Marvel's summer House party

What with all the attention being devoted to DC's big "nothing will ever be the same again" event of the season, I figured it was probably time somebody got the ball rolling on Marvel's upcoming summer blockbuster o' hype The House of M. If you've been keeping up with the convention panels, Newsarama, or Brian Michael Bendis' Q & A boards, you know that the next big thing is going to involve the X-Men, New Avengers, Scarlet Witch, and Magneto, as well as a host of other title characters in some fashion. I think the logical follow-up question upon hearing this news - particularly on the heals of the "Avengers Disassembled" arc, Identity Crisis, and now Countdown - is "Do we even have the capacity left to care?" (I can't help but wonder if the overall participation is this CBR poll might not be telling of everyone 's enthusiasm all around.) In an effort to be objective, I will however deal with this by starting the dialogue with a brief list of pros and cons:

Pro #1: It's been some time now since Marvel has done a universe spanning storyline, and perhaps with inattention to continuity rampant among many of their titles right now, House could be a shot in the arm to prove they've still got a good one left in them.

Con #1: It's still not going to draw me a set of parallel timelines showing exactly how Spider-Man and Wolverine are able to fit all these darn monthly titles into their schedules.

Pro #2: Bendis is writing the story. Quoth Bendis,

"You also get some characters you haven’t seen in a long time, like Cloak and Dagger coming back front and center. I think people will be surprised who ends up in the cast for the bulk of the story."

Though it's going to take a mighty nice story to make me forget that the core premise is dealing with similar issues of corporal punishment dealt with in Identity Crisis, I might be willing to bite the bullet for a few issues just to for the sake of possibly getting to read a good Cloak and Dagger appearance.

Con #2: As IGN states, the story kicks off in Excalibur #s 13 and 14. This is enough to give me a bad taste of unwanted liquid in the back of my mouth. Many will recognize this as the series that casually re-introduced Magneto after he was clearly killed off under Morrison's run on New X-Men. Also, as far as I'm concerned, Bendis is still making the case on New Avengers for the unwarranted, rushed into, catasrophe that was "Avengers Disassembled." Sticking another iron in the fire right now might be getting a little too dangerous for even his writing genius.

Pro #3: Spiderman: House of M: written by Mark Waid & Tom Peyer. (I might be stretching on this one, but I was really searching for another pro, and that's the best I could think up.)

Con #3: It's more pomp and circumstance at a time when cataclysmic storyarcs are not in high demand.