Comics Review: Avengers vs X-men Round 1
A strange young boy looks upon his family’s farm land, steam rises up, the boy calls for his father, and all life on this strange world are consumed by a powerful fire- It is The Phoenix!
In the sky, what looks to be a strange meteorite falling towards the Earth, and hurling fast towards the ground- slices in half the wing of a flying airplane. Then crashes through the top of one of the tallest buildings in New York, and here comes The Avengers to the rescue.
Some of the Avengers- Captain America, Iron-man, Ms. Marvel, Thor and Spider-man save the people in trouble. Spider-man safely catches the falling passengers of the airplane in his web, and makes a few jokes in the process. After the heroes make sure everything’s ok, they go to the impact site, it is Nova; in his weakend state, he utters, “It’s Coming.”
It is the Phoenix energy parasite which consumed the X-man Jean Grey, and lead to her death. Now it is coming to Earth.
The Phoenix energy is drawn to Hope Summers (The Mutant Messiah), the last mutant born of a near extinct species. Captain America, Iron-man and the Avengers analyze where the energy is headed, and take off for the X-men headquarters at Utopia, an island off the coast of San Francisco.
Cyclops, the leader of the X-men believes that Hope and the Phoenix are the key to a better and stronger mutant race, but Captain America and the Avengers see it as doom for the Earth.
Captain America and Cyclops meet on the beach of the island. Captain America wants to take Hope into custody, but Cyclops is resistant. With one blast from Cyclops’ optic eyes begins the war between the Avengers and X-men.
Normally, Cyclops is calm and passive fighting when needed, but as the leader of the X-men, and with mutant-kind on extinction Cyclops is a hard and stubborn commander. In this Marvel Comic Event it looks like Cyclops is more in control than he has ever been.
The X-men has always done things their own way, and it has seemed that other groupd have been hesitant to approach the X-men for anything.
Avengers vs. X-men looks to be a great series. The Avengers seem to be a much larger group than ever, and the X-men seem more than ready for any threat.
There are many things going on in this story, and it is only the first round. It’ll be interesting to see how this story of Avengers vs X-men develops.
Comics Review: Avengers vs X-men Round 2
The fight between the Avengers and X-men begins along the coast of Utopia, the X-men’s headquarters off the coast of San Francisco. Previously in Round 1, Captain America had arrived on the island demanding Cyclops to hand Hope Summers over, because the Phoenix energy is drawn to her, and could destroy the world. The Avengers arrive in S.H.I.E.L.D’s heli-carrier, and ready to battle with some of the most feared mutants in the world. The world is watching, for the news channels are filming this event.
It’s hero verses hero. Marvel Comics seem to be doing this a lot lately within several of their story-lines- heroes are seen as the villains; and the readers are forced into taking sides. They created conflict within the Civil War series, and made Marvel fans love to hate the superhero zombies inMarvel Zombies, now it’s a fight for the world and mutant kind.
Emma Frost protects Hope Summers (The Mutant Messiah), then faces off against Iron Man. Magneto steps in to give Emma Frost a hand against Iron Man. I was thinking, why doesn’t Magneto just pull a part Tony Stark’s armor right off his body with his magnetism power. Or crush Stark within his suit by caving in the armor. Maybe I am over-thinking this. Here Magneto is good again siding with the X-men; although there could be an ulterior motive for this team-up in future issues.
Quicksilver, Magneto’s son joins into the action. Quicksilver sees his father within the battle on the news, and swiftly runs 347 miles in 3.7 seconds to attack his own father, Magneto.
With all the effort the Avengers are giving to get at Hope Summers, it looks like it is too late. Hope and the Phoenix are starting to become one as Wolverine and Spider-man find out the hard way.
There is a lot going on in this issue. Many heroes pair off to fight one another; it seems to give the writers a chance to provide some dialogue to enhance the story, and at the same time provide some dramatic moments for the reader.
What this issue does is provide the audience with plenty of action, the type any potential reader would expect from such a comic event pitting these two teams against each other. However, the series so far has provided little information as to why the Phoenix is drawn to Hope Summers as a host. Maybe the reader will find out in the next issues in this series. So far, The Avengers vs. X-men does provide an interesting, and action filled story.
Avengers vs X-men Round 1 Video Preview
Avengers vs X-men Round 2 Video Preview
Comics Review: Avengers vs X-men Round 3 And 4
Comics Review: Avengers vs X-men Round 5 And 6
Featured image from Flickr CC (Dominick Guzzo)
