Avengers vs X-Men #12:
Summary: The combined forces of the Avengers and X-Men have one final, desperate plan left against Dark Phoenix Cyclops, get the Scarlet Witch and Hope to combine their forces against DPC(yeah, I'm not gonna type Dark Phoenix Cyclops through this entire review!) since Wanda's hex bolts have been the only thing to hurt DPC and Hope can mimic those powers. With that, the combined A+X group attacks DPC, but really get nowhere against him, at least until Nova(!) slams into DPC, driving him to earth, where the A+X team, as well as Hope and Wanda can lay into him. During the battle, DPC flips out and lashes out with a massive amount of flames, at which time a woman shrouded in shadows walks over telling DPC it was time for this all to end... DPC immediately realizes the woman is Jean Grey, and she promises him that it doesn't hurt... With that, Hope and Wanda hit the distracted DPC with everything they have, forcing the Phoenix Force out of his body and into the air, where it locates it's originally intended target, Hope. Hope gains the power of the Phoenix and flies off, with Tony Stark trying(unsuccessfully) to keep up. However, Phoenix Hope flies around undoing the damage DPC had done to the world. After doing that, Hope comes back to the A+X team and tells them that she was going to be the White Phoenix, doing good deeds and the like. Wanda tells Phoenix Hope that she was chosen by the Phoenix because she was the one person who could let the power go, due to her strong training by Cable and Iron Fist. With that, Wanda and Phoenix Hope combine their powers and say "No More Phoenix", sending the Phoenix Force out of Hope, where it bounces around the planet before vanishing. However, it appears that the Phoenix Force did indeed do what crazy Lord Summers had hoped for, as several people around the world begin to gain mutant powers(YES!!!!!!). And now, it's epilogue time! Cyclops has been locked up where he's still acting oddly smug about his whole role in this mess, since the mutant race did seem to experience a bit of a rebirth, even though, you know, Professor X and several civilians died, along with the X-Men being torn apart in the process. Captain America tells him that the other Phoenix Five X-Men were wanted for their actions in this mess, but that Cap has come to realize that the Avengers hadn't done enough to help the mutant population, something he intended to change... That brings us to Wanda and Hawkeye, who are looking to put together a joint X-Men/Avengers team. Iron Man acts as if he knew all of this would lead to a mutant rebirth(?!), while Thor offers Nova a slot on the Avengers(YES!!). Wolverine has nothing to say to Lord Summers, while Hope flies away, having accomplished her goal of being the mutant messiah(I guess).
Thoughts: The bottom line is this... There was ONE thing and ONE thing only I wanted out of this series. And that would be the reversal of that idiotic, "No More Mutants" garbage. That one line handcuffed so many X-Men writers since they had no way to add new members to the team, nor any way to give them new mutant enemies. So, as a long time X-fan, I am overjoyed to see new mutants popping up, hopefully leading to some great new characters and storylines(not involving an endless supply of Sentinels and William Stryker!). Now, onto the meat of this issue, and series. I don't get why Professor Xavier was killed off, especially since Lord Summers seemed kind of unfazed about it when he was talking to Cap at the end. He was like, "Well, if I could take his place I would, but I can't, so I won't!" On top of that, Hope is still around... I don't get that at all. I'd have bet good money that she either dies here, or would have left Earth with the Phoenix Force... Instead she's just kind of around... With nothing to do... I don't get that at all, but whatever. So what did I make of this series? I think it was full of missed opportunities I think it could have been told way better, in a way where the X-Men didn't turn evil once they got the Phoenix powers. I'd have liked to have seen the X-Men more shades of grey instead of deciding they'd rule the world, "for it's own good..." However, you always remember the last thing that happens in an event like this, and for me, this event will always be remembered for bringing back mutantkind for me, so for that? I'd call this series a win.
Score: 8 out of 10.
"More mutants."?! Oh god yes!!!!!
Hated hated hated hated hated hated how it ended and started. Loved the outcome. They could have talked bout it from the beginning but no. On the bright side mutants! Hopefully they actually make a new x series bout these new mutants I mean this truly feels like marvel had a plan for their relaunch unlike cough cough dc. Strongly hate what happened to Scott sucks sucks. He shouldn't have been a villain.
ReplyDeleteActually, Average One, Scott wasn't a villian. The Dark Phoenix was. Scott attempted to do good for the world, but the avengers and others didn't accept that...therefore, they constantly attacked with Scott playing self-defense as well as peace keeper. However, that started to change the minute the Pheonix Five began to dwindle. Scott began to act dark when the PF was shared only by two individuals combined with his frustration...which led to anger due to nobody appreciating his good he attempted towards planet earth as a whole. I admit it sucks that he killed Xavier (and I don't favor Scott's decision and action 1% in regards killing his mentor and father figure...I'm appalled), but part of which led to that moment for Scott was due to hurt emotions, frustration due to everyone being against his efforts including Charles Xavier, and Dark Phoenix rage with less control due to greater burden of hosting such an entity shared by now 2 people. Once, out of desperation, he took the complete PF for himself, it was all over for the possessed Cyclops.
ReplyDeleteX75, I haven't picked up the issue yet, but from what you explained, it appears that the PF no longer exists. Is this what you gather or am I reading it all wrong?!
True, wow so it all comes down with the avengers and Xavier being assholes in the end. Sigh... I can get behind ur explaination but now there is literally no way Scott summers is going to be redeemed. I mean if I found out that Scott summers would end up turning into this like 20 or 10 yrs ago I wud have punched that person. This event is depressing and good at the same time.
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ReplyDeletedont get way Magneto is one of the "Wanted" mutants, Can anyone explain me that.. Cuz he wasn't with the bad guys for what I know..
ReplyDeleteFirst, before I forget, totally agree, Alien, that Magneto being wanted made no sense to me. If Magneto is wanted, why aren't all the X-Men (except Logan), since, at one point or another, they all supported Scott, just like Magneto? No sense.
ReplyDeleteI agree with pretty much everything here, X. I agree that we missed a lot of opportunities, and I think the sales and marketing departments are mostly to blame for that. After this issue, I think it's clear that the whole Phoenix Five business was just a delaying tactic to sell more issues. I think the ending would've had a lot more impact if they had built up the energy that they had established over the first five or so issues and then, rather than Phoenix diverting its power to the Five, it went straight to Cyclops. You could've essentially told the same story, but the memory of Hope being at the center of the story would've been a lot fresher. Instead, I spent most of this issue vaguely annoyed that Hope suddenly got involved when she's been mostly irrelevant for the better part of the last four months. Here, she embraces her role as the Mutant Messiah...and we barely get any mention of it. She just sort of fades into the background.
I was equally surprised by Cyclops being totally unrepentant. I thought we were going to have him blame his actions on the Phoenix Force, while still coming to grips over his responsibility. After all, the image you posted here pretty much implies that. But, then, suddenly, in his conversation with Cap here and Beast in "Uncanny X-Men" #19, he just totally believes that the ends justify the means. To me, this approach didn't even make sense within the issue. After all, he asks Hope and Wanda to kill him in a rare moment of control over Phoenix so that he doesn't destroy the world AND he eventually surrenders the power of his own free will when he realized how destructive the power was. It doesn't seem like the actions of the guy who felt like his ever action was justified. Plus, his self-satisfaction that Phoenix wound up rekindling the mutant race totally over looks the fact that it would've never had that chance to do so if he had retained control of it, since he was on track to DESTROY THE ENTIRE WORLD. It's the fact that this entire event -- including killing Professor X -- left him completely unfazed that bothers me. Cap acknowledges that he was wrong in not helping mutants more. Sure, Cyclops was right that, in the end, Phoenix would play some role in rekindling the mutant race. But, Cyclops just feels like it was all worth it, even though he almost, to repeat myself, DESTROYED THE ENTIRE WORLD. Even Hope herself had to be convinced by Wanda to rekindle the mutant race; her initial impulse was to keep the power. At the end of the day, the only way that this conclusion makes sense to me is if they're purposefully trying to make him into the next Magneto. It seems to be where they're going.
All that said, and I know it's not going to sound like it after all that complaining, I did enjoy this cross-over event. It was a helluva lot better than "Fear Itself," that's for sure. Plus, it at least seems to have some really direct impacts on the current Marvel Universe. For example, "Uncanny Avengers" is clearly Cap making good on his attempt to correct his mistakes when it comes to the mutants. Plus, we still don't know if formerly depowered mutants regained their powers, or if it's just new mutants who were created. I'm excited mostly to see where Marvel goes with those ideas. We'll see, I guess.
The Magneto thing kind of made me laugh because when I saw Magneto on the wanted poster I just kind of shrugged my shoulders. I guess the easiest response to "Why is Mags up there with the Phoenix Five" would be to simply say, "He's Magneto! He MUST be evil!!" It's funny, 'cause in the last issue of X-Men Legacy(I forget the #), Mags actually does a good deed(saves people trapped in a train, in Washington DC, no less), but "He's Magneto!" so he automatically gets lumped in with the world-destroying mutants. *shrugs*
DeleteI'm in the same boat as you, JW. While I thought there were a lot of missed opportunities, and that things could have been told so much better if Marvel resisted the urge to just turn the Phoenix Five evil straightaway, I think this event WAS a success. It gave us mutants back, which is something that I'd have to think any sane X-fan would want to see. It finally took care of that idiotic "Hope: Mutant Messiah" thing that I hated oh so much. Never again do I have to call her "Our Lord and Savior Hope"! It actually gives us a reason for all of those X-characters joining the Avengers, which is something I absolutely didn't expect to see. I figured Uncanny Avengers would just be randomly thrown together, but here Cap spells out exactly WHY we're getting Uncanny Avengers. And it makes perfect sense! Enough things happened here to warrant the whole Marvel Now! shake-up. And like I said, there may have been parts of this story that bugged me, but I can't gripe about the outcome at all. A lot of the books spinning out of this look pretty interesting.
As for Cyclops, I have to admit, I'm a bit intrigued to see if Marvel goes and makes him into a full-blown villain. Magneto 2.0 if you will. They kind of toyed with it when he became Cyclopolips after The Twelve, I wouldn't be adverse to Scott fully embracing the dark side, so long as he continues to stubbornly believe he's in the right and everybody else is in the wrong, which is kind of how he's been written the past few years anyway. I was a huge fan of Scott's as a kid, but honestly, I'm ready to see him go totally bad. If nothing else it could lead to some interesting stories... Imagine Scott leading a new Brotherhood-esque team and clashing with the X-Men who he feels betrayed mutantkind by siding with the Avengers/humanity. That's probably better than Scott pointing at the Phoenix and screaming, "She made me do it!!" and everybody patting him on the back telling him it's okay now. An evil Scott could be fun.
Good point about Cyclops. After all, we've definitely watched his transition to bad guy. Usually, the way things go, he would've just woken up one day and turned on the X-Men; instead, where he is at the end of this mini-series is definitely the culmination of years of story lines. Although I still think that it would've been nice to see Scott at least admit that he went a _little_ over the top, I'm willing to overlook it if it means that he might become an more interesting character than he's been. After all, it's hard to see how he would get redeemed. They make it pretty clear here that he's responsible for the deaths of a lot of people, maybe even more than Magneto. Unless he's pardoned or something at some point in the future, it definitely implies that he'll be a fugitive for the rest of his life (assuming he eventually escapes prison, presumably to lead the Brotherhood).
DeleteI'm excited about "Uncanny Avengers," mostly because, as a long-time fan of Havok, I'm really, really excited to see him get a serious promotion. I'm also just damn excited that it's no longer all about Hope!
"Usually, the way things go, he would've just woken up one day and turned on the X-Men; instead, where he is at the end of this mini-series is definitely the culmination of years of story lines." That's why I'm hoping Scott DOES stay evil(at least for a few years, you can always do a redemption story a few years down the road), because everything he's done has brought him there. I've been saying for a few years now that Scott was acting more crazy cult leader/separatist than mutant freedom fighter. All of the little things(using kids as soldiers, the Schism with Wolvie, the threats to the San Fran mayor, taking Mags and Emma as his main advisers, the whole Phoenix thing, etc), have really built Scott into what could be an interesting villain. Now we just need Vulcan to come back to team with evil Scott and my life is complete! :D I'm just hoping Marvel doesn't drop the ball with this and have Scott suddenly be all remorseful and gain forgiveness out of the blue.
DeleteAnd you know how much I love secondary, sidekick-like characters. Havok fits that bill because he's ALWAYS been in Scott's shadow. I love him getting some huge attention in Marvel's premier Avengers book. And yes, less Hope is a GREAT thing!
thanks for the posts. nice blog.
ReplyDeleteI loved this issue about the same as you guys. I would give it a 9 personally, but only the one extra point for the stellar characterization in this single issue. I thought everyone was very in sync with what I have read of past stories. I agree pretty much with everything that has been said. However, the part of scott attempting to do good for the world is the most intriguing for me. I never once saw the avengers as constantly attacking a man that was playing self defense and peace keeper. I have thought from the beginning that the avengers know well and good that "absolute power corrupts absolutely" and that is why the avengers were taking it to the phoenix five and scott particularly. I am not saying in any way that THIS is what happened definitively it is only my thoughts on the subject. The only moment I HATED in this series is when cap punched wolverine in the face during an argument... WHAT!? way out of characterization!
ReplyDelete-I do agree however that there were a lot of missed opportunities, and that Scott should feel WAY more upset and disgusted about killing Prof. X and nearly the world. Cap then says "the ends don't always justify the means". However, Scott retorts cap at the end of the issue, and we personally see that his ends DID justify the means with the destruction and Rebirth of the mutants.
-On a side note I feel that You, X, and scott (lord) summers as you call him wanted the same thing and the ONE and ONLY thing that you claim to have wanted as well! the REBIRTH of the mutants! haha I feel that this is why Scott wasn't so remorseful because he got what he wanted, and he knew bad things would happen before he could accomplish that. Scott is definitely becoming magneto 2.0. He is only ALL about mutants and has been for a while now it seems. Scott has been becoming less and less a TRUE hero for a while now. "Darth Clops" has gone to the dark side and no longer cares about what happened because his goals were accomplished. Therefore, the ends DID justify the means.
-with all that being said I can't not agree with JW later on because what you said NAILED it! We have to rmemeber that darth scott and regular scott are DIFFERENT people. So for TRUE scott to come forth and say kill me before... before.. and then to show no remorse at the end because the ends justified the means yet, tell people to kill you earlier before you i quote JW DESTROYED THE ENTIRE WORLD, and not knowing that hope and wanda would REBIRTH the mutant race makes no fricking sense!!!
There is one other way to help this make sense. Scott had NO clue what he was doing. Yes, he knew the PF would bring rebirth, but he did not know how and eventually after becoming corrupt no longer cared as long as it happened. I too am super pumped about Uncanny avengers. Cap admitting that the avengers letting the world hate mutants has gone on too long and supplying a new team is supremely bad ass and yet its the least he can do as well! Havok is gonna be an awesome teammate! MARVEL seems to know EXACTLY what they are doing with marvel NOW unlike the new 52 relaunch that needed and entire month to fix things up (zero month) and also cause EVEN more confusion. What i Love about this event is that the ends justified the means haha all of the terrible issues of pointless fighting and complaining and out of characterness that happened was ALL worth it because Marvel is about to shake up the whole 616! It makes sense to have a Shared universe and have two of the most powerful superhero factions team up. It DOES NOT make sense that read skull is back! but i trust Marvel with all my Wallet!
Yeah Cap, the punching Wolverine thing was still way out of character for Cap. It's not like he hasn't fought in a war before. For him to lose his cool was really odd. They had a nice scene about that in this week's issue of Avengers Academy though with Pym and Wolvie.
DeleteIf Marvel is going in the direction that Scott simply doesn't care about anything but mutantkind as a whole, then I'm fine with him not really caring about the people he killed OR Prof. X. Sure, he killed his mentor/long time father figure, but he got his way in the end. Did the ends justify the means? Would you kill your "father" to possibly get your way? For Scott it looks like the answer was a resounding yes.
Oh yeah, I got what I wanted here too. So in that regard, I'm glad Scott went crazy and killed Prof. X. As much as I love Xavier, I'd sacrifice him in a heartbeat for the rebirth of mutantkind. Imagine, stories about new mutants who may join the X-Men... Or battle the X-Men... Plus, as a bonus, no more over reliance on Sentinels and Stryker! That's fantastic news for me!
As for Scott's mindset, when he became Dark Phoenix, he seemed to think that he'd just burn the entire Earth and start over again. With the Phoenix being a destroyer and creator, I think Dark Phoenix Scott was going to do exactly that if he were unopposed, destroy all life on the planet and then use the PF to recreate things(somehow). I doubt Hope or Wanda had any weight in his mind at all. Something I haven't mentioned is how great it is to see Wanda finally get kind of redeemed for destroying the mutant race and giving us years of Sentinels vs X-Men comics. Nice job adding her as a major piece here.
And I couldn't agree more about the differences between Marvel Now! and the New 52. DC seemed like they had a rough idea for a few comics, and NONE for the rest. Marvel is going into this with what looks to be a very well put together plan for many of their characters, including lesser known ones like the Academy kids and Legion. I honestly plan on picking up ever single Marvel Now! book that I've seen thus far(well, except for X-Men Legacy, which I'm not quite sold on yet...)
Excellent call about Wanda, X. I've always felt that the X-Men's outrage was hypocritical, given the terrible things that Magneto et al. have done, as Billy noted in "Avengers: Children's Crusade." To see her welcomed into the fold again is great.
DeleteCap, excellent point about the Avengers. After I read that, I thought about the fact that Scott thinks that he "won" because he was "right," but the Avengers weren't exactly wrong. They never argued that Phoenix wasn't here to restart mutantkind; they just argued that it might destroy the world in so doing. Like X said here, it seems like Scott was ready to do exactly that. (I will also consider my blogging career successful if "DESTROYED THE ENTIRE WORLD" is my tagline!)
The more I think of it, the more I agree with you, X, that, although it would've been more realistic to see Scott show some remorse, particularly for Professor X, but I'm totally willing to overlook it if we get Scott as Magneto 2.0. I feel like we're all excited for exactly what you say here, that we've all been waiting for Marvel to have the guts to take that step. It seems like they really are going to do it, and I really have to applaud them for it. Like Cap said here, they seem to know exactly what they're doing with Scott, almost since M-Day. I feel like this cross-over event is possibly the only one besides "Siege" to actually deliver on the claims that it's the culmination of years of stories AND that everything will change.
I'm glad we're all excited about Havok. I'm ready to see that boy CUT LOOSE!
I can kind of understand the Wanda thing and why it bothered the X-Men so much. Especially the Crazy Mutie Island X-Men. Scott always needed something to rage against, and Wanda was kind of the perfect target since she did decimate the mutant population. Sure, they had Magneto living there, but he killed mainly humans, which probably sat just fine with Lord Summers.
DeleteThe Scott Summers I grew up reading about would have been destroyed by the fact that he killed Prof. X. Hell, I remember an issue of X-Men Unlimited where he couldn't even bring himself to call Prof. X "Charles"! 'Cause the Prof was more like a father figure to him than anything else. But this Cyclops? The one of the past few years? Yeah, I can see him having little to no remourse for what he's done, especially if it helped mutantkind as a whole, which truly does make him like Magneto 2.0. And agreed with the comparison to Siege. Siege was what swayed me back to Marvel after a few years of being SUPER down on Marvel and really high on DC. It helped that DC put Brightest Day out at around the same time...
And yes, the more Havok, the better! :D
I believe Havok is actually suppose to be the leader of that group too. That ought to be interesting.
DeleteWow, that would be a really interesting dynamic there. Those characters led by Havok, who has been, pretty much, the co-leader of X-Factor, which is a detective agency! Going from that to the Avengers main team is a hell of a step up!
DeleteI read uncanny today as well before getting home from work, and it may just be me... but the Scott talking to Beast is remorseful, yet not. And honestly he seems to be going insane. There was one panel where he disovered that new mutants were coming and he freaked out and then let out the craziest grin while saying: "hope.. heh, heh heh." If marvel is going that route I think eventually scott will come back as a villain in a BIG way and after the magneto mini i read a while back, old mags still has destruction in his blood. So this should be an exciting time for marvel readers. And if you aren't reading marvel, whats wrong with you!
ReplyDeleteA Magneto/Cyclops Brotherhood would be a fantastic idea! Imagine the havoc those two could wreak not just on the X-Men, but the Avengers as well! Hey, that could very well be the next big Marvel x-over down the road, especially since the X-Men and Avengers will seemingly be working so closely together. I'd be fine with Scott going fully insane too. Like talking to dead Jean and dead Prof. X insane. You could show the effect not only the stress of trying to lead mutantkind had put on him, but also the full Phoenix Force and killing his father-figure. Scott plummeting into madness works really well actually.
DeleteOMG, if he talks to a Dead Jean and Dead Professor X, I would totally, totally be down with that. After all, I loved the part in "Uncanny X-Men" #19 where Jean called him an idiot.
DeleteRIGHT?! I would love Scott just standing around yelling at the ghosts of Jean and Prof. X as they scold him for his actions with Mags watching him out of the corner of his eye. And it sounds like I need to get Uncanny #19!
DeleteIdunno if it's being commented yet, but I mean... modern-day Scott has been seen on covers to All-New X-Men (which I'm really looking forward to) fighting against original X-Men Scott. So it wouldn't surprise me if perhaps modern-day Scott does become at the best an anti-hero if he is ever allowed out of prison (or escapes at the very least). I've hated Cyclops forever so it would be hilarious to see Logan, Beast, etc. beating the shit out of an evil Scott for a story arc. Hahahaha.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if any of those covers are misdirections, Caz. They may not be, but I can't figure out where Scott fits, unless they rapidly fix everything with him in one of the AvX spin-off books, which would really suck!
DeleteI can see Magneto being wanted just because the other X-men checked in while Magneto, seeing no place for him with the other X-men, decided to bail. I can't imagine him being as wanted as the Phoenix Five members though.
ReplyDeleteMags wasn't helping against DPC in AvX #12, was he? I don't remember seeing him there(although I may just have missed him), and I don't have my copy readily available. Maybe that's why he's wanted? Then again, wasn't he just granted asylum by Scott on Utopia? With no more Utopia, I guess he has no place to hide out and as such is wanted again? Those are my best guesses.
DeleteAs someone here I think mentioned, he makes a sort of random comment in "X-Men Legacy" #274 how people just sort of assumed he was involved. I think you're probably right, X, that he operated under asylum from Utopia, so he's probably now wanted again now that Utopia doesn't exist anymore. But, I think the explanation we get in "X-Men Legacy" is the best we're going to get.
ReplyDelete(Though, as a side note, I'm still somewhat surprised to see Magneto and Wolverine totally fine. When I first read "Avengers vs. X-Men" #11, I thought they were dead just like Professor X and someone was going to resurrect all of them. So, the fact that Magneto and Wolverine totally shook off the attack but Professor X is dead still seems weird to me.)
Out of curiosity I have checked out some other reviews of this online. I am quite amazed at the majority of views that are saying "Cykes was right" and "He was the real hero of the story".
ReplyDeleteIt's really no surprise to me. Hardcore X-fans can never see any fault with anything the X-characters do. That's why it's so tough to talk comics with them, in many ways they're worse than hardcore DC fans... I mean I grew up a huge X-fan, my favorite character and avatar IS an X-character, but I can say, with no doubt, that Scott was obviously in the wrong here. I mean not only did he kill his "father", he killed who knows how many other people, and that all came after he basically declared at the UN that the Phoenix Five were going to decide how the world would run. Those aren't exactly the actions of a "real hero".
DeleteI guess in the end, Scott wanted more mutants and that's what the PF brought about in the end even if it didn't happen with him. So he was right about "what the PF would do"! But Scott definitely is no hero, just what he wanted came about. Dude is a criminal at large, whether good intentions at first or not! Hey, by the way have you guys heard that Havok is going to lead the Uncanny Avengers?! I thought it would be Cap A since he was forming the new group, but maybe since he feels responsible for not helping mutants in the past...he stepped back a bit. But a bit ironic he would trust a Summers with that leadership role. Just saying!
ReplyDeleteYes! look up the preview. Havok is supposed to LEAD the team, with cap kind of giving input and speeches I would imagine. I think it will be great. Marvel now this week! so awesome!
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