Issue #3

Page 2 - Spider-Man and The House of M

Spider-Man: House of M

    Spider-Man is a mutant of the people.  He is the biggest celebrity around staring in many Spider-Man movies.  He lives the perfect life with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben and has a child with his wife Gwen Stacy.  He even had enough money to buy-out the Daily Bugle and re-hire J. Jonah Jameson just to make him feel like crap.  Spider-Man's company actually sells web-shooters as self-defense items.

    Yet, something is off in Peter's life.  He feels like today is the beginning of a new day and he doesn't know why.  To show this, Peter shaves his head.  There is also another thing about Peter's life, a secret.  That Peter is no mutant, but a homo-sapien who gained his powers through a spider bite.

    Peter's family throws him a big surprise party.  Peter is a little cranky.  Jonah pops in, but before he can say anything, Peter tears into him about how he doesn't pay him to suck up and throws him out.  Jonah says that he doesn't care what he is paid.  This has to stop.  Uncle Ben and Captain Stacy (Gwen Stacy's Father) give Peter the disappointed stare down, but Peter just walks away.

    Gwen comes over to Peter and he tells her how he has everything he has ever wished for.  She jokingly mentions he could have wished for world peace, which angers him.  He leaves in a huff.  Huff.

    Up above, Jonah sits along brooding over his hatred for Parker.  Suddenly, someone crashes through the window.  It's the Green Goblin.  He picks up Jonah and says, "You're the pawn who's going to help me destroy Spider-Man's life!"  Jonah agrees.

    Later, Jameson awakes in a pile of garbage.  Confused at first, he remembers the Green Goblin gassing him after giving him something of Peter's... his journal.  Jonah, like the creepo he is, begins to read about Peter's childhood crushes and awkward shower experiences...

"Worth it," he says

    Flash to Spider-Man and Mary Jane on a Talk Show discussing the new Spider-Man movie.  Mary Jane plays the role of Gwen Stacy, the role she was "born to play."  Gwen looks on with jealousy.  Afterwards, Rhino (Spider-Man's bodyguard) hands Peter some security video from the night before, showing The Green Goblin attacking Jameson.  Parker's guilt gets to him, and says he can't let anything happen to Jonah, he has treated him so horrible.  Peter is going to go check out Osborn, due to the glider he saw in the video and he sends Rhino out to get some information from Crusher Hogan (Spider-Man's pro-wrestling partner who wrestles under the guise of The Green Goblin).  Captain Stacy mentions to Peter that he just sicced Rhino on his friend Hogan, and Peter attempts to tell Rhino not to hurt him, but ends up unsure if Rhino heard.

    Hogan denies having anything to do with The Green Goblin that attacked Jonah.  Rhino throws Hogan through a wall.  Hogan doesn't get up.  "Uh oh" - Rhino

    Peter has managed to make it up to talk to Osborn to ask about the glider.  Osborn has to break the news to Peter that Gwen was just in the other day buying lots of equipment.  The glider already belongs to Peter.

    Later that night, Peter puts on his Spider-Man suit and goes out to look for Jameson.  He ends up in the subways and get bombarded with fans.  He barely manages to jump out of the pack, saying he just wants to find his friend.  Jonah is already there though and so are some news cameras.  Jameson then explains that he is holding Peter's journal and reveals to the world that Peter is not a mutant, but a homo-sapien.  Psh, some friend.

    Peter's world comes crashing down.  The people who once loved Spider-Man now despise him.  His movies are taken down, his web-shooter orders are cancelled, and a poor little boy was beaten half to death for wearing a Spider-Man shirt.  Peter sneaks into the hospital to visit Hogan, but instead goes to see the kid.  While he is in there, a mutant who works at the hospital gives Peter a little pep talk.  He asks Peter what happened to him, he was on top of the world but now he is pathetic.  The mutant states, "Don't get me wrong.  I don't like humans.  But I always liked you."  Another worker knocks on the door to tell the guy that Rhino has gone amuck and started destroying everything in sight.  When the guy turns around, Spider-Man is off to go stop Rhino.

    Spider-Man finds Rhino throwing some cars around in the streets.  He can barely put some webbing around Rhino before an angry mob of people start going after him.  While Spider-Man is being distracted by the onslaught of rioters, Rhino gets away.

    In the sewers, Rhino is confronted by The Green Goblin.  He tells Rhino that he can help him get out of that suit, and all he wants in return is to get rid of every last shred of Peter's dignity.  Rhino is in.  The two meet up later behind the Parker House, but Rhino didn't come alone.  He brought along his pals Vulture, Electro, and The Ox.  Rhino wants revenge against The Green Goblin for costing him the best life he's ever had!  The four manage to take down The Green Goblin and finally find out who this guy is.  They remove the mask only to find... Peter Parker?

Ehhh what?

    Peter tries to explain that he was only trying to lure the real Green Goblin out of hiding, but his story doesn't make much sense.  He then shoots his web at Gwen (who showed up earlier) and says that if he isn't released he will kill her.  She asks him if he would really do it, and he says it's already happened, he read it in his journal.  Hmmm.  Peter tells Gwen not to let him near their baby and flies off on the glider.  The Vulture prepares to go after him, but suddenly a Sentinel appears so he rethinks his decision.

    Later the Parkers and the Stacys have a meeting to figure out what to do.  They come to the conclusion that the only way to figure out what is going on in Peter's head is to find that journal that Jameson has, so that's what they are going to do.

    By this point, Jameson has learned that Parker is The Green Goblin.  Jonah thinks Peter is out of his mind and wants some protection, so he goes to Norman Osborn.  After some convincing, Jameson finally gets Osborn to give him some protection, by the name of a machine building man named Smythe.

    Parker's family, dressed in black, break into Jameson's luxurious house in an attempt to find Peter's journal.  They barely make it inside when a wall comes crashing down and a giant robot comes through.  A Jameson Robot.  Well, more like a robot controlled by Jameson.  He goes up against the Parkers and Co with little resistance.  He gives Gwen a good wallop and suddenly Spider-Man bursts in, making short work of the Jameson-bot.

    Captain Stacy manages to grab the journal, then Spider-Man grabs it, then as he is leaving, The Captain grabs is back.  It's a slippery journal apparently.

    The next day the Parkers all gather around to read Peter's journal.  Inside it, they find many strange stories... Uncle Ben's death, Captain Stacy's death at the hands of Dr. Octopus, Gwen's death by The Green Goblin, and Peter's marriage to Mary Jane.  No one knows what to think of it.

    Peter, after having a failed attempt at helping out some homo-sapiens, calls up Uncle Ben to tell him where he is.  They know that as long as Spider-Man is alive, life for The Parkers, The Stacys, and all homo-sapiens will be miserable.  They decide Spider-Man needs to be a hero one last time.  So he hangs himself.  As people read the papers, everyone either doesn't care or doesn't understand.  It seems that J. Jonah Jameson is the only one with tears in his eyes.  But perhaps not is all as it seems.  Back in Genosha, there is a web waiting for Magneto in his lair.  The Daily Bugle is on it along with a special message.  "If you want me to stay dead, east up on the humans."  Magneto is angered.

    We cut to Peter and his family at the lake.  Everyone is having a happy-go-lucky time.  Peter is fishing with his son and teaches him a little lesson in life.  With great power...

    Hmmm, not exactly what I think Uncle Ben had in mind...

The House of M

    Wolverine wakes up to a strange world aboard the SHIELD heli-carrier.  Next to him in bed is Mystique, who he is apparently romantically involved with.  Wolverine is having flashbacks of his entire life, The Weapon X project, his battle with Hulk, The Dark Phoenix, all the way up to the events with The Scarlet Witch.  Wolverine has no idea what is going on in this new world or how it got this way.  He asks Mystique what happened in Genosha.  She responds by saying she hasn't seen a paper yet, and wonders if Lord Magnus is alright.  After hearing the name 'Lord Magnus', Wolverine takes the next logical step by jumping off the platform...

    He eventually manages to stop falling by landing on some buildings.  Good thing he has that healing factor.  Before his eyes is a completely different world then he knows.  Wolverine manages to steal some kids motorcycle and rides off to find Xavier, but he ain't home.  In fact there is no listing of Xavier in the phone book at all.  His next stop is Stark Tower to get in touch with his New Avengers buddy, but sadly he doesn't live there, he only owns it.  SHIELD appears asking Logan what he wants Stark for, and asks him to come back to base.  He chooses not to and runs.  The team chases after him, but he manages to hop on his bike and ride off.  Waiting in the street for him is Cloak who teleports Wolverine to some human resistance hide-out.  There, Luke Cage tells Wolverine to take the tracker out of his neck.  Cage doesn't understand how Wolverine knows who he is, but won't answer any questions until the tracker is gone.  From behind Wolverine, the "long-dead" Avenger Hawkeye appears with arrows blazin'.

    Hawkeye doesn't wait long before he shoots Wolverine through the neck.  This of course only keeps Wolvie out for about 30 seconds, which wasn't quite quick enough to keep The Sentinels from finding them.  They blast through the base, destroying it.  Cloak manages to teleport only a handful of humans out before the rest are killed.

    Wolverine explains the whole situation to Luke Cage and the rest of the humans about how the entire world has changed.  They are of course skeptical because none of them remember anything at all, except one little girl named Layla.

    Apparently, Layla has the power to 'wake' the people in The House of M world and make them remember the way the world is supposed to be.  She has done this for Luke Cage already, and the team moves on to Emma Frost and Cyclops's house.  As Emma walks in, she thinks she is being robbed, but can sense that Wolverine knows her.  Then Layla does her thing.  This causes Emma to have all her memories from the real world flooded into her head.  "House of Magnus!? ... Logan, we're going to find Magneto, ... We're going to kill him!  And his kids!"  Emma is angry.

    The team go around waking up as many heroes as they can.  Cyclops, Dr. Strange, Daredevil, among others.  When they wake up Peter Parker, he starts shouting at them to stop it.  All of his memories, which aren't the most pleasant, come back to him and he goes and hides on a rooftop.  Wolverine goes up to have a pep-talk with him.  Peter is angry.

    Elsewhere the team find Captain America, but as an old frail person.  In this world, he was never frozen in a block of ice to be preserved after World War II.  They decide not to wake him, for he is 100 years old and would be of no use.

    The heroes assemble to have a meeting to figure out just what is going on.  Hawkeye refuses to be woken and eventually runs away.  The SHIELD team also busts in on the party, still hunting down Wolverine, but this time Layla wakes them up as well.  They figure their only option is to go straight for Magneto, because he'll know where Xavier is.

    Flash over to Genosha and Magneto.  Lorna (Magneto's daughter) comes to tell him that the guests will be arriving shortly, for this is his day.  He tells her to give him a moment.  We find Magneto standing in front of a giant stone with a plaque that reads, "Xavier Memorial Garden.  He died so Genosha could live."

    The heroes hijack a Sentinel and fly over to Genosha to confront Magneto.  The plan is to have everyone distract Magneto and his House while Cloak, Emma, and Layla go and find Xavier and wake him.  They eventually find Xavier's Memorial, but Cloak discovers that there is no body.

    The battle with Magneto continues as Dr. Strange finds and confronts The Scarlet Witch.  She explains that 'he' just wanted her to be happy.  Dr. Strange asks if that is what Magneto said, but discovers that it wasn't Magneto at all, but Quicksilver who told her to use her powers and make this world.  He asks her where Xavier is, but suddenly she collapses with an arrow in her.  After some back and forth between Hawkeye and Wanda, her child make Hawkeye dissolve into little blocky things.  Wanda says she can no longer control her powers.

    Back in the battle, it appears as though Magneto has been awaken and he is no happy camper.  He attacks and kills his son Quicksilver for what he has done.  The Scarlet Witch appears and starts screaming that they are freaks.  "Look at us daddy!!!  We're freaks!!!  Mutants!!!"  Then, with three little words, she changes the entire world again...

The world once again burns to white

    Peter wakes up next to MJ in the Stark Tower (The New Avengers headquarters).  She has no memory of what just happend.  The New Avengers and others all have a meeting.  Some remember what happened, some don't.  Peter starts to freak out again, smashing his hands into the table.  Is everything back to normal?  Dr. Strange stumbles in saying not quite.

    Emma awakes outside the X-Mansion.  She hears screaming from inside and she runs in.  Most of the students have lost their mutations, but not everyone.  Nightcrawler quickly goes to check on Logan, because if he lost his powers, he would die due to the admantium in his bones.  He finds Logan laying in a field.  When he wakes up, he remembers his entire life!

    Back at the mansion, Emma is using Cerebra to figure out how much mutant activity there is left in the world.

    She discovers that they aren't dead, just no longer mutants and alas, they can still not find Xavier.

    Back at Stark Tower, Spider-Man demands that his memory of what has happened by taken away, but Dr. Strange says it doesn't work like that.  He says that he has failed, that he was supposed to protect the world from attacks such as these and he could not.

    Iron Man then gets word that someone is at the old Avengers Mansion.  They go check it out.  There they find an old newspaper clipping stating that Hawkeye is Dead, held to a wall with an arrow.  Captain America just smiles.

    In Genosha, Magneto wanders along a wasteland.  He attempts to use his powers on an old fork he finds lying on the ground, but it is no use, he is powerless.  The X-Men are there and Wolverine pounces on him.  He wants to kill him, but they decide to leave, because he didn't do this.

    We find Wanda, The Scarlet Witch, rummaging about some little town, purchasing fruit, going about her business.  On the news, Henry Pym discusses the ramifications of the mutants disappearing.  That the energy lost had to go somewhere.  For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.  "So I'm asking?  What will be the reaction?"

End.

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