I've been working my way through the Marvel events. For each event, I've been purchasing all the tie-in trades whenever possible. I truly enjoyed the House of M, so I didn't hesitate to order the related books. This is the first tie-in I have read, and while it started out great, I was very disappointed by the end.

As the title notes, the book covers Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four and the X-Men. Also included are tie-in issues for the New Thunderbolts and Black Panther. I was surprised to find that while the Scarlet Witch had supposedly altered reality to give everyone their heart’s desire, just about everyone is unhappy anyway! Many of the heroes realize something is wrong, if only subconsciously. This is particularly true for Spider-Man. The trade opens with him and covers roughly 1/3 of the book. He’s rich and famous, married to Gwen Stacy, and still has Aunt May and Uncle Ben – a perfect life. Only, he’s made an enemy of J. Jonah Jameson by deliberately humiliating him in public at every opportunity. This is not the usual behavior of the kind-hearted Peter Parker we know and love. When the world discovers that Peter is not in fact a mutant, his life spirals out of control. Though I found the story depressing, it was also gripping. Familiar characters pop-up in unexpected roles throughout, and I could not put it down right up to the twist when you find out who’s to blame for ruining Peter’s life.

The shortest section in the book concerns the New Thunderbolts. I know nothing about this group, but the story was done so well that I was still able to follow it. It opens with Ms. Marvel and Genis-Vell, Mar-Vell’s Kree son, engaged in battle with the Thunderbolts; who are, amazingly enough, fighting for the human resistance! Genis-Vell is attacked by Flashback and his powers result in Genis seeing that reality is wrong and he must make the difficult choice to make no choice at all.

Next up is the Fantastic Four, or I should say Fearsome Four as they are known in HoM. Only The Thing survived the cosmic radiation exposure. Doctor Doom uses his dark arts-derived powers to enhance himself, his wife and his adopted son. Never-the-less, they are still only “Sapiens” – tolerated by the HoM as enforcers, not much more than thugs that do Magnus’ dirty work. Needless to say, Doom thinks he should rule the world. This story was also well done and reveals how other characters besides the heroes are dealing with their “perfect” lives.

The Black Panther section is only a little longer than the Thunderbolts; despite that, it is my favorite of the book. This may be because he’s the only hero who comes out ahead in his story. Magnus has encouraged Pietro to woo Ororo Monroe, aka Storm, the Queen of Kenya. But, she’s not interested. Her vocal stance on the treatment of Sapiens is a threat to Magnus’ rule. He suspects T’Challa’s influence on her and decides to remove the problem. That is easier said than done. Action-packed and fun.

Up until the last section on the Uncanny X-Men, I would have given this collection five stars. However, the last quarter of the book is a piping hot mess, as Tony Stark would say. Newbies who do not already follow the X-Men line have little chance of understanding what is happening, or even recognizing the characters. Norturne, for example, appears to be a female version of Nightcrawler. And she doesn't even know who she is either! Further, other than going on and on about all realities being endangered and the Celestial Guardian Roma (no clue who she is, or where she comes from) threatening to destroy the Earth dimension so it doesn't infect all the others, this section does nothing to expand or explain the HoM story arc. I didn't recognize most of the characters and the dialog was unintelligible. “Until the breach itself is sealed, this chaos wave will keep expanding along the sidereal string…to the farthest reaches of imagination, from the Sundered Planes to the Sublimity—perhaps even to the Ascension itself.” Uh huh. Well, that clears everything right up.

Overall, with the exception of the last section which was an incoherent mess, this book is a very good tie-in to the House of M event. We get to see more detail of what this alternate reality is like and how the familiar characters of the Marvel Universe fit into it. Highly recommended. ( )