Broken Frontier

This report was scheduled to be published on Friday May 6, but due to a computer crash we were unable to get this up sooner. Better late than never, right? - ed.
Marvel insiders talked about the highly anticipated House of M last week when they invited comic websites to a conference call. Present on the call were big names like Brian Michael Bendis, Joe Quesada, Tom Brevoort, and John Dokes, just to name a few.

Bendis called House of M, “a love letter to every Magneto and Avengers story that’s come before it,” referring to the giant storyline as a “crossover between New Avengers and Astonishing X-Men.” He explained that its effects would ripple into many other Marvel books, and clarified that the storyline is taking place to set the stage for new kinds of stories for Marvel to tell. Bendis also addressed rumors that HoM was going to end up being a giant What If… story. He assured media the events in HoM would have very real ramifications for Marvel’s heroes. This crossover is unlike any Marvel has seen. The one thing Bendis is most proud of about HoM is about how important the aftermath is. Everything is carefully plotted out.

One concern was that perhaps the story arc was too big, and fans might be overwhelmed by its scope. Bendis said they hope readers will try the main HoM mini, and love it so much they’ll move on to the other titles. He went on to state that if readers accumulate them all they would get a “giant epic.” Quesada chimed in to say Marvel didn’t want to force fans to buy all the books for fear they would eventually turn against them. “We’d love for you to buy them all,” Quesada said. “Buy what you can afford, but we’re trying to make it impossible to not want to buy all the titles.”

Some fans are worried that if they don’t like the turn Marvel takes with HoM that they’ll no longer like Marvel’s titles. Marvel commented that fans will still have options. The Marvel universe around the characters is changing, but the characters will not be changing.

When Bendis was asked what he learned from taking part in a giant event such as Avengers: Disassembled, he replied, “Not to kill Hawkeye!” He also said he realized he can’t shy away from doing things that might upset people.

Marvel wouldn’t comment on whether or not HoM would help Marvel explore other genres. They did say that HoM was set up to put characters into positions they haven’t found themselves in before. Marvel also commented that what they’re doing with HoM is much different than what DC is doing with Infinite Crisis. And HoM isn’t being used to fix Marvel’s continuity.

Marvel also wants fans to know that the HoM release schedule is completely different from Secret War’s. While the release of Secret War was staggered, HoM is being launched in rapid fire. The central mini-series will be coming out bi-weekly, and each issue will be packed with story. “Issue 2 has 21 scenes in it,” said Bendis. There will also be new characters coming out of this giant event.

Bendis said that when he started working out the plot for HoM he got together with a handful of Marvel’s top writers and asked for their opinions. He asked them if they would be able to come up with stories to go along with what he had planned. Every one of them signed on.

Bendis also wants fans to look forward to the Pulse newspaper coming out. Each article in the newspaper will be written by a big name writer.

And the important question on many fans minds was answered: No, Hawkeye is still dead.

- JP Dorigo