HOUSE OF M: FANTASTIC FOUR #1

By: Kurt Amacker
Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2005

My headline continues the "bad House of M pun" tradition I began last month, but I promise this is the last one. However, the Fantastic Four as readers know them appear nowhere in this issue. Apparently, they all died years before the formation of the Fearsome Four the real stars of this miniseries (thus far). In a mutant world controlled by Magneto's House of M, Victor Von Doom's Latveria enjoys a "most favored nation" arrangement with the master of magnetism. Von Doom remained human when Magneto drastically altered Earth's reality in HOUSE OF M #1, though magic and science have endowed him with superpowers on par with most mutants. He leads the Fearsome Four on black ops missions for the House of M, all the while vehemently denying his status as Magneto's Sapien lapdog. His teammates are no longer the smiling faces of Marvel's First Family, but Doom's wife the darksome Invincible Woman, his son the Inhuman Torch, and their hulking, rock-man pet, the It. The family enjoys every imaginable pleasure in their palace at Latveria, but everyone around Doom understands what he will not admit Magneto wields the real power.

While well-written and well-drawn, HOUSE OF M: FANTASTIC FOUR sports a fatal flaw or at least one as yet to be resolved. If Magneto's alternate reality pacifies the Marvel Universe characters, why would the megalomaniacal Victor Von Doom feel discontent? This issue makes it quite clear he will take a stand against the House of M. It perplexes me that Magneto would permit such a threat in a world he created. Perhaps I just misunderstand, because the main miniseries shows the resistance forming against Magneto and his world government. Perhaps he failed to cover all his bases.

In any case, HOUSE OF M: FANTASTIC FOUR still merits your attention. John Layman and Scott Eaton lay on the hyper-formal royalty talk a bit thick at times ("Where are your attendants? They put you too close to the fire. I will have them flayed within an inch of their miserable [lives!]"), but it never becomes unbearable. Their amoral Victor Von Doom shines, though living in Reed Richards's shadow and denying his place in the House of M. Unfortunately, this Doom will only be with us for a few issues, until Bendis resolves the disparate realities (or will he?). The art offers welcome realism wherein the people look realistic, albeit with super powers. Though unclear who wrote and who penciled, the team captured the detail and nuance of average faces with little in the way of perpetually gritted teeth or 'roid-rage biceps.

I find it difficult to recommend HOUSE OF M: FANTASTIC FOUR to those not already reading most or all of the crossover. But rest assured if you were afraid to enter the HOUSE OF M at first, feel free to stop in now.

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