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dhampyresaHi! Welcome to Meta Monday, in which I go tl;dr about stuff.
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ladymercury_10 : Wanda Maximoff and House of M
House of M is the first comic I read with Wanda Maximoff in it. It showed me how kind she was and I've loved her ever since.
Let me explain.
House of M is an event published by Marvel Comics in 2005. It spanned the entirety of the 616 verse, but here I'm only going to look at the main event itself, House of M (#001-#008). The story is by Brian Michael bendis and the art by Olivier Coipel (take note, English-speaking internet, that the man is French and his name is Olivier, with an I between the V and the E, not Oliver).
Before I start: yes, I am aware that recent events in comics mean that Wanda is no longer either a mutant or Magneto's daughter. This is irrelevant to what I'm about to say, for two reasons: 1) from an out-universe standpoint, Wanda was written as both during House of M and 2) from an in-universe standpoint, she believed she was both. (I give it a couple of years, tops, before she's back to being both.)
House of M opens with Wanda in a complete mental meltdown. She's trying to hold on to her children.
House of M 01 p03:
Her children, by the way, are a result of her mutant power of reality rewriting doing things without her knowledge or consent: she wanted children, so it... made her some. As House of M starts, she's having to deal with the fact that even though she spent years raising them and literally went to Hell for them, her children are not only dead, but never existed at all. Oh and she's also dealing with the guilt of her powers getting out of control and killing her husband.
House of M 01 p04:
Wanda, rather understandably, is not in the best of mental places. Likewise, her relationship with her powers is shit. What have they done for her lately? Nothing except cause pain and suffering. Hers and other people's.
Pietro believes the Avengers are going to kill her for this.
House of M 01 p12:
Things are not that decided with the X-Men and the Avengers, by the way. I do appreciate that Janet van Dyne is the first one to say that Wanda should be consulted on this issue, but not that Carol Danvers is the only on to expliitly support this.
And then the world changes.
Enter House of M.
In the House of M universe, Peter Parker is married to, and has a son with, Gwen Stacy (also, Uncle Ben is still alive). Steve Rogers was never frozen. Dazzler has a TV show. Carol Danvers is the most popular superhero in America. Kitty Pryde is a teacher. Sam Wilson is a detective. Stephen Strange is has a PhD in Psychology (instead of an MD as aneurosurgeon). Piotr Rasputin has a farm in Russia. Henry McCoy and Hank Pym work together in one of Tony Stark's Chicago labs. Janet van Dyne is a very successful fashion designer. Ororo is princess of Kenya. Clint Barton is alive. It not stated outright, but it's very heavily implied that world peace has been achieved.
And while Magneto doesn't literally rule the world, it's close enough. It should be pointed out, too, that in this world, Wanda's children are alive and she is not a mutant.
Meanwhile, I'm skipping over the plot of this thing, because you can read it for yourself if you want to and it basically boils down to "Wolverine gets ALL his memory back, which means he remembers the old world and wants to go back and in the process teams up with Layla Miller and her gaggle of heroes". Wolverine getting his memory back is all he ever wanted, much like what the rest of them have now is all they ever wanted.
House of M 04 p14:
They set about doing this under the (mistaken, as it'll turn out) belief that Wanda was manipulated by Magneto into creating this new world. Several characters express the desire to kill her.
Then we meet Wanda.
House of M 07 p07:
Turns out that even though Wanda was ready to let the Avengers kill her -- because she fully recognised the threat she posed --
House of M 07 p10:
House of M 07 p12:
At this point things start happening in rapid succession and none of them are any good for Wanda's mind: she takes Doctor Strange down a memory lane to when she was ready to let her friends kill her (see above), Hawkeye confronts her about killing him, she unmakes him to protect herself even though she didn't mean to and Magneto kills Pietro.
Wanda spectacularly blows her fuse at this.
House of M 07 p21:
So that's been happening to Wanda just before she says those three little words almost everyone, both in-universe and out, revile her for: she's lost control of her powers. Her children died. She learned they never existed in the first place (a trauma that doesn't have any real world equivalent). Her out-of-control powers killed several of her friends and her husband. Her friends are going to kill her. She's accepted that and is going to let them. Before that though, she tries one last thing to make everyone happy. Everyone. Everyone she ever met, ever. She gives them what they most wanted. Home. Love. Family. And for herself, she gives herself her children back and a human life. Surely this time everyone will be happy and she will be free of those powers that have done nothing for her but brought her pain, cast her off as freak, even among those who call themselves her friends (only Janet van Dyne and Carol Danvers thought to consult her about her fate. Not all the rest were in favour of "putting her down", but none of them thought to ask). She's just unmade a friend she'd ressucitated after she'd killed him the first time. Her father has just killed her brother.
Making herself human didn't manage to get rid of her powers.
But, maybe, just maybe, if there are...
House of M 07 p22:
Maybe then she will be rid of her powers. Maybe she'll finally be free. (It works, by the way, if only for a time.)
I don't know how anyone can see what Wanda did and attribute it to malice or selfishness. This is a woman, who when she was suicidal to the point of being ready to let her friends kill her -- when she was ready to die for the good of the world -- managed to create a better world, for everyone. She didn't value her own life anymore, but she valued theirs. She gave them happiness. That she was able to do that, when she was so far down that pit of despair, tells me a lot about who Wanda Maximoff is and that's not someone who is evil or selfish or I don't even know what they're saying she is these days. It's someone who is kind, on the kind of level I can only aspire to be.
Think about it. She has absolute power over reality and uses it to make people happy and make herself a family and not a threat. Then, she uses it simply to make herself not a threat.
She could have earsed the Avengers. Made it so the X-Men had never been born. She could have killed Magneto after he killed her brother -- his own son -- as if he wasn't already enough of a bad father.
She didn't.
Maybe she doesn't always make the best decisions, but her intentions are always good.
And the next time someone blames Wanda for House of M, ask them why they're blaming the mentally ill woman having a total mental breakdown and not the fully sane dude who manipulated her into doing it, even though he knew it would only impair her sanity further. You want to blame anyone for House of M? Blame Pietro.
I sure as hell do.
So those are my thoughts on House of M,ladymercury_10!
Next time, I'll be looking at more comics, in the form of Young Avengers.
ladymercury_10 : Wanda Maximoff and House of MHouse of M is the first comic I read with Wanda Maximoff in it. It showed me how kind she was and I've loved her ever since.
Let me explain.
House of M is an event published by Marvel Comics in 2005. It spanned the entirety of the 616 verse, but here I'm only going to look at the main event itself, House of M (#001-#008). The story is by Brian Michael bendis and the art by Olivier Coipel (take note, English-speaking internet, that the man is French and his name is Olivier, with an I between the V and the E, not Oliver).
Before I start: yes, I am aware that recent events in comics mean that Wanda is no longer either a mutant or Magneto's daughter. This is irrelevant to what I'm about to say, for two reasons: 1) from an out-universe standpoint, Wanda was written as both during House of M and 2) from an in-universe standpoint, she believed she was both. (I give it a couple of years, tops, before she's back to being both.)
House of M opens with Wanda in a complete mental meltdown. She's trying to hold on to her children.
House of M 01 p03:
Wanda Maximoff: "But my children!"
Charles Xavier:"Never existed!"
Her children, by the way, are a result of her mutant power of reality rewriting doing things without her knowledge or consent: she wanted children, so it... made her some. As House of M starts, she's having to deal with the fact that even though she spent years raising them and literally went to Hell for them, her children are not only dead, but never existed at all. Oh and she's also dealing with the guilt of her powers getting out of control and killing her husband.
House of M 01 p04:
Wanda Maximoff: "Oh God! I -- I killed them! I killed the Avengers!" "GG -- I killed my husband!"
Wanda, rather understandably, is not in the best of mental places. Likewise, her relationship with her powers is shit. What have they done for her lately? Nothing except cause pain and suffering. Hers and other people's.
Pietro believes the Avengers are going to kill her for this.
House of M 01 p12:
Pietro Maximof: "I swore upon my life to protect her!! First from you. And now from them? The Avegers were our family and now they are going to kill her!! And -- And you agree??!!"He's talking to Magneto, if you were wondering. (Magneto is not going to be winning any awards for parenting any time soon, that's for sure.)
Things are not that decided with the X-Men and the Avengers, by the way. I do appreciate that Janet van Dyne is the first one to say that Wanda should be consulted on this issue, but not that Carol Danvers is the only on to expliitly support this.
And then the world changes.
Enter House of M.
In the House of M universe, Peter Parker is married to, and has a son with, Gwen Stacy (also, Uncle Ben is still alive). Steve Rogers was never frozen. Dazzler has a TV show. Carol Danvers is the most popular superhero in America. Kitty Pryde is a teacher. Sam Wilson is a detective. Stephen Strange is has a PhD in Psychology (instead of an MD as aneurosurgeon). Piotr Rasputin has a farm in Russia. Henry McCoy and Hank Pym work together in one of Tony Stark's Chicago labs. Janet van Dyne is a very successful fashion designer. Ororo is princess of Kenya. Clint Barton is alive. It not stated outright, but it's very heavily implied that world peace has been achieved.
And while Magneto doesn't literally rule the world, it's close enough. It should be pointed out, too, that in this world, Wanda's children are alive and she is not a mutant.
Meanwhile, I'm skipping over the plot of this thing, because you can read it for yourself if you want to and it basically boils down to "Wolverine gets ALL his memory back, which means he remembers the old world and wants to go back and in the process teams up with Layla Miller and her gaggle of heroes". Wolverine getting his memory back is all he ever wanted, much like what the rest of them have now is all they ever wanted.
House of M 04 p14:
Wolverine: "Magneto got his daughter to give us all what we always wanted... ...so he could have what he always wanted."
Luke Cage: "How would he even know what we've always wanted?"
They set about doing this under the (mistaken, as it'll turn out) belief that Wanda was manipulated by Magneto into creating this new world. Several characters express the desire to kill her.
Then we meet Wanda.
House of M 07 p07:
One of Wanda's twins: "Are you sad, Mommy?"
Wanda Maximoff: "Well, sweety, the purpose of all of this was that there would be no more fighting. But no matter what I do... There's always fighting. I don't understand people, I really don't."
One of Wanda's twins: "He said... We could all be happy."
Turns out that even though Wanda was ready to let the Avengers kill her -- because she fully recognised the threat she posed --
House of M 07 p10:
Wanda Maximoff: "[Magneto] doesn't respond well.", Pietro convinced her not to. He takes over two pages to convince her to do so.
Pietro Maximoff: "Did you hear?"
Wanda Maximoff: "Yes. My friends are coming. Don't be mad at me, but when they do, I'm not going to fight them."
House of M 07 p12:
Pietro Maximoff: "Why would you be given all this power is not for this reason? This might be what you're supposed to do."
At this point things start happening in rapid succession and none of them are any good for Wanda's mind: she takes Doctor Strange down a memory lane to when she was ready to let her friends kill her (see above), Hawkeye confronts her about killing him, she unmakes him to protect herself even though she didn't mean to and Magneto kills Pietro.
Wanda spectacularly blows her fuse at this.
House of M 07 p21:
Wanda Maximoff: "[Pietro] -- he only wanted you to be happy..."(I find the framing of that last panel extremely interesting, by the way, because by focusing on people-who-are-not-Magneto it points out that what Wanda is saying there applies to all of them: she gave them all they ever wanted and they still found a way to turn Genosha into a ruin and kill people along the way.)
Wanda Maximoff: "Look what you've done to us, Daddy. Pietro was right -- you -- you ruined us before we even had a chance. Why would you treat your own children this way? Babies. Why?"
Wanda Maximoff: "Because you actually think you're better than than everyone else. The arrogance of you. You think because we're mutants we're better than them. That we deserve to rule."
Wanda Maximoff: " That's what you wanted and I gave it to you. But look... Look what it becomes."
So that's been happening to Wanda just before she says those three little words almost everyone, both in-universe and out, revile her for: she's lost control of her powers. Her children died. She learned they never existed in the first place (a trauma that doesn't have any real world equivalent). Her out-of-control powers killed several of her friends and her husband. Her friends are going to kill her. She's accepted that and is going to let them. Before that though, she tries one last thing to make everyone happy. Everyone. Everyone she ever met, ever. She gives them what they most wanted. Home. Love. Family. And for herself, she gives herself her children back and a human life. Surely this time everyone will be happy and she will be free of those powers that have done nothing for her but brought her pain, cast her off as freak, even among those who call themselves her friends (only Janet van Dyne and Carol Danvers thought to consult her about her fate. Not all the rest were in favour of "putting her down", but none of them thought to ask). She's just unmade a friend she'd ressucitated after she'd killed him the first time. Her father has just killed her brother.
Making herself human didn't manage to get rid of her powers.
But, maybe, just maybe, if there are...
House of M 07 p22:
Wanda Maximoff: "No more mutants."
Maybe then she will be rid of her powers. Maybe she'll finally be free. (It works, by the way, if only for a time.)
I don't know how anyone can see what Wanda did and attribute it to malice or selfishness. This is a woman, who when she was suicidal to the point of being ready to let her friends kill her -- when she was ready to die for the good of the world -- managed to create a better world, for everyone. She didn't value her own life anymore, but she valued theirs. She gave them happiness. That she was able to do that, when she was so far down that pit of despair, tells me a lot about who Wanda Maximoff is and that's not someone who is evil or selfish or I don't even know what they're saying she is these days. It's someone who is kind, on the kind of level I can only aspire to be.
Think about it. She has absolute power over reality and uses it to make people happy and make herself a family and not a threat. Then, she uses it simply to make herself not a threat.
She could have earsed the Avengers. Made it so the X-Men had never been born. She could have killed Magneto after he killed her brother -- his own son -- as if he wasn't already enough of a bad father.
She didn't.
Maybe she doesn't always make the best decisions, but her intentions are always good.
And the next time someone blames Wanda for House of M, ask them why they're blaming the mentally ill woman having a total mental breakdown and not the fully sane dude who manipulated her into doing it, even though he knew it would only impair her sanity further. You want to blame anyone for House of M? Blame Pietro.
I sure as hell do.
So those are my thoughts on House of M,
ladymercury_10!Next time, I'll be looking at more comics, in the form of Young Avengers.
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(no subject)
Date: 2015-06-02 09:05 am (UTC)(Also, wtf Xavier? There's at least one reality where her children existed, even if they were erased later. Great job helping the woman having a breakdown. The more I know about him the less I like Xavier in the comics.)
(no subject)
Date: 2015-06-02 06:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-06-01 10:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-06-02 05:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-07-30 12:04 am (UTC)Magneto is not going to be winning any awards for parenting any time soon, that's for sure.
HAH!
(no subject)
Date: 2017-07-30 10:37 pm (UTC)RIGHT?! It's like there's this utter disconnect between what they're telling us and what they're showing us.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-07-31 01:04 am (UTC)(After reading the behind-the-scenes history of Marvel, I have no idea why Jack Kirby didn't wait for Stan Lee in a dark alley with a pipe wrench.)
(no subject)
Date: 2017-08-01 10:21 pm (UTC)(Where did you read the behind-the-scenes?)
(no subject)
Date: 2017-08-02 01:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-08-03 09:59 pm (UTC)