Avengers vs. X-Men Review

Avengers vs. X-Men was Marvel Comics big crossover event in 2012 and sees two of Marvel’s biggest teams enter into a 12-issue conflict.

The Phoenix Force is coming to Earth intending to bond with Hope Summers. Knowing how destructive the Phoenix Force can be, the Avengers go to Utopia so they can take Hope into protective custody. Scott Summers/Cyclops plans to defy the Avengers and lead the X-Men against Earth’s Mightiest Heroes since he believes Hope can reverse the Decimation.

Marvel pulled out all the stops when working on Avengers vs. X-Men. Brian Michael Bendis (Ultimate Spider-man, House of M) was the credited writer and many of Marvel’s biggest writers worked on the story, including Jonathan Hickman (Fantastic Four), Ed Brubaker (Captain America), and Matt Fraction (The Invincible Iron Man). Avengers vs. X-Men aimed to act as a conclusion to the events started in House of M where the Scarlet Witch eradicated 98% of mutants and dwindled their numbers down to 198 individuals.

Avengers vs. X-Men had a load of dramatic threads to pull on. The obvious one involved Cyclops wanting to reverse the Decimation and in desperation were willing to do anything. Magneto pointed out that the Cyclops, leader of the X-Men was acting more like the famous villain. Mutantkind had fear and hatred for the Scarlet Witch since she put them on the edge of existence. Within the mutant community there was a divide since Wolverine sided with the Avengers because he believed Cyclops had lost it and went rogue by trying to kill Hope. Hope didn’t want to be a pawn in Cyclops’ plan. Whilst within the Avengers, Scarlet Witch had been rejected by her husband since she altered all of reality which resulted in one of the biggest disasters in the Marvel Universe.

The miniseries aimed to be a big epic story that was filled with characters from both teams. It spanned across the globe and even went to the Moon. However, a lot of the characters were in the background and used in action sequences. The main characters in the story were Captain America, Iron Man, Wolverine, Black Panther, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Colossus, Magik, Namor, and Magneto. Other characters did have supporting roles, like Charles Xavier, and Spider-man. It was a lot to keep up with.

Avengers vs. X-Men felt like it was written by multiple writers. The first few issues were light in tone and the characters quipped as they did in the later Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, then issue #5 opened with Hope monologuing about the use of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and asking who should have a sense of guilt. It was jarring.

The miniseries was written with the intent to get readers to side with The Avengers. Cyclops was made to be a jerk, even before he was taken over by the Phoenix Force. He was forcing Hope to constantly train and kept her on Utopia. The miniseries turned into a power corrupts story where the Phoenix Five reshaped the world in their image and the Cyclops goes off the deep end towards the end. The stakes were high since the Avengers were forced into hiding and it took a tremendous effort to take down one member of the Phoenix Five. However, the characters didn’t ring true, especially the X-Men since Cyclops sounded an extremist, and considering his history with the Phoenix, he should have been the one determined to stop the Phoenix, not work with it. There was also a question why would the X-Men go along with Cyclops’ madness? Magneto was trying to act as a voice of reason.

This anti-X-Men slant felt like it was mandated by the executives. Marvel was brought by Disney in 2009 but Fox still had the film rights for the X-Men and Fantastic Four. Marvel Comics tried to sideline those teams for the characters they owned the film rights to. In the 2010s, Marvel cancelled the Fantastic Four comics and tried to elevate the Inhumans to take the place of the X-Men.

Avengers vs. X-Men was a chunky graphic novel, with 384 pages. There was constant action since so many characters entered into fights with each other. It became a bit tiresome since there needed some slowdown so character development and world-building could flourish. Visually it was impressive but the pretty cover didn’t hide the empty substance.

Avengers vs. X-Men was a big, bloated story that didn’t have the material to justify the length. Newcomers to comics will probably be lost whilst more knowable readers will be frustrated by how inconsistent many of the characters were.