Avengers VS X-Men # 7 (Round Seven)

By Mark Rodriguez

The Phoenix arrives and the X-Men want to use it to possibly save mutants and the Avengers want to destroy it to save the world. Iron Man creates a giant Iron Man Mech and blasts the Phoenix but it divides into 5 and inhabits 5 of the X-Men. While the Phoenix Five do good upon the world, the Avengers still have doubts. They head out to catch out Hope, but Cyclops wants to stop them. Just then the Scarlet Witch arrives and Hope goes with the Avengers. Despite having Phoenix Powers, Cyclops still hurt his hand when trying to touch Wanda, and had no choice but to watch them get away with Hope. Cyclops now wants to end the Avengers.

 Round 7 starts as the Phoenix Five storm the Avengers Tower, but with no sign of the team. Their main concern at the moment is the Scarlet Witch, since for some reason she was able to hurt Cyclops earlier. Magik finds them and warps the team to their location. The Avengers fight off the Phoenix Five and the rest of the X-Men as best they can but are overpowered. The Scarlet Witch tries to buy some time as Tony Stark is elsewhere trying to get data on the Phoenix.

Magik tries to attack Wanda, but the daughter of Magneto is protected by her power. However, Polaris and Havok take down the Vision and that distracts Wanda. The pages get kinda confusing here since the action kinda zig-zags on the two page thread… but basically Wanda shoots off fireballs at Magik that only piss her off more. Magik flies at Wanda, engulfed in flames like a giant phoenix but Hawkeye comes in and nails her face in an explosive arrow that makes her somehow trip up and hit the ground hard, getting knocked out in the process.

The Avengers need to escape so Hawkeye kicks Magik’s unconscious body towards Emma. Emma is pissed that Clint did that and basically burns him alive.

Wanda helps the rest of the Avengers teleport to wherever Tony is. Tony tells them it’s too soon and he needs more data and Wanda tells him to go to hell. Captain America explains that they lost Hawkeye. 

Back on Utopia, Cyclops didn’t like the way Emma killed Hawkeye, but she says he can still be healed. Cyclops mentioned that they have been capturing key members of the Avengers and will lock up Hawkeye after he’s healed as well. Namor however says this is a war and they should have killed them all. Magik tells Cyclops she felt the evil in Scarlet Witch, but Cyclops reminds everyone that they have a mission, not a war. 

Back on Wakanda, Captain America demands a solution from Tony Stark and Black Panther, but these two geniuses have more questions than answers at this point. Black Panther suggests its time they look to magic to solve this problem as Tony rolls his eyes.

Cap tells the others that the X-Men had started capturing their members and that Iron Man and Black Panther need more time. They’ll have to buy some time by fighting the X-Men again, but at least they have Hope by their side. 

Um.... did Hope suddenly de-age into a kid? She was older than that.

Hope tells them that the X-Men are afraid of Scarlet Witch and what she can do. Dr. Strange hands them all a bead necklace called ‘Enchantments of Ikonn’ that will make the wearer look like the Scarlet Witch to scare the X-Men away. And so a small team of Captain America, Daredevil, Spiderman, Luke Cage and Sharon get ready as Phoenix Colossus leads the attack against them. Sharon activates the beads and looks like the Scarlet Witch which makes Colossus tell his team to fall back.

However, the Avengers are kinda stupid and overuse this trick too much and too soon. At the same time there is another battle taking place in the Ukraine and another at the Arctic Circle, both with fake Scarlet Witches. Cyclops realizes it’s a trick and tells the X-Men to keep up the fight. At the Pacific Ocean, another fight takes place as Namor demands to know where the Scarlet Witch is. However, this is where the real Wanda was. She helps the Avengers team warp away, along with a member of the X-Men named Transonic who is now captured. Namor tries to attack Wanda, but just a touch from her fingertips warps him back to Utopia.

Once regrouped, Namor is pissed at his defeat. Cyclops reminds him they are capturing Avengers and shutting down their facilities one by one. Namor tells him that this isn’t a game, and that while he might be a good leader, Cyclops is a failure as a ruler.

Elsewhere, Tony Stark notices the spike in power when the Scarlet Witch dealt with Magik and then with Namor. Somehow the powers of Wanda and the Phoenix are connected. Iron Fist arrives with Lei Kung and tells Tony that Lei can take Hope to K’un Lun so they can train her properly. Tony asks if they can all go.

At Utopia again, Namor talks to Emma about how pissed he is that the Avengers captured Transonic. Emma tells him she knows that Hope is in Wakanda and hasn’t told Scott yet. And then they kiss. Yep… those two are misbehaving… 

Back to Wakanda, Captain America tells the team that Wolverine and Hope are already in K’un Lun and tells the team their next plans. One of the Black Panther’s tribesman arrives and tells them about the ocean going crazy. Captain America already knows that this means Namor. And sure enough…. Phoenix Namor leads his troops from Atlantis into war against Wakanda.

My Opinions

A lot happened in this issue and it seems every page kept jumping from team to team and from location to location. Wether it’s a panel or a page, this issue went from Utopia to Wakanda to the Arctic Circle. And what the fuck was up with the 2-page spread in pages 8 and 9 zig-zagging from page to page. It was so hard to understand in what order I was supposed to read it and why the hell did Hawkeye kick Magik into Emma, if she was already up against her feet? Just made no sense, unless Clint kicked Magik just to be a dick.

I have to shake my head at Namor and Emma. But then again.. it’s hard to say ‘poor Scott’ since he also has had problems with staying faithful in the past. As for Namor… well, he doesn’t sound like much of a hero to me… Even when driven mad with power, Cyclops still wants to make the world a better place… it kinda sounds like Namor just wants to rule the world with an iron fist. Emma at least felt bad for frying Hawkeye to a crisp when her anger got the best of her. If they do wipe out the Avengers, I can see that when all is said and done and the world is a huge utopia, Namor would still challenge Cyclops for ruler of the world. Namor is just a liability.

I did notice She- Hulk in the crowd before Namor attacked Wakanda… so let’s hope we see her in action next issue. And yes, since I didn’t buy the tie-ins, I have no idea what members of the Avengers were captured so far. I guess it couldn’t be anyone too important since all the major Avengers seemed to have appeared in this issue.

Let’s see what happens next issue. As for Hope, let’s hope she’s not a toddler next time we see her.

Why does she keep getting younger in each issue?