5 Reasons To Hate On Avengers Vs. X-Men
Now that Avengers vs X-Men is over it’s time to take a look back and cast our gaze on what didn’t work about Marvel’s 12-part series that lead into Marvel NOW! (And if you loved it don’t worry, we have a 5 Reasons To Love On Avengers Vs. X-Men coming up next).
This was kinda significant in Scott’s life. KINDA
Casting the X-Men (Cyclops) as villains
When did Scott (the guy who is best known for being a level headed leader and reigning in Wolverine) become a raving lunatic? I guess the big wigs at Marvel decided that Magneto was getting stale and this was the best solution: Scott is the new Magneto, i.e., the new bad guy. The problem is I didn’t buy his descent into madness for one minute and everything he said and did seemed totally out of character. The mutant messiah, the Phoenix bringing about a rebirth of mutant kind… the Scott I know would reject these ideas based on who he is and, specifically, his prior experiences with the Phoenix and Jean. I’m pretty sure Scott remembers how that whole Dark Phoenix thing went down with Jean (Captain America certainly remembered), and I can’t imagine he’d wish that on anyone.
The casting of the X-Men as villains rubs me the wrong way. Don’t they have enough problems? The X-Men (mutants) are the minority group in the Marvel Universe that everyone picks on despite the fact that they continually save man kind from annihilation all the time, but then to have them (Scott) turn around and almost destroy the earth just proves all the bigots right. That’s weak writing… or, at the very least, forgetting the point that Marvel was trying to make in the first place.
More Of The Same
The other members of the Phoenix Five are still at large – so Namor is at odds with humanity (again). People hate and fear mutants (just like they always have in the Marvel Universe), but now, they have a legitimate reason to. So… yeah, not much has really changed.
These events are so paint by numbers – somebody always dies (hmm… it’s been Captain America twice (Civil War, Fear Itself)… that’s weird), you just have to wait around for it, and then the ending you were always crawling toward finally comes to pass. And this year, it felt like it took six months. (Because it DID!) I’m exhausted from nothing happening.
Hulk will smash for you… in non-meaningful way. These two pages were waste of Hulk’s time and yours. Hulk sorry writers create thread and never tie off. Hulk pawn in game of life.
Things The Writers Forgot About/Too Many Issues (Where Nothing Happens)
On page one of Avengers vs X-Men #11, we see Captain America (who looks like he’s melting for some reason… we’ll get to that) pleading with someone to help them take down Scott and on page two, it’s revealed that the Hulk is now on board. So how does that pan out? The Hulk hit Emma once from behind, and that’s it – Scott was the one who took her down; that was the moment… The Hulk didn’t do a thing in issue 11… or 12, for that matter. And DON’T TELL ME THE HULK DID FIGHT SOMEONE AND I MISSED IT BECAUSE I DIDN’T READ THE ‘VS’ SERIES! Avengers vs X-Men was 12 issues long! (Not to mention it crossing into regular monthlies.) How many issues do they need to deliver the entire story? More than 12, I guess… The point is, they made a big deal of bringing him in on the first two pages of issue 11 and they never used him in a meaningful way.
Things No One Cares About Happened
Scott killed Professor X… meh. From what I read around the internet, it sounds like a lot of people were surprised to find out Professor X was still alive. Like Ares in Siege, Professor X was a character nobody really cared about, so it didn’t matter if he died. Kinda like Goliath in Civil War or Wasp in Secret Invasion – I’m detecting a pattern here!
Storm and the Black Panther are divorced – wow. Did anyone even care that they were married? It had no effect on the Marvel Universe in any way.
The Art
Oh. My. Thor.
The art in all 12 issues was either awful or par, and for Marvel’s flagship event of the year, you’d think they’d bring in their best guns? A picture speaks a thousand words:
What’s wrong with Scott’s mouth?
What’s wrong with Hope’s face?
What’s wrong with EVERYONE’S face?
Thor save me from these events!
…
It wasn’t all suck though. Check out our 5 Reasons To Love On Avengers Vs X-Men!
3 Comments
Would you recommend this event, or something else?
Hi John,
Thanks for reading!
As a rule, I don’t recommend events… I just don’t enjoy them. However, if you’re looking for books to read, I recommend Ed Brubaker’s Captain America (not the Captain America and ___ series), Daredevil, The Unwritten… I enjoy all of those books. Oh, and Winter Soldier and X-Factor are also solid reads!
“From what I read around the internet, it sounds like a lot of people were surprised to find out Professor X was still alive”
HA! Brilliant! As someone who’s only source of Marvel story-lines are what’s presented in the movies, i concur.