Avengers vs. X-Men slows down to once again get inside its characters’ heads, and I am grateful for that. The series is also much better for it. We get a good look into the mindsets of all the remaining PhoeniX-Men, and it’s definitely not as frustrating as last issue. They actually come out and acknowledge that the dark influence of the Phoenix is effecting their minds, instead of just everybody assuming that they’re bad guys despite all the good they’re doing. We also get some quality character moments for some of the supporting characters, like Storm and Spider-Man.

Avengers vs. X-Men #9

Because all the best Marvel stories come down to Spider-Man. Though I will say that he feels totally out of place in a story like this.

Comic rating: 4/5: Good!

If you remember my review of last issue, I was apoplectic about Avengers vs. X-Men. The story has been frustrating the hell out of me, with the X-Men being painted as monsters when the comic has done little to actually show them being monsters. The PhoeniX-Men have been ending hunger, stopping earthquakes, halting war and all other manner of great things. But everybody reacts to them as demonic evil that needs to be killed. It annoyed me to no end. So with this issue, the series finally underlines the idea that the Phoenix Force is influencing them to be evil. Not straight up evil, and they’re all kind of aware that it’s happening, but at least it nicely, finally defines the PhoeniX-Men as proper antagonists. I understand them now.

And I really like it. I’ll reveal more in the full review after the jump, but this issue really nails down exactly what the conflict has become and where it might be going. The PhoeniX-Men make another evolution, one I am eager to read. The Avengers are a little stale this issue, but at least they’re not the hosebags they’ve been for the past couple issues.

Join me after the jump as I reveal how Avengers vs. X-Men is back in my good graces!

We open with a single page showing us what happens “17 hours from now”. Phoenix Colossus is punching someone and telling them to stay down. It’s a pointless page that accomplishes nothing. The reveal of who is getting beat down isn’t all that surprising.

The book properly starts with Spider-Man training Hope in K’un Lun, the mystical city of kung fu. The Avengers fled there at the end of last issue. The fact that Spider-Man is training Hope was covered in one of the tie-in issues that I never read, so I don’t understand the reasoning behind it. Hope spent her entire life being trained by Cable. she’s had plenty of training. I have no idea what Spider-Man, of all people, can now teach her. Especially since she’s in the mystical city of kung fu. Is there not a single mystical kung fu master who could teach her a lot more than Spider-Man?

Besides, based on the one panel here, he’s basically just watching as she carries a couple buckets of water. Granted, she’s doing so while jumping from pointed rooftop to pointed rooftop, but still. Spider-Man learned all of his kung fu training from movies.

We also get some internal monologue from Spidey. It’s been 8 days since the end of last issue, and he’s come to dread the sound of portals opening. The Avengers have been going back and forth from K’un Lun to the real world trying to free their imprisoned teammates. They managed to get Red Hulk out this time, but they lost Thor.

In what was apparently a pyramid-smashing battle!

Spider-Man cracks a joke about them only having one of Thor, but he inwardly berates himself for resorting to humor when everyone is on their last nerve. We get a brief panel of Tony Stark, who is locked up in one of the buildings trying to piece together the connection between the Phoenix Force, Scarlet Witch’s hex magic and the Iron Fist…even though none of those things ever had anything to do with each other until this series.

Hope finds Spider-Man and tells him that she’s ready to hit something, but Spider-Man tells her she has to keep training…though we’ve yet to be told what she’s training for. To take back the Phoenix Force, maybe? Then what? The X-Men were the ones who wanted Hope to get the Phoenix in the first place, now the Avengers want it to happen? But again, they don’t say why she’s training, so I don’t know. Spider-Man then gives Hope a speech about being an Avenger, and how there are a lot of big people and a lot of things going on, and there isn’t always time to stop and ask for directions. So you just keep following, and eventually your moment comes to step up to the plate.

Hope says she’s ready, but Spidey swings off and starts channeling Karate Kid. This guy is totally a poor choice for training this girl.

At least he didn’t reference the 2010 Karate Kid

We cut to a brief scene of Phoenix Colossus and Phoenix Magik dumping Thor into their prison: a volcano in Russia in the Verkhoyansk Mountains, one of the coldest places on Earth. A small collection of X-Men is watching from a distance, a little disgusted that they’ve begun keeping prisoners in a volcano. They are worried about the PhoeniX-Men being corrupted, and talk about how some mutants are even leaving Utopia. Storm thinks everyone should leave.

Brief aside: I still don’t like this general idea that everybody’s losing faith in the PhoeniX-Men. Sure, Namor attacked Wakanda, but Namor has always been a villain. Why are mutants leaving Utopia? Life is great in Utopia! Life is great all over the world thanks to the PhoeniX-Men. It’s only in private – other than Namor – that these guys are acting wickedly, and not even that much. This just doesn’t ring true to me.

Anyway, we then cut to one of the hottest places on Earth, the Danakil Desert in Ethiopa.

Here, Cyclops finds Emma Frost, who is meditating in the solitude. This is a great little scene for the new insight we get into the PhoeniX-Men. Cyclops wants Emma to come back to help him clean up Namor’s mess. A lot of people lost faith in them after that, and everything they’ve worked for is falling apart, but Cyclops thinks they can save it and finish what they started. But Emma is getting worried. Now with the extra power they got after Namor was defeated, her telepathic powers have skyrocketed. She can reach out to every mind on the planet now, and part of her wants to just turn them all off like a light switch.

Cyclops calls her on this villainy.

Don’t be evil

Granted, that idea of forcing the Avengers to see things there way is kind of evil, but Cyclops is clearly keeping a good head on his shoulders. He’s still in this to help people, and is keeping the evil Phoenix influence at bay. I like that.

Before Cyclops flies off, Emma reveals that she has read the minds of the Avengers and she knows that they are in K’un Lun. Then Cyclops really flies off, ready to get Hope back. Emma calls out to him to wait, but he’s already gone. She’s worried about what she might do next…about what she’s turning into. Even though Cyclops is gone, Emma hangs her head and begs him to please stop her…

Stop her from what? Something evil, of course!

Justice…is served!

Emma is now using her telepathy to get revenge for all mutant bigotry ever! Yep, she’s gone over to the Dark Side.

We cut to Wakanda, where I’m sad to learn that the PhoeniX-Men didn’t stay behind to help rebuild. They have the power. And if Cyclops really wanted to come out clean after this Namor thing, they should have denounced that lunatic immediately and then used their power to rebuild all the buildings and bring all the people back to life. Problem solved.

We’re in Wakanda for a one-page scene where Black Panther annuls his marriage to Storm.

It’s good to be the king

I am definitely not sad to see that non-marriage end. I was against it from the start. They’ve only been married since like 2006, when the then-writer of the Black Panther comic surprised the comic world by revealing that Black Panther and Storm had always been in love and were going to get married, despite the fact that there had been absolutely no romance or really much interaction at all beforehand. It was the most bald-faced of retcons. And it felt like Marvel just wanted a big event like a wedding, and then decided to just marry off their two most prominent black characters to each other.

If they’d bothered to build the relationship from the ground up and get married later, I would have liked it. Instead, Marvel jumped straight from nothing to marriage.

Anyway, Storm is there in Wakanda to offer her help to the Avengers to free their friends from the volcano prison.

So a late night raid is launched, with a handful of Avengers, including Captain America, Wolverine and Spider-Man. Storm and Professor X greet them at the volcano and lead them inside. They discover that Magik has used her connection to the evil realm of Limbo to bring some fire and demons up inside the volcano, creating a literal Hell on Earth. Professor X tries to shield everyone, but the demons easily spot them, and alert Colossus and Magik. The Avengers reach their companions, who are trussed up and having their minds and souls drained by limbo demons. Their teleportation options are blocked, so they’re going to have to carry them out by hand.

Then Colossus and Magik attack.

They start obliterating the Avengers, kicking ass and taking no names. Spider-Man’s narration comes back, and he’s worried that once again a portal will open in K’un Lun with bad news. But then he remembers what he said to Hope, about how sometimes you have to step up to the plate. So Spider-Man steps up. He takes on both Colossus and Magik while the other Avengers free the prisoners and flee. It does not go well for Spidey.

Punch to face!

Maybe it’s just me, but Spider-Man rarely works in these big, Earth-shattering fights. It’s why I’ve never liked him on the Avengers. He’s better as a street-level hero. Anyway, if you remember the first page of the comic, when Colossus was beating somebody, it’s revealed that he was beating Spider-Man – who was on the cover. Spidey is bloodied and beaten, but he keeps standing. Colossus tells him to stay down, but nope! He surely does not. Magik tells Colossus to just kill Spider-Man, but Colossus still has a shred of humanity in him and won’t do it. The two bicker for a bit, and Spider-Man uses that to his advantage, tricking the two into fighting each other, since when one falls, the other gets more power.

We don’t actually see the fight, but some Avengers return to save Spidey and find that both Colossus and Magik have been defeated. Spidey’s beaten pretty bad, but he’s on his feet, kind of…

Back at K’un Lun, everybody realizes that with Colossus and Magik defeated, their power has transferred to Cyclops and Emma Frost…one of whom shows up at K’un Lun to get Hope.

Cyclops is the christ figure – in a thong

Now that’s an awesome cliffhanger.

It sucks that Cyclops will probably be kind of malevolent next issue, but I’m still on his side. Cyclops, so far, has proven himself to be powerful and moral enough to resist the Phoenix’s evil. No matter what Captain America might think of him, Cyclops has been totally cool for this whole series. Just because the other PhoeniX-Men are losing their minds, Cyclops is alright. In one of the tie-ins I read, he was using his power to fix the San Andreas Fault. How is that a bad guy move? And he wanted Iceman’s help to rebuild the Arctic Shelf. Cyclops wants to use his great power and help people, to make the world a better place.

He only started going after the Avengers when they invaded Utopia to try again to kidnap Hope. He was just sitting back, reading a book, and the Avengers invaded his home and started attacking his students to get to Hope. That Hope later went with them willingly doesn’t make the Avengers right.

So I’m eager to see what happens next. Will Cyclops be super evil? Will he do something stupid and then later see the error of his ways? Will Wolverine gloat like there’s no tomorrow?

Clearly a showdown between Cyclops and Emma Frost is brewing.

This issue made up for my anger and frustration from last issue. I’m very excited to see what happens next as we get closer and closer to the big climactic finale!