{"id":29173,"date":"2023-12-31T18:17:39","date_gmt":"2023-12-31T18:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=29173"},"modified":"2023-12-31T18:17:39","modified_gmt":"2023-12-31T18:17:39","slug":"avengers-versus-x-men-compendium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2023\/12\/31\/avengers-versus-x-men-compendium\/","title":{"rendered":"Avengers versus X-Men Compendium"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy Jason Aaron<\/strong>, Brian Michael Bendis<\/strong>, Ed Brubaker<\/strong>, Matt Fraction<\/strong>, Jonathan Hickman<\/strong>, John Romita Jr.<\/strong>, Olivier Coipel<\/strong>, Adam Kubert<\/strong>, Frank Cho <\/strong>& various (MARVEL)
\nISBN: 978-1-84653-518-5 (B\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

Despite all of us being sick as dogs, can we let this anniversary year end without revisiting Marvel\u2019s one big idea in perfect execution? Enjoy this prime example of what made Marvel great – heroes pummelling other heroes\u2026 <\/em><\/p>\n

The mainstream comics industry is now irretrievably wedded to blockbuster continuity-sharing mega-crossover events: rashly doling them out like epi-pens to Snickers addicts with peanut allergies, but at least these days, however, if we have to endure a constant cosmic Sturm and extra-dimensional Drang, the publishers take great pains to ensure that the resulting comics chaos is suitably engrossing and always superbly illustrated\u2026<\/p>\n

Marvel\u2019s big thing was always extended clashes between mega-franchises such as The Avengers and X-Men, and this one began in Avengers: X Sanction<\/strong> when time-lost mutant Cable<\/strong> attempted to pre-emptively murder a select roster of the World\u2019s Greatest Heroes to prevent an even greater cosmic tragedy.<\/p>\n

Hope Spalding-Summers<\/em> was the first mutant born on Earth after the temporarily insane Avenger Scarlet Witch<\/strong> used her reality-warping powers to eradicate almost all mutants in existence. Considered a mutant messiah, Hope was raised in the future before inevitably finding her way back to the present where she was adopted by X-Men supremo Scott Summers<\/em> AKA Cyclops<\/strong>. Innumerable signs and portents had indicated that Hope was a reincarnated receptacle for the devastating cosmic entity dubbed The Phoenix<\/strong>\u2026<\/p>\n

This mammoth collection gathers the core 12-issue fortnightly miniseries (April – October 2012) which saw humanity and Homo Superior go to war to possess this celestial chosen one, and also includes prequel Avengers vs. X-Men<\/strong> #0 which laid the plot groundwork for the whole blockbusting Brouhaha.<\/p>\n

Necessarily preceded by a double-page scorecard of the 78(!) major players, the story begins with a pair of Prologues<\/em> (by Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron & Frank Cho) as now-sane and desperately repentant Scarlet Witch Wanda Maximoff<\/em> tries to make amends and restore her links with the Avengers she betrayed and attacked. However, even after defeating an attack by manic mutate MODOK<\/em>, and a personal invitation from Ms. Marvel<\/em> to come back, the penitent mutant is sent packing by her ex-husband The Vision<\/strong> and other male heroes she manipulated.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile in Utopia<\/em> – the West Coast island fortress housing the last 200 mutants on Earth – an increasingly driven Cyclops is administering brutally tough love to adopted daughter Hope. She is determined to defy her apparently inescapable destiny as eventual host for the omnipotent Phoenix force on some far future day by regularly moonlighting as a superhero. Sadly, she\u2019s well out of her depth when she tackles the sinister Serpent Society<\/em> and daddy humiliatingly comes to her rescue.<\/p>\n

\u2026 And in the depths of space a ghastly firebird of life and death comes ever closer to Earth\u2026<\/p>\n

In the first chapter (by Bendis, John Romita Jr. & Scott Hanna) the catastrophically powerful force of destruction and rebirth nears our world and the perfect mortal host it hungers for and needs to guide it, frantically preceded by desperate harbinger of doom Nova<\/strong>,<\/em><\/strong> who almost dies delivering a warning of its proximity and intent. Soon, The Avengers and the US government are laying plans, whilst in Utopia Scott Summers pushes Hope harder than ever. If The Phoenix cannot be avoided, perhaps he can make his daughter strong enough to resist being overwhelmed by its promise of infinite power\u2026<\/p>\n

At The Jean Grey School for Higher Learning,<\/em> ex X-Man and current Avenger Wolverine<\/strong> is approached by Captain America<\/strong> and regretfully leaves his position as teacher to once again battle a force that cannot be imagined\u2026<\/p>\n

With even his fellow mutants questioning his tactics and brutal pushing of Hope, Cyclops meets Captain America for a parley. On behalf of the world, the Sentinel of Liberty wants to take Hope into protective custody but the mutants\u2019 leader – distrustful of human bigotry and past duplicity – reacts violently to the far-from-diplomatic overtures\u2026<\/p>\n

Jason Aaron scripts the second instalment as frayed tempers lead to all-out battle on the shores of Utopia, with past personal grudges fuelling a brutal conflict. As the metahuman war rages, Wolverine and Spider-Man<\/strong> surreptitiously go after hidden Hope, but – even far off in deep space – The Phoenix force has infected her and she blasts them\u2026<\/p>\n

Meanwhile in the extra-solar void Thor<\/strong>, Vision<\/strong>, War Machine<\/strong> and a select team of Secret Avengers<\/strong> confront the mindlessly onrushing energy construct\u2026<\/p>\n

Scripted by Ed Brubaker, Chapter 3 begins with the recovering Wolverine and Wallcrawler considering how to catch missing hyper-powerful Hope with both Avengers and recently departed X-Men chasing her. When the feral mutant clashes over tactics with Captain America, the resulting fight further divides Avenger forces. In episode 4 (authored by Jonathan Hickman) as the easily defeated space defenders limp back to Earth, Hope and Wolverine meet at the bottom of the world and devise their own plans for her future\u2026<\/p>\n

All over Earth heroes are hunting the reluctant chosen one, and clashes between mutants and superhumans are steadily intensifying in ferocity, but the fugitive pair evade all pursuit by stealing a rocket and heading to the ancient \u201cBlue Area of the Moon<\/em>\u201d where revered mutant Jean Grey<\/em> first died to save the universe from The Phoenix.<\/p>\n

When the former Marvel Girl<\/strong> was originally possessed by the fiery force she became a hero of infinite puissance and a cataclysmic champion of Life, before the power corrupted her and she devolved into Dark Phoenix<\/em>: a rapacious wanton god of planet-killing appetites\u2026<\/p>\n

In a valiant act of contrition, Jean permitted the X-Men to kill her before her rapacious need completely consumed her in the oxygen-rich ancient city on the lunar surface (of course that\u2019s just the tip of an outrageously long and overly-complicated iceberg not germane or necessary to us here: just search-engine the tale afterwards, OK?\u2026 or just buy one of many collections of The Dark Pheonix Saga<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

When Hope finally reaches the spot of her predecessor\u2019s sacrifice she finds that she\u2019s been betrayed and that the Avengers are waiting – and so are mutants Cyclops, Emma Frost<\/em>, Colossus<\/em>, Magik<\/em> and Namor the<\/em> Sub-Mariner<\/em>. With battle set to begin again, the battered body of Thor crashes into the lunar dust and the sky is lit by the blazing arrival of the Phoenix avatar\u2026<\/p>\n

Matt Fraction scripts the 5th<\/sup> chapter as the appalling firebird attempts to possess Hope, who realises she has completely overestimated her ability to handle the ultimate force, even as Avengers and X-Men again come to blistering blows.<\/p>\n

Some distance away super-scientists Tony Stark<\/em> and Henry Pym<\/em> deploy a last-ditch anti-Phoenix invention but it doesn\u2019t work as planned, and when the furious light finally dies down, infernal energy has possessed not Hope but the five elder mutants who turn their blazing eyes towards Earth and begin to plan how best to remake it\u2026<\/p>\n

Olivier Coipel & Mark Morales begin a stint as illustrators with the 6th<\/sup> – Hickman scripted – instalment as, 10 days after, old comrades Magneto<\/em> and Charles Xavier<\/em> meet to discuss the paradise Earth has become – especially for mutants. Violence, disease, hunger and want are gone but Cyclops, Emma, Sub-Mariner, Magic and Colossus are distant, aloof saviours at best and the power they share incessantly demands to be used more and more and more\u2026<\/p>\n

Myriad dimensions away in the mystical city of K\u2019un Lun, kung fu overlord Lei Kung<\/em> is warned an ancient disaster is repeating itself on Earth and dispatches the city\u2019s greatest hero Iron Fist<\/strong> to avert overwhelming disaster, even as fearful humanity is advised their old bad ways will no longer be allowed to despoil the world. Naturally the decree of a draconian \u201cPax Utopia\u201d does not sit well with humanity, and soon the Avengers are again at war with the last few hundreds of mutantkind. This time, however, the advantage is overwhelmingly with the underdogs and their five godlike leaders\u2026<\/p>\n

A desperate raid to snatch Hope from Utopia goes catastrophically wrong until the long-reviled Scarlet Witch intervenes and rescues the Avengers and Hope. Astounded to realise Wanda\u2019s probability-altering gifts can harm them, the \u201cPhoenix Five\u201d declare all-out, total war on the human heroes\u2026<\/p>\n

In the 7th<\/sup>, Fraction-scripted, chapter Avengers are hunted all over the planet and the individual personalities of the possessed X-Men start clashing with each other. As Iron Fist, Lei Kung and Stark seek a marriage of spiritual and technological disciplines, Sub-Mariner defies the Phoenix consensus to attack the African nation of Wakanda\u2026<\/p>\n

Adam Kubert & John Dell handle the art from issue #8 with Bendis\u2019 script revealing how an army of Avengers and the power of Wanda and Xavier turn the tide of battle\u2026 but not before a nation dies. Moreover, with Namor beaten, his portion of Phoenix-power passes on to the remaining four, inspiring greedy notions of sole control amongst the possessed\u2026<\/p>\n

In #9 (by Aaron, Kubert & Dell) as the hunt for heroes continues on Earth, in K\u2019un Lun Hope is being trained in martial arts discipline by the city\u2019s immortal master, and schooled in sheer guts and humanity by Spider-Man. When Thor is captured, the Avengers stage an all-out assault and by a miracle defeat both Magik and Colossus. Tragically, that only makes Scott Summers stronger still and he comes looking for his wayward daughter\u2026<\/p>\n

Brubaker writes the 10th<\/sup> chapter as Cyclops invades K\u2019un Lun with horrific consequences whilst on Earth Emma Frost succumbs to the worst aspects of her nature: enslaving friends and foes with her half of the infinite Phoenix force. Simultaneously, Captain America and Xavier lay plans for one last \u201cHail Mary\u201d assault\u2026<\/p>\n

And in the mystic city, Hope finally comes into her power – blasting Cyclops out of that other reality and back to the moon where the tragedy began\u2026<\/p>\n

Bendis, Coipel & Morales craft the penultimate instalment as Phoenix\u2019s rapacious destructive hunger causes Cyclops to battle Frost, even as the unifying figure of Xavier unites X-Men and Avengers against the true threat, as with issue #12 (Aaron, Kubert & Dell) Cyclops finally descends into the same hell as his beloved, long-lost Jean by becoming a seemingly unstoppable, insatiable Dark Phoenix with only the assembled heroes and the poor, resigned Hope prepared to stop him from consuming the Earth\u2026<\/p>\n

The series generated a host of variant covers (I lost count at 87) by Cho, Jason Keith, Jim Cheung, Laura Martin, Stephanie Hans, Romita Jr., Ryan Stegman, Carlo Barberi, Olivier Coipel, Morales, Skott Young, Arthur Adams, Nick Bradshaw, Carlo Pagulayan, Sara Pichelli, J. Scott Campbell, Jerome Ope\u00f1a, Mark Bagley, Dale Keown, Esad Ribic, Adam Kubert, Alan Davis, Humberto Ramos, Leinil Francis Yu, Adi Granov and Billy Tan which will undoubtedly delight and astound the artistically adroit amongst you\u2026<\/p>\n

Fast, furious and utterly absorbing – if short on plot – this ideal summer blockbuster (don\u2019t you wish movie lawyers moved as fast as comics folk and this was screen ready by now?) remains an extreme Fights \u2018n\u2019 Tights funnybook extravaganza that delivers a mighty punch without any real necessity to study beforehand: a comics-continuity both veterans and film-fed fanboys alike can relish.
\n\u00a9 2012 Marvel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jason Aaron, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Jonathan Hickman, John Romita Jr., Olivier Coipel, Adam Kubert, Frank Cho & various (MARVEL) ISBN: 978-1-84653-518-5 (B\/Digital edition) Despite all of us being sick as dogs, can we let this anniversary year end without revisiting Marvel\u2019s one big idea in perfect execution? Enjoy this prime … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Avengers versus X-Men Compendium”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[222,94,165,74,120,79,233,213,39,155,100,106,70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ant-man","category-avengers","category-black-panther","category-captain-america","category-iron-man","category-marvel-superheroes","category-nova","category-iron-fist","category-spider-man","category-sub-mariner","category-thor","category-wolverine","category-x-men"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7Ax","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29173"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29177,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29173\/revisions\/29177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}