AVX: Consequences #5 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

I think this series was actually better than "Avengers vs. X-Men."  In fact, upon reflection, it's actually the series that I thought "X-Men:  Schism" was going to be, with Scott embracing militarism (of a sorts) and Logan advocating pacifism (of a sorts).  It definitely seems to bring the process of the schism to a close, given that we now emerge from "Avengers vs. X-Men" with mutantkind falling into two very distinct camps.

Perhaps most notably, Cyclops embraces a more brutal side than we've ever seen him embrace, ordering Magik to send Jake's murderers to Limbo and Danger to scar the warden's face.  In so doing, Gillen makes it clear that we're dealing with the new Scott now.  He embraces his role as a terrorist because he wants people to fear him, to think of him before they engage in acts of mutant discrimination.

Gillen doesn't allow Cyclops to make that transition without comment, however.  In fact, this Scott makes a lot more sense than the Scott that we saw in "X-Men:  Schism."  That Scott really seemed to think that children should be on the front lines of mutantkind's battle with humankind.  But, with the resurrection of the mutant race, this Scott seems to feel freed from that position.  Since mutantkind is no longer fighting for its very survival, he now seems to feel that it has the "luxury" of allowing students to attend the School.  In shifting Scott's position on this issue, Gillen makes Scott a lot more of a sympathetic character.  In fact, his note to Logan is heart-breaking, describing his turn to evil as something that he could do because he knows that Logan has embraced his turn to good.  In this way, Gillen has Scott go in two different directions at once.  He becomes harder against his enemies and softer on his allies.  We despise him, and sympathize with him, more.  All in all, he's a lot more complex but relatable character than he was.

I had wondered in my review of last issue why Marvel wasn't going to release a series on the new Brotherhood, as it seems clear that it has now reconstituted under Scott's leadership.  However, I now see, from an ad at the back of this issue, that "All-New X-Men" is going to follow its story.  Also, as hoped, Emma Frost is going to join the team.  Whereas I was dreading and dismissing this title as a poorly considered time-travel story that couldn't last, I'm now excited about it.  The new Scott's story is going to test the old Scott's beliefs.  Excellent.

I think that we've got a decent likelihood that, in the end, some sort of time-travel device is going to be used to put Scott back on the side of angels, erasing the world's memory of his crimes.  But, at least it seems like we're going to get some pretty damn good stories before that day comes.

AVX: Consequences #4 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

The best part of this issue, to my mind, is the conversation between Magneto and Storm.  In just the span of a few panels, Gillen manages to show the two distincts camps that have formed in the wake of "Avengers vs. X-Men."  He makes it clear that Magneto now once again sees himself responsible for defending mutantkind from humanity whereas Storm stresses the importance of working with humanity to heal the wounds left from Cyclops' rampage.  Gillen couldn't have chose two better spokespeople, using two of the smarter and more emotionally balanced X-Men and keeping the conversation all very civil and maturity.  For example, when Magneto implies that he's returning to villainy, Storm reminds him that he isn't a villain.  Magneto thanks her for that remark, but makes the excellent point that villainy is in the eye of the beholder.  It's an important framework that Magneto establishes here, particularly later in the issue when Cyclops calls for Magneto to free him.  I have to imagine that Magneto and Scott are going to have different philosophies when it comes to defending mutantkind, particularly since Gillen has gone to great lengths in this series to remind us that the idealistic Scott that we used to know is under there, as Wolverine himself says in this issue.  But, It won't matter, because Magneto is right:  the world is going to see Scott as a villain the minute that he leaves that prison.  As seemed evident for a while now, Scott is going to join the Brotherhood.  I can honestly say that I'm excited to see where we go with that and I'm more than moderately surprised that they're not going to get their own series.

AVX: Consequences #3 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

The most interesting thing about this issue is that Gillen lets us see a glimpse of an older (or, I guess, technically, younger) version of Scott, a guy who believes that a school could teach his cellmate to learn how to use his gifts and a somewhat implicit belief that he would use those powers for good rather than evil.  It seems unlikely that his cellmate has any intention to be a good guy, but it's a revealing moment of naiveté on Scott's part.  It implies that he hasn't forgotten all the lessons that Xavier taught him, that at least the goal of helping mutants understand their powers is worthwhile, even if he's less enthused about the "co-existing with humanity" part of Xavier's dream.  I wonder if it suggests his next act, forming a school with possibly a less "accommodationist," if you will, approach to educating mutants.  In the meantime, however, he hasn't gotten there yet, since we still see him preferring to die as a martyr than escaping and doing something else with his life.  But, this glimpse into the old Scott definitely makes me anxious to see where we find him at the end of this mini-series.

The rest of this issue shows us a variety of small moments involving several characters.  The most notable one to me was Hope trying to assimilate into a normal life.  I loved how Gillen framed it as a letter that Hope writes to Laurie, since it serves as a touching tribute to the cast of "Generation Hope."  I feel like it's pretty clear that Hope is less annoyingly rage-filled than she was now that she has the Phoenix burden off her shoulders, so it's nice to see her making amends with Laurie.  Gillen seems to be reminding us that this generation of mutants will take over the X-Men one day and is doing his part in keeping their group dynamics alive.  I'm also interested in where he goes with the Cable sub-plot.  I'm actually not sure what happened to Cable after the events of "Second Coming" (and why he's still alive) and I'm still curious why he didn't play any role in "Avengers vs. X-Men."  I guess we'll learn more in the next two issues.

All in all, it's another strong issue that continues to flesh out Cyclops and hints at his future while at the same time wrapping up some Hope-related loose ends.  I really can't ask for more than that.

Uncanny X-Men #20 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Kieron Gillen brings "Uncanny X-Men" to a close (again), focusing on the members of the Extinction Team who we haven't seen since the end of "Avengers vs. X-Men," namely Colossus, Danger, and Magik.

Honestly, I've thought the Danger/Unit story has been completely uninteresting since it began, so I normally wouldn't even discuss it in any detail here.  However, it's worth mentioning in connection with the Colossus/Magik storyline, because Gillen is forced to wrap up both ongoing sub-plots this issue as we transition to the the era after "Avengers vs. X-Men."  Impressively, he manages to do so without making either resolution feel rushed.  Unit's decision to leave makes sense, since he previously made it clear that he was just spending time on Earth to see how everything went with the Phoenix Force.  With Phoenix gone, he can now leave.  In terms of Colossus and Magik, we learn that Magik has always had the power to break Cyttorak's hold on Colossus and does so here.  This revelation may feel deus ex manchinay, but it does actually fit with the way that she's been portrayed since "Avengers vs. X-Men" started, essentially as someone who's finally been driven insane by years of demonic possession and age fluctuations.  As we saw hinted elsewhere (I can't remember the issue, maybe the last one), she reiterates that she wanted Colossus to experience his time as Juggernaut so that he could understand the darkness that drives her and convince him that she doesn't deserve his love.  She seems to accomplish her task, as Colossus tells her that he'll kill her the next time that he sees her.

The third story covered in this issue is Mr. Sinister revealing that he used his powers to replace Kate Kildare and posed as her to gain access to Cyclops in prison.  The death of Kate is accepted with a chillingly matter-of-fact approach by Cyclops and it's hard not to notice how similar he is in tone to Sinister here.  Sinister seems to imply that he'll be Scott's inspiration to leave prison since, in his words, no one else could stop him.  It's an interesting moment, if only because it's the first one to focus on the idea that Cyclops is one day going to leave prison.  For now, the various authors have gone to significant lengths to make it seem like we really are going to see Cyclops imprisoned for a significant period of time.  Gillen reminds us here that said period of time is likely to be a lot shorter than we think.

AVX: Consequences #2 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

This issue is mostly dedicated to the conversation between Logan and Scott that we were promised last issue, with Logan trying to convince Scott that it's in the best interest of mutantkind for him to convince the wayward members of the Extinction Team to surrender to authorities.  As usual, I'm struggling to see Scott's side of the debate.  I certainly get his desire to be a martyr, but more because I think Logan's right that he simply wants to die.  Scott claims he wants to be a martyr, but never really explains why he would be one.  In fact, once again, Scott seems to get the question wrong.  He seems to think that he would be a martyr because he was "right" on the question of whether or not the Phoenix Force would reignite the human race.  But, everyone else knew that the question, the real question, wasn't a "yes" or "no" question.  The real question was whether it was worth risking the world to rekindle the mutant race, particularly since the end of the world would, obviously, result in the end of mutantkind, too.  It's still a question that Scott doesn't even bother acknowledging, even though he himself came close to answering it by becoming Dark Phoenix.  For him, it was all about rekindling mutantkind.  At the end of the day, he saved the mutant race.  Period.

The amazing thing is that Scott still doesn't understand that it's more complicated than that.  When Logan tells him that the mutant race that he's rekindled is hated and feared even more than it used to be, Scott doesn't even blink.  (Heh.)  He doesn't understand the point that Logan is trying to make, that the Avengers and the X-Men have to do everything they can to allay the world's concerns over a rekindled mutant race lest every mutant finds himself hunted by Sentinels.  Gillen raises interesting imagery with that statement, making you wonder whether Hope rekindling the mutant race is going to lead to Bishop's future, but not because of the Six-Minute War that Hope causes in that timeline but because of the devastation that Scott caused in this timeline.  But, again, Scott is so far removed from reality that he sees the actual lives that the new mutants live as a secondary concern.  He's beyond caring about Professor X's dream, of addressing humans and mutants peacefully coexisting.  To his mind, he's saved mutantkind; how mutantkind lives is someone else's problem.

Gillen manages to convey this point of view in a way that you can tell that Scott has to tell himself these things to live with himself and it's the part of him that truly understands the damage that he's inflicted on mutantkind that wants to be killed.  He's left a broken, lonely man hoping someone will end his misery.  It's a stark change from what he was and I wonder where we're going to find him at the end of this mini-series.  For anyone not reading this series, I would actually really recommend it, because I feel like it is addressing a lot of the questions about Scott's perspective that I know a lot of us had at the end of "Avengers vs. X-Men."

AVX: Consequences #1 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Kieron Gillen does exactly what he's supposed to do with this issue, showing us the aftermath of "Avengers vs. X-Men."  It's been unclear, for example, why Magneto was wanted by the authorities, but, here, Cap explains that the entire Extinction Team is wanted, to varying degrees.  The members of the Phoenix Five top the list of people that the government wants to see behind bars, but Danger and Magneto are wanted at least for questioning given their checkered pasts.  Cap makes it clear that the government needs someone to atone for the devastation that the Phoenix Five wrought, and Danger and Magneto are at least sufficiently guilty by association to require some sort of public reckoning.  Although Gillen doesn't explicitly state it, it seems clear that the other X-Men (including other members of the Extinction Team with less spotty previous records, like Psylocke and Storm) have largely been forgiven for their role in supporting Scott in the interest of focusing on the main culprits.

But, Gillen makes it clear that the threat to mutantkind is larger than just rounding up these folks.  Both Captain America and the prison warden mention the increased fear that people feel with the advent of new mutants, particularly with such a recent testimony to the violent nature of some mutants.  The X-Men are no longer the ones suffering at the hands of humans; humans have now suffered at the hands of the X-Men.  The government might only be hunting seven mutants specifically (if Danger can be considered a mutant), but it doesn't necessarily mean that it and the public believe that the others aren't also threats.  Cap clearly views the new Avengers team as a way to begin combatting those fears and it's been a while since those fears have been as front and center in the X-books as they seem to be now.  It's like the '80s all over again.  I think it makes sense, though, and actually backs up Marvel's assertion that "Avengers vs. X-Men" was going to shake up the status quo.

It's clear that Cap has some sort of plan for addressing this new status quo and Gillen leaves you wanting to know more about it.  Presumably, we're going to see Wolverine ask Cyclops to do something to further that plan next issue and I can't wait to see that conversation.  All in all, Gillen makes this issue a must-read for anyone who really enjoyed "Avengers vs. X-Men."

Wolverine and the X-Men #18 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

OK, I'm trying to get past my hatred of the kiddie Hellfire Club, since it appears that Aaron can't go half an issue without bringing them into play somehow.  The problem is that he doesn't make it easy, since he insists on using them to introduce events that seem completely unrealistic.

The main focus of this series for a while has been characters acting oddly, though we're never actually been given reasons for this abnormal behavior.  This issue provides two examples of the problem.  First, we learn that the kiddie Hellfire Club has created a robot to act as a local pastor in order to get Idie to embrace her dark side.  Although this concept could be intriguing, Aaron fails to make it anything other than confusing.  He never explains what the kiddies would gain from forcing Idie to act rebelliously, other than causing some temporary problems at the school.  But, most importantly, he doesn't just have Idie act rebelliously; she actually seems to be exhibiting signs of telepathic manipulation.  For example, "realizing" that she was going to go to Hell "thanks" to the pastor wouldn't really be sufficient reason for her to start laughing maniacally in class while observing a fight between Glob Herman and Quentin Quire.  This moment doesn't have anything to do with Idie embracing her "bad" side; it's really just Idie acting oddly.  As such, since I'm pretty sure the robot couldn't exert telepathic control over Idie, it requires some other explanation, one that Aaron doesn't provide.  Second, Paige also seems to be losing her mind in this issue and, once again, we're not really given a reason that makes sense.  She also seems to be being telepathically manipulated, given her spacy stares and sudden rages.  But, once again, we're told that it has something to do with something else, namely her power fluctuations; however we've never really been told why her powers have been fluctuating in the first place.  Given that everyone seems to know that they're fluctuating, you'd think that Beast would've run a few tests by this point.  At any rate, I'm left hoping that Aaron is building a plot that will eventually reveal that someone has actually been telepathically manipulating the faculty and students at the School behind the scenes, since at least these sub-plots would make sense.  As it stands now, it all just seems incredibly random.

The only part of this issue that felt organic was Broo's sub-plot.  His heatbreak over Idie dancing with Quentin was palpable and his death at the end of the issue is something I'm really hoping against hope doesn't stick.  Broo has been the highlight of this series for me, mostly because he's been the only character whose motivations have felt real and relatable.  If we lose him, it'll not only be sad to see such a genuine character killed at such a low moment, with such disappointment in his heart, but it will also make it hard for me to justify continuing to get this series.  Since most of the plots and sub-plots have felt as disjointed as the Idie and Paige ones described above, the loss of the consistently great Broo moments will render this book almost unreadable, I fear, particularly if Aaron is going to continue to insist on using the kiddie Hellfire Club as his catch-all villains.

AVX:VS #6 (HERE BE...well, not really, actually)

Once upon a time, Marvel made a book called "AVX:VS."  It was fun.  I liked reading it.  People fought people.  Sometimes they had emotions.  Then it was less fun.  Because I was confused.  But then people fought people again and I was happy.  The end.

Avengers vs. X-Men #12 and Uncanny X-Men #19 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

At the end of the day, "Avengers vs. X-Men" ends pretty much how I expected it to end in the beginning, namely with the re-birth of the mutant race thanks to Hope and Wanda.  I'm including "Uncanny X-Men" #19 in this review because it presents Scott's side of the battle, making it hard to separate it from the main story.

First, before we get into the "Good" and "Bad," I want to note that I enjoyed this mini-series on the whole.  Although you'll notice that the "Bad" outnumber the "Good," I would still rank this cross-over event well above "Chaos War" or "Fear Itself," the first two events from Marvel that I read since returning to comics.  Although, as I note below, Marvel's sales department clearly had a hand in extending the story beyond where it probably should've stopped, I think the authors did a remarkably good job taking the ball they were handed and running with it.  Having read the main mini-series and almost all the cross-over issues, I still have a pretty clear idea of the story that they told and why events happened when they happened.  So, I just want to make it clear that, though I have some criticism of the way that the story was handled now that it's over, I'm still pleased as a fan for the entertainment and fun that this mini-series brought.  I can't remember the last time I was as excited about reading an issue as I was when I opened up "Avengers vs. X-Men" #12.

The Good
1) The authors finally answer (or, at least, come close to answering) some questions about Hope.  First, they do seem to confirm that the Phoenix Force created Hope.  They don't directly draw that line, but it's pretty clear that it's probably what happened.  Moreover, Hope fulfills her roll as the Mutant Messiah here.  For most of her history, Hope has been little more than a means to an end, the sum of her mysterious birth and future destiny.  With her origins clearer and her destiny fulfilled, I think she can now become more of a real character and less of a literary device.

2) Along those lines, the authors also draw a connection (though, again, not directly) between Wanda eliminating mutants on M-Day and the Phoenix Force deciding to undo that event.  Scott was always so adamant that Phoenix was coming to Earth exactly for that reason, so it was important for the authors to address it, in some form, before the mini-series ended.  Of course, as I mention below, the authors still leave some ambiguity.  After all, the Phoenix Force itself never confirms why it came.  Plus, if Scott had defeated Hope and Wanda, he likely would've destroyed the world, mutants included.  But, the idea that the Avengers now accept that Phoenix could at least theoretically have come to undo Wanda's act and the reality that Hope fulfilled this role (even if it wasn't necessarily the one that Phoenix originally planned) have emboldened Scott to believe that his sacrifice was worth it.  I'll address whether it's believable for Scott to take this position below.

3) Whereas Scott takes responsibilities for his actions but pretty much asserts that the ends justified the means (even if the means didn't necessarily mean that the end that happened was the one intended), Cap actually takes on the criticism for his failure to do more to protect mutants and vows to do something about it.  I'm glad that they gave Cap this redemptive epiphany, since it eliminates some of the earlier criticism that people had of him in the beginning of this mini-series, when he appears to be blind to the plight of the mutant race.  As such, I'm excited to see where we go with "Uncanny Avengers."

The Unknown
1) It's still unclear if mutants who were de-powered as a result of M-Day (like Dani Moonstar) have regained their powers.

2) I want to know more about this new Nova, who I'm depressed to see probably isn't Rich.

3) I wonder where we're going to go from here.  First, it seems that mutants are now hated and feared all the more, something that Beast tries to bring to Cyclops' attention in "Uncanny X-Men" #19.  Cap's organization of the "Uncanny Avengers" team seems to be speaking to this problem.  But, we still obviously have questions left unanswered.  With Cyclops gone, is Logan the de facto leader of the X-Men?  Also, why is Magneto counted among the renegade X-Men?  I get the Phoenix Five, but, if Magneto is a renegade, then so are basically all the other X-Men, since, at one point or another, they all threw in their lot with Cyclops.

The Bad
1) Although I found the ending mostly satisfying, I have to say that my first thought was, "They really could've told this story in six issues."  It's clear that the whole Phoenix Five storyline was just an excuse to stretch out the story to sell more issues.  If they had wanted to use Cyclops as the intermediate point between the arrival of Phoenix and Hope taking on its powers, they could've just done that.  We didn't need to have him slowly but surely amass the powers of the other members Phoenix Five as they fell.  Although it could've been worse (see "Fear Itself"), it's still pretty clear to me, in retrospect, that Marvel went with quantity over quality.  By the time we get to Hope becoming Phoenix, the event that theoretically drove this entire series in the first place, I had practically forgotten why everyone was so concerned about her doing so.

2) I'm not sure what we're supposed to think about Cyclops.  As I mentioned above, he's remarkably unrepentant in both these issues, sticking mostly to the script that we heard him reciting when this event began.  In fact, he tells Hank that he'd do it all again and that he's happy spending what remains of his life paying for his crimes.  However, it seems a little remarkable that he'd be so unmoved by his experience as the Dark Phoenix.  First, he had a moment of brief control over Phoenix where he asked Hope and Wanda to kill him.  Then, he has a vision of Jean telling him that it was time to let go.  I thought that she meant of life, but it seems that she just meant of Phoenix.  He manages to do so, but it's hard to believe that he'd do so willingly without realizing just how destructive it was in the first place.  It seems like the only reason that he'd do so was because he'd admit that the damage he was doing was too great.  (He had just, after all, killed his surrogate father.)  However, after the event, he doesn't seem to make the connection that he himself made it improbable that the mutant race would survive, since he almost destroyed the world.  The fact that it was reborn had nothing to do with him; in fact, it was the opposite of what he wanted at the time.  His decision that he somehow played a role in it lacks any sort of reflection on his role.  In fact, he's now essentially become his generation's Magneto.

3) Along those lines, the authors never explain why Scott didn't re-start humanity in the first place.  I think we're supposed to believe that he was just too overwhelmed by the destructive nature of the Phoenix Force to do so, but it would've been nice if someone had drawn that line more directly.  Without that line drawn, it makes it all the weirder that Scott would lay claim that his action brought about the rebirth, since he could've done it himself.

4) Did we rally need the connection to Iron Fist?  I can't really point to anything here that required it.  I think the argument is that Hope's training under his tutelage helped her to defeat Scott, but I don't think anyone really questioned that she could've defeated him in the first place.  In theory, to justify its inclusion, we should've seen that it helped her control the Phoenix Force.  But, I don't really think that we see that.  It's Wanda who helps her decide to sacrifice the Phoenix Force, not anything that she learned from Iron Fist.

New Comics!: The New Avengers Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

New Avengers #29:  I just realized the other day that I hadn't put "New Avengers" on my pull list when I started at my new comic shop two months ago, so I'm behind an issue.  After reading it, though, I wonder if it would've been better just to skip it.  This issue is a mess.  Several of the characters act completely out of character, such as Namor telling Cap that they're "brothers" or Professor X reading everyone's mind against their will.  To me, it's yet more examples of Bendis bending a character to fit whatever position he needs advocated at that time, regardless of whether it fits in the character's established personality to do so.  About the only thing that I liked about this issue was that someone FINALLY mentioned the Infinity Gems again.  One of my main complaints about "Fear Itself" was that no one even raised the possibility of using them.  At least here, it's briefly discussed.  But, that's it.  That's the only good I've got.

New Avengers #30:  Thankfully, this issue is MUCH better than the last issue.  In the process of transporting Emma Frost somewhere, the New Avengers are attacked by Purifiers seeking to kill her.  This sort of fight lends itself to the type of story that Bendis excels at writing, full of quips and quotes.  It means that he can avoid the problem that plagued last issue, since he's not forced to have someone do something that they wouldn't normally do simply to advance the plot where he wants it to go.  Instead, the fight draws out the personalities of the characters, like Luke getting all cranky and Daredevil getting all book-y.  ("That's not even the entire quote!")  The Purifiers are, in a way, a MacGuffin, though, since the point of the issue is Luke coming to the conclusion that he's leaving the Avengers.  His conversation with Daredevil in the beginning of the issue was particularly well done, with Daredevil staking out the position that you can't raise a child in the sort of environment in which the Avengers operate.  ("Can't we have one normal day?" is asked by several Avengers throughout the issue.)  Deodato really brings Luke's dilemma home in a series of panels that show Luke's life with Jessica and the baby interspliced with scenes from his fight with a Purifier.  As such, by the end, his decision to leave is pretty well reasoned.

With Luke's departure, Bendis is clearly also setting up his own departure, since Luke's presence at the core of the Avengers has been the most signature decision of his run.  It's uncertain, to me, where we go from here with the team.  Without Luke, I'm not sure if the New Avengers' roster of mostly street-level fighters will make sense anymore.  I believe that "New Avengers" is confirmed for Marvel NOW!, so I guess we'll see.

One question I have, though, is why Emma was arrested in the first place.  In "Avengers vs. X-Men" #11, Cap accuses Scott of "crimes against humanity," which is presumably why Emma is under arrest here.  But, what crimes?  Making crops grow in the desert?  I obviously don't approve of Scott's whole approach, by so far we haven't seen any of the Phoenix Five other than Namor commit anything that looked even remotely like a crime.

New Comics: "Avengers vs. X-Men" Edition #15

Avengers #30:  OMG, this issue is awful.  I never wanted to hear Spider-Woman talk about her period.  Bendis somehow manages to...I mean, he...you know, I can't even do it.  Given the fact that Hawkeye and Spider-Woman are involved in the attack on Cyclops and Emma Frost depicted on the first two pages of this issue, I'm going to pretend that it was just a hypothetical exploration of the possibility that Hawkeye and Spider-Women weren't part of the events of "Avengers vs. X-Men" #11 and instead tried to keep order while everyone was distracted.  I'm not even going to mention the fat that we also have pet peeve #2 here, since we at no point see the duo leading some sort of rag-tag team of survivors of an apocalypse, as seemingly depicted on the cover.  La la la.  None of it ever happened.

New Comics!: The "Avengers vs. X-Men" Edition #14 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Avengers vs. X-Men #11:  This issue begins oddly, starting with Captain America asking for the Hulk to help fight Cyclops and moving onto Rogue asking for safe harbor from Professor X and the Avengers.  In terms of the Hulk, it's odd because he plays almost no role in the rest of the issue.  In fact, I'm not really all that sure why they thought that he would be useful against a Phoenix-empowered Cyclops, given that he doesn't exactly get a lot of opportunities to "smash." In terms of Rogue, it's weird because it seems to ignore several issues' worth of events.  After all, we've seen Rogue in an alternate dimension for the last three issues of "X-Men Legacy" and Bobby defected to the Avengers' side at least before the events of "Wolverine and the X-Men" #15.  As such, it's a little jarring to see them "defect" here.

However, Bendis quickly moves us past these awkward moments by immersing us almost immediately into an emotion-driven battle of wills between Cyclops and Professor X.  We essentially watch Scott have a nervous breakdown and Bendis doesn't pull any punches in showing it.  Before Professor X arrives, we watch Scott dismiss Emma too quickly, no longer capable of pretending that Phoenix isn't affecting him in the same way that it's affecting her.  But, it's the arrival of Professor X that pushes him over the edge.  Coipel and his team do an amazing job with the moment.  The image of Professor X standing on the beach, watching the sunset, conveys the calm before the storm that comes, mirroring Professor X's hope that he will be able to convince Scott to end the dispute quietly.  But, the storm comes and we see Scott violently reject Professor X's offer of help.  It's a particularly adolescent rant, and Bendis does a great job of showing us a Scott increasingly unhinged as it progresses.  By the time he seemingly kills Magneto, you know that we have passed the point of no return.  Iceman expresses anger at Scott and Storm begs him to stop, but he ignores them both.  His next act is to take the Phoenix Force from Emma; the image of him standing with his hands around her neck with blood pouring from her lips is not one that I'll soon forget and perhaps the one that shows that he will in all likelihood be irredeemable after this event ends.  It all goes quickly from there, with Scott seemingly killing Professor X and Wolverine in short order.  In the end, it's the image of a visor-less Scott as Dark Phoenix that makes you realize that he's lost.  Without the visor, Scott's last shred of humanity has been flayed from him

On one hand, I'm less concerned than I should be about the fact that we still don't know, with only one issue left, what roles Hope and Wanda will ultimately wind up playing in this event.  Despite the pages upon pages dedicated in the early days of this event to building the mystery of their connection to the Phoenix Force, Bendis winds up making this entire mini-series solely about Scott.  It may not have been to start, but it is now.  On the other hand, we really do have a lot of ground left to cover in this last issue.  We still don't know what Phoenix's motivation actually was in coming to Earth, though, thanks to "Uncanny X-Men" #17, we know that it did have one.  We still haven't seen the mutants of the world benefit at all, other than whatever secondary benefit they received from the Phoenix Five curing the world's problem.  It seems unlikely to expect a reversal of M-Day at this stage, despite the fact that it seemed to be the whole point of this event when it started.  It seems difficult to believe that issue #12 will successfully address all these issues.

Finally, I find it hard to believe that Magneto, Professor X, and Wolverine are all going to wind up being dead after the dust settles.  However, Coipel doesn't seem to leave much doubt that Scott kills them, unless I'm seriously misreading his panels.  As such, it is hard to know which "death" or "deaths" to take seriously, and I'm left to wonder if a Phoenixed-up Hope or Wanda isn't just going to undo them.

Ultimately, this issue is redeemed by Bendis' careful handling of Scott's meltdown, but I do think that I'm going to need to see at least SOME of the issues that we expected to see addressed at the outset of this event addressed for me not to feel disappointed with it in the end.

Uncanny X-Men #18:  After the emotional blockbuster that was "Avengers vs. X-Men" #11, this issue feels like a faint echo.

The most interesting sequence is the one between Colossus and Magik.  Over the last 30 years of comics, Illyana is the character who has arguably suffered the most at the hands of revising authors and lax editors, rarely serving as more than a plot device meant to inject some human tragedy into the current arc.  Magneto may die every now and again, but he's still Magneto when he returns.  Even with his recent conversion to a good guy, he's still as arrogant and irascible as he's always been.  Illyana, however, has never really been one character.  She's been several depending on the emotional impact that the revising author is trying to convey, from the canny teenager trying to control her dark powers to the innocent girl denied a new chance at life by the Legacy Virus to the resurrected teenager who seemed to hold even darker secrets than her previous incarnations.  In other words, she's been all over the map.  During the "Fall/Rise of the New Mutants" story, it seemed that she might be returning to her original personality, given that she had gotten back the parts of her soul that she had previously lost.  However, since then, she's still seemed a little...off.  Here, Gillen gives us the most reasonable explanation, namely that the years of trauma that have been inflicted upon her have left her insane.  It doesn't matter if her soul is no longer fractured; her mind certainly is.  Just as she once manipulated the X-Men into facing the Elder Gods so she could seek revenge against them, we learn here that she manipulated Peter into becoming the Juggernaut so that she could make him understand how she felt.  It was a desperate ploy of a destroyed girl, but it was also a selfish one, given that she allowed Peter to lose his own soul in the process.  I'm not sure where Illyana goes from here, but I feel like Gillen has made her character a lot more believable.  We no longer have various mystical explanations to explain her behavior; we have one believable one.

However, the Cyclops/Emma sequence weighs down the issue, given that it covers much of the same ground that we saw covered in "Avengers vs. X-Men" #11 and doesn't really add all that much.  Frankly, I would've preferred Gillen spent more time on Colossus and Magik, whose story isn't being told in the main mini-series.  All in all, you get the sense that they're really spinning their wheels at this point in an attempt to justify stretching out this event for as long as they have.

Wolverine and the X-Men #16:  OMG, will the Kiddie Hellfire Club please, please, please go away?

New Comics!: The "Avengers vs. X-Men" Edition #13 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

AVX:VS #5:  The problem with these "AVX:VX" issues at this point is that I'm having trouble remembering the circumstances surrounding each fight.  When exactly was Hawkeye fighting Angel?  Why was Black Panther fighting Storm?  I know that the intro page wants us to believe that the fights depicted in these issues have no impact on the main storyline, but they clearly do, given that we watch Ororo and T'Challa's marriage collapse in this issue.  At the very least, I feel like someone needed to let us know why Storm, of all people, would be chosen to fight the Black Panther.  I don't think that anything about this overall conflict meant that, after it, Ororo and T'Challa couldn't have worked out their differences.  But, here, we begin with Storm telling us what a terrible husband the Panther was.  The end of the marriage is essentially a fait accompli.  So, something other than the events of "Avengers vs. X-Men" was clearly driving that, but Aaron never actually tells us what that was.  Needless to say, it makes for a fairly disappointing story.  It would've been better if they had just stuck to fights like Angel and Hawkeye's, where you may not remember why they're fighting, but the why doesn't actually really matter.

Uncanny X-Men #17:  My biggest question last issue was why the Phoenix Force would allow Sinister to strip it from the Phoenix Five and house it in the six Madeleine Pryor clones.  It just didn't feel right.  Emma didn't think so either, apparently: she addresses Phoenix directly in this issue, wondering why it would allow it to happen.  I hadn't thought of Phoenix's original response, essentially that it exists merely to exist, making the identity of the host (or hosts) somewhat irrelevant.  But, I had thought of its later comment, namely that we're dealing with a new and improved Phoenix, one who came here for a purpose.  (Of course, we don't learn that that purpose is, but I'm resigned to that omission at this point.)  As such, Gillen addresses the problem that I had with last issue by actually making the resolution of that problem the resolution of the arc:  Phoenix takes back her powers and eliminates Mr. Sinister.  (Although, I think that we all agree it's not the last that we're going to see of Mr. Sinister.)  Although it could get easily lost in the shuffle, I also thought that it was interesting that the other team was merely there as a distraction.  Danger, Magneto, Psylocke, and Storm don't actually accomplish anything.  I thought that their presence might have led to them rescuing the Phoenix Five and, in the process, reminding them of their humanity somehow.  Nope.  Instead, the second team's failure to rescue the Phoenix Five and the Phoenix Five's ability to rescue themselves actually seem to separate the Five all the more from the rest of the X-Men, essentially making everyone else irrelevant.

Wolverine and the X-Men #15:  This issue is truly, truly excellent.  In fact, of all the existing tie-in issues, I think that it's the one that should most be most considered an integral part of the main event.  I've mentioned previously that I though the X-books have done a much better job of showing the effects of the ongoing events on the X-Men than the Avengers' books have on the Avengers (even though I would still like some more insight into how some of the B-List and C-List X-Men were reacting to these events).  This issue is a great example of the success that the X-books have had on this front.  Aaron takes us on a tour of the mindset of the team on the eve of its war with Cyclops and Emma Frost and it's a revealing look at where we are.

The issue is a collection of moments and I'm not going to review all of them.  Some of my favorites are as follows:  Iron Man telling Broo that "Uncle Tony" will get him anything that he wants after Broo improved his calculations, Iceman telling Kitty that they can go to a strip joint for their first date after Kitty asked to go somewhere without teenagers, Professor X endorsing Quentin Quire for student-body president after he realizes that Quentin is just trying to be seen as a rebel, and, of course, Hank looking at the photo of the original X-Men before heading out the door.  I was particularly happy that poor Broo is getting some attention, particularly after I felt like he was abandoned by the faculty after the events of issue #7.  (I'm also hoping that Tony's response to his question that he knows Nova means that Rich is back with us!)

But, Aaron just didn't give us some fun moments.  He also ones that hint at the post-"Avengers vs. X-Men" future.  We see Wolverine forgive Bobby for his desertion and, in fact, thank him for disagreeing with him, because it was people who would disagree with him who he most wanted at the school.  I was worried that "Avengers vs X-Men" would be portrayed as another "X-Men:  Schism."  After all, to be honest, it seems a stretch that Logan would be so quick to forgive Bobby, since Bobby's defection did, after all, increase the likelihood of the team that came closest to ending the world winning.  (Though, maybe just the virtue of being right helped put Logan in a forgiving mood.)  But, you can already see that some of the emotions that the characters were displaying earlier in Act Two have started to fade, so maybe it isn't as unlikely as it seemed like it would be back then.  Logan isn't trying to kill Hope, Cap isn't mistrustful of all the X-Men, etc.  It feels like a fairly natural evolution, given that everyone now agrees that they face a larger threat (something that they didn't when it was just about Hope).

Perhaps most of all, though, the moment that struck me the most is actually the cover.  It's a pretty clear allusion to the original X-Men, with Logan replacing Scott and Rachel replacing Jean.  Between that and Hank looking at the picture of the original team at the end of the issue, Aaron and Molina are sending a pretty clear message that the coming fight is going to go to the heart of who the X-Men are.  I'm not sure how, but I'm excited to see where the authors take it.

New Comics!: The "Avengers vs. X-Men" Edition #12 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Avengers vs X-Men #10:  Until now, Cyclops has seemed to be managing the Phoenix Force pretty well compared to his fellow members of the Phoenix Five.  Whereas everyone else has had the darkest parts of their soul amplified by Phoenix, Scott has held a pretty firm line on the fact that the Phoenix Five were trying to help the world.  He refused the entreaties of other members of the Phoenix Five to take a more aggressive approach with the Avengers, insisting that getting aggressive would only serve to help the Avengers paint them as the bad guys.  That plan goes out the window in this issue when he decides to stop being Mr. Nice Guy to get his hands on Hope.

At this stage, I have two major questions that I would like to see answered before this series ends.  First, why does Cyclops care about Hope?  In the beginning, before he even conceived of himself as playing host to Phoenix, he needed Hope since she was the obvious avatar of the Phoenix Force and, therefore, the person who could use Phoenix's power to bring about the rebirth of the mutant race.  But, he now possesses 1/2 of the Phoenix Force's power and, based on the cover image of issue #11, might soon possess all of it.  As such, why does he still need Hope?  Does he plan on surrendering his power to her?  It doesn't seem like it, particularly given comments that he previously made to her (I think in issue #6) about Phoenix not wanting her anymore after Hope rejected it.  Does he want her simply so that the Avengers can't use her against him?  I think that's the real reason, but he doesn't seem to think about it that way.  I think that it would be helpful to see him explain why he wants Hope.

Second, what's Cyclops' plan, exactly?  In the beginning, he wanted Hope to use the Phoenix Force to restart the mutant race.  But, we haven't seen any indication, since coming into possession of Phoenix's power himself, that he or any other member of the Phoenix Five have done anything to make that happen.  Is his plan simply to rule?  Is that, again, why he wants Hope?  Does he want her not so that she can become the avatar of Phoenix, but so that she doesn't become a rival to him?  Again, I think that the last two issues probably need to address his plan at some point, particularly if he does defeat Emma and becomes the sole Phoenix.

Looking beyond the larger plot, this issue is tense.  It didn't surprise me when I looked, after I read it, and saw that Brubaker wrote it.  Brubaker has excelled in telling these sort of tightly scripted thrillers in "Captain America" and "Winter Soldier," and this issue is no different.  He initially portrays Scott as a benevolent dictator whose patience with his wayward subjects finally comes to an end.   Slowly but surely, however, as Scott makes his way through K'un Lun, Brubaker makes it clear that Scott is just as despotic as Emma, who we see here subjugating the rest of the X-Men on Utopia.  Brubaker scripts this issue like a horror movie, giving us a disturbing Cyclops roaming around an empty K'un Lun calling out Hope's name.  "Come out, Hope.  I'm not here to hurt you."  Sure, you're not, Summers.  Sure, you're not.  Brubaker uses small moments to show how far gone Scott is, like the petulant comment that he makes after taking down Hawkeye, Thing, and Thor:  "How's that for clobbering time?"  But, Brubaker also excels when focusing on the other side, showing us a terrified Hope fleeing from Cyclops.  Brubaker implies no shame in her fear, since, after all, it's pretty understandable that anyone, let alone a teenaged girl, would be pretty damned frightened if a demi-god was coming after her.  Hope runs into the arms of the Thunderer and the Scarlet Witch and Brubaker uses the moment to show the adults doing their best to do right by her.

In the end, though, it's Hope's show.  Brubaker's contribution to this series is to draw back the story, which has wandered over the course of Act Two, to the core conceit, namely Hope's relationship with Phoenix.  As I hoped last issue, we see her kick Scott's ass here.  It's a satisfying moment, but the decision (seemingly) to activate Hope's Iron Fist powers raised some questions in my mind.  One of the authors' odder decisions has been tying the powers of the Phoenix Force to those of the Iron Fist and Scarlet Witch.  Tony Stark has spent almost the entire mini-series trying to find the connection between the three entities, and I've been trying to be patient (even though it's pretty hard to imagine the Iron Fist connection being in play had Bendis not resurrected him from obscurity in his run on Avengers).  After ten issues, though, I'm still not entirely sure why we needed to involve the Iron Fist AND Scarlet Witch in this endeavor, particularly when, as we see here, Hope's connection to the Phoenix Force continues to be the most interesting.

With the return to focus on Hope's relationship with Phoenix, I'm hoping we make some quick progress in the next issue.  We seem to be missing quite a few potential players on the board (Cable, Jean Grey, Professor X, Scarlet Witch beyond her random whack-a-mole-esque appearances over the last few issues).  Although the authors have done a great job of adding plot twists without making them seem just like diversions and misdirections, it's time to address the issues that I raised above, namely, what's Hope's future and how does it impact the mutant race.  I'm worried, though, we're going to focus next issue on the manufactured connection to the Iron Fist energy and the Scarlet Witch's powers and the last issue is going to be a mad rush to the finish.  We shall see, I guess.

Avengers #29:  OK, if you're read my last few posts, you'll know that "Wolverine and the X-Men" #12 has been the biggest thorn in my side when it comes to this event, given that it didn't seem to fit in continuity.  After all, I wasn't sure how Hope could be in K'un Lun in "Avengers vs. X-Men" #7 and "New Avengers" #27 while also being in Indonesia in "Wolverine and the X-Men" #12, essentially at the same time.  Here, we learn that it's because she wasn't.  "Hope" in "Wolverine and the X-Men" #12 was Professor X.

First, can I just say, because I rarely get to say it, OMG, thank you, Marvel, for resolving a continuity question!  OK, sure, we still have the problem that Giant Man was allegedly captured in "Wolverine and the X-Men" #12, but never actually appeared in captivity after that.  Fine, whatever.  I can live with that.  Sure, Quicksilver forgot that he was captured in that issue for two issues of "Avengers vs. X-Men," but he eventually remembered, so, you know, no harm, no foul.  But, it made no sense that Hope was in Indonesia.  I mean, none.  Why would the Avengers risk her being in Indonesia, where the X-Men could find her, and not in K'un Lun, where she was safe?  They wouldn't, which is why it didn't make sense.

But, this issue doesn't just resolve that continuity point.  It also essentially brings Professor X into the game, or, put another way, explains why he hadn't been in the game yet.  Even now, we're only seeing him start to get involved.  He helps the Avengers break out their people in "Avengers vs. X-Men" #9 and I'm guessing that he's going to respond to Magneto's plea for help big time in "Avengers vs. X-Men" #11.  But, here, we see why he hasn't been involved, namely, because he couldn't handle taking up arms against his "children."  Ever since Cyclops expelled Xavier from the X-Men after the "Vulcan incident," if you will, he has vacillated between accepting Scott's leadership and feeling unnecessarily dismissed.  Here, I get the sense that we're seeing his last moment of disengagement, because he seems bound to play a key role in stopping Scott.  Moreover, given Scott's behavior over the course of "Avengers vs. X-Men," it's pretty clear that he no longer will have the moral superiority over Xavier that he thought that he had.  All that points to a renewed presence by Xavier after the event ends.  But, here, Bendis gives us one last look at the Xavier we've seen over the last few years and prepares us for his next iteration.  Although it's an Avengers book, it's definitely worth a read for an X-Men fan.

New Comics!: The "Avengers vs. X-Men" Edition #11 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Avengers vs. X-Men #9:  After not much really happening to advance the overall plot in the last two issues, Aaron regroups, giving us a character-driven issue that manages to move us to a new status quo and remind us why Dr. Strange said of Spidey in "Amazing Spider-Man" #641, "The boy is truly the best of us."

Before I get to the plot, Aaron resolves (more or less) one of my main gripes with the last few issues by specifically identifying the Avengers who've been captured by the Phoenix Five (now Four).  It appears that Black Widow was captured in Indonesia in "Wolverine and the X-Men" #12, despite no one actually mentioning that she was at the time.  However, despite Rachel saying Giant Man was captured in that issue, he apparently wasn't, since he appears injured in this issue.  I had thought that Emma Frost captured Thor in "AVX:VS" #4, but he appeared free in "Avengers vs. X-Men" #8.  Here, we learn that he was captured, but by Colossus and Magik.  Quicksilver was allegedly captured in "Wolverine and the X-Men" #12, but forget that he was for "Avengers vs. X-Men" #7 and #8.  I guess he remembered here.  Even though Aaron resolves the issue, I'm still annoyed by such a level of narrative sloppiness since, as I've often said, if I can keep track of who the Phoenix Five have imprisoned, someone who gets money to produce and edit these stories should also be able to do so.  But, by drawing a line under the issue and telling us definitively who's been captured, Aaron at least lets us find our own ways to reconcile these annoying discrepancies (reality warp?) and moves past the awkward contradictions.

To begin, I think that it was a great decision to establish Spider-Man as our lens for this issue.  After reading this issue, I realized that the problem with the last two issues is that they tried to cover too much ground and juggle too many characters.  In doing so, they actually managed not to cover all that much ground and to treat the characters as virtually indistinguishable from one another.  In the first instance, the Avengers are still on the run from the X-Men with no real idea on how to change the game; they mostly just bemoan their circumstances.  In the second instance, when Ben Grimm noted at the end of last issue that the Avengers expended all their energy against Namor but barely defeated him, his words easily could've been uttered by virtually any other member of the team.  Even Captain America has been reduced essentially just to barking orders, with no real effort to give us an insight into his thinking.

By putting Spidey front and center, Aaron is able to move us through the events that happen in the issue much more quickly, since he's not burdened by having to also provide other characters' perspectives at the same time.  Moreover, by focusing on just one character, we get that emotional connection to the story that we've been missing.  He builds off the work that Bendis did with Spidey in "New Avengers" #27, making us initially think that his role in this issue was going to have something to do with inspiring Hope.  It does, in a way, but not in the way you think.

I've read Spider-Man a long time, and I have to say that Aaron writes a pretty great Spider-Man.  Some authors treat Peter's sense of humor as a sign that he's not serious, but Aaron gets that his quips are his way of expelling nervous energy.  As such, he uses Pete's inner monologue to show his more serious thoughts.  Here, Peter realizes that he has a responsibility to show Hope what he meant about waiting for her moment.  It's classic Spidey, because he's driven not only by his responsibility as a member of the Avengers, but also his responsibility as a mentor to Hope.  As such, beyond just saving the Avengers, I'm hoping that we see it inspire Hope.  (Speaking of the quips, though, can I just say how please I was with the "Karate Kid" reference?  I mean, I know that it was obvious, but, the minute that I saw Hope balancing those buckets, I just knew Spidey was going to make a "Karate Kid" joke.  Thank you, Jason Aaron, for making that happen.)

In addition to writing a great Spidey, Aaron also manages to do a better job than some of the other authors in setting the mood.  You really got the sense of desperation that is driving the Avengers at this point.  We see Captain America commething that he estimated that the Avengers only had a week or so before the Phoenix Four would defeat them and Spidey taking his action in Limbo because he thought that they weren't going to survive.  It's pretty seriously grim.  As I previously said, at this point we had mostly just seen the Avengers bemoaning their circumstances.  Here, Aaron makes their worries a lot more real.  On the other side, he's also the first author in the main title to show us the Phoenix Four really cracking under the strain.  I have to say that using Colossus and Magik against each other was brilliant.  "Wolverine and the X-Men" #14 really set up this conflict well, given that we've already seen Peter succumb to his darkest impulses.  It's not hard to see where Magik was going to be negatively influenced by Phoenix.  It makes sense that the two of them were ready to go after each other to get more power.  (I mean, how creepy was Colossus giving whales legs?)  The fact that Aaron has Spidey be smart enough to play them against one another was just icing on the cake.  Moreover, although we've seen Emma acting particularly...Emma over the last few issues, Aaron makes it clear that it's much worse than we thought and humanizes her by making her realize the same.

Part of what makes the prospect of next issue so exciting is realizing the extent to which the authors have turned our expectations on their head.  When we started this series, I assumed that it would be everyone fighting Hope.  But, when Cyclops arrives in K'un Lun, you can see Hope replay the words Peter that said to her in her head.  As a result, I really, really want her to decide that her "moment" has come and to beat Cyclops to a bloody pulp.  It's not where I'd thought we would be at issue #9, and I really tip my hat to the authors for making it feel organic.

Between the doom and gloom, Aaron includes smaller moments of hope, though, like Logan still being sure that Storm wouldn't sell out the Avengers by leading them into a trap and Professor X throwing in his lot with the Avengers.  It's the first moment when you realize that the Avengers and the X-Men might survive this experience with their relationship in tact.  It's clearly not going to be perfect, but, with the X-Men starting to defect from the Phoenix Four, it'll at least be something.

New Comics!: The "Avengers vs. X-Men" Edition #10 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Avengers vs. X-Men #8:  So far, I've been pretty impressed with how well the various authors have done in keeping all their details straight, particularly in terms of coordinating the main mini-series with the tie-in issues and other co-authors' issues.  The wheels, unfortunately, come off the bus in this issue, weighing down the entire story for me as I tried to reconcile some fairly major inconsistencies.

First, we have the location problem.  Whereas Hope has been in K'un Lun since "New Avengers" #27 (an issue associated more or less with "Avengers vs. X-Men" #6), she just arrives there in this issue of the main title.  Presumably, Spider-Man's tutelage of her doesn't begin until after this issue (since he also just arrives in K'un Lun in this issue), making it a little odd that the events of two full issues of the main title (#7 and #8) pass before the events of "New Avengers" #27 could even remotely happen.

Then, we have what I'll call the "prisoner problem."  For example, Thor and Emma battle in "AVX:VS" #4.  Emma defeats him and, in "New Avengers" #28, someone mentions that Thor has been captured.  Yet, Thor appears here with no reference to him having been captured.  Moreover, Quicksilver also appears, despite the fact that he was specifically mentioned as captured in "Wolverine and the X-Men" #12.  However, I'm increasingly coming to the conclusion that "Wolverine and the X-Men" #12 is a total outlier.  Both Giant Man and Quicksilver are identified as captured in that issue, but they both appear in "Avengers vs. X-Men" #7.  Moreover, Hope never appeared to have time to go to Indonesia with the Avengers, as she does in that issue.

I mention these problems not only because they annoy me, but because they compound the problem that you already have under the best of circumstances with these sorts of events, trying to fit the stories happening in the main mini-series into some sort of continuum with the tie-in issues.  Beyond the "prisoner problem," I've got a slew of questions about when the events in some of the tie-in issues happen.  For example, when do the Phoenix Five fit in going after Mr. Sinister, particularly if they're the Phoenix Four by the end of this issue?  When you start getting the authors directly contradicting each other, then it starts becoming really problematic, because it's hard to stay in the story.

Putting aside my anal-retentiveness, the other problem with this issue is that it really just seems like a stalling device.  I mean, sure, Namor loses the power of the Phoenix and the Avengers have a pity party over the fact that it took everything that they had just to knock out a member of the Phoenix Five.  But, nothing really substantially changed from the end of last issue.  I mean, it takes Hope and Wolverine half an issue just to step through a portal!  Instead, we get Professor X appearing suddenly furious at the end.  I don't really understand why he was mad at Scott, since it's not like Scott destroyed Wakanda.  I mean, I'm not really a fan of Scott's at this point, but it's pretty hard to blame Namor's rogue actions on him.  But, Professor X just seems totally enraged, despite the fact that, the last time that we saw him, in "Avengers vs. X-Men" #6, he was just concerned.  I'm getting almost all the tie-in issues (except, I think, "Avengers Academy") so I'm 95 percent certain that we haven't seen the reason why he went from concerned to furious in those issues.  As such, it just feels like an arbitrary plot device to move us to the next mini-plot of the series.

I'm not really sure where it's all leading.  We still don't have a clear sense of Phoenix's motives; at this point, it seems to be allowing the Phoenix Five to do what they want, but it's pretty clear that approach is going to change.  I'm also confused why the X-Men are more focused on changing the world than changing mutantkind.  Shouldn't they be using their power to restart the mutant race?  Offering to return powers to mutants de-powered on M-Day?  Phoenix's (purported) power to restart mutantkind is, after all, the whole reason the two sides are fighting this battle, since Cyclops believes it outweighs all the potential danger.  Why isn't he using it to do that then?  It's unclear to me whether it's part of Phoenix's plan (so it's manipulating Cyclops to feel less urgent in his need to address the issue) or if the authors' have just gotten distracted by other parts of the event.  

Either way, the lack of attention paid to the issue is just one of the reasons why this issue felt like a massive attempt to stall.  I mean, don't get me wrong.  The battle with Namor was epic and the Avengers have a point that they don't have a whole lot of hope if it took all of them just to take down 1/5 of the Phoenix Five.  But, in the end, this issue and issue #7 probably could've been collapsed into one and we wouldn't have been worse for it.

Avengers #28:  I complain throughout this review about the fact that the coordination of tie-in issues with the main mini-series has taken a hit lately, but Bendis is the exception to the rule here.  He does a really great job inserting this story between panels of "Avengers vs. X-Men" #7.  He also wins applause for telling a story that makes sense, because I totally believe that General Ross would take it upon himself to try to assassinate Cyclops.  The story flows smoothly and Ross' narration works well, getting us inside his head and showing us the sacrifices that he's willing to make to advance the cause.  (I thought his most interesting comment was about Wolverine not being able to bring himself to assassinate Cyclops.  I've always appreciated the fact that Bendis has often given Logan credit for a greater level of humanity than other authors have.)  All in all, it's a pretty solid showing that does exactly what a tie-in issue should do, developing a plot that the main story doesn't have time to explore.  It reminded me of Hope and Wolverine's adventure in "Wolverine and the X-Men" #11, another example of a tie-in issue filling in the blanks between panels.  It's also the type of story that I expected to see from "Avengers" during this event, so it's a welcome relief from the recent Space Team plot, which seemed totally unnecessary given the competing story being told in "Secret Avengers."  My only real complaint is the fact that Cyclops decided not to lock up Rulk.  Personally, I'd prefer to have a guy who Emma Frost herself notes went toe-to-toe with the Silver Surfer locked far, far underground.  Why bother locking up Luke Cage, Giant Man, Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and Spider-Woman if you're going to let Rulk go?  But, I understand that Bendis is working under editorial constraints, so it's not really his fault.  Overall, it's worth a read if you're looking for a story that makes a lot more sense than Thor swinging a hammer at a cosmic entity in space. 

Uncanny X-Men #16:  The main problem with this issue is the fact that it's hard to be too worried about the outcome given that we know that the events depicted in it happen before the events of "Avengers vs. X-Men" #8, since Namor is still a member of the Phoenix Five in this issue.  So, whatever Sinister is planning to do to the Phoenix Five, he clearly doesn't succeed, because they're all intact by the start of "Avengers vs. X-Men" #8.  This issue is a great example of how that increasing lack of coordination negatively impacts the story that Gillen is trying to tell here.  Is it still fun to watch Sinister to score some points against the Phoenix Five?  Sure.  But, in addition to knowing that they all eventually regain their powers in time for Namor to attack Wakanda, Gillen doesn't really explain how the Madelynes manage to siphon off their powers in the first place.  They just sort of...do.  You'd think Phoenix, who chose the Five, after all, would have some sort of say.  All in all, it's not a terrible issue, but the lack of suspense and clarity drags it down a lot, a disappointment in light of how strong issues #14 and #15 were.

Wolverine and the X-Men #14:  OK, Jason Aaron wins the prize for author of a tie-in issue who most successfully uses the main event to advance his series' ongoing storylines.  In the love-triangle department, we've got Kitty firmly rejecting Peter and essentially instructing Bobby to ask her on a date.  We've got the revelation that Toad is (creepily) collecting Husk's discarded skins and using them (creepily) to create life-sized models of her so that he can (creepily) serve them tea.  (I told you it was creepy.)  We've even got hints of Paige's ongoing problems with her powers, since I don't remember her leaving behind full-sized skins in the past.  Seriously, I've enjoyed "Avengers vs. X-Men" so far, but this issue was the first one that made me wish it would come to an end soon so we could resume exploring the interesting storylines that Aaron reminds us are brewing in this title.

In terms of "Avengers vs. X-Men," Aaron furthers the plot significantly.  Colossus is arguably the first member of the Phoenix Five that we see totally crack under the pressure.  I mean, sure, Namor attacked Wakanda, but, frankly, it's pretty much within Namor's personality to go off half-cocked and attack a country.  It is not, however, in Peter's nature to threaten Kitty or destroy schools.  At several points during this issue, Aaron has us fear that Colossus is going to hurt Kitty, an idea so ridiculous that Aaron successfully uses it show you how far gone Peter is.  (You know that it's going to go down hill quickly when he tells her early in the issue, during their dinner between the sea, that he has everything but her.)  Molina and Lee do a great job of showing Peter vacillating between sanity and rage.  One moment, his eyes are laughing at the thought that he might be under the possession of Phoenix; the next, they're burning with the idea that he could destroy existence as we know it.  They really manage to accentuate the message that Aaron is trying to convey, making it all the more powerful for it.  By the end of the issue, when Colossus tells Kitty that he could kill her and resurrect her, you realize just how quickly everything is deteriorating.  But, before Colossus can do anything that he'd later regret, Aaron makes Colossus realize how far gone he is as well, as he's standing in the ruins of the statue of Jean Grey.  It's a poignant moment, all the more so for reminding us of Jean's notable absence throughout this event.  (I also thought that Kitty made a great point telling Colossus that she's treating him differently than Jean because Jean didn't round up people who disagreed with her.  Given that the X-Men essentially viewed Jean, before the Phoenix Five got their powers, as weak for failing to control Phoenix and implied that a teenage girl could do it better, I'm glad that someone is giving her props.)

Also importantly, we see Bobby finally have enough when he's forced to "arrest" Thing.  He and Rachel return, a defection (or refection) that seems to portend the start of Act Three, particularly because I'm assuming Rogue will come to a similar conclusion in the upcoming issue of "X-Men Legacy."  It's also unclear what Colossus is going to do, as we seem him end this issue contemplating his actions as he walks across the Moon.

I've often felt frustrated with this series because Aaron has by and large ignored Kitty.  But, we see a lot of the old Kitty here.  For example, her response to Bobby and Rachel's return is a great moment.  She's been trying to hold the School together for weeks, and it's pretty clear that the less she knew about the events happening outside the School, the better.  As such, she refuses to engage Bobby on the subject, instead instructing him and Rachel to start teaching classes and serving lunches.  ("Rogue's gym class and Beast's advanced biology are still open.  I taught both of them at the same time yesterday.")  Combined with the fact that she easily defended the School against Colossus, it shows the grit and determination that we used to see from Kitty.  I hope that we see more of it in the future.

This issue only had two small downsides for me.  First, in terms of the ongoing coordination problems, it seems odd that Ben was suddenly in New York when, last I checked, he had been spirited to K'un Lun with the rest of the Avengers in "Avengers vs. X-Men" #8.  Moreover, I wish we would've seen more about Rachel's decision to return to the X-Men.  I get why Bobby defected, but I feel like we needed some sort of explanation behind why Rachel did.  She was a lot more committed to the cause than Bobby was, believing that it was her way to help prevent her future from becoming a reality, not to mention her desire to support her father.  Although we saw hints of her disquiet in "Wolverine and the X-Men" #12, I didn't really think that she was on the verge of defecting.  It would've been nice to see what got her there.

But, all in all, for the advancement of several "Wolverine and the X-Men" and "Avengers vs. X-Men" storylines as well as the great moments of characterization for Kitty, this issue is one of the best of the bunch.  To mention one last moment, one that really defined the issue for me, I thought Aaron got across his message loud and clear with the "X-Men" who confronted Colossus.  Kitty, Deathlok, Doop, Husk, Toad, and Warbird.  A-Team, it was not.  But, there they were, drawing a line in the sand in front of the School, even when faced with a Phoenix-powered Colossonaut.  It was perhaps one of the few moments when the X-Men felt like the X-Men of my youth, a misfit band of mutants trying to do the right thing, no matter how overpowering the opposition.  Thanks, Jason Aaron, for giving me that.

X-Men Legacy #270:  As expected, Rogue pulls up stakes here, realizing that the Phoenix Five have gone around the bend when she sees Magik's demonic prison.  The rest of the story is a well-written standard prison-break tale, with some nice moments between Carol and Rogue that pretty definitively move them from the "adversary" to "friend" category.  For those scenes alone, it's worth the read.  Like Rulk in "Avengers" #28, the final disposition of Rogue seems a little difficult to believe, since, personally, if I were the Phoenix Five, I'd be a lot happier with Rogue and Rulk in Magik's prison.  But, given that other authors are guilty of the same trick, I'm not going to blame Gage for it here.  Overall, it's a strong issue and a good sequel to the previous one, bringing Carol and Rogue's story full-circle.

New(-ish) Comics!: The "Avengers vs. X-Men" Edition #9 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

OK, to preface this review, I will say that these issues related to "Avengers vs. X-Men" #7 were a little less thrilling than the ones related to "Avengers vs. X-Men" #6.  But, overall, it was still a pretty good showing.

Avengers vs. X-Men #7:  To be honest, this issue serves mostly as a transition issue, showing us the Avengers as they move from place to place to flee the X-Men.  

Before we start, I will note that, for the first time, the chronology of the main mini-series and the tie-in issues is getting muddled.  Several of the tie-in issues related to "Avengers vs. X-Men" #6 showed the Avengers on the run, and, after reading this issue, I was somewhat confused by the order in which they happened.  For example, Hope was with Iron Fist in K'un Lun in "New Avengers" #27, but she was also in Indonesia with Wolverine and the Avengers in "Wolverine and (ironically) the X-Men" #12.  Here, it becomes apparent that "New Avengers" #27 happened after this issue, but I'm still not sure where "Wolverine and the X-Men" #12 falls.  I initially thought that it happened before this issue, since it makes no sense that Hope appears in K'un Lun while also appearing in Indonesia.  But, Giant Man and Quicksilver are in play in this issue, despite getting captured in "Wolverine and the X-Men" #12, implying that "Wolverine and the X-Men" #12 also happens after the events of this issue.  But, unless Hope leaves K'un Lun to go to Indonesia and then returns to K'un Lun, all off panel, (doubtful), I just don't see where "Wolverine and the X-Men" #12 fits.  Overall, though, although I tend to get obsessed with these continuity questions, I have to say that the authors are still doing a pretty good job of keeping the stories straight. This discrepancy is possibly the only one that I've really noticed throughout the cross-over event, which is pretty good, particularly for Marvel.

From the X-Men side, the most notable development in this issue, to me, was the signs that the Phoenix Five are starting to behave exactly how we all thought that they'd behave.  In addition to Magik throwing Carol Danvers into Limbo in "X-Men Legacy" #269, in this issue Emma Frost incinerates (literally) Hawkeye and Namor drowns Wakanda.  Cyclops might be pretending that he's in charge of a "rescue mission" but it's pretty clear that he's neither in charge nor is it really a "rescue mission."  I think that this reality is most evident when you consider the Five's inability to conduct any sort of critical analysis of what they're doing.  Rogue convincingly posited in "X-Men Legacy" #269 that the Avengers liked the world the way it was because they ran it.  But, look at how quickly Scott branded the Avengers "terrorists" for failing to comply with the X-Men's vision of how the world should work.  (Daredevil strikes a similar theme in "AVX:VS" #4, when he tells Psylocke that he figures the X-Men will pretty quickly have the Avengers on their own island.)  I don't think you need any better example of a lack of self-awareness than Emma referring disapprovingly to the Avengers' "militarized children."  Did she forget that the X-Men split into two camps exactly because she and Cyclops supported the militarization of children?  I don't think these moments are mistakes on Hickman's part, but intentional displays of the fact that the Phoenix Five have lost all perspective (and are losing their grip on reality).

In terms of the Avengers side, we get our first confirmation here that Wanda's powers are connected to the Phoenix Force, something that I think we all pretty much assumed would be the case.  But, despite Wanda's power, the Avengers still have their backs to the wall.  By my count, they're down Giant Man, Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, and Quicksilver (and possibly Spider-Woman, though I couldn't tell for sure).  You could really sense Cap's desperation as he pleaded with T'Challa and Tony to find a way to get the Avengers some wins.  When he was later evacuating them from Wakanda to K'un Lun, it felt like watching the Rebels fleeing the Hoth base in "Empire Strikes Back."

Overall, Fraction did a good job of keeping you engaged as he moves us to the next phase.  One thing that I would note is that I think we should probably be seeing more in the way of the world reacting to the mutants taking control.  We've heard Cyclops say several times that they're beloved, but we really haven't seen that.  The only mutant so far who's had any interaction with regular people is Rogue in "X-Men Legacy" #269, and, although it's a friendly exchange, it's not exactly worshipful.  I mean, I have to think that someone other the Avengers is concerned about the consequences of the mutants so easily changing the world "for the better."  Have the governments of the world merely abdicated?  We saw the Stepford Cuckoos using their powers to re-write minds in "X-Men Legacy" #268.  Have the X-Men just brainwashed world leaders?  I feel like some context would really help here.  Also, if I'm continuing to be nitpicky, I keep finding this assertion that Hope was trained her whole life to become Phoenix to be super ret-conny.  I mean, I know that she's always been associated with Phoenix, but I don't remember anyone training her to use its power.  In fact, had her connection to Phoenix been more fully explored, you probably could've had the Avengers and X-Men talk about it (and how to train her to handle it) before it appeared and cause them to quickly take sides.

But, all in all, seven issues into the mini-series, I'm really not disappointed, and, really, I'm just so surprised by that fact that I feel like any real complaints are pretty minor at this point.

AVX:VS #4:  "Our backs against the wall -- time and time again -- no Avengers ever came."  Um, really, Psylocke?  How about when they all sacrificed their lives to take down Onslaught?  I guess that we're just conveniently overlooking that point.

New Avengers #28:  Whoa.  This issue is intense.  Unlike most Bendis stories, I've got absolutely nothing about which to complain.  Just when I raised an eyebrow that Luke Cage, Hawkeye, and Spider-Woman could take down Colossus, Cyclops, and Emma Frost, we learn that they didn't, actually, take down 3/5th of the Phoenix Five.  Instead, Bendis reveals that it's Danger programming them to think they did, as a way to torture them:  they awaken full of hope, realize that they didn't escape, and are then subjected to the loop again.  If you need proof that maybe the X-Men aren't exactly upholding the highest standards that Cyclops likes to think they are, you've got it here.  However, given that Danger is also under the sway of Unit, it's hard to tell on whose orders she's working.  At the very least, it again shows that Cyclops' control over the X-Men isn't complete, something we also saw in "Avengers vs. X-Men" #7 when Emma sent Namor against Wakanda.

On an anal-retentive note, we get confirmation here that Spider-Woman did get taken prisoner as did, apparently, Luke Cage.  By my reckoning, we've got Luke Cage, Giant Man, Hawkeye, Quicksilver, Spider-Woman, and now Thor in the X-Brig.  (I wonder when Luke got caught.  I feel like I missed that somewhere.)  I'm not liking those odds for the Avengers.

Uncanny X-Men #15:  I don't have much to say about this issue other than the fact that it sets up the coming battle with Sinister.  As expected, Scott decides that the world would be a better place without Sinister and he and the rest of the Phoenix Five make their way to Sinister London to make that wish a reality.  In the meantime, Gillen shows how the Phoenix Five are increasingly separated from the rest of the X-Men.  I loved Acuna showing us the distance shot of Danger, Magneto, Psylocke, and Storm just staring after the Phoenix Five as they departed for Sinister London.  Gillen also addresses a moment that I thought would come, namely Colossus (unsucessfully) trying to break free from Cytorrak's hold.  All in all, though, it's the promise of the coming battle with Sinister that drove this issue.  I will say that, although I like Acuna, I'm disappointed that we don't get Weaver and Charalampidis on this issue.  Their Sinister London was so completely defined that Acuna's muted lines feel horribly inadequate to really capture the grandeur Weaver conveyed last issue.

Wolverine and the X-Men #13:  Aaron goes a little Gillen with this issue, telling the story of a minor character rather than addressing issues related to the main event.  Whereas Gillen's use of Sinister in "Uncanny X-Men" as the lens through which we've been seeing "Avengers vs. X-Men" has been nothing short of brilliant, Aaron's use of Warbird in a similar fashion doesn't work so well.  Gillen is using Sinister because his scheme deals directly with the arrival of Phoenix on Earth; however, Warbird finds herself involved on a tertiary level -- to collect Kid Gladiator because his father appeared to rescue him from Earth before the Phoenix destroys it.  Aaron certainly makes her back story compelling, emphasizing the hardships that she endured in the process of going from an orphaned child who liked to draw to a Deathbird-class Shi'Aar warrior.  She's actually exactly the type of student who should be at Logan's school, even if she isn't technically a student.  However, given everything happening (and still unclear) in "Avengers vs. X-Men," it seems weird to waste time delving into Warbird's back story, given that nothing we saw here couldn't have been told in any other story where she was forced to fight or follow orders that were hard to follow.  It didn't need to be during "Avengers vs. X-Men."  You could argue the same for Sinister, but given his connection to Madeleine Pryor, who he has re-cloned, it's pretty clear that his storyline will have some sort of impact on the main event.  Again, Aaron tells a decent story, but I think I would've preferred a look into Wolverine's whereabouts (since he's largely absent from "Avengers vs. X-Men" #7) or an exploration of humanity's response to the mutants suddenly running the world.