House of M Tie-Ins (2005)

This post covers:

• Fantastic Four: HoM
• Iron Man: HoM
• Mutopia: House of M
• Spider-Man: House of M

I suppose character tagging these “fake reality” series is controversial because none of this actually ends up happening when this reality gets “un-realitied” at the end of House of M. But my view is that these actually are the same Earth 616 heroes and that the 616 reality itself was changed. This isn’t an alternate reality, it is one controlled by Scarlet Witch that later gets reverse.

Long way of saying, I’m tagging them with the main characters–the one whose thoughts, fears, and feelings were manipulated into delusion by Wanda. I’m also not covering these series in detail because they’re not “real.” But some of them are interesting.

In Spider-Man’s tie-in, he is married to Gwen Stacy, who is nearly killed by Venom in the same way she was actually killed by Green Goblin. In the House of M world, mutants rule–and when they find out Spider-Man is a human and not a mutant, he is cast out and fakes his own death–to hide from Magneto.

Mutopia is probably the best of the lot when it comes to HoM tie-in miniseries. It continues the great work this team did on District X, albeit in this “fictional” universe. It also flips the ideas on their heads because in the HoM universe, mutants RULE–so instead of a mutant slum, we’re dealing with humans being targeted and forming resistance groups. It made me miss that comic and it was nice to read about characters like Lara the Illusionist and Bishop in the only comic where I like Bishop.

For HoM: Iron Man, Tony Stark and his dad team up to create genetic weapons in the fight to save humans from mutant domination in the Iron Man: House of M book. The Fantastic Four don’t even exist in their tie-in. Instead, Reed is killed by Victor Von Doom who creates The Fearsome Four.

There are other tie-ins to the HoM Event, some other standalone series and some that took place within continuity of other books. The ones covered here take place between HoM issues #2 and #3 (or thereabouts). The rest can be found, when I write them, by hitting the “House of M” tag below.