br7ndon

All AvX amounted to was an X-Men story, poorly written, with annoying, unnecessary interference by the Avengers.

Despite plenty of mutants and Avengers being written out of character in this series, Cyke was true to himself. Only problem? Everyone hated him. If you have an idiotic bias against Cyclops, you should not be writing X-Men comics!! This entire series is based precariously on the ridiculous notion that Cyclops is crazy and can't be trusted. So, the Phoenix is coming. Who knows more about the Phoenix? Cyke or Cap? The Phoenix is not ALWAYS a destructive force; it's shown up before and been wielded for good without sacrifice. And it clearly has a connection with the mutant population, which is STRUGGLING, and Cyclops seems to be the only person to give a crap. So, I would argue he's totally justified in the beginning. For Captain America to show up, claim he knows better, and try to kidnap a mutant is dead wrong, any way you slice it.

Fast forward to the Phoenix Five. They did a hell of a lot of good in a short period of time for not only mutants, but the entire planet. Yeah, some of them would have likely been corrupted eventually. But it happened much faster because of the Avengers' provocations. What? They're helping to balance the Earth?! They must be stopped!! How about a conversation? I know diplomacy isn't popular and doesn't sell comics, and I've already acknowledged that many characters' decision making made zero sense, but why continually assault and provoke overpowered X-Men on the verge of turning to the dark side, but who are currently doing nothing but good. Cyclops knew there was a danger of corruption and was keeping a close eye on his team. But once again, Cap knows better. Stupid.

Hope was written so terribly. I still have no idea who this girl is, what she cares about, what her motivations are, nothing. Considering her role is so central to the story, this is probably the biggest injustice served to readers of this series. Her interactions with the Scarlet Witch in the VERY LAST ISSUE started to shed some light, but the problem is the Scarlet Witch is similarly undefined. She feels awful about crippling the mutant population on Earth? News to me. What has she been doing to make penance? Oh, working with the Avengers. Makes sense. This would have been the perfect time to see meaningful conversation between Cyke and Wanda, conversation so relevant and likely revealing of crucial details... What'd we get? Nothing. The fact that Hope ended up doing what Cyclops wanted her to do all along IS proof that Cyke wasn't crazy. Sure, she wasn't ready at the beginning, even Cyclops agreed with that, but that doesn't mean she was going to go off the deep end in the meantime. Butt the hell out, Avengers.

My last gripe is Cyclops being in prison and the others being "wanted." When Jean went dark and, y'know, ate a planet that one time, everyone was all "Bad Phoenix; Jean's not in control, we have to save her!!" But Cyclops? Pure evil, totally responsible. He even said the same words: "Please kill me." Nope, we don't care, throw him in jail. All the GOOD he did before he was provoked into going bat shit insane?? No1curr.

Sigh. The concept behind this versus series could have been developed into something much better than we were saddled with. I don't really know who's writing good X-Men comics these days, but for this to be Marvel's flagship event and be so sloppy and half-baked is sad. The Avengers needed a better reason to be engaged in the first place. People more central to the story, i.e. Hope, Wanda, Magneto, should have been... more central to the story. And Cyke bias needs to stay where it belongs: in Wolverine's heart. There were some cool moments, but all in all pretty damn disappointing.