By Mark Rodriguez
The Phoenix has arrived to Earth and in an attempt to stop it, Iron Man managed to split it into 5 parts. These powers went to Cyclops, Emma, Namor, Colossus and Magik, but whenever one of them gets defeated, their power goes to the others. At this point only Cyclops and Emma remain with those godly powers. After Hope was able to defeat Cyclops after she absorbed the powers of the mystical dragon Shao Lao, Cyclops now goes after Emma's powers.
The issue opens with Captain America asking someone for help since at this point this is a fight against Scott Summers and the Phoenix Force that they just can't win. If they lose this fight, they will lose everything. The person he is talking to is none other then The Hulk, and he will agree to help them.
The Avengers and the X-Men all gather together including Spider-Man, Storm, She-Hulk, Psylocke, Gambit and Rogue to name a few. Iceman tells Xavier to look into his mind and they both know that Scott is like a son to Xavier and a brother to Iceman. Xavier understands, but now the time has come to take him down. Hope is also ready.
On Utopia, Emma senses that Scott wants her power. She knows that whenever one of them loses their power, it goes to the rest of them, and now they're the only two with Phoenix Power. Who takes the powers of the other becomes the actual Phoenix. Cyclops denies this and says that's what Emma is thinking. Emma says she knows they have the power to burn everything over and reshape the world the way they want it to be. Cyclops tells her to stop and Emma says this is what Captain America, Wolverine or Xavier what have done with their power. Cyclops asks what happened to her and she doesn't know. Just then, Cyclops feels something happening.
Xavier is in Scott's head, telling him he can still help him. Cyclops says he's the one putting the world back the way it should be while Xavier did nothing for years. Xavier says he didn't come to argue but he is shutting him down. Cyclops says he won't let him ruin what he started. He tries to attack but his Phoenix powers aren't working. Xavier tells him that they are inside Cyclops' head and the battle is already lost. Scott demands Xavier get out of his head. The rest of the heroes appear behind them as Xavier stares down Cyclops, leaving him unable to attack.
Captain America leads the heroes to fight Scott and Emma while Xavier continues to keep control. Xavier forces Scott to kneel and tells him he's asked him to stop, now he's making him stop. Emma tries to stop this and Storm blasts her with lightning.
Cyclops fires an optic blast at Xavier than Captain America deflects with his shield. Cyclops tells Xavier he is forcing him to do something he doesn't want to do. Scarlet Witch blasts Cyclops with her powers. Emma flies behind Wanda and engulfs her in Phoenix powered flames. Hulk appears behind Emma and slams his fists down on with all his might. Xavier tells Cyclops to stay down. Cyclops engulfs himself in flames and says if they could stop him they already would have. He flies towards Xavier and Magneto stands between them and tells him to stop.
Magneto says he doesn't want to take this too far and that he's the one that brought Xavier here. Cyclops says they're here to kill them. Magneto tries to reason with him but Cyclops won't listen. Scott engulfs Magneto in flames. Scarlet Witch comes to protect her father, swirling the flames around him and knocking Cyclops back. Thor flies in to attack Cyclops but gets blasted back with flames. Just then, an arrow hits Cyclops in the back of the neck.
Spider-Woman congratulates Hawkeye on the shot. Hawkeye says Cyclops is going to kill him now, but Spider-Woman says it was still a nice shot. Cyclops pulls the arrow out and tells Xavier that they're here to assassinate them. Iceman drops piles of ice on Scott saying that they're only after him, everybody is sick of him at this point.
Xavier says this is his fault since he put Cyclops on this path. He hope when he awakens, he won't remember a thing. Cyclops tells Xavier to get out of his head. Xavier falls to the ground. Storm begs Scott to stand down. Scott tells Emma he's sorry as he flies up and blasts her out of the sky. Emma falls to the ground, not believing he just did that. Cyclops lands on her and grabs onto her. Spider-Woman says he's killing her, but Red Hulk says he's taking her half of the power. He is now taking the Phoenix Force for himself.
Cyclops lets go of Emma, now unconscious and back to normal. Xavier tells him to look around all the damage he's caused and begs him to stop, calling him son. Scott, now engulfed in flames says he is not his father. Xavier says this is enough and Scott says it is as he attacks Xavier. The heroes can only watch as the Phoenix shows itself in all its splendor. As the flames subside, Scott stands above Xavier, his long-time mentor, now dead.
Cyclops cries and asks why they made him do this and asks Captain America if he's happy now. Wolverine tells Hulk to throw him, but Cyclops lights him up like a fireball before he can even make contact. Thor wants to stop him but Captain America says it's too late now. Cyclops looks down and says this is what Jean felt like. As he kneels and yells out in anguish, he is engulfed in flames. Spider-Man asks what's happening. Beast tells him it's their worst nightmare. Scott has now become the Dark Phoenix.
My Thoughts-
The story continues as Cyclops completely lost his mind. It seems both him and Emma were corrupted to their inner darkness, but in different ways. Cyclops is still determined to somehow use Hope to save mutantkind and I guess, bend the world to his will, while Emma wants to flat out destroy everything and start over. It gets to the point where Emma's dark side even worried Scott, while Emma doesn't get why he doesn't see things her way.
I don't see why Hulk was really needed in this one since they already have heavy hitters like Red Hulk, She-Hulk, Dr. Strange and so forth. I'm sure Hulk is stronger than all of them but other than that big crater he pounded Emma and Scott into, he didn't do all that much. Kinda wish Thor did more, he either gets curb stomped a lot or is told to stand back.
Also we never got what Iron Man was talking about in the last issue where it looks like he was going to explain how Hope was able to negate Cyclops' powers and warp him away with a super punch. I guess it was explained in the tie-ins but c'mon guys.
At this point Cyclops reached the point of no return as he does the unthinkable, kill Charles Xavier. This wasn't some minor character, this was Professor X, what the hell Cyclops? Even before he got the Phoenix powers, he was already going down a dark path and at this point he's reached the end of the road. He's the Dark Phoenix so we'll see how this whole story gets resolved.
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