Marvel Cops Out
I've sat down to do this multiple times. Truly, I have. I'd even had one typed out and then the wife called me to bed before I could finish hitting 'post' when I'd worked myself into a lather. Yet even after all that sweat from grousing about this book - I was left in similar fashion to the way this book ended; empty. Even now - it's as if there's nothing left to say.
It's as if Marvel sat around the not-so-round-table and while conjuring up ideas for protagonists some schmuck piped up " I know - let's have Scott become this anti-hero whom we can pin all of this conflict on ! " . It was at that point that the other guys at the table voted in super majority for an early lunch. When they came back the interns (all too young to remember Scott having fought Lilandra's warriors to defend his fated lover) had already taken the script to print. The hay was in the barn. The sh...well it had been flung on all the walls.
Instead of having a villain we could revile that had taken an ethical short-cut to justify the ends for their ___(insert) means - we were short-changed with Scott having done what he had to do by trying to defend his race. The entire miscarriage that was AvX spilled over everywhere; cover art, story tie-ins and assorted other money grabs. Yet the worst of what it gave us is still what it did to Scott - in treating us like we don't deserve better from our antagonists/protagonists.
Scott as a villain simply because of a choice that wasn't his own by being made to host a part of the Phoenix force ? Steve has to look heroic by running down a man whom he barely has a conflict of interest with ? It's the most forced form of a rock and a hard place I can think of. " Oh no it's a great conflict because Steve has to protect the populace but Scott wants to protect a mutant whom may be a host for the Phoenix Force.....". I almost tore up this whole series - literally. I almost made the civil disobedient choice to haul all them together - and burn the god damn things. Only the thought of my wife frowning at money we had spent stopped my attempt at recreating the homecoming bonfires I so fondly recall.
Then there's this abortion of an issue. We get through the horrific dialogue and absolute worst character portrayal (of which there is over 40 years of common law of comic cannon to draw from so it's not like they were waiting to see what dung was sticking to the wall) I've ever had the misfortune of reading - we then get the finale of Hank coming to escort Scott away. Hank says to Scott what I would be saying to the editors of Marvel almost by proxy in asking what he has done. Here's a tip Marvel - the next time you want a villain to inspire a story that drives money from your consumers wallets ? Use a damn villain. Not Scott.
I can only hope that time or a ret con will remake this terrible twist in X continuity. Though with the imminent second reboot within 5 years (hear that sound ? I can't tell if it's desperation or cash registers which is louder) I am left to hope that some of the ramifications of this will be mitigated. Maybe we'll even get away from this obscene notion that Steve has to keep all the mutants in line since they killed the Professor, made a Judas of his first student and turned his brother into a man who leaves Lorna to 'find his place' apart from the huge leadership shadow of Madrox. It's a throne without a King in sight and if it's by design - oh how horribly it's been done.