Olivier Coipel Archives

Here’s the first full-length episode of my new show, Crushing Comics! (Episode 1 was just a brief teaser.)

The main theme of Season 1 will be unwrapping dozens of anonymous bricks of books from my collection, which each contain an oversize surprise. It’s liking unboxing my past seven years of hauls all over again!

Episode 2 features Thor by JMS Omnibus (Amazon / eBay), as covered by the Guide to Thor and Iron Man by Matt Fraction (Amazon Vol. 1 / Amazon Vol. 2 / eBay) as covered by the Guide to Iron Man.

All three books get a thumbs-up from me, but you’ll have to watch to here all about Thor’s big Ragnarok, plus learn how I cannot pronounce the names of either of the major creators on that run.

The House of M Omnibus is the #59 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017 on Tigereyes’s Secret Ballot.

Visit the Marvel Masterworks Message Board to view the original posting of results by Tigereyes.

What Is It? House of M (2005) is an alternate reality mystery that finds the Avengers and the Astonishing X-Men in a world where mutants dominate a society that is racist against regular humans. It prominently stars Wolverine, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, and Magneto.

House of M was Marvel’s first major, line-wide event since Onslaught in 1996 as well as the first significant X-Men and Avengers crossover since then. It was also the first time that Marvel thrust its entire line into an alternate universe story (in an expansion of their strategy for the X-Men-only Age of Apocalypse in 1995).

House of M resulted in massively changed status quo for several Marvel characters, including Ms. Marvel and Wolverine. In its aftermath, Marvel’s mutant population was decimated from millions to just a few hundred, which began a six-year mega-arc that eventually ended in Avengers vs. X-Men in 2012.

The House of M (2005) mini-series event ran for 8 issues from August 2005 to November 2005.

Past Ranking: This is the debut appearance of this book on the ballot!

Creators: Written by Brian Michael Bendis with pencils by Olivier Coipel, inks by Tim Townsend (with Scott Hanna, Rick Magyar, & John Dell III), colors by Frank G. D’Armata (with Paul Mounts), letters by Chris Eliopoulos, and covers by Esad T. Ribic.

Probable Contents: This omnibus would definitely collect House of M (2005) #1-8 plus The Pulse: House of M Special (2005) #1 and Secrets of the House of M (2005).

Those contents have already been published in an oversize hardcover, which is just 312 pages long. Marvel reprinted a similar hardcover of Civil War for their 2016 film, but it was not relabelled as an omnibus. What else could this volume contain?

Click to expand a discussion of further content for this volume.

There were three oversize hardcovers worth of House of M tie-ins, each weighing in at about 350 pages – House of M: No More Mutants, House of M: Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and House of M: Wolverine, Iron Man, Hulk. They are all now out of print and relatively expensive to obtain.

It is likely that most voters had that all-inclusive volume in mind when selecting this choice for their ballot. Together, those tie-ins represent 1048 pages of material, which (combined with the main event) would produce a 1360 page omnibus. That’s larger than Marvel’s current biggest printed volume by a signature (16 pages). The length is potentially feasible, though it would leave no room for the bonus materials many fans look forward to in omnibus editions.

We’ll call that version, “House of M Complete Collection Omnibus.”

Alternately, all of that material could be saved for a sizable “House of M Companion” omnibus, and this volume could instead include both lead-up and aftermath stories to the event. Excalibur (2004) #11-14 in Excalibur, Vol. 3 contained the lead-in to the event – another 96 pages. The quintet of X-Men: The Day After, X-Men: Generation M, X-Men: Son of M, X-Men: The 198, and Sentinel Squad O.N.E. covered the fallout of the event, called “Decimation.” Together, they account for a combined 712 pages. New Avengers #16-20 was not part of Decimation, but it also served as an epilogue – another 120 pages.

An omnibus of all that material would be a slightly-more-reasonable 1344 pages – as long as Marvel’s longest current book. Less the inessential lead-in from Excalibur and the disconnected Avengers epilogue, it would be 1120 pages.

We’ll call that version, “House of M: No More Mutants Omnibus.”

If Marvel went with the “No More Mutants Omnibus,” it would reasonable to see the additional material from the “Complete Collection” omnibus as its own “House of M Companion.” Conversely, if Marvel went with the “Complete Collection Omnibus,” it would also be reasonable to see a “House of M Companion: Decimation” omnibus containing all of the follow-up material.

For the full details on all of the issues contained in the prelude, tie-in, and aftermath titles and how they are presently collected, see the Guide to Marvel Universe Events.

Can you read it right now? Yes! The House of M trade paperback has “evergreen” status at Marvel – meaning they always keep it in print. However, all of the various supporting books are long since out of print and may cost you a lot of money to purchase. Learn more about them in the Guide to Marvel Universe Events.

And, fear not – every single issue of House of M and its tie-ins are available on Marvel Unlimited for just $10 a month!

The Details:

House of M is one of Marvel’s biggest and most-accessible stories of all time for a litany of reasons.

It featured a team of blockbuster creators, told an alternate reality tale that was massive in scope, kicked off Marvel’s modern age of yearly line-wide events, and was an Avengers and X-Men team-up that actually changed everything that came afterwards for both teams.

However, it might be most notable for being a major inflection point for Marvel. The pre-House of M Marvel of early 2005 would be unrecognizable to readers of both today and of a decade prior to House of M.

Marvel’s line was beginning to expand after their gaunt late-90s bankruptcy years, but it was not the interconnected universe to which fans of the early 90s were accustomed. Titles tended to keep to themselves, without major interaction across Marvel’s Universe. Crossovers were all but extinct. Most of the hype and fan interest was around Marvel’s Ultimate Universe, which launched fresh, modernized version of their four core franchises starting in 2000.

Yet, the prior year had brought with it two major shake-ups in the main Marvel Universe that captured fan imagination (and, in one case, ire). [Read more…] about House of M Omnibus – The #59 Most-Wanted Marvel Omnibus of 2017