Well, it's finally over. It's been months of two sides blowing their horns, trying to find the best way to put the other down, and both sides knowing this one day would come and make the difference. You see my word play? You think I'm talking about the presidential debate, but really I'm talking about something much more important; a fictional battle in a world full of comic book characters. For almost six months the line has been drawn between Avengers and X-Men fans. Both sides trying to claim that they're doing what's in the best interest for the world, and bashing the other with dirty tricks and vicious scowls. Ok, this time I really am talking about the presidential debate.
If you're reading this chances are you know me, and chances are you're seem me post something or talk about the Marvel event that has been in the making for seven years. Since in 2005, with House of M, the mutant race has been an endangered species, and Cyclops, leader of the X-Men, has had to step-up and do whatever was necessary to keep his people alive. All of his faith has been put on Hope Summers, the first mutant born since M-Day, who was raised in the future and is now a teenager. The cosmic power known as the Phoenix comes to Earth. And while Captain America and the Avengers saw it has a sign of destruction Cyclops saw it as a possible rebirth for his species. Sides were chosen, with Hope caught in the middle, and months later we have a winner, or do we?
Thanks to Tony Stark, the Phoenix was split into five pieces while he was really trying to kill it, each piece going into a different X-Men. Cyclops, the White Queen, Namor, Colossus, and Magik all had a part of the Phoenix, and they used it to recreate the world the way they felt it should be. This made everyone else in the Marvel U. nervous so the fighting continued, but with each Phoenix member that went down the others got stronger, absorbing their fallen comrades power, until finally Cyclops was the sole possessor of the Phoenix Force. Now this is very ironic in so many ways since the Phoenix is responsible for so much pain and heart ache in Scott Summers life; most notably taking is wife, Jean Grey, and turning her evil. Cyclops kept saying the Phoenix could be harnessed if he just trained Hope enough. Well once Scott possessed all of the Phoenix he could not control it as he fought the entire Marvel U. as the new Dark Phoenix.
WARNING BEYOND THIS POINT ARE SPOILS INTO THE END OF AVENGERS VS. X-MEN!
So after month the final issue of AvsX was released today. In the end it took the combined powers of Hope and the Scarlet Witch to take down the Phoenix. It then possessed Hope for a brief moment to where she did control it, and used to bring back mutants into the world. Hope re-started the mutant race. So what was all that twelve issues of fighting for?
Everyone who truly knows me knows I'm not only an X-Men fan, but a Cyclops fan, so ever since he went full-on dark side I've been a little distraught. But didn't what he want to happen, or said could happen, back in issue #1, happen? Hope used the Phoenix power to jump start mutant kind. Yes, he killed his mentor, Professor Xavier and hundreds of others in the process, but Professor X has died like four times, twice in the last four years. So it's not that big of a deal, trust me. All this proves is that Scott was right, Hope was the key to saving her people, she could control the Phoenix, and Scott Summers is a happy man sitting behind his patted prison cell.
On the flip side, hundreds, if not thousand of people, are dead because of this event. The world was rocked by natural and unnatural disasters. Friendships and loyalties were tested and some broken, most notably the marriage between Storm and the Black Panther. "You played Russian Roulette with the planet," as Captain America told Cyclops. Mutants have survived, but at what cost? Their greatest symbol of what good they can be, the X-Men, has been completely tarnished in the eyes of the world.
Back in the beginning the writers of this tale said that their would be a winner and loser, but I don't see it. To me both sides can claim that they won, and that they lost. With Marvel NOW about to be underway a new era begins in the Marvel U. One where superheroes and mutants will no longer be separate, but integrated to ensure the mistrust and doubt in each other will never be brought up and threaten the world again. It truly is a new era in Marvel comics, and just typing about it makes me realize that the House of Ideas has probably a lot of good ones ahead.
And what about Cyclops? Some say he's now a villain in the Marvel U. To those people I say this. Don't you know the X-Men at all? Everyone at one point on that team has been considered a villain. This just means Cyclops is now a true X-Man.
No comments:
Post a Comment