Story: Tony Bedard
Pencils: Paul Pelletier

Synopsis & Review by Sean Mills. Thanks!:
Synopsis: Heather Hudson reviews the story of Proteus in the normal 616 universe. Moira MacTaggert’s son Kevin would posses other people’s bodies and burn them out, and he had originally taken over his father and withered the body away. Colossus appeared on the scene; smashed that body into a wall, and all that was left was the energy form, which just so happens to have a weakness in metal. So Colossus went to town and destroyed Proteus, but that was in the normal Marvel universe.

Now, in the House of M, the Exiles are going to have to face off against a Proteus who has taken over the body of Beak’s girlfriend Angel. Heather contacts Sabretooth through the Tallus, letting him know how to defeat Proteus. Meanwhile, Proteus is mocking the Exiles and their companion Moira, Proteus’ mother. Sabretooth isn’t thrilled that the key to defeating Proteus will be Mimic’s ability to reproduce Colossus’ powers, especially since Mimic swore to never kill again.

Proteus hears Sabretooth whispering and attacks! He twists and bends the Exiles in horrific ways, he even manages to push into Heather’s view screen, almost breaking through it into the Crystal Palace. After turning Sabretooth into a tiny little tentacle monster, Proteus inspects the Tallus and starts downloading the listing of different realities from it. Heather shuts all the screens down but Proteus has already learned enough. Then he uses what he learned about the Exiles to torture them with their worst memories. Morph is made to confront a zombie Sunfire, Sabretooth is mocked with the thought of killing for Apocalypse again, and Blink as a child is reminded of what Mister Sinister did to her.

Mimic strikes out, blasting the Sinister illusion with his optic blast. But it wasn’t an illusion; Proteus had turned Sabretooth into Sinister so Mimic only blasted his teammate. So then Proteus goes after Mimic and his new Deadpool-inspired look of ground beef. He begins to melt Calvin all the while making him watch a scene of Blink loving Sabretooth more than him, of Blink denying their love.

While Proteus is distracted, however, his mother decides to attack and shoots him in the shoulder. Proteus loses his hold on everyone as his body burns from the metal, but he abandons Angel’s body to escape it. Beak runs to his girlfriend’s side as Proteus goes after Moira. Sabretooth rallies Mimic, letting him know that it’s metal that will defeat Proteus, but before the energy creature can possess his mother, Moira shoots herself.

Blink throws an energy bolt at Proteus to teleport him away, but he just turns it into a bunch of pink little fishies. So he goes after Blink, prevents her from teleporting away, and almost possesses her before a big steel hand grabs him around the throat. The mere touch is killing Proteus as Mimic winds up with his claws. But Proteus taunts Mimic with his sacred oath to never kill again, that little voice in his heart that tells him to…haha! Calvin begins to take the metal away and Proteus jumps on it, twisting Calvin around. He made Mimic hesitate and now Proteus takes advantage, possessing Mimic.

Proteus pops his new claws and informs them all that Blink’s boyfriend died an angry man. He didn’t like Sabretooth at all and he slices into Sabretooth’s gut. Sabretooth slices back but Proteus just turns the slashes on his own body into grinning teeth as he informs them all how outmatched they are. He begins slashing into Sabretooth with Northstar speed until Morph pulls the feral guy away. Proteus optic blasts Morph’s head apart but Blink teleports Morph and Sabretooth away. She faces down Proteus, demanding her boyfriend back or she’ll kill him.

But Proteus has other things in mind. After seeing all the different realities he’s decided to go have him some fun, and so he disappears into the multiverse. In the Crystal Palace, the bugs report that things are going back to normal and that Proteus is gone. Heather is relieved, but there’s a new problem. The Scarlet Witch (as per House of M #7) is setting 616 back to normal! The Exiles are regrouping and Beak holds Angel, who’s dying in his arms. Blink gives him the regenerative serum they got from Curt Connors; she injects it into Angel, sacrificing the chance to heal Mimic’s skin.

But just then, the Exiles are teleported back to the Crystal Palace, leaving Beak in the 616 universe. Blink begins worrying about Calvin and Angel, but Heather explains that Scarlet Witch was reshaping reality back to the way it was before. There’s no telling what would happen to the Exiles once she did that, or if they’d even exist. Beak, meanwhile, is checking on Angel, who seems to be alright! But then the world goes white…

Review: I knew it! I called it! Proteus took Mimic! It’s depressing though. But Angel surviving in the end means that Proteus doesn’t kill when he possesses somebody, they die when he burns out their body. So there’s still a chance to save Mimic! First they all have to fight him, which should be fun. We’ll finally get the chance to see Mimic go nuts with his powers, maybe drop the stupid Wolverine claws and go for the Silver Surfer or something real.

Anyway, great issue! A nice big exciting fight scene with reality twisting and friends betraying. Morph didn’t do much though. Oh well, it was still a great episode and I’m definitely looking forward to where they all go next. I also want to see what happens to Beak. He wasn’t around when things changed, so we’ll see what happens. The cavalier way that Scarlet Witch creates new people or just doesn’t reshape living people is a bit scary for minor characters. Nocturne made it though, through the change.

Maybe Beak and Angel will lose their mutant powers and will live in happiness for the rest of their days! Yay! That would be exciting.