At SHIELD headquarters, Dani is presented a new assignment for the Hellions by Mystique, and she’s not happy with it. Dani gathers the students together to introduce their new team member, Magik (Illyana Rasputin). Scion argues, but changes his mind after she teleports him into and back from a live volcano. Dani explains that Magik has been added because Surge has been pulled from the upcoming mission. She tells them that the bombers are a part of a Japan-based human resistance group led by Seiji Ashida, Surge’s father.

At the New Mutant Institute, Shan and Dr. Sean Garrison recommend using his counseling services to get over the afternoon’s traumatic experiences. Most refuse the offer and disperse, but Quentin Quire expresses his discomfort with Garrison, only to have everyone else blow him off. Surge shows up and goes to find David to tell him of her recent problem. She finally asks David for help getting her father out of Japan before the Hellions get to him. David pulls Cessily and Laurie Garrison away to tell them of the situation, but both refuse to help. In Tokyo, the Hellions teleport into a gang scene only to have guns pulled on them from every direction.

At the institute, Laurie tells her father, Dr. Garrison, about David’s plan. As she comes out to find Quentin waiting for her. He reads her mind to learn that her dad told her to go, but finds something that shocks him. They threaten each other, but Laurie turns her pheromones onto Quentin, giving him strong suicidal feelings. He uses his powers to shut his own mind down, killing him instantly. Laurie stands above him, saying that SHIELD likes its secret agents to stay secret.

Review: I don’t like this story at all. Was that a bit harsh? Alright, this is the last storyline by the writing team of Nunzio DeFillipis and Christina Weir in the pages of New X-Men, so they seem to be trying to show what’s been hinted at during their run of the title. That gives us Hellion…or Scion and Wind Dancer as a couple, Surge and Prodigy as a couple, and Dr. Sean Garrison as Wallflower’s father. They’ve also used this as an opportunity to bring back anyone they could think of, with Magik, Synch, all five Stepford Cuckoos, Quentin Quire, Cameron Hodge and Cypher showing up, most for no good reason.

So one may be asking why this is a problem. After all, this is a new world, right? Anything goes! Wrong! House of M has a very set premise, namely that he has set the world into his own image, and given the heroes their ideal lives to keep them happy, knowing this through the telepathy of Charles Xavier. That theme is completely lost here, with the exception that the world is run by Magneto. The Japanese human resistance sounds like something more fitting of an apocalyptic setting like the Age of Apocalypse. The conversations over being separated from human parents really doesn’t fit either, as we see that it’s not the case in Spider-Man: House of M. In fact, would being an elite SHIELD agent work for the likes of Wind Dancer or Surge? How is Magik a teenager here, as it’s implied that she hasn’t gone into Limbo? Would the squads really keep the names Hellions and New Mutants without Xavier’s school? In fact, why would a Japanese human resistance group be attacking the New Mutants in New York?

Outside of the basic storyline problems, this book also increases the problem that is usually associated with this book: too many characters. Featuring eight of the ten New Mutants and Hellions (Prodigy, Wind Dancer, Wallflower, Surge, Hellion, Tag, Mercury and Dust) as well as the normal faculty (Dani and Shan) this book has added Quentin Quire, Jubilee, Synch, Cypher, Quill, and the Stepford Cuckoos. That’s 20 characters, all with speaking roles! What it ends up is a slightly dull story that seems to only be here because someone told them to make a House of M tie-in. This is a book that really had no purpose being involved in House of M. It’s a waste of the writers’ final story.

For art, we have the pencils of Aaron Lopresti fresh off his Genoshan run on Excalibur. It really doesn’t fit as well in this book, but that may be because I’ve gotten used to associating his art with a destroyed landscape. I just didn’t get into it this time around. Some of his scenes just seem off. In the opening page, we see Shan speaking to an assembly, with the crowd being a good distance away from her, the front row made up of people in normal looking outfits. Two panels later we see the New Mutants, in full white and yellow attire, sitting directly in front of the stage. When the Hellions arrive, it shows Shan, looking up while encompassed in the ship’s shadow, lamenting about how the terrorists are immune to her power. The words just don’t fit with the art in some spots.

Sit back and relax, kids. House of M is here for three more issues and then we can get back to a story that actually means something.