No pictures this time. This won’t be very long, because I’m in a bit of a state of depression over things unrelated to Secret Wars House of M or Marvel.
There’s a lot of good, fun humor in the issue, keeping with the more lighthearted tone. The book is doing quite a lot to establish the Magnus family as dictatorial, as we see not just with reeducation centers, but with Wanda allowing to have the laws everyone is expected to follow flouted for the sake of her sons.
She has the motherly protector thing going, powerful and raging at every step, but there is the air of “the law doesn’t apply to us” that brings a double edged sword. It can be construed as Wanda placing love for her children above the law, which you expect from a doting mother, but it can also be seen as thinking the only thing that matters is getting her way. Whether it’s good or bad really depends on your own interpretation; I currently choose the loving mother angle.
Lorna had the best representation of the whole family in this issue. As a Lorna fan who’s seen her ignored and blown off for so long, I absolutely appreciate seeing her granted such a showing. She’s there to protect her father, and she shows some savvy to tactics – not enough to get to her father before the arrow hits him, but enough to know something was amiss and the cyborgs were far too easy.
I think Magneto had a pretty good showing too. The introductory pages demonstrate that he has no worthy adversaries, which sets up that his underestimating the human resistance when they burst in isn’t OOC stupidity, just Magneto not accounting for every potential variable like he should.
The character I’m most unsure about characterization-wise is Pietro. I didn’t say this last time, but I’ve been assuming Pietro joining forces with Namor isn’t an actual attempt to overthrow his father, but rather an attempt to help his father. Magneto clamors for a worthy challenge, there isn’t really a big threat for him other than Namor, and Pietro goading Namor into attacking gives Magneto the perfect justification to defeat Namor and take over Atlantis. What looks at first like backstabbing may in actual fact be a deception meant to benefit Magneto and Genosha.
Keep in mind, at least from what we’ve seen, that Pietro doesn’t know about the human resistance or the arrow that disabled Magneto’s powers. For all Pietro knows, Namor and his army would be going up against a fully powered Magneto and his Genosha.
All in all, this was a great issue, definitely worth picking up and reading.
salarta 