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Didn't The Beyonder do that?

He did indeed.  Pretty good that was too, in comparison. Secret Wars II had its moments.

Oh, I should say that the single Captain America issue involved is quite brilliant (something like Vol 5 , No. 10), and well worth a read on its own.  Brubaker is a very clever man.

Okay, thanks to the wonders of the interweb, I've just finished a marathon read of the various components of Marvel's crossover event of a few years back, House of M, which amounted to some 50-odd comics (well over 1000 pages) and made no sense whatsoever.

The concept is interesting enough - the Scarlet Witch changes reality so that Mutants have been the dominant species on Earth since the 1970s, and distracts the whole superhero community from the change by giving them all in 'ideal' versions of their lives into the bargain.  So far so good.

However.

The comics involved seem to bear no relation to events in the main House of M mini-series, even ones that had been specifically created for the 'event' (Mutopia, Spider-man: House of M).  For example, the Spider-man in the main book is a popular celebrity when the 'truth' of his world is revealed to him by (guess) Wolverine, while the Spider-man in his own mini-series starts out like that but loses everything and ends up faking his own death.  Huh?  Are all the heroes in separate realities?  Or did someone just not circulate the memos properly?  Worse, the whole thing had no real conclusion - it just sort of stopped when Wanda pulled the plug (again).

Some of the issues were fun (Incredible Hulk, Fantastic Four, Exiles), others were dire (Uncanny X-Men, Iron Man), but it basically felt like none of the writers had a clue what was going on.

My questions to anyone else who read are:

1.  What?
2.  Why?
3. Would it make any more sense if I tracked down the following issues of the various crossed-over series?

Help!

aaaargh, italics off.

After many years of avoiding the implosion of the the X-Books and Marvel in general, I just finished the first 23 issues of Whedon's Astonishing X-Men in one big self-indulgent read (the last  issue's on its way, apparently ), and if you liked pre-Secret Wars,/i> Claremont, this stuff is gold.  Good Claremonty team dynamics, Kitty Pryde centre stage, alien threats, resurrected characters and rambling sub-plots, but with Whedon's infinitely better ear for snappy dialogue (admittedly a matter of taste, but I'm a Buffy and Firefly fan) and nice consistent (if a bit photo-ref'd for my tastes) art from Cassady.  It was like a long warm cup of the 80's, even if it's quixotic attempts to make Cyclops remotely interesting fail utterly.  Recommended, although I'm glad I didn't have to survive the publication schedule - 23 issues in nearly 5 years!).    

I've just read the Straczynski(sp?)/Weston The Twelve first issue- first Marvel comic I've thought about getting in ages.  It's better than it should be, and Weston's art is beyond awesome.  I was somewhat amazed to see that it's apparently firmly set in the main Marvel continuity, in that there were many references to Civil War, and none to Mary Jane Parker (joke, joke).  

I also read the Brand New Day Spiderman issue.  If you're going to jetison almost everything to reboot a character, you should probably do something with said icon, not just have him spend 22 pages attending job interviews, getting mugged and visiting a soup kitchen.  Stan and Steve this ain't.

Nowt!

Hilarious, on various Star Wars boards which I frequent this is being hailed as the Second Coming!

Top quality, cover to cover.  As good as a comic as it has ever been.  And how my heart soars to see Beeny in a PJ Maybe story.  All the decades-old threads are twisting together, in that out-of-the-blue way that only Wagner can get away with.

Allegedly unintentional man-bits aside, that has to be a candidiate for cover of the year (so soon!) - classic 2000AD freak-out-weirdo stuff that leaps out at you.  I love the echoes of  Bolland-era muties in the "small-eyes" head, the Ezquerra Grubb's Disease 'shrooms and the very-Davis quiff and rictus.  Just great!

I'm sure it's all part of some elaborate Rebellion equal opportunities approach, keeping a balance with the exposed boobie quotient.  This one courtesy of Alan Grant's Naked Ladies Club from two progs back.  I'm not complaining, it's just the idea of SDB's photo-referenced approach that mildly disturbs me.  

The human race has Patrick Kielty in it

Ah.  I see where you went wrong there.

This episode has Patrick Kielty, I want to vaporise humanity as a result.

What's the connection?

Vzzbux wins the thread!  Best of luck with that, mate, dear god  the tension!  It's bad enough when they're right on time!

And mind yourself with that, Ukdane, something similar happened to my father many moons ago (undiagnosed pneumonia), and he ended up in a right state.

"Imminent" and "bankruptcy" aren't doing me any favours at the moment.  That, and "â?¬14 a swim" at the National Aquatic Centre.  Paid for with my tax money, I might add.  Ah well, at least they won't be getting much of that to waste anymore...