Avengers VS X-Men # 3 (Round Three)

By Mark Rodriguez

The Phoenix Force is coming for Hope Summers, and Cyclops wants this to happen as a possible chance to save mutantkind. The Avengers want to destroy it because it is too dangerous. A fight broke out between the teams. Wolverine tries to stab Hope, but she unleashes her Phoenix powers and fries Wolverine. She knocks out Spider-Man and escapes. Meanwhile, several Avengers are in space waiting to destroy the Phoenix.

 So now we begin with Wolverine regaining consciousness after regrowing all his burnt flesh for the last hour. Spider-Man tells Logan that Hope got away and gave him some clothes. Spidey also tells Wolvie that Cyclops and the X-Men surrendered to the Avengers. Wolverine doesn’t like this one bit and heads off.

As the X-Men stand by, Captain America and Iron Man argue over what to do with them, since they just can’t be arrested or locked up someplace. Cap’s better interest is in saving Hope and the world. Meanwhile, Dr. Strange appears holding an unconscious Magik and tells Cyclops that she’s alright.

Wolverine barges into the scene and heads right towards the X-Men. Cap tells him to stop, but Wolvie assures them that the Dr. Strange they see is a fake. As he swings at them, the X-Men vanish and in their place is an injured Dr. Strange. He tells them that Magik arranged all this after he lost a battle to her in the Neatherrealm (in the tie-ins, I assume) and Wolverine tells them that now Scott has a head start on them.

Elsewhere in Long Island, the X-Men plan to find Hope but to do that, they need to use Cerebra (I guess another version of Cerebro?). Cyclops tells them that the only functioning one is at Logan’s school. Magneto tells them that they need to find some sympathizers amongst his turncoats… and Cyclops already has someone in mind.

In San Francisco, Hope is in some Radio Shack knock-off using some devices there to work on some kind of weaponry on her wrist. She looks in the mirror and sees the Phoenix in her reflection. She freaks out and runs. She tries to keep it together and focuses on making some kind of flying machine so she can escape without being seen.

At the Avengers Tower, Rachel Summers tells them that she can’t track down Hope because she seems to be registering in 5 different locations at once. Wolverine talks to her, but Cap thanks her and ends the call. Wolverine is surprised the Cap cut him off and he responds with saying they lost enough time already and knows what Logan’s solution is. Meanwhile, Rachel also sends the same information to Cyclops and warns him that the Avengers already have a head start.

Captain America gathers his Avengers and sends different teams to the 5 locations given. He sends Hawkeye, Red Hulk and Dr. Strange to Wundagore Mountain. He sends Luke Cage and his group to Tabula Rasa. He sends Black Panther and Iron Fist to Wakanda. He sends Spider-Man and Spider-Woman to Latveria  And finally, Cap and his squad will hit the Savage Land.. and he asks Wolverine to join him.

On the plane, Wolverine asks the Cap what’s with the look he gave Sharon Carter when they boarded the plane. Cap asks Wolverine to walk with him. Once alone, they basically argue against Wolverine’s plan to basically gut Hope upon sight. Wolverine says it’s either that or everyone dies. The Cap says Logan isn’t listening and punches him. It’s on now.

Cap tells Wolverine that he’s sitting this one out, and Logan counterstrikes. They fight it out, and after Cap tosses his shield at the back of Logan’s head… Giant Man smacks him down.  Cap slams his shield right into Logan’s face… like a boss.

 Sharon opens the ship’s door and Giant Man literally gives Logan the boot. Giant Man helps the Cap back to his seat and tells Sharon he’s alright. Logan lands in the snow (since the Savage Land is hidden somewhere in the Artic… Antartic.. one of the two…). Wolverine emerges and says it’s all up to him.

My Opinions

This was a good issue. Not much happened in it but man, the fight between Cap and Wolverine is sweet.  I still think Giant Man shouldn’t have intervened… but it was a matter of knocking Logan off the plane as fast as they could and forcing him out of this mission, instead of a straight up fight to see who was better.

IN THE FACE!!!

This now makes it a 3-way race to get to Hope. The Avengers and X-Men both want Hope to try to save the world in their own way (still say Cyclops is mad as a hatter…) and Wolverine just wants to flat out kill her to death.. also to save the world. We’ll see how it goes…

Like I said before… I wasn’t gonna buy the tie-ins, and it seems some of the tie-ins are just showing some of the fights in their entirety (like Colossus VS Red Hulk in issue 2) but wow… Unlike last issue that continued right after issue 1… this one completely ignores the battle between Thor’s team of Avengers in space against the Phoenix Force. I saw there was a Secret Avengers issue about this… but I was hoping they would at least bring it up or mention the outcome of it in this issue… similarly to how we saw that Strange lost against Magik without buying their tie-in. Guess we’ll find out in 2 weeks.

 War Machine- so... what happened to us?

Thor- Thy must buy the Tie-In.

Vision- Seriously... what's up with my pose...?

I'd also like to mention that this is right around the time that I got to see The Avengers in theaters, so I was pretty hyped for pretty much everything Marvel, and was happy to see this comic waiting for me at Velvet Underground. It was pretty much an awesome time to be a Marvel fan.