NEWSARAMA: THE POST-HOUSE OF M MARVEL UNIVERSE WITH WRITER DAVID HINE

The “Decimation”/Post-House of M Marvel Universe with Writer David Hine

by Vaneta Rogers

Updated with new preview art from both Son of M and X-Men: 198

Three words.

That's all it took for the entire make-up of the Marvel Universe to be transformed from a world with millions of mutants to a handful of lucky leftovers. In House of M #7, as Wanda Maximoff transformed the "616 universe" back to its mutant-hating normalcy, the three words she uttered, "no more mutants", threatened to change the world forever.

As House of M wraps up this week, Marvel is entering the "Decimation" stage of its multi-comic event, exploring the ramifications of the events in House of M during a few key tie-in mini-series. Marvel has entrusted two of the Decimation mini-series to writer David Hine -- including December's six-issue Son of M with artist Roy Allan Martinez, which
concentrates on the post-"M" life of Pietro Maximoff, and January's five-issue X-Men: The 198 with Jim Muniz on pencils, a title that follows a group of the few mutants who are left.

Details on the two titles have been sketchy at best, as Marvel has withheld details on the stories, releasing little more than a cover image and cryptic description of each comic. Newsarama asked Hine to take a few moments to fill in some of the blanks about the two titles, including a short list of mutants who make it past those three pernicious words.

Newsarama: You've been given writing duties for two comics that are getting a lot of advance attention from fans. How did Marvel approach you to write these stories?

David Hine: Back in early summer when I was writing the Mutopia X series, I was approached by Tom Brevoort with an invitation to write the Son of M series and by Michael Marts to write The 198. The concept for each series already existed in broad strokes and I was impressed with both of them. Each deals with the fallout from House of M, one from the very personal perspective of Pietro, who was responsible for bringing about the ‘fall of the mutants,’ the other from the point of view of a whole group of mutants who suddenly find themselves in this less-than-perfect new world through no fault of their own.

NRAMA: Let's start with Son of M. Obviously, from the cover and title, it's about Quicksilver. What can you tell us about what we'll be seeing concerning Pietro Maximoff?

DH: After House of M, Pietro is at his lowest ebb, both physically and emotionally. His actions have left him isolated from family friends and former allies, and that means he is psychologically very fragile. This is definitely a guy who lacks judgment. We’ve already seen the extreme measures he will take to achieve his ends, and he has not yet learned
his lesson. Pietro still thinks he can somehow set the world to rights, but for him the road that is paved with good intentions leads to a very unpleasant place.

NRAMA: It seems that, in the cover of Son of M #1 featuring a decrepit-looking Quicksilver, Pietro has lost his powers. If this is what happens, how does that change him in other ways?

DH: You think so? That’s how the cover looks but I’ve seen some other interesting and complex speculation online and I’d hate to spoil it for anyone. Let’s just say that if Pietro were to lose his powers he would find it very difficult to live with. I’ve always read Pietro as a man who believes his mutant status sets him above the ranks of homo sapiens and it would strike him very hard to be just one of the masses.

NRAMA: Anyone who's read House of M #7 knows about the revelation that it was Pietro who influenced Wanda to create the House of M reality. How will this affect his relationship with Wanda and his father?

DH: I’m not going to reveal the current status and whereabouts of either Wanda or Magneto just yet, but clearly Pietro’s father was furious at his son’s actions. His immediate response was to drop a Sentinel on him with the apparent intention of crushing him to death! All families have their problems but that is one rift that will be tough to fix.

Pietro’s devotion to Wanda is absolute. She has been the one constant in his life. From their traumatizing childhood, through all their experiences with the Avengers, during Pietro’s troubled marriage and the ongoing conflicts with their father, he has always had his sister. He was willing to sacrifice the world for her, but will she now be there for him?

NRAMA: If his family isn't exactly there for him, how does this affect his relationship with his friends in the superhero world and the rest of the public who had to live through the House of M?

DH: The majority of the general public will not be fully aware of how the mutants have lost their powers, but those of his fellow superheroes who do know are not feeling well-disposed towards him. Pietro has never been so isolated.

NRAMA: The story sounds like it will allow a real up-close exploration of the character. Have you always been a Quicksilver fan or is this story something that allowed you to get to know him?

DH: I’ve known the character from his earliest appearances. I like his outsider mentality, his strength of character, even his arrogance. He’s never made any secret of his sense of superiority, but that’s actually based on a deep-seated insecurity. As children, he and Wanda were passed around between various adoptive parents, regarded as virtual social outcasts, first because they were gypsies and later because they were mutants. It’s hardly the basis for a stable personality. He and Wanda made their own way in the world. Their hardships have made them tough, but we’ve seen in recent months what a terrible toll has been taken on their mental health.

Magneto and his offspring are the ultimate dysfunctional family and House of M was a disaster waiting to happen. It’s going to be interesting to test Pietro’s strengths and weaknesses as he tries to pick up the pieces…

NRAMA: Ah... more teases. Can you at least give us a hint at how you're going to test Pietro during Son of M? What changes will the character be experiencing during the mini-series?

DH: I’m going to push him to the absolute limit, to see just how far he will go to achieve his ends. Pietro is not an evil person, far from it, but he does have a very Machiavellian outlook. Human society has never treated him well so he doesn’t have a great respect for their rules and standards. He is only too aware of the damage he has caused by trying to create a perfect world for mutants, and now he is going to try again to put things right. To me, Pietro is the closest Marvel has to a Shakespearian tragic figure, a true anti-hero. I want to put pressure on all his flaws to see what qualities come through when he cracks. There will be times when that’s hard to watch. He’s going to end up in a very different place when Son of M reaches its conclusion.

NRAMA: What other heroes and villains might show up in Son of M?

DH: As always, it’s tough to mention any names without divulging elements of the plot. I will say that Spider-Man appears in the first issue. I should have asked for Spidey on the cover to maximize sales, but I think that image we came up with is so cool it would have been ruined if we’d had Spider-Man swinging overhead… So I’ll make up for it by dropping his name here instead.

Lots more characters will be appearing later. It’s hard to categorize who is hero or villain. I like my heroes to have very deep flaws and the worst of my villains to have some redemptive qualities. For the fans who don’t mind knowing what is coming up, I suggest they look out for the covers on the upcoming solicits for clues. If you prefer to be kept in the dark, don’t look.

NRAMA: Moving on to The 198 -- Marvel has said only that the number "198" indicates a group of mutants. What can you tell us about this group?

DH: Up until the House of M there were about two million mutants. Now there are less. The main X-titles will deal with the fallout for their respective characters. The 198 deals with the rest, whether support characters, group members who have drifted away, or those who have traditionally been identified as enemies of the X-Men. They all share a
common cause now: Survival. The book is about their solidarity, and just how solid it remains when they are forced to spend time together.

NRAMA: Your District X ongoing title lasted for 12 issues and was transformed into the Mutopia X mini-series during the House of M event. It followed the lives of dozens of new characters living in "Mutant Town" -- some with seemingly worthless mutations and others with incredibly powerful abilities. Although the title officially ends along with House of M, will fans of the comic be seeing any reference to those characters again in The 198?

DH: Yes! Like the rest of the Marvel Universe, District X will be seriously affected by the fallout from House of M, but I wouldn’t let all those characters disappear from view. Mr. M, Lorelei and Jazz, among others, will be in The 198 and at least one of them will be playing a very major role.

NRAMA: District X readers will probably be able to take a guess at which one. Can you talk about other mutants who are going to show up in this comic? Marvel fans are desperate to know if their favorite "A-listers" are still around, so can you name some of those and even some of the lesser-known characters? Or any of Marvel's villainous mutants?

DH: Well, I won’t list all 198, but let’s see: Empath, Magma, Erg, Mammomax, Outlaw, the new Sentinels and Toad. Beast, Cyclops, Emma Frost and Kitty Pryde would, I guess represent the A-listers, but for me the little guys are often more interesting. And again, the term ‘villain’ has a loose fit here. The motivations are often obscure and things are not always as they seem.

NRAMA: As you write these two series, what do you think is the overall effect that the "fewer mutants" change is having on the Marvel Universe? As the number of mutants shrinks, how does that change the world in other ways? And how is that reflected in these stories?

DH: The characters who have survived automatically take on a greater importance. There were so many mutants out there that a lot of them have not had much time in the spotlight, so those who made the cut will have done so because someone at Marvel saw their potential. I’ll be using The 198 to explore some of those lesser-known characters and show that they can hold their own against the big guys.

In a wider sense mutants are now an extremely rare occurrence, just as they were when Professor Xavier first opened his school for gifted youngsters. For the X-books this is the chance for the creators to re-evaluate and re-vitalize their characters. There is a new sense of energy and enthusiasm at Marvel and whether the fans love or hate what is being done, there is absolutely no doubt that there is more discussion and interest in the books than we have seen for years.

NRAMA: As a writer on Mutopia X and now these two stories, what has it been like for you to work on House of M-related stories?

DH: Mutopia X remained very separate from the other House of M books. We still didn’t have guest-stars from other books, except a couple of Sentinels. I saw the book more as a distorted mirror-image of District X and used the series to achieve some kind of closure for the characters before District X folded.

With The 198 and Son of M, I’m finally branching out into the wider Marvel Universe. When I started to write District X I felt very uninformed about the current books. There were lots of new characters around and the familiar ones had been through a lot of changes since I had last read them. I feel far more confident now that I can write X-characters in a convincing way an develop them without betraying their roots.

NRAMA: Can you talk about the coordination that has occurred at Marvel as you've written these House of M stories? Surely you had to be aware of everything going on in the other comics.

DH: I had the scripts for House of M way in advance. Bendis always works months ahead, which is useful when something of this scope is being produced. There weren’t too many points of contact between Mutopia X and the other books. I did spot an anomaly with Bishop, which we were able to iron out before the relevant issue of House of M was drawn. Because all the strands of House of M were kept separate, they worked as stand-alone titles and that also made the co-ordination less of a nightmare. If they had all been true crossovers, I think there would have been a few stress-related casualties in the Marvel offices.

NRAMA: Readers can catch your work on Colossus: Bloodline as well as these two minis. What else can we expect to see from David Hine in the coming months?

DH: I’m currently discussing two new projects. Interesting ones…

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