Men in the early 2000s, which eventually culminated in the destruction of half of New York City by Magneto and the subsequent obliteration of Mutant city-haven Genosha by an army of sentinels. Jean Grey is killed (again) and Wolverine brutally murders Magneto.

All of this I read about on Wikipedia and heard from a comic-savvy friend, as I’m jumping on now with the glorious return of beloved X-Men writer Chris Claremont. Claremont is responsible for many of the best X-Men storylines in the 80s such as “The Dark Phoenix Saga” and “Days of Future Past.” He helped create many of the best mutant heroes and villains (Gambit, Rogue, Mystique, Emma Frost, etc) and developed Wolverine into the badass we know and love of him as.

So you can imagine my disappoint upon reading Excalibur and finding it to be a hot mess.

The story picks up with Professor Xavier poking through the post-apocalyptic ruins of Genosha looking for survivors and having lots of monologues. He meets some new friends (Wicked, Freakshow, Callisto) and some new foes (more random survivors that are more pissed off than relieved) but mostly it revolves around Magneto’s inexplicable return and friendship reunion with Xavier.

The first four issue story arc “Forging the Sword” starts off promising enough with our ragtag heroes, and I really enjoyed the dialogue between Xavier and Magneto, two of the most powerful mutants in the Marvel Universe, but both deeply troubled and conflicted men. Magneto especially is super mopey and depressed throughout most of it as a tortured man and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

I also enjoyed the new heroes for the most part. Freakshow was a young kid who could shapeshift into terrifying elder god-style monsters, while Gothy Wicked could tap into all the ghosts surrounding Genosha. Callisto was easily my favorite; the former leader of the Morlocks is completely badass with giant tentacle arms and a fun and confident fighting style with knives.

Unfortunately the overarching storyline never quite decides on what it wants to be. After the events of Avengers Disassembled when Scarlet Witch goes crazy and half the Avengers are slain, Magneto opens a rift (they spend a good deal of time talking about how Magneto’s powers may not have any upper limit) to rescue his unconscious daughter and bring her to Genosha to watch over. Marvel fans will know that the fallout from the attack and Scarlet Witch waking up eventually leads to the phenomenal Marvel event House of M (look for my Final Thoughts soon!), so the latter half of Excalibur acts as a prelude.

But that story is sidelined until the final two issues, and even then it’s mostly Xavier failing to help Scarlet Witch on a mental level (Dr. Strange even pays a house call at some point), and as any kind of intriguing set-up to House of M, it fails completely.

Excalibur’s own story gets terribly convoluted as well, involving a looting pirate lord and his band of four-armed trolls and at some point even some random villains from Age of Apocalypse (Dark Beast is a super fun character, though). They’re not terrible plot-lines and lead to some fun fight scenes (at one point Callisto’s arms are ‘turned off’ and she still kicks ass), but things soon get even messier.

The plot shifts to a nearby city in…Africa? And involves Angel and Husk? And there’s a terminator-style sentinel that Xavier and Magneto are able to transform into an ally at some point? There’s a lot going on and it gets a little crazy and soon you forget all about Genosha. In fact every issue has to have a scene or two that’s basically “Hey where’s Magneto,” as he builds a force-field around the sleeping Scarlet Witch.

As an entry into exploring the ruins of Genosha Excalibur starts off interesting but devolves quickly into a series of crazy characters and battles (then shifts focus away completely toward the end). As a prelude to House of M, Excalibur fails to do anything that you don’t already get from the first issue of that event. Really its only saving grace is in the writing of Xavier and Magneto, which is almost completely sidelined by the second half of the book.

Unless you’re desperate to know where Xavier is among all the various X-teams at the time, or absolutely need to know how Scarlet Witch goes from Avengers Disassembled to House of M, I would recommend skipping Excalibur altogether. I do hope Callisto finds a home somewhere else as I adored her character, writing and powers.

I don’t necessarily blame Claremont, as the series is wedged uncomfortably between major Marvel events and it’s very possible he was hamstrung with what he could do, and the individual character moments and fights are entertaining, but as a cohesive story it’s just too sloppy to be memorable.