House of M

• Writer - Tony Bedard
• Penciler - Paul Pelletier
• Inker - Rick Magyar
• Colorist - Wil Quintana
• Lettering - Dave Sharpe
• Ass't Editor - Sean Ryan
• Associated Editor - Nick Lowe
• Editor - Mike Marts
• Editor in Chief - Joe Quesada
• Inker - Andrew Hennessy
• Inker - Dave Meikis

World Tour

Summary

  Clarice thinks this world isn't bad, compared to hers; the Flatscans / Sapiens are the underclass, but not oppressed. The problem is Beak, whose life is gone, but changing this utopia may be wrong. She's been reading up on Magnus, a hero here, governing the world in prosperity, with Sentinels as his police force.

  Creed says there's nothing in this world to fix; Calvin insists Beak's children don't exist; Creed says if they fix that, a billion more kids may be erased, and in this world, Beak actually has a chance to meet someone new. While Clarice tries to break up their argument and Kevin is busy ogling the girls, Beak sees *Angel in the crowd and follows her. She grabs him and flies skyward; Calvin is about to chase them, when a bag lady with a Scottish brogue warns them off. She needs to talk to them away from the Sentinels, so they go to a homeless shelter.

  She explains Angel is already beyond saving, victim of a mutant with the ability to snatch bodies and bend reality. She's chased all the way from Edinburgh using a scanner which also recognizes the Tallus. She hopes they'll help her stop her son and says she's Moira MacTaggert, but they don't know the name. She's the geneticist who won the Nobel Prize for first identifying mutants, but she couldn't help her mutant son Kevin, and when she tried to undo his mutation, Magnus sent Sentinels to stop her. She's been the most wanted sapiens ever since, and her son escaped and became the most wanted mutant.

  In Angel's apartment, Beak realizes there's something very wrong with *Angel. She wants to know about the Exiles and tosses him a paper that explains about Mutant X. Beak is slow to catch on, till he sees Blunderbuss's withered corpse.

  Creed uses the Tallus to contact Heather, who confirms Moira's story, except she's supposed to be dead (X-Men II:108). Her son really is scary.

  A priest sees the Exiles in the soup kitchen, tells them it's only for sapiens, and apologetically asks them to leave. A drill pops up through the floor, and when he bends down to investigate, it impales him; Sentinels have identified Moira and crash up through the floor. It's surprised when the mutant Exiles assist her, and then it blasts the "excess sapiens" to clear the field. Clarice realizes this isn't a utopia, and she tosses shards at the Sentinels, disassembling them, teleporting their pieces into space. Kevin is mostly shocked by Sentinels crashing through the floor instead of the ceiling.

  Clarice blinks away the last Sentinel's head and then rallies everyone to track down Moira's son. En route, she explains his power: he can warp reality, but it burns out his body so fast he's always looking for a new one, so don't get close. They come to a skyscraper wreathed in lightning and molten metal, with deformed mutants running, screaming. Kevin's only weakness is the touch of metal; they find him on the roof, in Angel's body, and he greets his mother.

  Note: Kevin, also, is supposed to be dead (UXM 128, X-Factor Ann. 6).