Kat Ferrell, a reporter for the Daily Bugle, is one of a crowd around Stark Tower, which has a big hole in the front facade, and is being combed by S.H.I.E.L.D. Red Guard agents. A tall telepathic agent with dreads and a strange eyepiece/implant comes over and tries to send Kat off with a story about a human hopped up on MGH (mutant growth hormone?), but she argues with him about the obvious cover story until he intimates that he could have her jailed. She spots Sebastian Shaw and inquires why the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. is personally at the scene, and when the agent turns, she snaps a picture of Shaw with her camera phone. By the time the agent reacts to the snap, Kat's gone.

Meanwhile, a blond-haired man walks along, glancing at the Magnus stories in the newsstand's papers. He looks up at the Daily Bugle...

Kat gets to the Bugle and realizes that everyone's in the 3PM meeting and she's very late. The staff is being briefed by their mutant Editor-in-Chief, a blue-skinned, cat-eyed woman (but not Mystique). Kat breaks in with her story, but the EIC says they'll wait for government clearance. Kat argues about the decision, and the EIC slaps her down. After the staff leaves, Ben Urich stays behind and wants to know why Kat's so angry. She's upset at the token nature of their positions and the restrictions the mutants place on them, which goes against what she believes her job should be. Ben notes that the world is the way it is, and if Kat wants to keep her job she should "write something inspired."

Kat starts an article on Magneto's defeat of the Sentinels and upcoming tribute gala (read it in "The Pulse: House of M Special Edition!) and wants to find a picture of Magnus and President Nixon, so she goes to the archives. Suddenly she's hit by three arrows, which pin her blouse to the wall, fired by... Hawkeye! Kat's glasses came off, so she can't see, but she still doesn't recognize her attacker. Hawkeye grabs an article and tells her to read it. Kat sees the article about the Magnus Sentinel Memorial. Hawkeye's confused, as he's holding an article about his death. He forces Kat to read the piece, and she starts spouting the whole article as if it was real.

Hawkeye starts to release Kat and recover his arrows, trying to explain that he's really been dead for a few months, and was killed by Wanda and no one remembers anymore. Now because of a mutant girl (Layla Miller - see House of M #4) he knows the truth, and wonders what he really is now - a ghost, or real? Kat is totally confused, so Hawkeye takes her to see what he knows as Avengers Mansion, which is now the New York Botanical Gardens. Then Hawkeye turns to see the Sentinel head memorial, and he fires three explosive arrows. Kat hears the cops cars' sirens, and Hawkeye tells her she must write about him, even if she thinks he's nuts. He figures Wanda brought him back to stop her, so he's going to Genosha to kill Magneto. After all, what's the worst Mags could do, kill him?

Review: Well, this was a fluff piece that had almost no plot drivers except the last page, so it's not necessary to get it if you're not a regular reader. Truthfully, Hawkeye's entire rant could have been done in one page of the main House of M LS. The one main thing I liked here was the article Hawkeye showed Kat, which really helped to define more about how the "reality warp" is working. It's not just Wanda, but obviously Charles as well. Much of the world is in fact not changed, but everyone THINKS it is. Obviously resurrections like Hawkeye and Magik would have to be a reality warp, unless all of HoM only occurs in the minds of the Avengers and X-Men who came to Genosha, which is a slim chance.

The art was pretty good, especially the scene in the archive room. Kat's blurry vision was excellent, as was the lighting. Kudos to Lark.

FYI, the other main character of The Pulse, Jessica Jones, former heroine Jewel, is on page 3 as a Red Guard member, I think. It's not stated, but it seems so. If I would have seen her by Gaudiano in prior issues I'd be more certain. If so, she's not pregnant. Talk about late-term abortion, eh? Good thing it's only a reality warp - the baby gets born in one of the next issues.

Another cool reveal was that Shaw is part of S.H.I.E.L.D., and very high up. Too bad they don't specify that he's head of the agency, you have to get that from Secrets of the House of M. Wonder who the psychic agent was?