House of M

• Core Identity: House of M is a catastrophic, reality-altering Marvel Comics event triggered by the mentally unstable and overwhelmingly powerful Scarlet Witch, which led to the near-extinction of the mutant race in an event known as the Decimation.
• Key Takeaways:
• Role in the Universe: This 2005 storyline served as a direct sequel to the events of `avengers_disassembled`, culminating in Wanda Maximoff's complete psychological breakdown. In a desperate attempt to end her suffering and create a world where everyone was happy, she reshaped the entire Earth-616 reality into a new world where mutants were the dominant species, ruled by her father, Magneto.
• Primary Impact: The event's most profound and lasting consequence was its conclusion. When the heroes of the restored reality forced Wanda to undo her actions, she uttered the infamous phrase, “No more mutants.” This act of reality-warping, known as “M-Day” or the “Decimation,” instantly depowered over 90% of the world's mutant population, reducing their numbers from millions to a mere few hundred, and fundamentally altering the landscape of the x-men universe for over a decade.
• Key Incarnations: `House of M` is a seminal Earth-616 (Prime Comic Universe) event with no direct, one-to-one adaptation in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, its core themes of grief-fueled reality warping and immense, unstable power serve as the primary thematic foundation for the MCU's character arc of Wanda Maximoff, most notably in the Disney+ series `wandavision` and the film `doctor_strange_in_the_multiverse_of_madness`.

The `House of M` storyline was a major, line-wide crossover event published by Marvel Comics in 2005. The core limited series, consisting of eight issues, ran from June to November 2005. It was masterminded by writer Brian Michael Bendis, who had been building towards this epic through his tenure on Avengers, particularly with the preceding storyline, `avengers_disassembled`. The stunning and dynamic visuals were provided by artist Olivier Coipel, whose detailed and expressive pencils defined the look and feel of the altered world. Bendis conceived of the event as the climactic “third act” of his initial Avengers saga, designed to address the immense, often-overlooked threat posed by the Scarlet Witch's reality-warping powers. The crossover was massive in scope, involving not only the main limited series but also numerous tie-in issues across the X-Men, Avengers, and other solo character titles. These tie-ins explored how the reality warp affected individual heroes and villains, from Spider-Man living a dream life to Captain America being an elderly veteran. The event's conclusion, the Decimation, was a deliberate editorial decision to dramatically shake up the status quo of the X-Men line, creating years of new story potential from the ashes of the near-extinct mutant race.

The seeds of `House of M` were sown in the tragedy of `avengers_disassembled`. Haunted by the re-emerging, suppressed memories of her magically-created twin sons, Billy and Tommy, Wanda Maximoff suffered a complete mental collapse. Her powers, which she learned were not just “hex magic” but true reality-warping abilities tied to chaos magic, spiraled out of control. In her breakdown, she single-handedly dismantled the Avengers, killing Hawkeye, Scott Lang (ant-man), and the Vision, and causing immense destruction before being subdued by Doctor Strange. Following this catastrophe, a recovering Wanda was taken to the ruins of Genosha by her father, Magneto, who enlisted the help of his friend Charles Xavier to try and repair her fractured psyche. Professor X's telepathic efforts proved futile; Wanda's mind was a chaotic storm, and her power was too vast to contain. The situation reached a boiling point when the newly re-formed New Avengers and a contingent of X-Men met at the Avengers Tower to make an impossible decision: what to do about Wanda Maximoff? The debate was stark and grim. Emma Frost argued that the only safe option was to kill Wanda before her power could shatter reality permanently, a view reluctantly supported by Wolverine. Captain America and others vehemently opposed this, believing they had to find a way to save their friend. Fearing the heroes were coming to execute his sister, Wanda's twin brother, Pietro Maximoff (quicksilver), raced to Genosha. In a moment of panic and desperation, he convinced the vulnerable Wanda to use her powers one last time—not to fight the heroes, but to give everyone what they truly wanted, creating a “perfect” world. As the heroes arrived in Genosha, they were engulfed in a blinding white light. Reality was rewritten.

The world was reborn as Earth-58163. In this new reality, Magneto's dream of mutant supremacy had been realized following a war between mutants and humans decades earlier. The House of Magnus—Magneto, his children Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, and Polaris—were the ruling royal family of the world, based in Genosha. Mutants (Homo superior) were the dominant, celebrated species, while non-powered humans (Homo sapiens) were a tolerated but often looked-down-upon minority. This new world was a tapestry woven from the deepest desires of Earth's heroes, a gilded cage designed to keep them content and unaware:

• Magneto was the beloved world leader who had achieved his lifelong goal.
• Wanda Maximoff lived peacefully with her two healthy sons, Billy and Tommy.
• Peter Parker was a beloved celebrity, married to his first love, Gwen Stacy (who had never died), and had a child with her. His Uncle Ben was also still alive.
• Steve Rogers was never frozen in ice and lived a full life, now an elderly, respected veteran.
• Scott Summers was happily married to Emma Frost.
• Carol Danvers was Captain Marvel, America's most celebrated and beloved superhero.
• Luke Cage was the leader of a human resistance movement in the mutant-dominated neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen.

^ Key Character Status in the House of M Reality (Earth-58163) ^

This idyllic world, however, was built on a lie, and one hero was destined to shatter it.

The architect of this world, Wanda, made a critical error. In granting Wolverine his deepest desire—to have all of his memories back—she inadvertently made him the one person capable of recognizing the world was wrong. The sudden, overwhelming flood of his complete, brutal life history, including memories of the “real” world, shocked him out of the illusion. Wolverine immediately sought out his former allies, but found them living contentedly in their new lives. His quest led him to Luke Cage's human resistance, where he found a surprising key: a young mutant girl named Layla Miller. Layla had mysteriously woken up that morning simply knowing that the world was fake. More importantly, she possessed a unique ability: a psychic flash that could break through Wanda's illusion and restore a person's true memories. Together, Logan and Layla began a desperate mission, “awakening” Earth's heroes one by one. Each awakening was a traumatic experience, forcing the heroes to confront the beautiful lie of their new life with the often painful truth of their real one. This newly formed resistance, a coalition of X-Men and Avengers led by a grief-stricken Emma Frost (who was horrified by her “perfect” life with Scott), planned a direct assault on the seat of power: the House of M in Genosha.

The heroes' attack on Genosha was swift and brutal. As the battle raged, Doctor Strange sought out the source of the reality warp, eventually discovering it was Wanda and her two children. Emma Frost, through telepathic probing, uncovered the final piece of the puzzle from a memory in Wanda's mind: it was Quicksilver who had instigated the entire affair. When Magneto was confronted with this truth by Layla Miller, his rage was absolute. He had been given his ultimate dream, but it was a hollow, stolen fantasy. Turning on his son, Magneto furiously lashed out, declaring that Pietro had used him and Wanda to create this twisted world. He brutally murdered Quicksilver with a volley of metallic projectiles. Seeing her brother killed by their father was the final trauma that shattered what remained of Wanda's mind. Cradling Pietro's body, she tearfully whispered that they were all freaks, and that her father's obsession with mutant superiority was the root of all their suffering. In a final, universe-altering act of grief and despair, she collapsed and uttered three simple words:

“No more mutants.”

A blinding white light once again enveloped the world.

Reality snapped back to Earth-616. The heroes found themselves in the ruins of Genosha, with no sign of Wanda. The world seemed normal, until the immediate, horrifying consequences of her final act became clear. All across the globe, mutants' powers vanished in an instant. This event became known as M-Day, and its result was the Decimation.

• Mass Depowering: The mutant population was decimated. Estimates suggested that over 90% of the world's mutants lost their X-Gene, becoming baseline humans. The official number of known remaining mutants was recorded by the government as a mere 198.
• Physical Trauma: For many, depowering was a death sentence. Mutants whose bodies were physically altered by their powers, like those with rock-like skin or wings, were often gruesomely killed as their bodies tried to revert to a human baseline. Mutants in mid-air fell from the sky.
• Psychological Devastation: The loss of identity, community, and the very thing that made them unique plunged the remaining mutant population into despair. Many committed suicide, while others struggled to adapt to a life of “normalcy” they never wanted.
• The X-Mansion: The Xavier Institute became a refugee camp, one of the few safe havens for the remaining powered mutants, now a critically endangered species.

The world had been saved from Wanda's illusion, but for mutantkind, the price was extinction.

Wanda is the tragic heart of the story. Her actions were not born of malice, but of profound, untreated trauma and grief over the loss of her children. The `House of M` reality was her attempt to heal not only herself but everyone else, by giving them lives free of their greatest pains. However, her immense, god-like power, combined with her fragile mental state, made her the single greatest threat to reality itself. Her final act, the Decimation, was a lashing out against the very concept of “mutant” that she blamed for her family's suffering, a devastating act of self-loathing projected onto an entire species.

Pietro's role is that of a loving brother whose fear and desperation led to catastrophe. Hearing the heroes contemplate killing his sister, he acted impulsively. He believed he was saving Wanda and giving everyone a better world, but his manipulation of his unstable sister was a profound betrayal. In the `House of M` world, he was a celebrated prince, but the lie gnawed at him, and his actions directly led to the Decimation and his own temporary death at the hands of his enraged father.

Magneto is a figure of immense tragedy in this story. The `House of M` reality was the literal manifestation of his life's work and greatest dream. He was a respected ruler, a uniter of his people, and the head of a powerful dynasty. The revelation that it was all an artificial world built by his unstable daughter at the behest of his manipulative son utterly destroyed him. His grief and rage were so profound that he murdered Pietro. His suffering was compounded when Wanda's final act stripped him of his own powers, leaving the master of magnetism a broken, powerless old man.

Wolverine served as the story's anchor to the true reality. His unique healing factor and complex mind, combined with Wanda's “gift” of his full memory, made him immune to the illusion. He was the narrative's detective, piecing together the wrongness of the world and initiating the resistance. Layla Miller, a previously unknown young mutant, was the magical key. Her power to “awaken” others was the essential plot device that allowed the heroes to fight back, making her one of the most important, albeit mysterious, figures in the entire event.

`House of M` is one of the most consequential events in modern Marvel history, with a fallout that shaped the X-Men universe for more than a decade.

The period following M-Day is known as the Decimation era. With mutants on the brink of extinction, the entire mission of the X-Men changed. It was no longer about fighting for a world that hated and feared them; it was a desperate struggle for survival. Storylines during this time were defined by a sense of dread and scarcity. Every mutant death was a catastrophic loss; every potential new mutant birth was a messianic event. This directly led to major storylines like `messiah_compleX`, `second_coming`, and ultimately `avengers_vs_x-men`, all of which revolved around Hope Summers, the first mutant born after M-Day and the perceived key to restoring the species.

With mutants weakened and vulnerable, anti-mutant sentiment and violence surged. Groups like the Purifiers, led by William Stryker, saw M-Day as a divine sign and launched a holy war to exterminate the remaining “demons.” The U.S. government, under the guise of protection, passed new legislation to monitor and control the “198” known mutants, treating them as endangered resources rather than people. The threat was no longer subjugation, but annihilation.

The Decimation's effects were finally undone years later when Hope Summers, as a host for the Phoenix Force, worked with a repentant Scarlet Witch to cast a new spell, reigniting the X-Gene across the globe. However, the deep, collective trauma of being an endangered species never left the mutant community. This trauma is a direct philosophical underpinning for the modern era of X-Men and the creation of the sovereign mutant nation of `krakoa`. The core tenet of Krakoa, particularly its system of resurrection known as “The Five,” is a direct response to the Decimation. Their mantra became “No More,” a defiant vow that mutants would never again be brought to the brink of extinction by an outside force or a single, tragic event.

While a direct adaptation of the `House of M` storyline—with Magneto, Genosha, and the global mutant population—has not occurred in the MCU, the event's core emotional and thematic DNA is central to the MCU's portrayal of Wanda Maximoff.

• WandaVision (2021): The Disney+ series is the closest spiritual adaptation of `House of M`. Driven by the overwhelming grief of losing Vision in `avengers_infinity_war`, Wanda subconsciously unleashes her chaos magic to warp the reality of an entire town, Westview, New Jersey. She creates an idyllic sitcom-inspired world where she and a recreated Vision are married and have two sons, Billy and Tommy. Much like the comic, this is a “perfect world” born of trauma, a gilded cage for its inhabitants, and it ultimately collapses when Wanda is forced to confront the truth. The scale is smaller, but the psychological motivation and mechanism are identical.
• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022): This film explores the darker potential of Wanda's grief-fueled power. Corrupted by the Darkhold, she becomes a universe-threatening antagonist, hunting for her children in other realities. Her actions demonstrate the terrifying, reality-breaking power levels she possesses, fully realizing the threat that the comic book heroes feared in the prelude to `House of M`. Her arc in the MCU is a direct reflection of the themes of loss, unstable power, and a desperate desire for family that defined her in the comics.

Marvel Comics explored an alternate outcome in the 2008 one-shot, What If? House of M #1. In this reality, instead of saying “No more mutants,” Wanda says “No more powers.” The resulting wave of energy strips every superhuman on Earth—mutant, inhuman, mutate, and cosmic-powered alike—of their abilities. This creates a world where heroes like Iron Man, with his technology, become the dominant force, while characters like Captain America and Wolverine must rely solely on their training and skill. The story serves as a fascinating inverse of the original, exploring a world defined not by the loss of one specific group, but by the universal loss of the “super.”

• scarlet_witch
• avengers_disassembled
• x-men
• decimation
• krakoa
• wandavision
• magneto

^{1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6)}