725

Attempting to get through life as a human, Pietro encounters Spider-Man, who is also suffering from a loss due to Pietro and Wanda's (Scarlet Witch) meddling with the world around them. In an attempt to kill himself for causing so much strife to the world, Pietro injures himself severely but not before contacting wife - an inhuman - Crystal, who transports him Attilan to cure him. At Attilan, Pietro concocts a plan to obtain the terrigen mists in order to regain his mutant powers. When denied, Pietro is left with the moral decision to go against the counsel. But if he can obtain his powers again by going through terrigenesis, what's to say other former mutants couldn't do the same thing. Of course, all things come with great consequences - some of which even Pietro cannot change.

I guess having to follow The Crow is a tough act for any graphic novel. Or maybe it's because I haven't read House of M that I failed to thoroughly appreciate this work. I did like the tone of the story and decisions left in the hands of those who think they are doing good. Misguided heroes, I suppose, are the best. Because even though they are actually the antagonist in their world, they perceive themselves to be aiding humanity - or in this case, the mutant world. They suffer the consequences and either change for the better, or become part of the greater problem - the villain.

I never thought much of Pietro Maximoff in the past. He wasn't one of the most notable characters in the X-Men world, at least not for me. However, it wouldn't hurt fellow followers of the mythos to have this graphic novel on their book shelves. ( )

Wtf Pietro, wtf. ( )

I’ve found that as I get older the companywide summer blockbuster epics seem less interesting – they tend to be too big, too dumb and a little too simplistic to my tastes, though the visuals are usually great. Instead it’s the tales of the aftermath that fascinate me more, how the fallout from the events affects characters. The little tales surrounding the blockbuster summer miniseries are what gives those epics weight, without them they tend to simply be sound and fury, signifying nothing. Which, don’t get me wrong, is fun, but I’ve seen a lot of them.

Son Of M relates the fallout from the House of M series, which saw Quicksilver persuade the Scarlet Witch to alter reality to one where mutants ruled the Earth. Alternate realities are never going to hold sway for too long in a shared comics universe (because money talks and fans scream), but there were consequences, with the Scarlet Witch declaring that ‘normality’ would have ‘no more mutants’ (in practice this meant only 198 left). This miniseries dealt with the consequences of a superhuman being reduced to the level of a normal human. It’s a fine concept for a character who’s often been a one note blend of arrogance and more arrogance, with a soupcon of arrogance on top. The central factor of Son Of M is Pietro’s hubris and the lengths it drives him to. He can’t take being reduced to a human and ends up taking actions that threaten not only his daughter but also a war between Earth and the Inhumans. Hine has a good grip on the plot, escalating both personal and global scales expertly and not shying away from actions having consequences. He even elicits a degree of sympathy for Pietro by providing him with strong, understandable motivations. It does fall into the all too common comics trap of believing angst and the darker side of human nature equal depth, but here the story’s strong enough to overcome that. One of the better mainstream miniseries of recent years then. ( )

Nice quadruple-barreled title, jerks. This is called "Son of M." And ooooh, it is quite good. So atmospheric, so psychological. So well-constructed. But no matter how much I love Pietro, and no matter how glad I am that a story's finally plumbing those waters in a proper way, I just can't give a 5 to anything that includes a character called "General Lazer." I know Hine's not to blame, the Decimation link just got shoehorned in. But still. ( )