Broken Frontier

Brian Bendis promises to crack the internet in half…again. Does he finally deliver on his promise?

At its start coming from the pages of Avengers Disassembled, House of M was promised to be a series that shook the Marvel Universe to its core. Bendis promised bombshells that would keep every fan talking about it, so much so that he twice has made his "crack the internet in half" comment. And though it has been bogged down at times by its slow, meandering Bendis-style pacing, it appears that with this issue, readers everywhere will see why he would make such comments, and exactly what Marvel was talking about when they pegged this series as such a big thing.

The premise of this series has been an interesting one. After she went crazy and "destroyed" the Avengers, Wanda Maximoff was left in the care of her father, Magneto, and his oldest friend, Charles Xavier on Genosha. It was there that they attempted to cure her of her lost sanity. But as readers learned in issue #1 of this series, it was a futile attempt and as the New Avengers and X-Men traveled to Genosha to determine The Scarlet Witch’s final fate they were greeted by a blinding light. When they each opened their eyes again they found themselves in a new idealized world. It took all of the 6 previous issues to get here, but with this issue the action starts. The heroes, who went to decide Wanda’s fate in the real world, have united in this House of M world in an attempt to bring things back to normal. So they do what any regular good guy hero would, they attack Magneto and his family on a day when the rest of the world has come to celebrate his life. A battle ensues, some serious bombshells are dropped and boy, will this one ever change the status quo.

With a series of this magnitude, Brian Bendis certainly had his work cut out for him. And no matter what he delivered, there were sure to be plenty of people shouting about how good and/or bad of a job he did. But then again, Bendis seems to be one of those comic book creators that gets that treatment all the time anyway. The main thing here is that his writing on this series is consistent with everything else he has done. His dialogue is snappy, and each character seems to have his/her own moment of dialogue meant to shine. But his pacing, like most of his work, has been rather slow. This issue, with its focus on the action, moves faster than any other of the series (which have been very slow in getting to the point). But the main thing is that if you like Bendis’ writing, you’ll like it here; and if you don’t like it at all, well, chances are this series won’t make you change your mind. One thing that should be pointed out however, is Bendis’ growth as a writer of team/ensemble books. When he first took over Ultimate X-Men, I had hoped they would never give him another team book again as he tried way too hard to give each character their moments. This is one of the first times I have noticed where he uses such a large ensemble cast rather adeptly.

The best word to describe Olivier Coipel’s artwork on this series is "inconsistent." For one some pages, the work is incredibly vibrant. He seems to nail each character and truly captures every emotion that they have. Other times not so much. For instance, on too many of the close-ups the characters are burdened with a baby face, sometimes this works with Wanda, as her position in this series plays on her child-like emotions, but really, for most of the characters it seems really out of place. And in a book with a lot of close-ups, this problem really stands out. Similarly, Coipel’s action scenes sometimes capture the immediacy of the action, they likewise feel vibrant and the work can be a feast for your eyes. But there are a few pages here where he tries to have too much going on and the scenes and transitions become rather confusing. One aspect where Coipel really works wonders is with his page and panel design. In a book where a major theme is the unraveling of reality, Coipel goes the extra mile in making sure his page design matches the imagination behind the series.

So to answer the big question– did Bendis deliver on his promise? Well, obviously the internet is still here if you’re reading this review, but really, Bendis has delivered one hell of a bombshell that Marvel fans will (and should) be discussing for quite some time. Despite its meandering pace and sometimes shaky artwork, this is a series that no Marvel fan can afford to miss.