Original title: House of M
Author: Brian Michael Bendis
Illustrator: Olivier Coipel
Year of Publication: 2005
“No more mutants”
Wanda Maximoff is out of control and represents an imminent danger, so the X-Men and the Avengers, new and old, come together to determine her future. However, something changes and everyone awakens in an alternate world in which mutants and superheroes are the new celebrities, being more respected than their human counterparts, with Magneto in House of M as the leader of all: and nobody remembers anything of their other life.
Although I've always loved superhero stories, I've never been adamant to read the comics. Mainly because it seemed to me a huge and intimidating world, so my devotion focused on everything that was not Marvel or DC. Until I read Alan Moore's Watchmen, (also by Dave Gibbons and John Higgins), and my curiosity to read about the superheroes I so admired became bigger. Even so, the stories of the ones I was interested in reading had been published decades ago, and there are so many alternate worlds, extra stories and new superheroes that it would be a little impossible to start there. So I borrowed my boyfriend's House of M as it included some of my favorites: the X-Men.
Not being an expert in the area I could not say if this is a suitable book for anyone who wants to start reading Marvel comics, but all the characters are familiar so it is not easy to get lost: Charles Xavier, Wolverine, Emma Frost, Magneto, Storm, Mystique and most other mutants appear in the X-Men movies; Scarlett Witch, the central character, and Quicksilver appear both in the world of X-Men and in the Avengers films, which also include Iron Man, Spider-Man, Hulk, Captain America, Doctor Strange, Hawkeye, among others, most of which have their own movie. Luke Cage has a series on Netflix and Captain Marvel is about to become a movie.
The comic was originally 8 volumes in which it was intended to make a clean slate, because by that time being mutant had become an easy trope to justify any power that a character acquired, and other volumes were later published to expand on particular characters and their experience after the events of the main comic.
Reading House of M as a stand-alone from the rest of the multiverse - mainly due to not knowing it - I would recommend it quite a lot, it has the kind of ending that attracts me to any story and the questions it raises are very interesting, especially when they are in the alternate world created by Wanda. On the other hand, although the illustrations are very good, I can not help comparing them with those of other comic books not of superheroes that I think must have more freedom in that aspect.
House of M definitely made me want to go deeper into that world, though I'm still a bit dubious whether I should do it from the beginning. In the mean time, I already have two graphic novels that I would love to read later: Civil War from Marvel and Kingdom Come from DC.
- Where to buy? Your local comic book store, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository
- ComicPOP talking about House of M
- Marvel's House of M page
