Avengers VS X-Men # 1 (Round One)

By Mark Rodriguez

The Phoenix Force will return to Earth and this sparks a war between the Avengers and the X-Men. The X-Men want to use the Phoenix to inhabit Hope Summers and save mutantkind, while the Avengers feel the Phoenix is a force that's too powerful and dangerous and it must be destroyed at all costs.

I never got the deal with making variant covers blank, but that's the one they had at Velvet Underground at the time

Avengers VS X-Men # 1 starts off as we see the Phoenix fly past, as well as destroy, an alien planet (with Earth-type houses…?) as it heads towards our galaxy. On Earth, the Avengers are chillin as Iron Man and Protector are arguing about the latter touching the former’s stuff. There was a meeting about to begin, and they were waiting for Miss Marvel to show up… when suddenly… a huge fireball hits a plane that was flying overhead. The Avengers fly into action.

he comet blasts through a skyscraper that starts falling apart… and the plane also loses a wing. Thor flies swirling his hammer to become a human whirlwind to catch the plane and make sure it lands safely. Miss Marvel catches the falling tip of the skyscraper and Spiderman uses his webs to catch all the people that were falling out. Iron Man blasts the airplane wing to ashes.

Meanwhile, Captain American, Hawkeye, Protector and the Black Widow arrive at where this fireball landed. It turned out to be a seriously injured Nova. All he says before he passes out is ‘It’s coming.’

On Utopia, Cyclops is training Hope to the point of exhaustion. Hope wants to use her powers, but Cyclops reminds her that there are humans out there can remove her powers and she’d have to be ready to defend herself without them. Magneto and Emma watch over this, and Mags is worried Cyclops is being too compulsive.

 Cyclops keeps yelling at her to get up and try again every time he knocks her down. Hope demands to know what he thinks is going to happen to her and suddenly, a huge Phoenix flame bursts from Hope sending Cyclops flying back… much to the surprise and concern of Magneto and Emma. This leaves Hope asking ‘ok…. What was that? You saw that right?’

Elsewhere, Captain America and Iron Man is explaining what they found to the President and his cabinet. They found the source of the attack that sent Nova flying to Earth and injured him to severely. It was the Phoenix force, the same thing that once possessed Jean Grey of the X-Men. Once it arrives and gets a host, it will destroy everything. The Avengers prepare a suicide mission to try to stop it… when suddenly they get the signal of the Phoenix’ energy on Earth (from Hope’s sudden flare up). Iron Man knows where it is.

Later  Captain America is at The Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, run by Wolverine. Wolverine says Jean Grey tried to do whatever she could to contain the Phoenix, even kill herself, and it didn’t work. Cap asks where it’s going now… and Wolverine says everyone in the mutant community knows where it’s going. Cap suggests working with Cyclops, but Wolverine warns that Cyclops will have an agenda for this, and he will be too blind to see it. Cap asks if he can count on Wolverine, and the hero remains silent.

Meanwhile the X-Men, Cyclops, Emma, Magneto, Namor, and Colossus discuss Hope. Cyclops wants to use the power of the Phoenix to turn the tide for mutant kind. He reminds them that 99% of them lost their powers and only less than 200 mutants remain on Earth. “We’re an endangered species when we were supposed to be the next step of human evolution”. Cyclops wants to train Hope, to which Emma asks if the Phoenix can be trained.

Captain America shows up and tells Cyclops that they want to take Hope into protective custody since they Phoenix force is after her. Cyclops asks if Wolverine was the one that told him. Cyclops says this is a human problem. Cap says this isn’t a mutant vs human problem. Cyclops tells him that Phoenix using the right vessel could change everything for mutantkind. Cap wants to reason with Cyclops, but Scott asks where were the Avengers for the mutants all this time, except now that they need something from them.

Eeeeey, Mr. C. Seriously, why the double pointing, Cap?

Cyclops tells him to get off their island, and Cap tell him that wasn’t ASKING to take Hope back. Cyclops says he understands and proceeds to blast Captain America the hell away. The X-Men are shocked and Captain America says ‘Avengers Assemble’…. as what seems to be the entire friggin team shows up ready to throw down.

Emma shows her disappointment in Cyclops taking it too far. She knows a war is coming

The X-Men brace themselves for the fight of their lives and Cyclops tells Emma to grab Hope. She tells him it’s her decision. Cyclops says ‘Not anymore!’

I am confused by the gladiator weapons that Wolverine, Hawkeye, Luke Cage, Mockingbird, Iron First and Black Widow are using. I guess Wolverine is going to use non lethal force

My Opinions

Oh my god, Cyclops is insane, and he's going to get worse, much worse. He will fight for the sake of mutantkind going so far that even Magneto is thinking 'dude, chill'. 

I believe these comics came out bi-weekly so some of the art is rushed when it comes to crowd scenes and pan outs. The detail is awesome for close ups and the major characters, but all the side characters that are there just for the sake of numbers are drawn kinda rough. Like this for example.

All the detail is on Thor and he looks decent enough, but what the hell with Miss Marvel? We're gonna see several examples of this as the story goes on.

The comic also came out with several side issues based on the actual fights between the characters, but they were a lot to keep track off along with the other comics I was buying at the time. I'll only be covering the main story in itself, that thankfully came out as its own separate book and not have me bounce around from Uncanny X-Men here and Avengers there and then Wolverine comics, Captain America comics and whatnot to keep track of things. There might be hints here and there of the tie-ins, but you can pretty much just read this series without those without missing important story elements. 

I have reviewed this in the previous blog but lost track of finishing it due to the other comics, or just other things in life. This time I intend to review it to the end.