House of M 1-8

No More Mutants!
house of m pic 1

Near the start of House of M, the X-Men, riding their black SR-71, land on Stark Tower to meet with the Avengers. During touchdown, Hank McCoy looks longingly at a brand new Avenger's Quinjet, comparing it with their relatively older, although still magnificent, ride. The details. The beauty is in the the small quiet details; and House of M is full of these wonderful asides that give even more dimension to familiar players.

Olivier Coipel is an astounding artist. It's all good, but there is one rendition better than all the rest. As I read through the issues I kept noticing Coipel's Spider-Man. The web-slinger is a joy to see in these pages - Coipel should do a run of Amazing one of these days.

For Captain America fans, the heart of the Avengers takes a back seat in this issue. Scarlet Witch has altered reality itself, and in this new reality Steve Rogers is the gentleman you see in the panel below; there will be no shield-slinging in House of M.

House of M is perhaps the most impactful Marvel event of them all in terms of long-term effects on the 616 Universe. The change hits the X-books directly and the others by their relation to Marvel's mutant population, a population, which, after this event, finds itself on the verge of extinction. Before House of M, mutantkind threatened to take the place of humankind; but no longer. The execution of this major change is extremely well done and forms the crux of House of M.

I'll end this with a nice pin-up panel from the series.