Short Summary: Following the disastrous events that disbanded the original Avengers, Magneto hurried his daughter Wanda, architect of her fellows' downfall, to Genosha, begging Charles Xavier to help save her slipping sanity. Even with the help of Dr. Strange, however, Xavier failed, and turned to the X-Men and the newly re-created Avengers for advice. With opinions split between killing the Chaos mistress and helping her no matter the cost, the teams ventured to Genosha for more information. But Wanda was changing, and the world changed with her...
Characters
 X-Men |  Avengers |
Course Material
Prelude:
 Excalibur, Vol. II #13  Excalibur, Vol. II #14 |
House of M LS
Issue Summaries
by Jacob. 
ROLL OVER FOR ALTERNATE COVERS!!!!!
 #1  #2  #3  #4  #5  #6  #7  #8 |
Tie-ins
 Fantastic Four: House of M LS  Iron Man: House of M LS  Mutopia X LS  Spider-Man: House of M LS |
Non-X-Related Profiles:
| Black Panther: King T'Challa of Wakanda is human, though his senses and skills have been enhanced by the heart-shape herb that grows in his homeland. Though human, he was allowed to retain control of his country by Magneto, perhaps in a gesture of tolerance. However, the anti-human policies supported or tolerated by the House of M antagonized T'Challa, who often spoke out against Magnus. Furthermore, T'Challa pined for Queen Ororo of Kenya, though he maintained a "harem" of girlfriends including Shanna O'Hara. Still, he influenced Ororo's thinking, who was in turn being pursued by Quicksilver, though she always turned him down. Eventually, after Ororo spoke about the inherent racism of the House of M on the "Alison" show, Magneto sent Sabretooth to kill T'Challa. T'Challa killed Sabretooth easily, and send his head back to Magneto. He then met with the other world rulers: Sunfire, Namor, Ororo, Black Bolt and Doom, who left immediately. They agreed to support T'Challa if the House of M made a move to annex his country. Soon, Magneto sent Apocalypse to destroy the Black Panther, but with the help of the other mutants, and finally thanks to Black Bolt, they obliterated the supposedly immortal mutant and Wakanda remained free. T'Challa later appeared in African ceremonial garb at Magneto's birthday in Genosha.
Black Bolt:
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Captain America: After receiving the Super-Soldier serum in WWII, Steve Rogers defeated the Nazi forces alongside his partner Bucky, their most critical mission ending in triumph as they reversed the course of Baron Zemo's missle into the Nazi base. In the 1950's, Cap was the first man to walk on the moon, and was even more of a national hero. Though the serum slowed his aging process, time marched on and Captain America eventually retired. Now nearly 100 years old, he maintains the vigor of a man in his 50's or 60's, and lives in his old neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY.
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Cloak:
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Doom: Genius ruler of the European nation of Latveria, Doom was granted sovereignty of his country by Magneto, in return for doing the mutant king's bidding. He soon found a crashed space shuttle with a crew (Reed Richards, Sue Storm and John Jameson) who had been killed by cosmic rays. However, the fourth passenger (Ben Grimm) survived in a mutated form, and in him Doom saw a means to his eventual domination. It should be noted that Doom appears to have known Reed Richards, and it is likely that Doom had a hand in the fatal crash. Not content to play second fiddle to Magnus, Doom used sorcery and technology to mutate himself, his wife and his adopted son Kristoff into super-powered beings. Doom himself became a man of malleable metal, able to armor his body and shape that armor into any form. Together with the Invincible Woman (Valeria), the Inhuman Torch (Kristoff) and the It (Grimm) However, due to the obvious vulnerability his powers gave him against the Master of Magnetism, Doom continued to pursue other dimensions for mutagenic properties. Meanwhile, Magnus tasked him with dealing with antagonists of the House of M. While Magnus usually wanted a peaceful resolution, Doom often resorted to extreme means to secure his objectives, as he did when he killed the Mole King and most of his people. Finally, Doom's searches yielded a dimension in which sorcerous power was increased and the natural laws were effectively negated, so Doom tricked Magneto and Quicksilver into joining him there to investigate it as a potential prison. Once there, Magneto's powers didn't work and Doom beat him up, then left him and his son to rot. However, the It found Polaris, who retrieved her family and attacked Doom and his. In the battle, the von Dooms were overwhelmed, but Victor refused to assist his wife and son, instead attempting to attack Magneto, a gambit which failed miserably, and left Valeria and Kristoff dead. Magneto refused to kill Doom, instead forgiving him and sending him back to Latveria alone. Later, Doom appeared at Magneto's birthday party in Genosha.
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Dr. Strange: Stephen Strange was a psychologist specializing in dealing with humans who wanted to have powers or thought they had secretly suppressed powers. One of his clients was Robert Reynolds. When Layla Miller woke Strange up to the true reality, he joined the attack on Genosha, but left the battle in his astral form to confront Wanda Lehnsherr. After a weird conversation with her and her mysterious children, Hawkeye appeared and shot Wanda, who then disassembled her formerly dead former teammate. Strange soon left Wanda's side, and was able to effect a limited magical shield when she re-made the world, protecting some mutants from losing their powers, and more importantly, maintaining some of the participants' memories of what Wanda had done.
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Genis-Vell: A private in the Kree Army, Genis lived in the shadow of his deceased father, Mar-Vell, the greatest of all Kree warriors, a friend of Earth and of its premier superhero, Ms. Marvel.
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Hank Pym:
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Hawkeye:
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Iron Man: Tony Stark grew up in the shadow of his equally brilliant father Howard, who eventually left Stark Industries in Tony's hands when it was nearly bankrupt. Tony rebuilt the company into a multi-national technological powerhouse, in part by kowtowing to the new mutant-run governments. He employed various brilliant scientists, among them mutants Forge and Hank McCoy, as well as the sapien Henry Pym. Not content with the corporate arena, Tony followed in his father's footsteps to join the Sapien Death Match reality show, fighting modified Sentinels in a specially-designed battlesuit. Thought seemingly the ultimate sapien mind, Tony was still manipulated by his father, who secretly funded Pym's anti-mutant gene research. When Tony found out, he almost fired Pym, but instead unveiled his latest and greatest battlesuit and tracked Pym to a sapien resistance meeting. Sentinels showed up and Tony fought them, then discovered his father at the controls. Confused, Tony ran back to his home and was confronted by an envoy from the House of M, who made him sign over the Vision patents.
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The It:
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Janet van Dyne: Heiress of a respectable fortune, Janet has made her own fame by becoming one of the world's leading fashion designers. She is the main designer for the mutant rich and famous, including royalty such as Queen Ororo of Kenya.
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Johnny Storm:
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Luke Cage:
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Maj. Erik Josten:
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Nick Fury:
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Rhino:
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Scorpion II:
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Spider-Man: Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man, was one of the world's most beloved celebrities. First a pro wrestler, then an inventor and a movie star, Peter had it all, including a loving wife (Gwen Stacy) and a son, Richie. Idol of millions of mutants, Parker had just completed a takeover of Osborn Industries. However, Peter's fairy tale came crashing down when his often-abused PR flack J. Jonah Jameson was given a copy of Peter's diary by the Green Goblin. JJJ discovered that Spidey was not a mutant, but was an altered human who had lied about the origin of his powers. Overnight, Parker's fortune was confiscated and he ended up on the street, his family worried sick about him, and attacks against humans began to rise. The Green Goblin next came to meet Parker's bodyguard Rhino, and was revealed as Peter himself! Meanwhile, Gwen, her father and Peter's uncle Ben broke into Jameson's house to steal the diary, which they read, thinking it was fiction, as they were all dead (in reality it was the true reality's history). Eventually, Peter returned to his senses and with Ben's help behind the camera, faked his own suicide for the newspapers, sending a note to Magneto telling him to back off the humans who had come under attack if he wanted Spidey to stay "dead." Peter and his family then took a vacation, but upon returning to New York, Peter was pulled out of the reality warp by Layla Miller and remembered his true past. He had trouble accepting it at first, and was livid at the violation of body and mind he had suffered. Spider-Man then traveled to Genosha with the rest of the awakened heroes and fought against the House of M until the Scarlet Witch reset the reality. Peter is among the few who remembers the reality warp.
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Vision: The Vision was a robot created by Hank Pym while he was employed by Stark Industries. Unbeknownst to Stark himself, a Vision-based version of the Sentinels was built under his father Howard's guidance. Shortly afterwards, the House of M demanded the rights to the Vision patents, and Stark signed them away. When Pym's anti-mutant gene bombs were being located and destroyed by Iron Man and Johnny Storm, someone (presumably Howard) sent a fleet of Visions to attack Iron Man. When finally confronted by Tony, Howard passed control of the Visions to his son. However, Tony declined to attack Magneto, and the fate of the Visions is unknown.
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