Ya know, I begin to think I woulda done this series 2 issues per post if I’d remembered how little Spider-Man there is in it. He was a valuable part of the ensemble in part 1, then vanished. Maybe he’ll turn up before it’s over. Well, we open on Bendis’ typically out of character Emma in Layla Miller’s head, telling her her power works differently than any psychic she’s ever seen, but because “the world has been screwed over worse than it has EVER been” (Wildly out of Emma’s voice), Layla may be the only one who can rally the heroes to fix it, and Emma will be there to help her. They come back to the real world just as Scott comes home, and Emma helps Layla focus her power to hit him with the whammy.
Oh, there he is. And with the earring and all that! Seems like he’s got a good thing going here in the House of M world, but that’s all over now, as he’s plunged into a 2-page splash of moments form his life, including the death of his House of M wife, his memories of his real one, and the death of his Uncle Ben, which all hit the hardest.
Now, Peter’s in a horrible place for sure, but I think he knows Wanda too well to call her “his stupid daughter.” One of the many things this blog has taught me is he’s spent more time with her than I thought, often fighting goofy ol’ Xandu. He’s got more personal connection to her than to Magneto. Maybe that’s a nitpick, whatever. From there, we get a montage of Layla and Emma waking people up, one panel each. Kitty Pryde. Dr. Strange. Ms. Marvel. Tony Stark. Matt Murdock and Jennifer Walters in a two-fer. And then finding Captain America is an old man and realizing they can’t use him. He’ll be sitting this one out. So, now, the gang we’ve assembled so far hangs out somewhere as Emma lays out that Magneto must have forced Wanda to change the world, and somehow forced Xavier to use his powers to help pacify the heroes by giving them fantasy lives, tho now Xavier seems to no longer exist. Hawkeye is still not on board with all this, and refusing to let Layla show him the truth, probably because they told him he’s dead. And then Wolverine’s old crew of SHIELD agents shows up. There’s a brief battle before Layla makes them all see the truth.
And what of Magneto, anyway? How’s he doing being boss of the world?
Oh, bad, as it turns out! With 3 issues to go, the good guys probably won’t be getting to him til the end of next issue at the earliest, but at least Spider-Man is on the team and justifying my covering it a little better.