New Avengers #45

March 22, 2024 Nick Peron

This story continues from New Avengers #43…

The Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) had gone mad and used her powers to alter all reality. Changing the world into one where mutants are the dominant species.[2] At the time, the Skrull Queen Veranke was posing as Jessica Drew, aka Spider-Woman.[3] She finds herself a member of this reality’s version of SHIELD. She suddenly feels sick and excuses herself from the briefing room to go and throw up in the bathroom. There, she remembers everything that happened — the Scarlet Witch’s reality warp and the planned Skrull invasion of Earth — and she weeps.

In Chicago, “Hank Pym” (actually a Skrull named Criti Noll) finds himself in an argument with the Hank McCoy about how isolating the mutant gene will get him fired.[4] As Hank explains the ethics of attempt, Criti remembers everything before the reality warp, including how they took the place of the real Hank Pym.[5] As McCoy tries to empathize with humans struggling with extinction, “Pym” races outside of the building.

There he is snatched up by Vernake who flies Criti Noll up to a rooftop where they can speak in private. She confirms the truth, that Criti is a Skrull sent to infiltrate the superhero community of Earth as part of an invasion of the planet. Taking a look at the world now that reality has been changed, they discover it is one teeming with mutants, far too many to deal with during an invasion. However, Vernake can sense that this reality is paper thin and has cracks. All they need to do is work on restoring Earth to the way it was before the Scarlet Witch changed everything. Then they can use the truth to further push anti-mutant sentiments and wipe out their threat. In order to do that, they need to travel to Genosha and murder Wanda.

Eventually, Earth’s heroes begin remembering the true reality and eventually go to Genosha to confront the House of Magnus.[6] This leads to an all out battle and while everyone is busy fighting one another, Veranke decides to make her move. She enters Wanda’s bedroom where she is being confronted by Hawkeye (Clint Barton). When he demands to know why she would kill him, she suddenly makes him dissolve away with a mere thought.[7] Eventually, Wanda lashes out after learning how she had been manipulated by her own brother. Before restoring reality to normal, Wanda says “No More Mutants”.

With everything set back to normal, the Skrull infiltrators call another secret meeting. In the aftermath of the House of M reality, the mutant population has been mostly de-powered leaving very few left.[8] They all see this as a sign from their God that they are on the right track. However, Vernake has tragic news. She has received word from the Skrull Galaxy. The Empire has been decimated by the Annihilation Wave.[9] This too was prophesized in the Book of Worlds. As everyone weeps, she reminds them that — now more than ever — that they were right.

Recurring Characters

Veranke, Criti Noll, SHIELD Red Guard (Forge, Rogue, Nightcrawler, Mystique, Toad), Beast, Tony Stark, Cyclops, Wolverine, Captain Marvel, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Storm, Spider-Man, Felicia Hardy, She-Hulk, Doctor Strange, Professor X, Magneto, Billy Magnus, Tommy Magnus, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, Quicksilver, “Edwin Jarvis”, Pagon, “Countess Valentina de la Fontaine”

Continuity Notes

The cover to this issue pays homage to House of M #1.
The events of this story take place during the events of House of M #1-8. Per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #4 this altered reality has been designed Earth-58163. Per Exiles #69 (nice), Wanda’s power overlayed one reality over the other with Reality-58163 temporarily replacing Reality-616 (aka the Prime Marvel Universe). As the characters in the House of M reality were made to remember their lives on Reality-616 then it means that both the 616 and 58163 versions of these characters exist simultaneously together. The technical explanation for that has, at least at the time of this writing (April, 2024), yet to be provided.
We learned about Veranke taking Jessica’s place in New Avengers #42. This happened during the events of Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1.
This scene occurred in House of M #2.
Criti Noll took the place of the real Hank Pym prior to House of M #1, as explained in Mighty Avengers #15.
This conflict takes place in House of M #6.
Prior to the reality warp, Wanda had killed Hawkeye during an attack on Avengers Mansion. See Avengers #500-503.
As we learned in Decimation: House of M - The Day After #1, nearly all mutants were depowered with roughly 200 or so left and the x-gene had been removed from the gene pool. This will remain the status quo until Avengers vs X-Men #12.
The Annihilation Wave came from the Negative Zone and destroyed the Skrull galaxy. See Annihilation: Prologue #1, and Annihilation #1-6.

Topical References

One of the billboard advertisements in New York City is for a TV show starring Simon Williams (aka Wonder Man) that has a release date in the 2000s (the last digit is obscured) this date should be considered apocryphal due to the Sliding Timescale. There is also an NBC logo on the poster, which is topical as well as this is a real world TV network.

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