Avengers vs X-men #1 Review

From the powerhouse creative team of Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron, Matt Fraction, Jonathan Hickman, Ed Brubaker, John Romita Jr., Adam Kubert and Olivier Copiel comes a groundbreaking event pitting Earth’s Mightiest against the X-Men with the entire Marvel Universe at stake. Cyclops and his team believe the arrival of the Phoenix Force will save mutant kind, but Captain America is convinced it will destroy the world! But who is right?

Summary

A member of the Nova Corps crash lands in New York. The Avengers find him and save the civilians before they can be injured. Before he lapses into a-coma he has a cryptic warning “it’s coming”.

On Utopia Cyclops is training Hope, he pushes her so far she manifests the Phoenix raptor and its power.

At the white house, Captain America and Iron Man inform the president that the destructive Phoenix force is headed to earth. Just then they pick up the signal of Hope manifesting the Phoenix power. They head to Wolverine’s school to ask for his help. He wants his school left out of things but sides with the Avengers.

On Utopia Cap arrives to take Hope into “protective custody” Cyclops obviously refuses so cap calls the Avengers and the Shield hellicarier for aid.

The Good

Story- despite the wafer thin concept this issue poses many moral questions. The Avengers have not had allot of experience with the Phoenix Force so I understand their perception that it’s a purely destructive force. The X-men have a more intimate knowledge and relationship with the force. They have seen it destroy and create life (they had Jean, the cookoo’s, Rachel etc all wield the power for both good and bad). This is typified in the exchange between Scott and Steve “You’re too close to this….and you’re too far”. Also, Cap came to Utopia to make demands when they are an independent state? Would he have walked into Latveria and demand Doom turn over his ward? Um….No!

On another note let’s look at this story from the perspective of race. If your race whether black/white/Asian etc was on the verge of extinction and your “savior” the person who will bring your race back to prominence was on the line…is there anything you would not do to protect said person? How would you react to someone coming in and telling you “hand over you’re your Jesus/Buddha etc” ? Food for thought!

Whose side are you on – There are merits on both sides of the fence. Cap is looking at the safety of the planet itself while Scott’s concern is for his dying race a very minute percentage of earth’s population. What’s morally right is based on the benefit of the many…..does this apply here?

Hypocrisy- The Avengers plan to keep hope in “protective custody” while Wanda Maximoff the scarlet witch who decimated a race and killed her teammates is allowed to roam free? She was even invited back into Avengers mansion recently (see avengers vs X-men #0) If Hope is going to be “remanded” that bitch should be given the electric chair (lol) straight up undiluted hypocrisy!

Black Superheroes- We already know Storm will side with the X-men and T’challa is all about the “big picture” so he’ll side with Cap. What does this mean with their often ignored marriage? Probably not a damn thing!  More curious is Luke Cage who has a young daughter. He should relate to Scott and the X-men’s need to “protect family” plus we all know two superhumans usually birth a mutant child…so his daughter may in fact be “one of them”. The other person most to be impacted by what takes place (potentially) is long absent Bishop. If Hope is the destroyer him and the avengers believe he will finally be able to come back into the X-men fold + how cool would it be if he was right all along and the X-men have been pursuing the wrong course of action in protecting her? That would be a hoot. Let’s see how things play out and if any or our heroes get a prominent role!

The Bad

Concept- Phoenix again, I know right! lol

Action- Not allot and not what you would expect given the vs in the title.

The Ugly

I expected to be underwhelmed and was surprisingly entertained from start to finish this issue. Will things continue this strong story wise or will it become a big who vs who? Time will tell 4.5/5