Five Developments from AVENGERS & X-MEN: AXIS #4 - Inversion

Things are changing in the Marvel Universe. We've already seen Sam Wilson take over as Captain America and Thor has become unworthy (and someone else will be taking possession of Mjolnir). When Red Skull, with the power of Onslaught, gained the upper hand against the Avengers, Scarlet Witch and Doctor Doom attempted to use magic to stop him. As a result, the Inversion has affected villains and apparently heroes as well.

With AVENGERS & X-MEN: AXIS out last week and the next issue out this week, we decided to take a look at some of the big happenings in issue 4. There will obviously be spoilers below.

New Captain America Doesn't Answer to S.H.I.E.L.D.

Even though we haven't seen the first official issue of ALL-NEW CAPTAIN AMERICA with Sam Wilson as Captain America, Sam has been in action already. After the capture of Red Onslaught, Director Maria Hill and Nick Fury Jr decided they wanted to take possession of the Red Skull.

Things heated up pretty quickly between Nick Fury Jr and Sam when he made the point that he doesn't work for S.H.I.E.L.D.

What is S.H.I.E.L.D.'s current status these days? Did Sam just punch a government agent? Is this going to make things awkward between S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers? We've been seeing how bad things are between S.H.I.E.L.D. and the X-Men in the pages of UNCANNY X-MEN. This doesn't seem like typical behavior for Sam and it's not really the sort of thing "Captain America" should do. This is going to lead to other problems.

Spider-Man is Aware Carnage is a "Hero"

I'll admit, this isn't the biggest development in the issue. If you read AXIS: CARNAGE, there was the question on our minds as to what Spider-Man would think? Spidey's often had a tough time being accepted as a hero since J. Jonah Jameson publicly labeled him a menace.

Imagine what was going on in Spider-Man's mind when he heard there was a hostage situation and Carnage was also on the scene. Will Carnage always be a hero now? Will Spider-Man get caught off guard at some point? His only thoughts now are whether or not this is a case of copyright infringement.

Iron Man is Ready to Change the World and Become SUPERIOR

Iron Man is also getting a new series this week. We often wonder how come the geniuses in comics don't use their intellect to try to better mankind? That is what Tony Stark is now going to do. He is going to release an Extremis App. What's crazy is during his speech, Tony claimed the app could turn people into their ideal self with no imperfections or worries about aging. Is it just me or does that sound like it might lead to some problems? Nothing is ever as good as something like this seems. And in a move similar to a certain band, the app is already on everyone's smart phones. Matt Murdock happened to be here as well. You can count on some conflict between them soon.

If this wasn't enough, something else also happened.

With just five words, things elevated to a new level of creepiness. This is not going to be good for Tony.

The X-Men Are Ready for War

We all know being a mutant pretty much sucks in the Marvel Universe. They've been persecuted, hunted, used, and abused. The Red Skull desecrated Charles Xavier's grave and body in order to take his brain to give him telepathy. Seeing Sentinels designed by Tony Stark, even if he didn't mean to unleash them or really have them built, was yet another strike against humans. The X-Men have had enough. They've decided to stop fighting against other mutants while humans pick them off. They are now ready to follow one rule...the rule of Survival of the Fittest.

Perhaps it's a good thing Professor X isn't alive to see it come to this.

The Avengers are Ready to Kill?

Despite their name, the Avengers don't really do a lot of avenging (I actually went into this a couple years ago HERE). Now it seems they're ready to permanently end a person in order to ensure no one else is harmed. Sam did mention that a "fog was lifted." Sounds like there's more than just a fog being lifted. This clearly isn't normal behavior.

As they made their way to kill the Red Skull, it was Jarvis and Hulk that tried to stop them. When they shoved Jarvis aside and then Hulk, this made him sad. It turned out Hulk had a Hulk inside him. Unleashing it means things are going to get even worse.

The Avengers were all set to kill and now this other Hulk, calling itself Kluh, is ready to kill innocents. Guess it's time to move out of the Marvel Universe.

As you can see, there's quite a bit going on in AXIS. This story arc is seeping into several corners of the Marvel Universe. We'll have to see how it all plays out in the characters' individual issues.

AVENGERS & X-MEN: AXIS #5 is out this week. You can check out the preview HERE.

That Spider-Man part is by far my favorite.

I've been thinking about this book ever since it came out. The thing is... ok, while I think that the "making heroes their opposites" is kind of clever ant it was pulled of really well with people like Captain Falcon, Iron Man and Hulk, I found that on others it was dull and cheap. It seems like the X-men are just one hive mind that went from fighting for the exact opposite thing, but we didn't see any change of attitude in any of them.

And the same goes for Kluh. While I kind of get it (Hulk now's the opposite of himself so he turns from Hulk to another Hulk pulled by sadness and not rage) it's just too ridiculous. Ç

So I'm not sure if I'm enjoying this event. I was until issue 4 but now everything just seems rush.

I agree with inverted Stark. Also Matt Murdock would never go to a base ball game he has said before he can't stand stadiums cause of the noise and smell.

Will someone explain what the inversion spell is?

Hmm, if the X-Men continue down this line when and if the spell wears off, they are well and truly busy digging their own graves.

@darklord_apoc: Your boy is back in form. Course this could lead to the decline of the mutant race as we know it.....if the spell wears off and they screw things up.

I guess this is what I don't like about Axis and Marvel in general these days. I don't feel like I really KNOW the characters anymore. It's one mega story to the next, one #1 issue to the next. Even Spider-Verse is too crazy, too busy, and simply too much. I don't know . . . I could go on and on, but I won't. I'm just not enjoying too many Marvel books lately.

@komickev: I agree, they don't spend much time on smaller personal stories anymore and seem to want to make all of their heroes seem like douche's, like that is cool. At this point a full reboot with a chance to start each character again wouldn't be such a bad thing. Although, each event usually holds one or two good moments. Kluh is an awful character(didn't they have something similar in Fear itself) and I was enjoying Doc Green. Sam is already irritating me as Cap and the whole villains as heroes is a bit done(dark reign and forever evil.) I do like what they have done with Genisis.

Haven't we already seen a "Hulk's Hulk" before?

There are so much flip-flopping in the Marvel universe that an inversion spell feels like ''just another monday''

I mean it feels like you can't get a solid status quo without ''EVERYTHING CHANGES'' stories every month. Guess what, if everything changes every month ...then it has no impact.

I wonder will get be getting a new X-Men and Avengers series out of this. They will probably be fine at the end of Axis.

OK, one minor thing: Kluh? Really? How stupid can you get naming the 'inverted' version of Hulk?

Apart from that it seems to me Iron Man's change offers intriguing possibilities, let's hope they use the potential (and aren't too ham-fisted about the details). Might check out Superior Iron Man.

If Only Shield and the Avengers could be SEPERATE once more. I really hate how The Avengers have basically become an Elite unit for S.H.I.E.L.D. Im glad Falcon did what he did and hopefully it sticks.

So the heroes are going to start acting like villains and the villains are going to start acting like heroes and no one will really trust anyone else and everyone is switching sides and acting with the maturity level of five year olds and how is this different from what Marvel's been doing since civil war?

And, in my experience, a lot of the changes don't even last that long.

I'm only interested in the Spidey and X-Men parts. They've been awesome so far.

heh Don't forget the time that Hulk got angry and turned into a berserker Banner! I wish Kluh was that, truth be told.

I wonder if the X-men's march to war will lead to X-Nation which was referenced in current Avengers issues by Hickman?

Did Sam just Backhand Nick Fury Jr?

Oh Lord, this is madness I tells ya! Still this is very interesting. Also this is what happens when Professor X and Wolverine are killed; things get worse for the X-Men! I can't wait to see how things will turn out in upcoming issues.

I'm interested in this story. Trying not to speculate too much on what is going to come of this or how it will resolve itself and how heroes will redeem themselves. That said, I would really really really like one story where the X-Men come out ahead a little bit rather than be further pushed back into the hunted, hated, and feared spaces that have been just stacking on them since House of M.

guess that whole "the jean grey school is about learning not fighting" thing didn't work out :)

Well, thanks for ruining years of salvaging Iron Man's character after the Civil War debacle. How many years before he's a hero again?

And now EVERYONE ELSE can get in on the "Let's derail years of character development to make them jerks and shake things up!"

Seriously I freaking HATE these kinds of storylines. Here's how it will play out:

1. Your favorite heroes for whatever reason become evil or jerks. This lasts for a year or 3 if you're unlucky.

2. The heroes either go back to normal or come to grips with what they've become and slowly return to their heroic characters.

3. We spend 1-3 years with our redeemed heroes trying to deal with the 1-3 years of fallout of them being jerks/evil, with them trying to get their hero street cred back from the asshole civilians of the Marvel Universe who hate them even more now!

RINSE, CYCLE AND F****ING REPEAT!

Wait. I have a question. So, was that Evan? (+)

its getting pretty crazy ... i like it

also lol @ "Captain Falcon"

Kluh? Wuh? They couldn't go with Kuhl? Emphasis on the "u"?

I have the X-Men together again, but it comes off annoying that the loss of Wolverine and Professor X is what tipped the balance. Were they really the moral compass of the X-Men?

Sam is an _ss. Well, alrighty then.

This makes me miss Leah more than ever.

Are there other development articles like this? Could someone please send me the link.

@wakandan: We've done this from time to time for a while. We've started doing them more recently. If you filter the search to "articles" and just type 'developments,' you'll see a list of the other ones.

Mental, that Kluh thing is the only part I wasn't really digging.

Not sure whether to wait until it comes out on trade. Just been hearing mixed things about AXIS and Original Sin wasn't that great either. Man. I hope whatever Hickman is cooking up is worth it.

Yep, that's Evan. During the brief blackout everyone had on Genosha someone force-fed him a massive dose of 'roids. (ok, he just woke up ripped & 10ft tall).

Here it comes...

Reboot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What part of this story makes you believe that?

In the words of Jay Sherman, my thoughts on this event are as follows:

1. It stinks!

2. It stinks!

3. It STINKS!

Axis so far has been disappointing. 3 was my favorite issue, as the villains were fantastic. 4 however, was just ridiculous...Kluh? That was a big facepalm. Also back in issue 3 nobody seemed to care that APOCALYPSE was back

Wasn't Kluh already a character?

That (ultimate Nick Fury/Samuel L. Jackson) wannabe isn't half the man the original Colonel Fury was!

I have been skipping this event and from the looks of this list I made the right decision. This looks horrible. I don't want a reboot, but this looks bad.

And somebody please redesign cyclops's uniform or let him wear one of his old ones. His "Schism" uniform is really terrible. I can't stand it.

Kluh is like something that happened in Fear Itself. House of Ideas.

Aren't you thinking of Nul?

I'm sure AXIS will read more coherently when it's all collected in trade. Oh, wait! Adam Kubert's art. Nevermind. :/

@outside_85: Pretty much. He looked similar to the other Worthy.

Apocalipsis belt should have an E for evan or a G for genesis isntead of an A.