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Avengers-X-Men AXIS # 1

By Mark Rodriguez

There's been several changes in the Marvel Universe by the time we got this far. Captain America had lost his powers and started showing his natural age, so Falcon is the new Captain America. Thor has lost his hammer (and his arm) and now there is a female Thor. Wolverine is dead and Old Man Logan takes his place, and the Fantastic Four comic is cancelled. Now that we got some of that explained, this is a cool saga where characters gets their good and evil alignments shifted around, which also means that this major Marvel Event will also focus on the villains and not just the heroes fighting each other all the time. Let's check it out.


The comic recaps how the Phoenix-Powered Cyclops killed Xavier during the Avengers VS X-Men story. Captain America enlisted Havok, Cyclops' brother to recruit some of the X-Men as fellow Avengers so the world can see that human and mutant superheroes can work together. However the Red Skull has Xavier's brain, mutant powers and all, and wants to rage war between humans and mutants, hoping to wipe out all of mutantkind for good. The Red Skull was defeated, but he started a mutant re-education camp in Genosha, in which Havok, Rogue, Scarlet Witch and Magneto were captured. Once freed, Magneto killed the Red Skull but this backfired and due to a burst of psychic energy, the Red Skull is now... The Red Onslaught....

The story starts with the Avengers flying into action against a bunch of over-grown plants. The villain is Plantman (really Marvel... Plantman?) and the heroes prepare to fight him. Sam Wilson tells Thor to cut the plants off the building before they collapse and Thor argues against it. The argument escalates as Thor tosses his ax at the Cap with enough strength to send him flying. Vision leaves, but Thor insults him, which now has the android pick a fight with him. Vision flies right through the jet that  Black Widow, Hawkeye and Hulk were flying in, causing it to go down.

Iron Man defeats Plantman and sees if the others have calmed down. It seems everyone is hearing voices in their heads that is causing rage and anger against each other. Hulk is angry at Iron Man and starts attacking him. Iron Man detects a telepathic frequency and is able to reverse it and undo the effect on everybody. Hulk drops Iron Man and apologizes and everyone else is back to normal. They report this to Steve Rogers, and he tells the others that this broadcasted signal has hit everywhere and major riots have erupted in all the major cities.

Elsewhere, Havok is being mentally manipulated by the Red Skull to join his cause. Magneto, Rogue and Scarlet Witch are all fighting against the gigantic Red Onslaught who thanks Magneto for all of this power he achieved upon his death. Red Skull gets into Wanda's mind and turns her over to his side. Magneto attacks him, but Havok arrives and blasts him back. Magneto lands in another room where Cyclops, Quintin and Genesis (Apocalypse reborn)  are and sets them free while telling them what happened.


Havok leap in and attacks Cyclops, telling him that Magneto killed the Red Skull, just like he killed Xavier. As he beats his brother down, Genesis blasts Havok away. Genesis tells Havok that he should be following Xavier's example... and he's suddenly impaled by one of Ahab's spears.

At the Avengers tower, Steve will send Spidey with some others to help keep the peace. Falcon tells him that the nuclear powers are getting their warheads ready. Iron Man will try to cancel out the signal worldwide, but it will take time. Wasp is off by her own and wonders they they continue to fight if it ends up costing them so much all the time.



Back to the battle, Onslaught wants Scarlet to bend reality to his views and attacks Rogue. Rogue decides to touch Onslaught and absorb some of his psyche. Inside Onslaught's mind, she sees Xavier who warns her that Onslaught is hatred given form and no matter what must be done, they have to end this nightmare. Rogue lets go of Onslaught and manages to block his mind and tackle Wanda down.

Ahab continues to taunt Havok and Scott as he tosses his deadly spears at them. Cyclops jumps in the way and takes a spear to the shoulder that meant to kill his brother. Wanda feels distraught and has lost all confidence in herself, but Rogue tries to cheer her up and is sure they can all take down Onslaught together. Just then Iron Man arrives and starts shooting at the giant hate monster. The Avengers arrive and start attacking Onslaught.

Ahab prepares to kill Cyclops as Havok watches on, too injured and dazed to do anything. Just then Nightcrawler appears, alongside Colossus and Storm and they quickly take him down. Nightcrawler asks if they can set aside their differences and work together for the sake of Charles' memory. Cyclops agrees to it. Havok wonders how they're going to defeat such a huge foe, but Storm tells him that help is on the way. Beast, Ice Man, the Hulk, The Invisible Woman and many others leap into action eager to take the Red Skull down (though Iron Fist gives the defeated Ahab and extra punch for good measure). Iron Man taunts him and tells him all his telepathy powers are just frequencies he can counter against.


Onslaught however reveals his trap card, saying that he can see into Tony's mind and gain access to all of the Civil War files he created with information on all the powers and weaknesses of the other heroes that he had erased from his own mind. The Red Skull says Tony was working hard and building his machines under his telepathic influence. Red Skull unleashes two Adamantium Stark Sentinels, programmed to kill all the heroes.


The story starts right at the action, since it feels like it continues right after whatever X-Men comic had Magneto kill Red Skull and set off these events. It still does a decent job to explain how we got to this point, and I always appreciate those pages that list all the characters involved.

There is also something I missed, but is mentioned in the story. Something involving Havok and Wasp having a child in the future, but having her being erased from existence by Kang. This is something that we see Wasp angst about, and something that Ahab taunts Havok about. I mostly remember Ahab as an enemy from one of the X-Men's various horrible futures, and he was a boss in that classic, but annoying Genesis X-Men game.


My Opinions-

Good story, really dives into the point from the get-go. The art is awesome, but wow, there is literally a LOT of red in this, or at least during the battle against Red Skull. It's like he must give off this bright red light or something that the whole area seems subdued in it. This seems to be a weekly story so there will be a new comic each week on this. 'World War Hate' will also spread throughout the other comics in the Marvel Universe, including Deadpool and Loki and hey, for whatever reason this merits Hobgoblin to get his own series.

I liked a lot of the one liners, but wasn't expecting to see so much of them, especially during such a serious battle.... but I guess these guys face end-of-the-world type battles every other week that it becomes a joke after a while. I like where Falcon said he never punched a Nazi before and Iron Man tells him every Captain America has to at least punch one.

Looking back I loved how End Game pays homage to this era of the Marvel Universe, as that movie also ends with an aged Steve Rogers (though he aged naturally in this case) letting Sam take the shield. I loved seeing that reference and it took me back to this era of the comics, since nowadays Steve is back as Captain America.


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