Avengers Vs. X-men #11 Review

There can be only one who wields the Phoenix Force and the Avenger/X-Men war leads to a fatality.

Summary

Captain America recruits Hulk to his cause while the X-men who have realized that Scott has been corrupted also join the Avengers. Together with Xavier they plan to make their finale stand against the Phoenix two.

On Utopia Scott and Emma debate what they should do, either remake the world or take the force for themselves individually and do whatever they desire. They are attacked by the combined team and Scott meets Xavier on the Psionic plane. In the middle of the Fight Scott violently takes the force from Emma and seemingly kills Xavier before becoming the Dark Phoenix.

The Good

Cover- Emma Frost and Scott Summers face off over who will wield the Phoenix force while the Avengers are all but powerless in the background.

Emotional-What a f***ing sad state of affairs this turned out to be for my favorite comic book couple.

Scott and Emma the pillar of the mutant community the literal symbol of mutant togetherness in this issue are separated personifying a literal split throughout the mutant race. Schism may have split them in two and the start of AVX could have lead to reconciliation but the descent into madness of the Phoenix five has damaged the dream of a mutant nation. I understand that the Phoenix has apparently corrupted both BUT the cracks have been in the dam for years this is just where the whole dam comes crashing down. Sad day for SummerFrost fans!

Another emotional exchange was between Scoot and Xavier. Words can’t describe the mixed emotions going through me after reading this. Scott’s most influential father figure the man who forged him into the single minded tactical leader of the X-men was Charles Xavier. To hear Xavier tell Scott that he was disappointed in him must have cut deeper than any sword. When Scott lashes out at Xavier I understood the emotions behind it. Scott is what Charles has made him, Xavier could not achieve what Scott did, Xavier literally refused to find an alternate to Scott’s methods, Xavier has waited until all this escalation when he could have stopped things from ever getting this far, how far would he have gotten if he had sat down with Scott and discussed alternatives to being so militant? Instead Xavier comes in pompous and lofty as always to pass judgment after all the secrets he kept from the X-men Scott in particular all those years ago; I’m thinking of his secret x-men team which included Scott’s own brother Gabriel which he kept hidden for years among many other secrets like using killers like Sage and Mystique to do jobs he never wanted the X-men to be involved in. I could go on for awhile so I’ll leave it at this, Xavier’s exchange was hypocritical and for too condescending for my taste. I hope Xavier is dead he’s a character that has not aged very well, he’s a dinosaur much like classic superman who simple have no weight in modern comics. Put him on a shirt to wear at the Jean Grey School and be done with it!

Magneto and his daughter also had a powerful moment in this issue. Wanda is Magneto’s estranged daughter. She started out on his team the brotherhood before becoming an avenger and reforming. Years later she would go crazy and her power threatened existence itself. The X-men and Avengers debated killing her to save earth. Her daddy disagreed and saved her from certain execution. HOM came about in her trying to create the family she never had, granting Magneto his wish of mutants ruling the word and satisfying the desire of the Avengers and the X-men at the time. When Magneto sided with the heroes in trying to take her down and destroy her word she stripped most of earths mutants of their powers and literally stopped evolution in its tracks to punish Daddy. To say they have a complicated relationship would be the understatement of the year! When she tops Scott from Killing magneto was this an emotional response or just saving a valuable ally? Even more than Quicksilver she and Magneto have always been drawn together, every father needs his princess and every daughter longs for the approval and the loving protectiveness of her father. Will this catalyze a change in their relationship? We can always hope!

Action– How can you not be entertained with all the explosions, fists, fires in this issue? It’s like glorified fan fiction and I can admit I enjoyed it!

Art-Oliver Coipel was the best pick for this issue and he delivered big time!  The destruction and chaos of this issue looked good from start to finish.

Black Heroes- Falcon, Luke Cage and Storm are a here though not even one of them does anything remotely meaningful.

The Bad

Blue Marvel– Where is marvel’s big gun? With Sentry dead the next best thing would have to unequivocally be Blue Marvel, literally a black superman. He was absent from siege, from Doomwar now from AVX? Can we retcon his existence because if he’s not going to be used in any major storyline despite being one of the most powerful being s on the planet, its ridiculous! Unless he’s not on earth why has he been out of action? Is he a yellow belly coward who would rather sit at home and watch things unfold instead of get his hands dirty? He may as well NOT exist if he’s relegated to Limbo after barely being introduced! 

Scott Summers- Talk about the road to hell being paved with good intentions. So now that Scott has the entirety of the phoenix force he’s been corrupted by it and like jean before him is now “Dark Phoenix”. I know they planned to vilify Scott in particular but this even by my understanding standards is a bit much!

Hope Summers- Seriously? What purpose does this chick serve? All this hell for this jean wannabe and she’s useless until next issue? Get rid of this chick swiftly PLEASE I hate her so much more than Jean Grey/Phoenix right now! What a worthless waste of paper!

Death- Xavier’s death had little effect on me and I’m sure most readers will agree. He’s been irrelevant for years now why would his death warrant any attention?

Phoenix Power- Two Omega class mutants with unlimited power can’t beat a band of Avengers and X-men? seriously? Being punched by Hulk is a viable battle option against the power to create and destroy all reality? Ok! Whatever you say!

Alternate Covers-Hate is too kind a word for what I feel for those alternate covers where Psylocke and Black Widow face off. Are they even in this issue? Why not have an alternate cover with Cyclophoenix faces off with Captain America? I don’t know but that would have been relevant and far more fitting.

The Ugly

Love It or hate it AVX is a game changer for marvel (at least for a few years) and it’s entertaining to boot! This issue will have message boards and chats across the Internet alight and honestly the best literature is always controversial and hotly debated, so Bendis Avengers vs X-men get a high recommendation of 4/5