Nick Peron

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Black Panther (vol. 4) #7

Nick Peron

Soul Power in the House of M

Credits

The House of M continues from Spider-Man: House of M #3….

Quicksilver (Pietro Magus), the heir to the House of M,[1] races to the home of Queen Storm of Kenya (Ororo Munroe). He has come with a gift, an ice cream cone he has brought all the way from Tuscany.[2] What is abundantly clear is that Pietro is romantically interested in Ororo. When he makes that clear to her, she tells fears that Quicksilver’s father, Magneto (Erik Magnus) is pushing this and that she cannot reciprocate. This stuns Pietro to silence and he quickly departs seconds later.

When Pietro returns to Genosha and sulks, Magneto scoffs at the boy’s inability to woo a woman. Pietro points out that his father is hardly the person to talk, saying he never knew how he romanced his mother, nor does being the king of the entire world make it hard to use your power to influence women.[3] Magneto tells his son that his need to get romantically involved with Storm is important from a political standpoint.

He puts on an episode of Alison, where host Alison Blaire interviewed Storm about the work she has done in Africa. Since her rule, droughts and famine have been practically wiped out on the African continent. There was once extreme poverty, human suffering, slavery, and apartheid. However, since Magneto deposed all the human rulers and replaced them with mutants, the country has been prospering like never before in modern history. Ororo takes a moment to comment on this specifically. She admits that replacing the corrupt human governments was the right move. However, while she is a proud mutant, she says that Africa’s improvement is not because it is being run by mutants specifically. She points out that being a mutant is a biological reality proven by science, that is not a character statement or a measure of morality. When Blaire asks her to clarify her position, Storm points out that systemic racism still exists in mutant society despite Magneto’s platitudes. What she means, she points that most mutants in the public eye look human and are white. To punctuate her point, she mentions how there are not any mutants with feathers or scales reading the nightly news.

While Pietro believes that Storm has valid points, Magneto is furious at what she has said and uses his powers to trash the television. While ranting about what Storm had said, Magnus reveals what he is really afraid of. Pietro is not surprised that it all has to do with not dominating the humans of Africa like he did everywhere else in the world. Particularly that he allowed a human to remain a king. Magneto’s fear is that the growing African economy could become a threat to his dominion within the next decade. He had hoped that the growing romance between Storm and this human could have been stopped by Pietro’s courtship of Monroe. However, since this plan has failed, Magneto has decided to rely on other means.

Magneto is referring to T’Challa, aka the Black Panther, the King of Wakanda. As Magneto plots against him, the Panther communicates with Storm via holographic projection. Storm reminds T’Challa that he is not her husband and will do as she pleases. T’Challa warns that Magneto is going to eventually wage a war with Africa, but he’d rather do that on the stock market than on the battlefield. This is because it would cost untold lives as it escalates quickly. Although he is confident his continent would win such a war, the human toll would be too much and should be avoided at all cost. He then tries to convince Storm to come and spend the night with him. Unfortunately, Ororo is unhappy with the fact that T’Challa still has a harem of women — which includes Shanna the She-Devil and Monica Lynne — and when he presses the issue, she terminates the call.

The Panther then returns to his throne to lament over his unrequited love of Storm. Suddenly, and without warning, he draws a gun and fires into the shadows. He ends up hitting the mutant assassin known as Sabretooth (Victor Creed) in the chest. Creed complains about being shot, saying that he could have been a diplomat on an official visit for the House of M. T’Challa doesn’t buy it because Sabretooth is armed. Realizing that the jig is up, Sabretooth tries to fight back, thinking his mutant healing factor will allow him to eventually gain the upper hand over a mere human. What he doesn’t expect is the Black Panther drawing a sword and decapitating him. T’Challa then sends the severed head back to Genosha in a box. Seeing this grisly display, Magneto realizes that in order to win, he’s going to have to get nasty.

Meanwhile, T’Challa is marshalling support in the coming conflict by communicating with his allies. Via holographic projection he speaks with Queen Storm, Doctor (Victor Von) Doom the ruler of Latveria, Namor the Sub-Mariner, ruler of Atlantis, and Lord Sunfire, the leader of Japan. T’Challa insists that they work together as Magneto will topple them one after another on their own. Everyone remains to listen to what he has to say except for Doom. The Latverian monarch sees himself above everyone else and will defend his interests alone.[4] With Doom’s decision made and his connection terminated, T’Challa asks the others how they would like to procede.

At the same time, Magneto is gathering allies of his own. His first stop is to Egypt to recruit Apocalypse (En Sabah Nur) to his cause. Wishing to expand his empire beyond North Africa, Apocalypse agrees that King T’Challa needs to go. However, Magneto tells Nur that Storm is to be spared in the conflict. When Magneto returns home, Quicksilver points out that Apocalypse is planning to betray him. Magnus is well aware of Apocalypse’s ambitions and is prepared to deal with him when the time comes. As it stands now, he is a useful pawn to use in his war against the Black Panther.

Soon, Apocalypse is piloting a ship into Wakanda to destroy the Black Panther. However, upon his arrival, he is attacked by Storm. Monroe uses her control over the weather to send the ship crashing into the waters below. Apocalypse manages to escape the ship but is attacked by the Sub-Mariner. En Sabah Nur is able to grow gills for himself to breath and then strikes Namor with enough force to send him flying up to the surface. There, the Iceman (Bobby Drake) uses his power to freeze the water around the Sub-Mariner, trapping him in ice. Drake then tries to attack Storm, but ends up begin engulfed in flames by Lord Sunfire. Watching from the sidelines are the Angel (Warren Worthington III) and Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner). While Kurt wants to attack them, Worthington is more concerned about his personal safety. He points out that Sunfire and Storm are way more powerful than the two of them. When asked why he agreed to this mission, Warren admits that he needed to fix his public image after a sex tape scandal, but doesn’t want to die a hero.[5]

Apocalypse, meanwhile, presses forward and when he arrives at the royal palace he is attacked by the Wakandan military. Getting to the front gate, both Monica Lynne and Shanna the She-Devil leap out to attack him. But upon discovering that T’Challa had been hiding their presence from one another, the two women begin fighting with themselves. Inside, he finds the Black Panther sitting at his throne. However, T’Challa quickly flees into another room. Thinking this will be an easy kill, En Sabah Nur follows after the Black Panther. However, he finds an entirely different king waiting for him inside. It is Black Bolt, King of the Inhumans, who utters a single word causing enough devastation that kills Apocalypse and rips through the palace, leaving it a ruin. With the invader dealt with, the Black Panther emerges from the Vibranium lined trunk he was hiding in and thanks Black Bolt for his assistance.

Back in Genosha, the news puts a smile to Pietro’s face. When Magneto sees it, he warns his son not to tell him “I told you so”. Quicksilver retorts that he wasn’t going to say anything.

… The House of M continues in New X-Men (vol. 2) #17.

Recurring Characters

Black Panther, Storm, Quicksilver, Magneto, Sunfire, Sub-Mariner, Doctor Doom, Black Bolt, Sabretooth, Apocalypse, Iceman, Angel, Nightcrawler, Dazzler

Continuity Notes

  1. This story takes place during the House of M event, when the Scarlet Witch used her reality altering powers to change the world into one where mutants are the dominant species. See House of M #1-8 for the core tale. For all crossover issues and the recommended reading order, see below. While things were ultimately restored to normal, the House of M reality endures. Per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #4, this alternate universe has been designated Reality-58163.

  2. This story presents Quicksilver as both a mutant and the son of Magneto, as this was the belief at the time this story was published since Vision and Scarlet Witch #4. It’s later revealed in Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4-5 that neither of these facts are true. That said, the Scarlet Witch’s reality warp altered reality based on what was believed at the time.

  3. Quicksilver is referring to Magda, Magneto’s wife in the 1940s. In Classic X-Men #12, we learned that Magneto and his wife survived the Holocaust together. However, according to accounts, Magda fled her husband when he used his mutant powers on villagers who killed their daughter Anya. Per Avengers #186/Vision and Scarlet Witch #4, Magda was believed to have been pregnant with twins at the time and allegedly gave birth to them on Wundagore Mountain. She then fled into the mountains and was never heard from again (or since, time of this writing in Jan, 2024). While this has since been refuted on Earth-616, the basic story is seemingly true in Reality-58163 as per Civil War: House of M #1.

  4. As detailed in Fantastic Four Annual #2, Doctor Doom is of the Romani people, specifically the Zefiro Clan, which lived a nomadic life in Latveria. At the time of this story, it was believed that Magneto was Erik Lehnsherr, a member of the Sinti Romani tribe, per X-Men Unlimited #2. However, at least on Earth-616, this was revealed to be a deception. Magnus is a German born Jew named Max Eisenhardt. It’s actually his wife Magda who was a Romani person, as revealed in X-Men: Magneto Testament #1 and 2.

Topical References

  • Doctor Doom refers to himself and Magneto as being fellow gypsies. Which was a fairly common term referring to the Romani people. However, since the publication of this comic, the term has since become considered a pejorative term and has fallen out of common use.


House of M Reading Order