Saturday, December 10, 2005
The world needs less mutants ... A commentary revisited!
As Marvel brought it's summer event, House of M, to a close and turned out the lights power-wise on many of Marvels mightiest mutant miscreants, I found myself eagerly reading page-by-page the story which Brian Michael Bendis had promised would "break the internet in half". The comment from Bendis came at the very end of this newsarama interview where he explained:
"I want people to open it up. By the end of issue 2, people are going to be like 'Oh my God'. The end of issue 3, I guarantee you, is my best last page of a comic ever. I guarantee you. Everyone who's read it has called me up and said, 'Get out of here!' I think by the end of issue 3, we'll crack the Internet right in half. I think that'll be it for the Internet."
Did issue 3 crack the internet? Not really. Did the series deserve the send up Bendis was offering it in the interview? Yes. That said, the reason may have been quite different from the bow string laden moment he was referring to in the interview.
Before we go any further, there are going to be SPOILERS aplenty as this commentary continues. That said, if you have yet to read House of M, Decimation or any of the current aftermath stories I have to ask where have you been? It's an amazing time to be reading comics and you're just plain missing out. Get to your local comic haunt, tag a few new (or recent) issues with the word Marvel on the cover and get to reading!
Okay, you're still with me so you must be up to speed with everything transpiring in the age old bullpen that is Marvel Comics. That's good. So, faithful fan, when you turned the final page of issue three of House of M and saw the the dramatic return of Hawkeye (as pictured to the left ... see the actual issue for the full page ... yes it's quite amazing), did you hear servers crashing from coast to coast? Mine was clearly still up and running.
Hawkeye was back from the dead. Yea... so... Didn't you expected it? I did. My only surprise was how quick it happened. Hawkeye had only been dead a couple months so the return wasn't as trilling as, for example, Whedon's rebirth of Colossus. Don't get me wrong, I was glad to see my favorite wise-cracking archer back but we barely had his funeral and he was with us once again shooting the next volley of arrows. Old Oliver Queen didn't even return that quick.
Yes, Hawkeye's return was a great moment for the series. Yes, it was a great scene but if anything was going to get the internet talking it wasn't the return of Hawkeye. What caught my attention an had me hitting the forms was the moment when Emma Frost put on cerebra and realized (page 13 of issue 8) that almost all of the mutant population had simply ceased to be mutants. That was a moment of historical significance which actually felt significant. It clearly felt like I was reading a story that was heralding a turning point for Marvel history. After all of the countless Heroes Reborn type storylines, the invasions and the short lived deaths which have been previously presented as major events, Marvel finally made me sit up and take notice when Emma said "just not... mutants anymore"...
Suddenly, Marvel took a step I didn't expect and did something that took guts. For once we had a summer event that didn't feel like we were simply a breath away from the usual "just kidding" ending that returned the Marvel Universe to the traditional status quo. This storyline had that Hollywood blockbuster feel which will hold readers to a title and a publisher.
Rarely do I go for the "I told you so" but I publicly called for this change in Marvel a little under a year ago. Yes, well before House of M was announced and long before the mutants powers faded at the hands of the Scarlet Witch, on December 22, 2004, I penned a commentary titled "What the world needs ... A few less mutants" [full commentary]. Glad to see Marvel was listening. Yes, I take full credit... Just kidding Mr. Bendis...
All kidding aside, I think it was a bold move which breathed life back into a sagging Marvel Universe. It was over populated and overrun by poorly conceived characters and unneeded mutants. Now we have 198 mutants left. Suddenly, the mutant population is conceivable. Suddenly, I'm interested in who makes up the 198. There's an honest urgency in the stories as mutants fight, no longer to become the dominate race, but simply to survive extinction. The changes which began in Avengers Disassembled [full review], led to House of M, birthed the New Avengers, helped pave the way for new titles like Young Avengers have redefined the lines of expectation I have for stories from Marvel. A year ago today Marvel titles were books I tended to read once I'd run out of DC. Now, I find myself grabbing many of their titles as soon as they come out with a sense of excitement I haven't felt in years. If Marvel can keep up this level of storytelling, I say make mine Marvel (at least as often as DC) and encourage you to try a few new titles next time you visit your local comic store. You might be surprised. I was.
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