Apparently my local comic book shop didn’t get the memo that Avengers vs. X-Men #1 was being shipped a week early so that stores could prepare for any launch day events on the scheduled release date of April 4. So while this week most of the comic book reading world only got to buy the prologue, Avengers vs. X-Men #0, this plucky young blogger got his hands on the first issue of Marvel’s Big Summer Event Comic! I bought it legally, fair and square. There were no back room dealings or shady bribes. My comic shop put it out on the shelf and I bought it. I asked them if they knew about the embargo, but they didn’t seem to have a clue. Not my problem.

Avengers vs. X-Men #1

So how is issue #1? This event is being billed as one of the biggest in Marvel history, with their two signature teams duking it out in a no-holds barred fightfest of epic proportions! The very fate of the world may be at stake!

Avengers vs. X-Men #1 actually pretty good. The story is told rather straightforward, introducing us to the threat that’s going to put the two teams against each other, introducing the main characters and their stakes in the fight, and finally ending with the ‘optic blast heard ’round the world’. And the reasoning behind why the two teams would fight one another is actually handled quite well. I can definitely believe that these heroes would come to blows in this situation, which definitely adds to the credibility of such a Big Event.

Comic rating: 4/5: Good.

On a personal level, this issue didn’t grab me, and the overall plot does nothing for me. The story is focused around the character of Hope Summers, who I’ve just never cared for. And considering how quickly her solo series, Generation Hope, was cancelled, I doubt I’m the only one. So to have such a Big Event riding on Hope is a misstep, in my opinion. But Marvel, and scripter Brian Michael Bendis, wisely leave the fisticuffs to Captain America and Cyclops, the leaders of the two teams. The conversation between the two of them at the end of the issue is brimming with ego and tension, and it works perfectly to kick off this epic battle. I’m definitely on board for this whole series now.

The only problems with the issue, in my opinion, are the art and the lack of any big badass moments. Artist John Romita Jr. is a god among comic artists, one of my all-time favorites. But his work in this issue comes off as sloppy and rushed. Characters who should be big and imposing are instead lumpy and hastily drawn. Faces are sometimes quite ugly. This is far from his best work. And as for big moments, there simply aren’t any. At least none we haven’t seen before. In order to get the reader up to speed on the plot, there doesn’t appear to be time for any edge of your seat excitement.

Hopefully that will change with future issues. Join me after the jump for a full synopsis with spoilers and deeper analysis.

Let me first say that I didn’t read the prologue Avengers vs. X-Men #0, I merely skimmed it. Basically it serves as an introduction to the Scarlet Witch (who doesn’t appear in issue #1), and Hope Summers, the main focus of this superhero scuffle. So you didn’t miss anything if you skipped the prologue issue. Though it might help to know a little bit about Hope, considering how new she is as a character, and how integral she is to the plot. In fact, there’s probably a lot of back story that new readers might not understand. So seeing as how I’m a guy who likes explaining things, I’ll interrupt my review from time to time to provide some Continuity Notes to help the uninformed better understand what’s going on.

Also, since the issue isn’t supposed to come out until next week, my review is going to be light on pictures and scans from the actual since there were no digital copies available yet.

The issue opens on a farm, but it’s not just any farm. We quickly see that it’s a farm run by aliens out on some distant planet. Why it looked so much like an Earth farm, I guess we’ll never know. But none of that matters, because soon the Phoenix flies through and destroys the entire planet in a wave of fiery doom!

Fiery doom takes bird form

Continuity Note: The Phoenix Force is this giant, fiery cosmic bird. It is one of the most powerful forces in the universe, and one of destruction. Years ago, the Phoenix Force possessed the X-Man Jean Grey, turning her into the monstrous Dark Phoenix. Together, Jean and the Phoenix destroyed an entire galaxy before she sacrificed herself to put the monster down. There is a lot more Phoenix continuity, but those are the only important parts. Now the Phoenix is on its way back to Earth.

We cut from outer space to Manhattan, with the Avengers hanging out at Stark Tower. There are several different Avengers teams these days, and this group is just The Avengers, no adjectives. We’ve got Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, Black Widow and a new guy named The Protector. He’s got a long history, being some kind of space hero, but I’m not going to get into it here. While the Avengers are bantering, they make it a point to mention the Protector by name as he teases Tony Stark about how to properly build a supersonic jet. I assume to let readers know this guy’s name, since he’s the only non-recognizable Avenger in this scene.

It’s a nice, quick introduction to the Avengers.

There are dozens of Avengers these days, but this is pretty close to the current lineup

Their playful banter is interrupted by a sudden burst of fiery light in the sky! Is it the Phoenix from a few pages ago? Whatever it is, the explosive comet immediately crashes into a jumbo jet, severing a wing and sending both crashing down towards the city. The fiery comet then crashes into the top of the Chrysler building too! The Avengers witness it all, and Thor cries out, “AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!” and the superheroes leap into action.

With the Mighty Mjolnir, Thor spins himself into a tornado to catch the plane’s fuselage. Ms. Marvel catches the top of the Chrysler building, with an unintentionally silly panel that shows all the tiny people falling out of it. Fortunately, Spider-Man is down below and creates a web net to catch everybody, complete with quip. Randomly, one of the guys in the webbing makes a comment about moving out of the City. That kind of comes out of nowhere, especially considering it’s not even a closeup. And Iron Man vaporizes the airplane wing before it can hurt anyone. The Avengers define the phrase ‘like a boss’.

Down on the street, Cap takes a crew to the crash site to investigate the comet and discover the intergalactic superhero Nova! The hero is only awake enough to cryptically mumble, “It’s coming…” before passing out.

He's a superhero...in outer space!

This was a nice introduction to the Avengers. They’re heroes, with a lot of colorful members, and they saved the day like they always do. Several important characters got a chance to shine, and they may become important later on. Though I don’t know why they went to the trouble of creating and introducing an entirely new Nova (it’s not Richard Ryder) if all he was going to do is pass out.

Next we cut to the the other half of the big fight, the X-Men, who are hanging out on their homebase on Utopia. Whereas the Avengers are pretty straight forward, a lot has changed in the world of X-Men over the past few years. Allow me a moment to explain their current situation, and how it will directly lead to this conflict.

Continuity Note: The X-Men are mutants, a different species from humanity. And as such, they are hated and feared by the human race, treated as a minority. In the world of superheroes, mutants are special because they are born with their mutant powers. Other heroes, like the Avengers, tend to be humans who come into their powers some other way. A few years ago, an event called M-Day took away the powers of 99% of the mutant population. They went from numbering in the millions to less than 200. As a result of becoming an endangered species, and with their backs against the wall, the X-Man Cyclops became de facto leader of the world’s remaining mutants, and he took them all out to an island safe haven called Utopia.

With outfits like that, no wonder it's considered a utopia

On Utopia, on this bright sunny day, Cyclops is having a sparring session outside with Hope Summers. He’s pretty rough with her, shouting and fighting dirty as a way to train her. He wants her to be tougher, to handle the threats she’s going to face in life.  He keeps telling her to come at him, but Hope can’t seem to get past the highly trained and skilled Cyclops. Still he yells for her to come at him again!

Turns out the white lingerie is a standard uniform

Continuity Note: Hope Summers is a fairly recent character. When M-Day took away all the mutant powers, it also snuffed out the mutant X-gene. No more children were being born as mutants – until Hope. She was the first mutant baby born since M-Day, her birth coming seemingly out of the blue. The X-Men fought hard to rescue her from the bad guys. To keep the baby Hope safe, the X-Man Cable (a time traveler) took her into the future and raised her as his own daughter. It wasn’t a pretty life. Cable and Hope were always on the run, always facing danger, and he raised her to be a soldier and a warrior. When she was a teenager, Cable and Hope returned to the present day and rejoined the X-Men.

Hope is said to be the Mutant Messiah. I’m not entirely sure what that means, but Cyclops believes it whole-heartedly. When she returned to the present day, new mutants started popping up across the globe. But they were not the same. Something was wrong with them. It was only when the new mutants came into contact with Hope that their powers stabilized. So in that way, she’s the messiah of the new mutants. Also, Hope’s mutant power is to mimic other mutant powers.

Anyway, back to the story. Cyclops and Hope are getting pretty rough with their sparring. Cyclops just won’t let up on her. Magneto is watching from afar. A few years ago, after Cyclops set up Utopia, Magneto turned over a new leaf. Rather than fighting for mutant domination anymore, Magneto has peacefully joined Cyclops and become one of the X-Men on Utopia. Magneto is soon joined by Emma Frost, Cyclops’ girlfriend. Magneto seems bothered by the intensity of Cyclops’ training regiment.

Down at the sparring session, Hope is gasping for air as Cyclops yells at her, “Again!” She demands to know why he’s pushing her so hard. What does Cyclops think is going to happen to her? But Cyclops just yells, “Again!”

Then Hope suddenly flares with a burst of the Phoenix, demanding that Cyclops answer her!

Not the actual picture, mind you, but this is what you get when you Google 'hope and phoenix'

Cyclops is blasted away, but he’s none the worse for wear. Magneto and Emma saw it too. Hope is still smoldering and smoking as she tries to collect herself, wondering what the heck just happened to her. She looks to Cyclops and asks if he saw that too.

Hope being somehow connected to the Phoenix has long been a rumor ever since she first appeared. So this isn’t much of a shocker or anything.

We cut to the White House, where Captain America and Iron Man are briefing the President and other officials about the dangers of the Phoenix Force. They were able to analyse the energy signatures on Nova and matched them to the energy signatures of the Phoenix, which they all remember from when Jean Grey became Dark Phoenix. Tracing the trajectories of Nova and the energy out in the universe, the Avengers have determined that the Phoenix is headed to Earth.

Hooray for few preview pages on the---what the hell is happening to Iron Man's face!?

So that’s the immediate danger of Avengers vs. X-Men. The Phoenix is coming to Earth, quite possibly to destroy everything and everyone. The Avengers plan on sending a squad out into space to try and stop it, though they know it might be a suicide mission. It’s still their first plan. Their discussion is then interrupted when one of their sensors detects Hope’s Phoenix flare-up on Utopia. They were monitoring for any signs of Phoenix activity. Cap and Iron Man are able to pinpoint the energy signature to Utopia, which means going after the X-Men.

Which means Cap first wants to have a word with Wolverine, who is currently serving as both an Avenger and an X-Man.

You'd be amazed at how many fights are started over Jean Grey

Captain America wants the X-Men and Avengers to work together, but Wolverine knows that Cyclops probably has some kind of plan for the Phoenix. Jean Grey was Cyclops’ wife, and he hasn’t been the same since she died. So Wolverine knows that Cyclops will have something up his sleeve for the Phoenix.

Continuity Note: Last year, the X-Men split in half in a story called Schism. I reviewed it for my blog, in case you want to go back and read. Cyclops has begun treating the X-Men like a militia on Utopia, training the mutants to be soldiers and superheroes. Wolverine disagreed with this tactic. He didn’t want the young, teenage mutants to be treated like that. So Wolverine broke away from Utopia and restarted the X-school out in Westchester, like the classic X-Men. He took half the X-Men with him, leaving Cyclops and his team behind.

Cap has come to the school to ask for Wolverine’s help. Wolverine tells Cap that he rebuilt the school so that the students wouldn’t have to fight. So Cap asks if he can count on just Wolverine then.

Whose side are you on? Wait a minute, that sounds kind of familiar...

That Wolverine doesn’t give an answer is very telling, I think. I would hazard to guess that Wolverine’s true loyalties will become revealed in time in the upcoming battle.

We cut back to Utopia, where Cyclops is meeting with his team: Emma Frost, Magneto, Namor and Colossus. Cyclops is hopeful that the Phoenix can help mutants. It always seems to keep coming back to them for some reason. First with Jean, now with Hope. He believes there has to be a reason that the Phoenix keeps coming to the X-Men, and he believes that as much as the Phoenix is about destruction, it’s also about rebirth. Cyclops thinks the Phoenix, through Hope, can lead to the rebirth of the mutant race.

Magneto and the Sub-Mariner are two of the top X-Men these days. Who woulda guessed?

Emma tells Cyclops that training Hope to handle the Phoenix is Hope’s choice, not his. Cyclops does not immediately reply, and then their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Captain America down on the shore. Emma senses him with her telepathy. He’s standing at the edge of the island and the ocean, and Cyclops goes out to meet him.

Cap is a man willing to get his boots wet just to make an impression

The other X-Men, including Hope, gather nearby to watch, though they can’t hear the two. Namor tells them that Captain America just being here has already got the situation ramped up.

What follows is a pretty awesome conversation between Captain America and Cyclops. I wish I could show you some pictures, but the free preview ends with that last page. I’ll do my best to sum it up.

Captain America immediately starts out the meeting by telling Cyclops that he wants to take Hope into protective custody. The Phoenix is coming, and his experts inform him that it’s headed towards Hope. Cyclops guesses that Cap’s ‘experts’ is Wolverine. Emma reads Cap’s mind and tells Cyclops, telepathically, that Cap isn’t leaving without Hope. Cyclops tells her, also telepathically, that it’s not going to happen.

Cyclops tells Cap that this is a mutant problem, and so the X-Men will take care of it. Cap tells Cyclops that this isn’t about mutants vs. humans. The Phoenix is a worldwide problem, and it needs to be handled. Cyclops tells Cap that maybe the Phoenix Force coming to Hope is the last, best hope for the rebirth of the mutant race, for Cyclops’ people. Cap is a little flummoxed, then tells Cyclops that he’s too close to the situation to fully understand. Cap was hoping they could work this out man-to-man, leader-to-leader. Cyclops tells Cap that Cap is too far away from the situation, and always has been when it comes to mutants. Where was Captain America when the mutants were losing their powers?

Cap replies that he was respecting Cyclops’ authority in the matter. If Cyke wants to have this conversation, fine. But it’ll have to wait for another day because they have to deal with the Phoenix Force now.

Cyclops tells Cap to, respectfully, get the hell of his island.

Namor tells the other X-Men that the gauntlet has been thrown. Cyclops is going to force Captain America’s hand.

Cap tells Cyclops that he wasn’t asking.

Cyclops tells Cap that he understood that completely.

In the words of the classic X-Men Arcade Game: “OPTIC BLAST!!”

Boys will be boys

That picture isn’t exactly what happens, but I don’t have the scan. Cyclops lets loose with one of those massive optic blasts that takes up nearly the entire page. Cap blocks it with his shield, but is still launched backwards several dozen yards. The X-Men are shocked, but Cap clearly expected this. He picks himself up and says softly, “Avengers Assemble.”

Then a gigantic helicarrier suddenly decloaks above Utopia. That none of the mutants knew it was there is a bit of a stretch, but no biggie. A team of more than a dozen Avengers appears on the bridge, ready to attack. We’ve got Spider-Man, Daredevil, Red Hulk, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Doctor Strange and more, already to kick X-Men ass. Also, Wolverine is with them. Dun dun dun!

The X-Men rush forward to join Cyclops, while he telepathically tells Emma Frost to grab Hope and keep her safe at all costs. Emma tells Cyclops that this is Hope’s choice, and Cyclops replies, “Not anymore!”

The issue ends with a closeup of the Phoenix flashing in Hope’s eyes.

And that’s issue #1 of Avengers vs. X-Men, the Big Summer Event! I enjoyed this issue. The characters are nicely introduced and we definitely understand the overall conflict of the Phoenix Force coming to Earth. So everything is nice and clear. No one side is portrayed as more correct than the others, even if Cyclops is kind of a dick to Hope when they’re sparring. Cyclops could very well have a point that the Phoenix might be able to help the mutant race. Plus there has to be a reason behind why the Phoenix is coming for Hope.

So both sides have legitimate points, and then the conversation between Cyclops and Captain America really sells the fight. Cap, obviously, came prepared to fight. And Cyclops has every right to tell Cap to leave and get off his property. If the X-Men suddenly showed up at Avengers Mansion and demanded that Cap turn over one of the Avengers, you damn well better believe Cap would stand and fight. So Cyclops is completely justified in blasting Cap away, because it was clear that Cap wasn’t going to take ‘no’ for an answer regarding Hope.

A lot of their discussion hinged on their egos, and that, I think, is an acceptable catalyst for this fight. There are no rules regarding superhero teams. There are no peace treaties or contracts between the Avengers and the X-Men. They’ve been friends in the past because they were all on the same side, but they mostly stayed out of each other’s business. And Cyclops in recent years has made the prosperity and safety of the entire mutant race his business. So in this matter, in dealing with the Phoenix, you really get the sense that Cyclops is sticking up for the entire mutant race when he stands up to Cap.

Meanwhile, Cap just wants to take every possible precaution to keep the world safe from the Phoenix. Even if that means shoving Cyclops out of the way.

So each man has a legitimate gripe, and neither man is going to back down. Plus they’re superheroes, so fighting is kind of their answer to everything. I hope the rest of the series is able to maintain this sensibility when it comes to the fighting. I’d hate for this series to just devolve into some kind of slugfest without any real point. At least the first issue was pretty good.