Comic Reviews: Avengers vs X-Men

       This last summer Marvel did an event that many fans, myself included wanted to see, with a premiss that can be enjoyed by Avengers fans...not so much for the X-fans out there.  Quick warning, as with all of my reviews I will spoil some major elements.  Without further a due, lets dive into this event and tear it apart.

Plot

       The plot here is simple, the Phoenix force is back, this time for Hope Summers, and the Avengers want to protect her and stop the Phoenix.  Cyclops on the other hand, wants nothing to do with this.  He believes the Phoenix force is here to recreate the Earth in the mutant image.  This inevitably ends with a grudge match between the two groups.
     
        Being a child of the 90s, I know that whenever the Phoenix shows up, it never ends well, so you would think that the X-Men, who have relearned this lesson over and over again, would be all for protecting the mutant messiah and stopping the most dangerous being ever.  This is where the problem starts, it is hard to side with Cyclops when he is being retarded like this.  Granted I've personally never been a fan of Cyclops, but here I don't even get the change to see his side of things.  In fact halfway through the event Cyclops himself gains the Phoenix force and goes about threatening the world with it.  Then at the end he even kills his former mentor Charles Xavier.

       Personally I feel that the X-Men events of the past few years has led up to this, the death of Jean Grey, the devastation of the mutant race, the forming of X-Force, the creation of Utopia, The Schism, all of this has established Cyclops going down a dark road, one similar to the one Magneto took years ago.  This all ends with the logical conclusion, Cyclops is now the villain.  Though personally I feel he started down this road a bit earlier, when he chose to cheat on the epitome of good within the X-Men, Jean, with the plastic bimbo that is Emma Frost.

       As for the Avengers, Captain America is my all time favorite superhero, so naturally I'm gonna side with him in any argument.  From the first issue Hope is willing to go with them, but Cyclops keeps fighting it and tells Cap to "Get the hell off his island."  Cyclops even makes the first attack.  The Avengers spend the first arc of the event trying to reason with Cyclops and stop the Phoenix, once this proves futile and the Phoenix is divided amongst five of the X-Men, The Avengers are in hiding, training Hope to fight the Phoenix, and making strategic attacks on the "Phoenix Five", taking them out one at a time.

Characters

       As mentioned, the fight is between the Avengers and the X-Men, but who are the major players of these teams.  The main series, which is what I'm focusing on, has a relatively small cast.  The X-Men is basically the Phoenix Five, five members who the Phoenix divided its power into, they are Cyclops, Emma Frost, Namor, Magik, and Colossus.  The Phoenix force is slowly driving them crazy and eventually this leads to the involvement of other members who are actually on the side of the Avengers, like Xavier, Magneto, and basically everyone else.

       The Avengers are of course led by Captain America, Iron Man is trying to find a way to stop the Phoenix, Scarlet Witch who can actually harm the Phoenix, and Iron Fist, who is training Hope and providing a temporary HQ for the group.

       Other characters are involved, but to a lesser extent, although Spider-Man does defeat 2 members of the Phoenix Five on his own.  I feel this works well because having too many characters can take away from the story, sure there are side stories that give other characters the spotlight, but they don't contribute too much to the story here. 

My views

       Because I am a product of the 90s, I was a huge fan of the X-men, the cartoons, the movies, the video games, but I could never fully enjoy the comics for some reason.  Thus any event that puts them front and center, but not the only spotlight, I'm gonna enjoy.  Also this is a fight that I've been wanting for years.  My issues with this event stem from the X-Men, they're simply overpowered.  I know this is a plot point, but even without the Phoenix charging them up they seem to have little to no problem taking the Avengers.  In fact at one point Colossus' kid sister out-magics Doctor Strange himself. 

       Though honestly I do enjoy watching a hero that I've never liked crack under pressure and go evil, in this case Cyclops became obsessed with saving the mutant race, in the Ultimate series Mr. Fantastic loses his tether to humanity, these stories are great, and usually way better than when its the other way around.  Ultimately though, Marvel's events are what shapes the comics for the coming year, then a new event happens and the cycle repeats itself.  Thus the real gauge of how an event is depends on what happens next, with Cyclops gone many of his supporters are now criminals, Cyclops mentioned the Avengers never really cared about the mutants, so now there is an Avengers team that is half mutant, Xavier is dead, so now Wolverine is the new advocate for mutant peace.  Personally, I kinda like where this is going.  Thus I'm giving this event a B+.

       Disagree with me?  Have a question, comment, or opinion?  feel free to post it in the comment section, it may even change my views on some things.