and the debut of several spin-off series, including X-Men: Deadly Genesis, X-Men: The 198, Sentinel Squad O*N*E, Ms. Marvel, and a new X-Factor series. The epilogue to the House of M and Decimation story-lines, served to answer the mystery of the strange "energy-cloud" hovering in orbit around the Earth after House of M #8, was revealed in the pages of New Avengers #16–20 World In this world, Magneto was attacked by Sentinels in Manhattan in 1979 (taking advantage of Marvel's sliding timescale policy, no heroes were active in the 1970s). At the end of the attack, Magneto revealed an alleged international anti-mutant conspiracy involving Richard M. Nixon. As a result, Magneto was granted sovereignty of the island of Genosha as the leader of the world's mutants. Another result was that the protection of mutant life was judged to be the first worry of all laws (as a result, stem cell research on mutant embryos is illegal, but stem cell research on altered human embryos is permitted). Because of this, the world is a racist society, with mutants controlling governments, businesses, and culture, and humans (or "sapiens") are looked down on as inferior (essentially a reversal of the status quo in the mainstream Marvel Universe, where mutants are looked down on and despised instead). Some exceptions apply to "sapiens" who live with privileges like Carol Danvers (Ms. Marvel in Earth-616 continuity, but Captain Marvel in the World of M) and Peter Parker (Spider-Man). Danvers is widely known to be a "sapiens," while Spider-Man is believed by the House of M world at large to be a mutant. Given that the House of M reality was created by the Scarlet Witch and Charles Xavier, combining their powers to give the assembled New Avengers and X-Men their hearts' desires, it appears that Magneto's heart desire was threefold. Primarily, he wanted the entire world to acknowledge that his paranoid fantasies about baseline humans wanting to exterminate mutants were true (hence the Sentinel attack over New York in 1979, which concluded with the release of evidence that the world's human leaders were involved in a genocidal anti-mutant conspiracy). Secondly, he wanted to be acknowledged as a heroic figure and the rightful leader of all mutant-kind (hence the disappearance of Charles Xavier and the timing of Magneto's rise to dominance before other superheroes had appeared on the scene to challenge him). And thirdly, a massive speeding-up