After the epic start to this title, Remender brings us a character-focused story that winds up being even more imaginative and impressive than the Red Skull stealing Professor X's brain.
First, I love that Remender harkens to the old days of the Avengers, where everyone was constantly fighting over leadership. I'll caveat that comment by noting that those stories can get old quickly, but, here, Remender rally uses these conflicts to tease out the tensions in this group. I think we all expected Alex and Cap to struggle over leadership, but I thought Remender did a brilliant job of showing Wanda also gunning for the title. On one hand, he uses it to show how desperate Wanda is for redemption. (He also has her wisely come to her senses in a conversation with Cap.) But, he also uses it to add to the sense that the Avengers in the group view this whole endeavor as their ballgame, a sense also echoed by Jan where she expressed outrage with Rogue for replacing the portrait of the original Avengers for one of Charles Xavier. This tension -- not about leadership, but about identity -- is fascinating, since it gets to the heart of this whole human/mutant issue as it currently exists in the Marvel Universe. Scott has repeatedly called out Cap (most recently in "Uncanny X-Men" #3) for not doing enough to promote human and mutant harmony. Here, you get a glimpse at why it's going to be difficult to do so when the Avengers aren't so sure that the X-Men are their equals.
Along those lines, my favorite moment of this issue was Alex responding to the question about what he wanted to be called if not mutant with a simple, "How about Alex?" First, it underlines the point that "mutant" is a dirty world in the post-"Avengers vs. X-Men" world. But, it also shows how absolutely on top of his game Alex is, despite his own doubts, and how much he earned Rogue's comment that Xaiver would be proud of him. With the X-Men largely disbanded, Alex is the face of Xavier's dream. In fact, he's really the only one left out there fighting for it, on the front lines. He's not lurking in the background or hiding at the School, but taking the high road like Xavier did. He's trying to keep the peace within the team while everyone is quick to let their prejudices and pride rule them, but he also asserts his authority when Cap challenges it. But, more importantly, he's telling the world that humans and mutants are equals (despite what some members of the Avengers might think) and he's here to prove it to everyone. I don't think anyone, including Alex, ever saw a Summers brother not named Scott doing that, but here we are. At long last, Alex Summers is a man in full and I absolutely can't wait to see where that goes.
Finally, if the old-school Avengers have always been about by-laws discussions and leadership votes, the X-Men have always been about redemption. Wolverine offers it to Sunfire here and it's probably the most emotionally charged sequence in the issue. Sunfire is shown as a broken man, not believing himself even remotely deserving of redemption or even all that desirous of it. But, he accepts the chance and it helps to make this team about something more than just press conferences.
(On the P.R. note, I will say that I thought Jan and Simon as a P.R. team was a somewhat weird conceit. I'm willing to see where Remender goes with it, but it seems like the type of plot device that'll eventually get dropped and they'll just be on the team.)
I haven't even really mentioned the Apocalypse Twins or the Grim Reaper or Kang. The Grim Reaper's appearance seemed particularly random and I'm not really sure why we're supposed to worry about Rogue killing him if the whole point of his attack is the fact that he can't die unless Wanda lets him die. Also, the introduction of the Apocalypse Twins was a little clunky, even if I did guess that it was Kang speaking. But, honestly, I'm so much more fascinated by the characterization in this series that I can sort of let the villains and their illogical fantasies slide.
Finally, seriously, I hope Coipel stays for a few issues, because I could really stand to see a lot more panels of him drawing Alex and Cap. No, really.
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