House of M Secret Wars #2 (Spoilers)

[jmc247]

The Red Guard threatens Wanda's twins with painful results for Wolverine. The human resistance stages their attack on Magneto's fortress and their strategic planning leaves something to be desired, but they manage to wound Magneto. An injured Magneto can no longer keep one of his prisoners Fing Fang Foom at bay and he is out to make a mess and now Namor and Quicksilver enter the picture seemingly to take the throne.

In terms of the story line, its well paced and well executed, but has just about everything acting stupidly for the moment. The human resistance thinks killing Magneto is key to solving their problems, while his death most likely would simply release a reign of terror upon them and humans in general the likes of which they haven't had under Magneto. In a way it mirrors mutant extremists in other universes thinking that by killing the President of the United States they solve mutant kind's problems.

Namor at least has a clear plan for war against the Earth dwellers with Quicksilver at his side, but we don't know what Quicksilver's MO is yet. Is he really a traitor or is he playing Namor? Wanda is focused on being mom and Lorna is focused on the security of Genosha and dealing with the chaos unraveling. Many of the players in the story including members of the royal family aren't exactly acting as master manipulators here, but I think that is part of the point of the story.

This issue was an improvement on issue #1 in that it was faster pace with improved art, by that score it was more then worth the price of admission.

[CJStriker]

Just got Threw with Reading Secret Wars: House of M #2 for the 2nd Read Threw!

So You know what I might be thinking of it with a 2nd read-threw already!

Anyways my Breakdown of what I thought.

1st off, to get it of the way, the Negatives; only one really and that is still Marco Failla's Art on the Faces. Everything he Does is Impressive to a Grand Degree, he looses some detail with far away and massive groups, but just small beans. It is in the faces that are hits and misses at times that are the most noticeable and has a degree of impact. Not near enough to NOT enjoy the book, just seems the ideals of what the emotions of the characters are at the moments compared to how the faces are drawn could be better and less awkward looking. But again that is a minor of minor details and at times it gives some truly memorable moments:

It is GREAT to See Wiccian and Speed, the Wanda Twins back together again, but their Faces Below; WOW

They look so Bratty and Evil hear, like Chucky from Child Play Evil; LOL, both Freaky and Funny at the same-time!

Now Getting Beyond those small things and they are small:

The Issue as a Whole as always was GREAT!

I like the constant theme of Magneto being a reluctant Ruler pawning for the Days of War and Rivals only for Grand Irony to come to his doorstep, from his home and a back-stable from his Family all in the same moment. It is a Great Example of being careful of what you wish for, especially War and Conflict! Magneto may be good, but it costs you in ways you never know how it will, not everything is as glorious as you think it might be.

The Human Rebels have become the Major Un-Foreseen Highlight of the Series IMO! Dennis Hopeless Inclusion of not only the idea of the Rebels, but the Chooses of Black Cat, Hawkeye and my favorite of the Group Misty Knight has be such a GREAT Trio of Rebels. They work very well together and are greatly skilled characters for this situation. But they are hanging on the edge of their teeth in a world out to get them as well and both of those are portrayed in a great mix in this story. You really get a treat seeing these characters in this kind of situation you don't see them usually in and interacting with other characters they don't normally do, including each other. You have a caring for them cause they are the last of the rebellion, fighting for the right of human freedom and you both cheer for them but also fear the death of the Magnus Family! It really is a conflicting cheer/fear moments with them, but you know you will get a Great Amount of Enjoyment out of The Human Rebels All The Time and that is worth a Great Amount of Cheers! =D

The Deathlock Inclusion was Nice and they gave a Nice Backstory to the Daughter who has a Ligament Grudge on the House of M and her inclusion shows that the Human Rebellion can take multiple forms and the history of the War. Also, the Level 1 Video Game Zombie Deathlocks lead to some very funny fight moments with the Royal Guard and Honestly the Guard soldiers themselves don't look like much either, surprised such a guard is guarding the Royal Palace and Family, LOL!

The moments with Wanda's Kids and The Elite Red Guard where well played and got to say the Kids taking on most of The Elite Royal Guard that just took down a Majority of the Human Rebel Force; WOW! Goes to show you WHY this Family is at the Top! Also, not a Wise move by Logan to threaten Wiccian; not just cause he is Wanda's Kid or Royal Blood, but those will be explained why shortly, but threatening a kid is just Wrong! IMO it put Logan on the He gets what was coming to him next moment form many reasons.

Wanda acts like a Mother Should Act and Loved her for it! Her kids are acting Bratty and she wants to take care of them, but she will never let others handle her kids, even if they are making problems, you NEVER Mess with a Mothers Kids, especially the Mother that is the 1st Royal Princess of The House of M! Yea, I understand why Shaw feels upset that it seems the Children get separate special treatment but that is how it goes in Royal Kingdoms and Really; NO one expect the kids to get off easy, Wanda will give them a lesson the Guards can Never Teach them, so things will work on how they should in the end.

Lorna was Great in this as well, showed Excellent Sense of Cleverness like she did with Pietro in Issue #1. She got that the Deathlocks where TOO EASY and that was not good, so when they where gone she went to her Fathers side just in time to help him from the attack cause she feared that something like that would happen and in that moment she was right.

Final Point, the Final Attack by Namor is a Reminder of when Namor in AvX attacked Wakanda with how he attacked with that Wave. Even Pietro gave off that it is better not to SHOUT It like he did in AvX, a Clever call-out to how Namor Normally Acts. Business Picked Up fast and Now we will see how the Royal House of M Survives with both Namor, Pietro's Betrayal, Fin Fang Foom Loss, The Human Rebels and Magneto's Lost of his Powers! =O

Really, The S*** has JUST Hit the Proverbial Fan!!! ;-)

Overall, the Story gets to the Point, the world story is built ever more here and nicely piggy-backed off from issue #1. The pace is the right pace, not to slow or fast, just right to get all the points in. Could have added in an Issue to give more detail before the events of this issue, but that is just a bonus, not a must.


The characters are smart and they have a level of cleverness to make the story flow well.

I look forward to how things go from here, we are only 2 issues in, Half way threw and now we got the 2nd half and things already have picked up well! Look forward to where things go from here!

Voted on this Issue on Marvel Online Reading:

5 out of 5 Stars!!!


Below is My Favorite Moment from the Issue #2(Besides Wanda's of Course);

Misty Knight Being COOL & AWESOME!!!

[BroHomo]

ugh wanda stepping in like that makes me hate wiccan and wanda even more

[DavidBedlam]

Guys, surprise dragon in purple underpants appearance. That alone make this a five star issue.

But Namor and Pietro combining to form an unstoppable force of pure snark on top of that? This series is spoiling us.

[jmc247]

I have been thinking about some of my underlying issues with it compared to my views on say House of M Civil War and other House of M minis. The art is certainly not awful, but I have admitted I do have issues with some of it and in terms of the storytelling its trying to both target the late teen and older demographics and a younger demographic at the same time so its trying to thread a very small needle into a very tiny hole.

Previous HoM minis dealt with politics on a less kid friendly level, but more of an at minimum late teen friendly level. I won't say that is entirely a bad thing as I want a new generation of comic readers reading the HoM and hope younger kids do read it, but at the same time I did like the higher level discussions of things like war, race, politics, etc. that went on in past minis.