Front Lines - Secret Wars (Week of October 28, 2015)

HOUSE OF M #4 by Dennis Hopeless, Cullen Bunn, and Ario Anindito

Summary: Magneto, Polaris, and the Human Resistance are breaking in to the Human Reeducation Center to free the other human rebels.  Alarms so off, so this quickly becomes a fight.  Even without his powers, Magneto is determined to fight as much as he can.  Sentinels arrive to stop the escape.  But Magneto's grandsons, Speed and Wiccan, arrive to lead the Young Avengers to defeat the Sentinels.  Wiccan tries to use his magic to restore Magneto's powers, but he's just not strong enough.  They need Scarlet Witch's power.  Lorna suggests they go rescue her from Quicksilver and Namor.

They storm the castle. Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Shaw, and the rest of SHIELD stands against them.  No one recognizes Magneto, believing him just to be another human.  He slips into the castle and confronts Quicksilver.  Quicksilver is surprised that Magneto managed to survive.  Quicksilver tries to bs him, saying that he was only doing what he had to do to keep the Atlanteans at bay.  Magneto calls him on these lies.  Quicksilver realizes Magneto is powerless.  He's about to attack, when Polaris arrives.  Namor joins the battle, but he goes after Quicksilver, trying to use the situation to seize complete power.  Magneto orders Namor to "release my idiots offspring."  Namor attacks Magneto.

Elsewhere, Atlantean Sirens are keeping Scarlet WItch sedated.  Wiccan and Speed defeat the Sirens, but Wiccan's magic isn't enough to wake her up.  Speed and Wiccan decide to go help Magneto instead.  Wiccan once more tries to restore Magneto's powers.  This time he succeeds.  Magneto rips Namor to shreds.  Magneto regains his throne.  He orders SHIELD to release the humans.  Wiccan asks if this means things will finally change.  Magneto says that he had a debt to pay, but he believes that mutants and humans are still natural enemies.  Magneto seems to have enjoyed the chance to be a warrior again.  End of story.

Mike Maillaro: I really liked the ending on this one.  It was a lot more complicated than "happily ever after" or "rocks falls, everyone dies." Magneto was changed by his experiences, but not enough to hold hands with humans.  I also loved seeing the Young Avengers again. The original Young Avengers by Allan Heinberg was one of my all time favorite comics. 

Like Civil War, this version of House of M was so much better than the original crossover of the same name.

Score: 4.5/5

Secret Wars Official Handbook Of Marvel Multiverse #1 by Various

Mike Maillaro:  I didn't buy this one, but I did flip through it.  It seemed to have a lot of real random entries, including going out of its way to talk about Amphibian, who I don't think even showed in Squadron Sinister.  Official Marvel Handbook style books do nothing for me.  In the time it takes to read them, I can read several other comics that actually interest me.  The only reason I am even including an entry for this is because we managed to do every other Secret Wars comic, and I hate being incomplete.

WHERE MONSTERS DWELL #5 by Garth Ennis and Russ Braun

Summary: Kaufmann managed to trick the Amazons and tribesmen into fighting, allowing him to slop out of there with the parts he needed to repair his plane.  He loads it on a raft and prepares to take off.  Clemmie arrives.  He thinks she wants to come with him...but she is perfectly happy staying here.  Clemmie starts to fill in her backstory.  After her brother died during World War I, she was forced into a loveless marriage.  During a cruise, he fell overboard.  She was innocent (though happy to be free), but everyone assumed she did it.  So she was forced to flee.  Her brother served with Kaufmann during World War I, and she seems to blame Kaufmann for his death. 

She needed Kaufmann to hear her story.  Afterwards, she lets him go.  He manages to fly off.  Clemmie returns to the Amazons.  Kaufmann gets caught in a storm, and crashes on The Isle of Dung.  There he finds the princess he had impregnated back in the first issue.  She was exiled here after he left, but he has returned to her and they can spend the rest of their lives farming dung.  Kaufmann collapses as he realizes his fate.

Mike Maillaro: So about midway through this issue, we find out that it's tied into a Max series Ennis did in 2008 called "War is Hell: Flight of Phantom Eagle." This series had nothing to do with Secret Wars at all.  I suspect it was a sequel that had planned for the Max series, and this was the only way they could get it out since Marvel doesn't really do Max anymore. 

This series really went off the rails over the last few issues. Ennis's books all have a lot of excesses to them, and sometimes it works, and sometimes they end up train wrecks.  This was just another example of that.  It's a real shame, because I was really enjoying the early issues, but it ended up devolving into a lot of penis and poop jokes.  Real wasted potential here.

Score: 3.5/5