The acts of a desperate man.

The Scarlet Witch suffered a second nervous breakdown which resulted in her returning the Earth to its original state with her reality altering powers. While things seem to have shifted back to normal for regular people and superheroes. Things are everything but normal for mutants. What exactly did the Witch do to her own mutant kind?

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Decimation: X-Men - The Day After



Decimation: Son of M :

The Scarlet Witch aka Wanda Maximoff left her mark by removing the powers from over 90% of the mutant race. During the process, she managed to strip the powers from all of her family members: Magneto, Polaris, and Quicksilver leaving them as humans. Quicksilver is grief stricken over his loss, and his guilt is becoming difficult to deal with. How far will he go to set things right? -summary

The Decimation storyline can be considered a sequel to House of M, since it does follow hot on the heels of the epic event.  And it's no surprise Marvel would continue to ape off the spectacle in order to sell more books. However, it's kind of hard to totally rag on them for this since there was still so much ground to be explored. Decimation: Son of M doesn't at all feel like a shameless money grab, since it focuses on Quicksilver's dilemma on being de-powered, which does make a lot of sense Decimation: Son of M doesn't at all feel like a shameless money grab, since it focuses on Quicksilver's dilemma on being de-powered, which does make a lot of sense for reasons I won't mention. Now we see him as a near homeless and broken man; a shadow of his former self watching his mutant race move closer to extinction than they have ever been. This TPB written by David Hine with artwork by Roy Allan Martinez contains Son of M 1 - 6.

Quicksilver is a character that has always been off and on with me. He had his moments as a villain of the original X-Men, and likewise as a hero amongst the Avengers and X-Factor. Through out the years, I just never grew an attachment to him unlike his sister. It didn't really matter to me had the character ever been killed off. However, after House of M, I remember thinking Marvel had some hopes for him. Out of the entire Decimation event, this was the story I remember wanting to read the most. I give David Hine credit for making Quicksilver interesting enough for me to care where he was going. Hine explores Quicksilver rather well, and it's quite interesting watching his transition from hero back to a villain.

The plot begins when he finds himself rescued by his ex-wife Crystal of the Inhumans. She takes him back to their world in order to heal him. As an in-law to the Inhumans, Quicksilver is very familiar with their culture, and he pleads to their king, the all powerful Black Bolt, to help him restore his powers if possible, by using the Terrigan Mist which is something very sacred to them. After being denied entry, he takes it upon himself to bathe in the mist and his powers are restored, yet they're different from the way they use to be. Instead of receiving his super speed, Quicksilver can now perform short time-travel jumps. This allows him to speak to himself up to 14 days in the future. From here, he begins to plot against the Inhumans.

This is still a character driven story that I enjoy. It's clear Quicksilver is not exactly in his right mind, especially since he encounters himself looking quite worn down from the time leaps. He's definitely a desperate man, and the reader will be wondering how far he's going to take this.

One of the stories strongest attributes are the character interactions that continues to develop Quicksilver's state of mind. He's confronted by at least one person who remembers their changed life in House of M, and he's not happy about it at all. To include, Crystal does not want to give their marriage another try. These things only further drive him to the edge. However, the true show stealer here for me happens to be Quicksilver's interactions with his future self. I found this portion to be quite eerie in a way. We know that Quicksilver was just a good man with selfish intentions, but we get to see his future self, in which this character doesn't look the least bit trustworthy. In a way, it feels like he's making a deal with the devil. And there's always this feeling that things just aren't going to turn out right.

For a mini-series, the story appears to be promising quite a bit, yet it goes on and ends on a cliffhanger. Eventually Quicksilver does steal from the Inhumans which leads to Black Bolt coming to Earth. This portion is left unresolved and builds up toward a later event called Silent War. So I can only imagine readers looking forward to that event, only if they were sold on these less popular characters.

Martinez's artwork hasn't gotten much praise due to its complete lack of flash, but after getting use to it I enjoyed it. The artwork has a rugged, mature-like feel that is quite different from the more stylish, flashy character designs you will see in most X-Men books. There seems to be a specific tone Martinez was looking for to compliment Hine's story, and I think he matched it well. I especially liked the facial designs which felt very important in regards to Black Bolt, when looking at the fact he tries very hard not to speak. The colors stood out to me, with the right amount of shading for specific moments. There's a slight inconsistency towards the end, where the artwork appears to decline and lose some of its detail. The action panels, what little are present, aren't exactly great but one moment only helps with Quicksilver's further development.

Overall, Decimation: Son of M is something I would only recommend to those who really followed House of M closely. It isn't exactly essential towards Civil War or Messiah Complex, but it is kind of important if you plan on reading Silent War. Recommended to the more serious comic readers.

Pros:
-Some very good character development

Cons:
-Cliffhanger ending, slight artwork inconsistency