I’m back from my little vacation and ready to talk comics. I hope you’re all enjoying the new layout here. I think it works a little better than our old one in a number of ways. Enough talk though. It’s time to review House of M. Sure it’s been out for a while but I just read it so now seems as good a time for a review as any.

House of M was amazing. I’ve heard so many people trash House for being a cheap way to reboot a universe but it all made sense. There weren’t any parts that seemed overly forced. When I was talking to my friend about it, I made reference to House of M being like a jigsaw puzzle. Once you’re done, it all seems to just fit. For the record, this may contain a spoiler or two so if you’re one of the people who haven’t read House yet, you may want to skip this entry.

Hands down, the best part was seeing Hawkeye come back. He’s a favorite of mine and seeing him die in Avengers Disassembled was a shame. Not only was it a shame, it was a waste that had to be made up for somewhere. House was that somewhere. His return in House was really wicked and, while it pains me to say it, his second death was pretty cool too. Another wicked part was the actual battle between the heroes and the House of M. Being able to see Quicksilver get slapped around was awesome considering the reason for the whole House of M being created with almost completely his fault.

Did I mention this might have some spoilers?

Finally, another nice part of the story was seeing the building blocks for Marvel’s Endangered Species story arc involving the X-Men. I missed a lot by not reading this when it came out. What can I say.

Bendis’ storytelling and Coipel’s artwork really made this series stand out. I think I’ve said this about a dozen times by now but Coipel is probably one of the best people working for Marvel right now and it shows with his work on this title.

After I finished reading House of M, I came up with a quick list of titles you should read in order to fully understand the aftermath of it all. Here’s the rundown:

1.) House of M #1-7
2.) New Avengers #26
3.) New Avengers #18-20

I’d read them in that order too. Actually, I did read them in that order. Having not read House of M before I picked up most of my New Avengers stuff, this made everything fit nice and snug. If you haven’t had the chance to read it and are looking for something new-ish, check out House of M. It’s killer.