Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Avengers vs. X-Men Analysis Part 2 - Consequences

The mega crossover battle between the two biggest teams in the Marvel universe has come to an end. The only loser in this entire battle seems to be one man, Scott Summers, Wolverine and the rest of the X-Men have returned to the school leaving Utopia an abandon island. 

Now we get the Consequences story line, five issues going over what will become after the fallout of the AvX battle that we already aren't seeing over in Uncanny Avengers and in some of the other titles. 

Story is by Kieron Gillen with pencils by Tom Raney and colors by Jim Charalampiois.


Cyclops, Scott Summers, is in custody by the US government, he has been moved from his ruby quartz cell to an undisclosed location. He also has apparently lost 100lbs and is being forced to wear a helmet that makes his head twice as large with massive ruby quartz lenses to prevent him from using his power.

Its said that he is in a "private owned prison" and he's told now that the mutant problem has returned the facility is being fitted with provisions that will neutralize the mutants powers. Aside from the large helmet Cyclops is also wearing a collar that will allow mutants to be kept in general population. 

The color not only stops the use of powers but it can also cause an a short epileptic fit that will trigger if the powers are used, or if someone with a remote control sees it fit. There is one other prisoner in the cell block but its unclear as to whom it is at this point. 

The rest of the book is some really bizarre art work depicting how Hope would like to be a normal girl, Wolverine is far to upset with Cyclops to go to him to see if he can get him to help them gather the rest of the X-Tinction team rounded up and Iron Man and Ms. Marvel are trying to hunt down Magneto.

But while I would have thought that this prison with these measures were outside the knowledge of Captain America it turns out that is not the case as we see Wolverine has come to visit Cyclops in prison. 

Raney's artwork in this book is his typical style which is slightly exaggerated but the fact that Cyclops is drawn to look so thin along with his larger style head is a classic drawing technique when drawing villains. Heroes are drawn tall and strong, with hard jaw lines and very commanding features. Villains are drawn lanky and obtuse with larger heads to make them look odd and unpleasant to the eye. 

How has cyclops gone from this.
              OR This            

To This:


He's now apparently smaller than a government agent, has lost most of his muscle mass and is being depicted as a weak man with a large head. What have you done Marvel, why have you forsaken the man who brought the X-Men back from the brink.

On top of the depiction of our hero now being that of a villain, we should be asking, why is he being blamed for all of this and what exactly is he guilty of that some other heroes haven't also done.

Stay tuned for part 3 where I delve into other heroes who have committed acts of crime but were never persecuted.