Avengers Vs X-men #9 Review

Summary

Our story opens up with Colossus and Magik utterly pummeling Thor. The remaining Avengers retreat to Kun Lun. After the Rasputin duo drop Thor in a volcano, Storm realizes the corruption of the remaining Phoenix powered X-men and advises her fellow X-men to leave Utopia. She visits Wakanda only for T’challa to inform her there marriage has been annulled.

In Ethiopia Emma Frost is being corrupted by the Phoenix but Cyclops is too busy trying to save Hope to realize her pleas for help.

The Avengers try to rescue their captured members and run into Professor X and Storm who are there to do the same thing. Prof Shields them while they make their way inside. The Rasputin’s attack and Spider-man decides to sacrifice himself to save his team. They bang him up real good but turn on each other in the end. This causes the Phoenix to depart both of them leaving Emma and Scott the sole remaining Phoenix hosts.

In Kun Lun the avengers regroup only for Cyclops to show up telling Hope to come home.

 

The Good

Cover- The cover with Spider-man battered and bruised is gorgeous and foreboding.  The other stand out covers are the Colossus Spiderman and Cyclophoenix ones the rest are not worthy of the cover price.

Rasputin duo- Have you ever wondered what a completely twisted version of Ilyana and Colossus could be like? Oh lord are they creepy! The mini limbo Magik has made is ripped straight from Ridley scott’s Aliens. Absolutely disturbing on every conceivable level and the fact that Colossus is OK with this is proof of just how far he’s fallen.

Emotional- Before I even got the issue in my hands the internet was set ablaze by talk of Black Panther and Storm’s annulled marriage. It left me with mixed emotions. Now having read it cover to cover I’m overcome with emotions about fictional relationships I haven’t felt in years! The last time I was this upset was when Kyle Rayner and Jade broke up. I’m literally distraught that my two favorite couples in comicdom are unraveling at the seams. I’ve already talked about Storm and T’challa exhaustively (Read the post here). Emma Frost and Scott Summers are done! Scott my brave, fooling single minded jackass is again not paying attention to his woman. Jean drifted to wolverine they ceased communicating. The big draw of him and Emma was that they were on the same page, of the same mind on just about everything but more than that they communicated. There wasn’t a whole lot he didn’t know about her or her about him it was a relationship perfect for a man who was to lead the mutant race back from the brink of extinction (and yes I’m saying that well aware they started off with the telepathic affair). Unfortunately as the end game approached he started neglecting Emma much the way he did Jean and like Jean Emma often found solace with a teammate this time Namor. This issue is the perfect example of Scott dropping the ball with his woman…again….as X-men fans will remember Emma has hosted the Phoenix before see “Phoenix  Endsong” and she could not handle it. With that in mind Scott should have been keeping a very keen eye on her instead of focusing al his energy into finding and stopping he avengers and securing Hope Summers. I also get the logic in his mind with finding Hope after all if he finds her he saves or creates millions of mutants if he loses five x-men even if he loves one of them its justified. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

Action-More action then you can shake a stick at! Believe it!

Spider Man- This issue captured the essence of peter Parker very well as the “Wisecracking underdog with a heart of gold” instead of raw power Peter’s words are seen as his greatest weapon. Kudos on the execution!

Black Heroes- Storm and Black Panther despite officially having their marriage annulled have banded together to stop the remaining Phoenix hosts. It’s about good god damned time Storm did something to remind us she exists as anything other than a figurine!

Art- Adam Kubert hits all the right notes. The fights are well choreographed and brutal. You can literally feel the pummeling that Spider-man and Thor get this issue.

The Bad

If you hated Scott and Emma rejoice this is clearly the twilight of “Scemma” (Scott + Emma).

Storm fans will be happy that Black Panther   has been kicked to the curb…or has she been kicked to the curb? Whatever!

Covers- Daredevil vs Archangel as a cover…really? Were either of these guys even in the damn book?!

The Ugly

Honestly this issue had major developments. The death of two iconic relationships, the corruption of Emma Frost, the defeat of Thor, Scott arriving in Kun Lun and Storm rebelling against Scott! This is the issue Avengers Vs X-men has been waiting on. Completely buzz worthy and controversial on every level! 4.5/5