House of M issues #1 and #2 were about creating the “House of M” version of reality, and at the end of issue #2 we saw that Wolverine knows that the world is wrong. Why Wolverine? Because Logan sells comics, of course.
In these issues, he explores the new world, looking for familiar places like Xavier’s Institute (which is now a rich guy’s mansion). The mutant army called Red Guard hunts him down and is about to capture him when Cloak–a member of the human resistance–teleports him away.
At the base of the resistance, Wolverine meets other familiar faces: Hawkeye, Luke Cage, etc. Brian Michael Bendis sure loves him some Luke Cage. He’s in everything the dude writes.
Wolverine is able to convince Cage and a few others that they are in an altered reality where Scarlet Witch…I’ll have Wolverine tell it:
See, that’s the huge flaw of this series. Scarlet Witch most certainly did not give “everyone” what they wanted. Luke, Hawkeye, and countless others never wanted to be outcasts fighting a revolution with a high human bodycount. Hawkeye was DEAD when Wanda cast her spell, for one thing. For another, Charles Xavier is dead in the House of M reality, but clearly is NOT dead in the 616. Also, Spider-Man may want Gwen Stacy to be alive, but he surely is in love with Mary Jane–he doesn’t want to have never known her. And although Magneto now lives in a world where mutants dominate, he doesn’t want a revolution. He wants it to be a utopia. The core of this event needed to be a little better thought out.
The way I explain it (and it’s just me) is that certain people were pulled into Magneto and Wanda’s fantasy, and that shaped and distorted how it ended up. This means that most people in the event are not real, but a few are. I would say Wolverine is one such “real” person.
Layla Miller is a member of the resistance.
This is her first appearance. I never realized that she debuted here–I always associate her with X-Factor.
Layla, together with Wolverine, they start “waking up” and recruiting other heroes–like Emma Frost, Cyclops, Spider-Man, etc. When they wake up Hawkeye…
…He disappears. Which supports my argument. One of the “real” people imagined him back into existence, and when that person was “woken up,” Hawkeye disappeared.
Note that Captain America #10, the tie-in to House of M, takes place during this recruitment drive. He’s an old man in the HoM reality, he’s happy, and the team decides to leave him alone and let him be happy rather than recruit him. Captain America #10 is basically just an overview of Cap and sweet little issue about the value of aging–something that doesn’t happen in the world of Marvel Comics. I recommend reading it, but I’m not giving it its own post because it takes place right in the middle of the Winter Soldier, which is excellent and needed to be written up unbroken.
Once assembled, this band of “real” heroes decides to take the fight to Magneto.
English (US) · 