I am a huge Marvel fan, have been since I've been a child and I've been far more of an X-Man fan my entire life than I have an Avengers fan. In fact I never collected an Avengers book regularly until the New Avengers book began. Adding Spider-Man and Wolverine to the team made me want to read the book more.
So when the idea of an Avengers vs. X-Men story line was announced not only was I excited because at this point I was reading both groups books, but I felt it was about time that the two teams were a part of the same major story line that was running through comics. For too long the major story lines and crossovers have only centered around the Avengers, leaving the mutants out of the game. While I wasn't sure where the battle would end, I was looking forward to somewhat of a mutually good outcome, but sadly I was wrong.
First lets inspect Round 12, Cyclops has turned Dark Phoenix and is in an all out war with The Avengers, clearly no longer in control of his body the cosmic force of destruction and rebirth has taken the helm.
Skipping across the globe, Paris, Sydney, Bejing, Sacramento and more the Phoenix force is wreaking havoc with the Earth, setting it ablaze. He even tells the Avengers the world is not for them and he is there to let the world burn and have a new one rise from its ashes.
Throughout the fight however they keep refering to Cyclops as "him" but if we recall when they took on Jean Grey and the Phoenix they refered to the Phoenix as an "it" they seperated Jean from the Phoneix throughout the fight. In this we see our heroes lashing out not so much against The Phoenix Force as we do Scott Summers.
In mid battle after being struck with Cap's sheild, and a flashback of better times occurs with him and Wolverine being pals. He remembers Xavier and being young and with a repulsor blast hitting him Scott Summers for the first time shows up in this battle to call out. "Please kill me before its.." and with no mental powers to speak of we lose Scott to the Phoenix again.
One more moment of Scott Summers comes and a shadowed woman enters his veiw from the flames. Is it Jean Grey, embeded in The Phoenix, or just Scotts imagination, whatever it is, its enough to have him shed a tear and allow himself to be taken down by Hope and The Scarlett Witch.
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We then get Cyclops in a cell made of ruby quartz being yelled at by Captain America while he sits there emotionless, almost content with what he's done. This is not my Cyclops, not through Schism, not since he was taken over by Apocalypse himself have we seen the leader of the X-Men like this. The man being controlled by a cosmic entity of destruction had just killed the man who trained him, who he considered a father and the likes of Captain America and Wolverine want to point out to him what he's done.
Wolverine says he has nothing to say because he has to go write a eulogy. This is the same man who is secretly running X-Force and running around the planet killing people. He's also apparently forgetting all the times he and Charles never got along. Or the times he and Cyclops rebuilt the X-Men to being a premiere team after Charles was gone again. Or just not that long ago when his own soul was sent to Hell and his best friend Cyclops assembled a team to get his soul back from Hell and stop him from killing more innocent people.
Marvel, I'm disappointed, this could have gone a different way, sure Cyclops had to be stopped, but we weren't stopping Scott Summers, we were stopping the Phoenix. What has come after Round 12 in the book Consequences is even worse.
Watch for my update on that tomorrow right here on The BOOM Page where we have Avengers vs. X-Men Diagnosis
