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Issue - 1 Writer - Allan Heinberg Art - Jim Cheung
Summary: After Wiccan loses control of his powers in battle, the Avengers begin to question whether or no he represents a threat as the Scarlet Witch once did. Convinced that the Scarlet Witch is innocent of the crimes she committed, Wiccan and the Young Avengers decide to find her. Scarlet Witch's father, Magneto appears to them intent on joining them in their quest.
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Issue - 2 Writer - Allan Heinberg Art - Jim Cheung
Summary: Magneto and the Young Avengers travel to Transia to look for clues to Scarlet Witch's whereabouts. Quicksilver follows them and attempts to kill Magneto, his attempt goes awry and instead he strikes a woman bearing an uncanny resemblance to Scarlet Witch. When the body falls, they see that its in fact a robot. This leads them to believe she is being held by Doctor Doom.
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Issue - 3 Writer - Allan Heinberg Art - Jim Cheung
Summary: Convinced that Scarlet Witch is in Latveria, Wiccan separates from the team and teleports there on his own. Confronted by Doombots, he assumes the appearance of his mother. The Doombots escort Wiccan to her quarters where he comes face to face with the real Scarlet Witch. Apparently lacking any memory of her past, she knows herself to be simply Wanda Maximof. She informs Wiccan that she is to be married the next day to none other than Doctor Doom.
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Issue - 4 Writer - Allan Heinberg Art - Jim Cheung
Summary: Doom brutally attacks Wiccan as he tries to reveal to Wanda her forgotten past. The fight ends with Wiccan unconscious. Wanda chastises Doom for attacking a child. Doom offers Wanda another chance to call off the wedding, but she choose to continue as planned. Later, Doom heals Wiccan and explains to him that he did not kidnap Wanda. She came to Latveria on her own petitioning for help on behalf of her people. Seeing that she was powerless and with no memory of her previous life, Doom concluded it best she not remember. Doom finally invites Wiccan to either be their guest to the wedding, or remain a prisoner. Later, Wanda releases Wiccan on condition that he tell her the truth. As he tells her the story of her life, they discover that the castle is under attack by the Avengers and Young Avengers alike. Wolverine catches sight Wanda and prepares to kill her until the timely intervention of Iron Lad.
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Issue - 5 Writer - Allan Heinberg Art - Jim Cheung
Summary: Iron Lad, the Young Avengers, and Wanda escape the battle in Latveria and travel to the past. There they hope that by witnessing the past it will restore Wanda's memories. Unfortunately despite Iron Lad's assurances, their presence does not go unnoticed. The team meet Cassie Lang's father moments before his death. But history is altered when he survives the explosion that originally killed him. Suddenly the group is transported back to their own timeline by a fully restored Scarlet Witch.
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Issue - 6 Writer - Allan Heinberg Art - Jim Cheung
Summary: With her powers restored, Wanda offers to make amends and heal former mutants. She tests her magic on Rictor of the X-Factor and succeeds. Unfortunately the X-Men arrive at the Avengers mansion looking for her.
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Issue - 7 Writer - Allan Heinberg Art - Jim Cheung
Summary: When the Avengers, Magneto, and the X-Men begin to fight over custody of Wanda, she immobilizes them all and takes the Young Avengers back to Latveria and Doom. Wanda reveals that more of her memory has returned to her. She recalls that following the death of her children she sought Doom's help to bring them back. Combining their magicks they captured the Life Force. This power however possessed her and led her to commit the murder and crimes that she did. Months later Doom's scouts found her in Transia with no memory. Wanda asks Doom to help her access the Life Force once more so that she can restore the mutants and then divorce her of the power. As the spell is cast, Patriot, not able to trust Doom, fires one of Hawkeye's arrows at him but hits Scarlet Witch instead. She awakens unharmed and no longer empowered with the Life Force. The team quickly learn that the Life Force is now in possession of Doom.
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Issue - 8 Writer - Allan Heinberg Art - Jim Cheung
Summary: Fueled by the power of the Life Force, Doom vows to usher the planet into an era free of poverty, disease, and war. He plans to rule the world with Wanda as his bride. He once more asks Wanda to marry him. She agrees only on the condition that he rid himself of the power. Unwilling to part with the power, he sends Wanda and the others back to the Avengers Mansion where the X-men and Avengers awaken. Despite learning that Wanda no longer has her powers, Cyclops insists that Wanda can still be brought to justice. Wiccan challenges him by pointing out that any number of heroes have been possessed or going rogue at one time or another and yet have always been welcomed back to the fold. Doom suddenly appears and adds his voice to the debate stating that were any of them in the reverse position, they would hope for compassion. He once more offers to lead them all to a better world. The X-Men and Avengers again decline, preferring to fight and die free than live under Doom's rule. Ant-Man attempts to distract Doom while Wiccan and Wanda cast a spell to open the portal to banish the Life Force. The attempt costs Ant-Man his life. Enraged to see her father die again Cassie grows to attack Doom but he easily brushes her aside. Doom takes a position over the open portal and absorbs more of the Life Force. He believes its is helping him, but the power burns him until he is apparently back to normal. Wanda rushes to his side, but he spurns her help instead claiming that he only used her as a conduit for power. Before disappearing, Doom claims responsibility for the attacks on the Avengers and the decimation of the mutants. After he leaves, the heroes gather around the fatally wounded Cassie. Notes:
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Issue - 9 Writer - Allan Heinberg Art - Jim Cheung
Summary: Following the Doom's departure, Iron Lad and Vision argue over what to do with Cassie. Iron Lad wants to take her body into the Time Stream to save her, Vision says she should be allowed to rest in peace. Their argument culminates with Iron Lad destroying Vision. The Young Avengers warn Iron Lad that his actions are setting him on the path to becoming Kang the Conqueror, he departs into the time stream in order to prove them wrong. Despite Doom's confession, Wanda is not absolved of her crimes. But in light of recent events, Cyclops decides that letting her her live with her own conscience and knowing that she will never be forgiven is punishment enough. Meanwhile, the Young Avengers decide to disband. After some time, the remaining Young Avengers are invited to the Avengers Mansion, there they see that the team have erected a monument to their fallen comrades.
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Comments: Avengers Disassembled, House of M, and Decimation. These are some of the biggest events in recent Marvel history and apparently it was all part of Doom's plan. Or so Doom would have us believe. I will accept that his meddling with the Life Force was a catalyst for those mega events, but I don't buy that he had an agenda to eliminate the world's mutants or destroy the Avengers through the Scarlet Witch. I think that claim can be written off as a residual effect of being possessed by the Life Force himself. And I certainly hope nothing more will be made of the claim.
That said, I wonder why the Scarlet Witch character needs to be redeemed? I was quite happy with her fate and with the sole blame firmly assigned to her. Perhaps the parallel is a little loose, but I'm reminded of when DC brought back Hal Jordan to the side of light and deflected the blame for all his crimes to Parallax, now a separate entity which took possession of Hal.
The development of a romance between Doom and Scarlet Witch is an interesting one. Given that Doom's magical background has seen more prominence of late, it seems like a logical move. This is one thread which will hopefully be explored elsewhere.
The placement of this story is beyond me. Based on the montage of events shown at the end, this apparently takes place before Spider-Island, Fantastic Four #600, and some recent X-Men event which escapes me [not an X-Men fan]. The key here for Doom fans is that this is before FF #600. So its before Doom joins the Future Foundation. Which means this is also before X-Men 16 - 19. That revelation creates problems for the X-Men/FF which already has problems. Seeing how Doom claims to have been responsible for M-Day, I find it unlikely that Doom would be allowed to put one foot on Utopia, let alone would the X-Men agree to go anywhere with the FF should they include him on their roster. Now, to me that leaves three options: 1) X-Men 16 - 19 has been tossed out of continuity [ah so young, you're not even 5 years old 2) the X-Men really don't put any stock in Doom's claim that he had anything to do with M-Day 3) Somehow the Children's Crusade takes place a lot further back. Perhaps even before Fall of the Hulks! There's another issue. If this is indeed before Doom joins the FF, then he should be brain damaged. But again, perhaps this takes place before even that. Wherever you place this story, it seems the Avengers and X-Men seem completely uninterested in bringing Doom to justice for his role in M-Day. That to me is a problem. I'm reminded of Doomwar where Doom puts the Black Panther and his country through hell and only gets a slap on the wrist. Here he confesses to his role in genocide and there are seemingly no consequences. Cyclops and the X-Men were so willing to go after Scarlet Witch when they believed her soley responsible for M-Day, I don't see why we can't have them do the same for Doom. Perhaps this is a story yet to be told, but somehow I think it never will be.
All that aside, the series is still an excellent read. It feels very much like a sequel to House of M. The death of Cassie is sad, I was kind of hoping she and Kristoff would get together again. But apparently she was seeing Iron Lad / Vision so there wasn't much hope of that anyway.
Doom isn't present for the whole run, when he is, the character is given a strong presence and a good characterization. The series is excellently written and expertly drawn (each cover merits being a poster), so I strongly recommend reading the series from start to finish. Bottom Line: * * * * out of 5 |
