Broken Frontier

In House of M: Avengers we reveal the secret history of the mutant-dominated House of M world, and see how Luke Cage's band of human resistance warriors went from street criminals to freedom fighters.You'll also get your first look at the House of M versions of classic Marvel characters like Shang-Chi, Bullseye and the Punisher!

PAGE 1

This page is a showcase for the genius of Mike Perkins and colorist Laura Martin. The main conceit of the House of M reality is that, in 1979, mutants won a war for supremacy and took over the world, becoming the dominant species. 

So, I had fun coming up with a variety of period pop culture references that could be tweaked in a mutant-focused and Marvel Universe-oriented way, from the Apocalypse Now movie poster featuring the mutant villain Apocalypse in place of Marlon Brando to an alternate version of The Empire Strikes Back built around the Kree/Skrull war. I made a long list of these, specifying to Mike in the script that he could pick and choose the ones he liked and skip the rest. That crazy Brit used them all!  He and Laura beautifully melded the reality of pre-gentrification Times Square with the fantastic, mutant-based elements to produce an alternate world that, for me, comes fully to life on the very first page. 

PAGE 5

This book gave both Mike and me an opportunity to depict favorite characters from our childhood the way we remember them, including Luke Cage in his yellow shirt and tiara. In the process, we took a few opportunities to pay tribute to the great comics of the 1970s. The first panel is an homage to the cover of Luke Cage: Hero for Hire #2. Willis Stryker, aka Diamondback, was the man who framed Luke in the mainline Marvel Universe as well, but he wasn't the snakelike mutant you see here, just a guy with a penchant for snakeskin suits.

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The House of M version of Luke Cage's origin, rendered in a nice borderless/montage style Mike selected for flashbacks. In this reality, the prison experiments that gave Luke his powers were done with the goal of creating super-soldiers to fight for the humans in the human/mutant war. 

As an Easter Egg, the scientists who worked on Cage included established Marvel geniuses like Michael Morbius (known in the main Marvel Universe as Morbius the Living Vampire); the villainous Dr. Jonas Harrow, currently part of The Hood's crew in New Avengers; and Dr. Farley Stillwell, who empowered the Scorpion, among other Spidey bad guys.

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This page was a tribute to the quirky villains Luke Cage fought in his early days, such as Cockroach Hamilton and Piranha Jones. (Mr. Fish didn't quite make the cut.) Luke's pose while fighting Hammerhead is Mike's tip of the hat to the great Gil Kane's cover for Giant-Size Power Man #1. At the top, note that Luke's crew includes Turk and Grotto, from Frank Miller's Daredevil run.

PAGE 17

Introducing Iron Fist, in a reference to the "Kung Fu Killer" storyline by Chris Claremont and John Byrne that I loved so much. Both the Essential Iron Fist TPB and the current Iron Fist series are some of the most entertaining comics you're likely to find. Panel 2 is another Easter Egg homage, this time to John Byrne's splash page for Iron Fist #10 (I think).

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Introductions of Moon Knight and Mockingbird, both beautifully rendered by Mike. Fear not Mockingbird fans, you'll get to see her in costume before the series is over! Hobie Brown, Cage's resident tech genius, is known in the mainline Marvel Universe as The Prowler.

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Coming up in future issues, we'll meet the Brotherhood, the special FBI task force whose job is to take down Cage and the Avengers. Their membership includes a certain Mr. Frank Castle, aka The Punisher! And whose side will the Kingpin and his assassins -- including Elektra, Bullseye and Typhoid Mary -- be on? How is the House of M's Shang-Chi different from our own? And are you ready for...House of M Speedball?? 

Stay tuned, True Believer!