Avengers vs. X-Men #11 – Review

Position: Closer. The anchor of the bullpen. This is the pitcher who thrives under the pressure of a close game. This pitcher comes in to secure the win for his team, a lot of the times it’s with an explosive fastball or with guile and a great command of their pitches. The closer for the Avengers is one of those pitchers who would rely on cunning and control of the strike zone. Hawkeye’s keen eye would be beneficial in hitting his locations, and like his arrows, his pitches would come with a few tricks. Gambit, the X-Men’s closer, would be just as good with hitting his spots for strikes, but the Ragin’ Cajun would rely on a more explosive delivery. (A warning for Spider-Man fans; the webhead does not appear in this issue.)

Avengers vs. X-Men #11

The Front Office
Story: Jason Aaron, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction and Jonathan Hickman
Script: Brian Michael Bendis
Pencils: Olivier Coipel
Inks: Mark Morales
Colors: Laura Martin
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Cover Art: Jim Cheung & Justin Ponsor
Variant Cover Art: Sara Pichelli & Justin Ponsor

Inning Summary: Captain America and the Avengers travel to the desert to ask the Incredible Hulk for assistance in their battle with Scott Summers and the green goliath agrees to aid his fellow Avengers. Later, in a field in Wisconsin, Rogue is searching for the Avengers, looking to join their cause as well. Rogue is surprised when Professor Xavier reveals that he is siding with the Avengers already. Professor X tells Rogue that all the mutants are welcome among the Avengers, and a collection of X-Men, including Iceman, Gambit, and Cyclops’ brother Havok, show themselves in the field. Team members from both sides shake hands and make amends for their recent battles. Their new joint mission: to defeat Cyclops.

On Utopia, Cyclops and Emma Frost, the two remaining members of the Phoenix Five, have a disagreement over the use of their cosmic powers. Emma lusts for the power of the Phoenix and talks of how easy it would be to burn the world and rebuild it from scratch. Cyclops fights her despite feeling similar urges. Emma surrounds her body in flames and continues trying to manipulate Cyclops. Scott regains some semblance of control and tells Emma to get away from him. Before order can be restored, Cyclops senses a presence on the beaches of Utopia.

Professor Xavier has arrived and meets with his former star pupil. The two argue. Cyclops tries to lash out against Xavier, but the professor reveals he is already in Cyclops’ mind and the battle has already begun. The illusion drops, and Cyclops is surrounded by the Avengers and is being restrained, in part by Dr. Strange’s magic. Emma is already battling in the sky and is confronted by Storm. Cyclops breaks free of the restraints and sends out a massive Phoenix-shaped explosion. Professor Xavier withstands the blast and forces Cyclops to his knees.  

Captain America steps in front of Professor X and uses his shield to deflect Cyclops’ optic blast. The Scarlet Witch then attacks Cyclops with her hex magic, but leaves herself open to an attack by Emma. The Hulk makes his presence known by smashing Emma into the ground. Cyclops rises once again, the fiery bird growing in size. This time Magneto intervenes and attempts to reach out to Cyclops. Scott, confronted with this latest lost ally, turns on Magneto and sets him on fire. The Scarlet Witch rushes to her father’s side and knocks Cyclops to the ground.

The Avengers strike at their prone foe but Cyclops recovers in time to backhand Thor. Hawkeye sinks an arrow into the back of Cyclops neck which further infuriates the mutant. Iceman follows with an attack of his own on his longtime friend and teammate. Professor Xavier tries to telepathically shut down Cyclops’ brain, but Scott overpowers Xavier, violently knocking out the famous mutant rights activist. Captain America places Cyclops under arrest, but Cyclops takes to the sky, and apologizes for what he’s about to do.

In a fiery, barbaric betrayal, Cyclops attacks Emma and proceeds to strangle her on the ground in front of the Avengers and X-Men. Professor Xavier screams out once more for Cyclops to stop his madness, but it is too late. Cyclops tells Xavier that the professor is not his father, and then uses the full force of the Phoenix to murder Xavier. The Avengers and X-Men are stunned and Cyclops blames everything on Captain America.

Wolverine is the first to react by ordering the Hulk to throw him at Cyclops. Without looking up, Cyclops halts Wolverine’s flight and sets the claw-baring mutant on fire. The power of the Phoenix begins to consume Cyclops. On the beach, Emma, stripped of her power, and the Beast look on in despair as Cyclops rises to the sky. The Avengers’ biggest fear has come true, Cyclops has become fire and life incarnate – the Dark Phoenix!

*

Color Commentary: This issue doesn’t start out that well because it introduces yet another character that doesn’t seem to really have a purpose in this event. The only real thing Hulk did was smash Emma, but even that wasn’t enough to bring her down completely. Introducing the Hulk did offer Bendis a chance to recap the plot of the story by having Captain America catch Hulk up to speed.

My only gripe with the well-worded refresher was how Cap made it a point to keep saying they were at war with Scott Summers, not the X-Men. I don’t appreciate Cap laying all of the blame for this event at Scott’s feet. Captain America was the one who invaded Utopia with the Avengers, Iron Man was the one who split the Phoenix Force into five pieces, and the Avengers were the ones who perpetuated the attacks on the Phoenix Five before they went crazy. This is not all Scott Summers’ fault, but that’s the way the story will be written.

Even though Cyclops continued his sycophant rants during the action I thoroughly enjoyed the battle, and not just because Cyclops was dominating it the majority of the time. The action scenes had extra suspense because the death of a character had been leaked before the issue came out, but I didn’t ruin the surprise for myself. Every time someone was set on fire I wondered if that was going to be the killing blow. I don’t subscribe to the idea that a character needs to die in every major story, but I do like seeing life-altering events take place. Therefore, I was eager to see if any of my predictions were coming true.

The art also does a fantastic job of enhancing the action. Coipel has been the best artist of the three creators that worked on this event, and his work on this issue is fantastic. I enjoyed the scene with Emma and Scott surrounded by flames and Emma doing her best Human Torch impression. Coipel also crams as much excitement onto a page as he can with varied panels overlapping one another. Characters come alive as they break out from the confining boxes. The colors are also nicely done. The heavy use of yellows and reds dominate the pages, kind of like a reminder that the Phoenix Force is hanging over everybody. The splash page of Cyclops being contained by Professor Xavier and the Avengers was a beautiful way to kick off the action.

* 

The Box Score

 

Avengers: The Avengers get a few sneaky hits in on Cyclops, but none of them are effective. Cyclops completely shuts down the Avengers this inning.

*

X-Men: This is no longer the X-Men team. When you have the Phoenix Force you no longer need a team of nine players. In this inning, Cyclops takes over all positions and at bats. He dominates the opposition and makes it a tight game once again.

Batting: Strikeout – Emma Frost (1) was the last ally Cyclops had in this battle, but she manages very little offense thanks to her boyfriend coveting her portion of the Phoenix Force. I thought Emma’s death was all but a lock, especially as Cyclops wrapped his fingers around her throat. The fact that Cyclops resorted to such a primitive, physical attack when he possess so much power made it a much more troublesome assault. It certainly reinforced Scott Summers’ reputation as a terrible boyfriend/husband.

Single – Cyclops (2) notches a pair of singles this inning for his perseverance against all the attacks. He breaks free from Dr. Strange and Professor Xavier’s illusion and withstands several other attacks which only momentarily halt his path of destruction.

Even when Cyclops is possessed and corrupted by the Phoenix, I still like him more than Wolverine. So Cyclops gets another hit for not even bothering to look up in order to stop Wolverine’s fastball special. 

Double – In this issue, Cyclops (1) is confronted by the betrayal of not just one father figure, but two. Cyclops began to follow the path of Magneto, Professor Xavier’s ideological counterpart and frienemy, as he began to grow more distant from his former teacher. When Utopia was founded, I was a big fan of Magneto showing allegiance to Cyclops’ vision for the mutant race. That relationship culminates in this issue when Magneto tries to reason with Cyclops.

It was another sad turn for Cyclops, but he handled the Master of Magnetism easily. This was another instance I was fooled into thinking a character had died because of the toasty treatment he received from Cyclops. I appreciated seeing Wanda stick up for her father after the attack, but it just made me wonder what happened to Quicksilver. He showed up to attack his estranged father in Avengers vs. X-Men #2, but we haven’t seen him since.

Triple – Cyclops (1) bests Thor once again, and it’s not even much of a contest. Much like last issue, Cyclops swats the Asgardian aside, which is no easy task, and deserves credit – even if it is mostly because of the Phoenix Force.

Home run – Cyclops (2) delivers two crushing blows to the Avengers this issue. The first came when he stabbed Emma in the back. That was an obvious turn, though, since Cyclops seemed determined to have control of the rest of the Phoenix Force. I found the fact that she didn’t die more surprising since hers is the death I had bet on. The fact that she didn’t die doesn’t make its impact any less important though, because now the full fury of the Phoenix will be unleashed through Cyclops.

The first person to feel the full fury of Cyclops’ wrath is Professor X. This was the monumental death that was teased, and after all the suspense and guessing throughout the issue, it kind of came across as a let-down. Besides the fact that the killing blow didn’t look as fatal as some of the other attacks, I just don’t have much invested in Xavier at this point. Professor X has been a pretty stagnant character in the comics for a while. He’s already died once or twice in past stories anyway, but that’s common for a lot of Marvel characters.

The problem with Xavier’s death this time was that its only purpose was to make Cyclops look like a bigger villain and jerk than he was already becoming. The verbal sparring between the two did add to the gravity of the conflict however, and it helped make the battle more personal. Another downside to this interaction is that Professor X and Cyclops haven’t worked together since Cyclops took over as the leader of the mutant race. If Professor X’s role in this story was more than just telling Cyclops he was disappointed in him and trying to shut off Cyclops’ brain, I probably would have taken his death a little bit more seriously.

Pitching: There’s no question that Scott is now out of control, but for the sake of his character, it helps to think that his actions are more those of the Phoenix and not the actions of Scott Summers. You can see some signs that Scott is still fighting the Phoenix and holding back its corruptive nature. He fights with Emma and even questions her judgment when she talks of burning the world. However, once Professor X shows up, that’s all tossed out the window.

There is no real defense for most of Cyclops’ actions, but again I ask if this would be necessary if Cyclops had more trustworthy friends and teammates. As mentioned, there are still moments where Scott Summers retains control, and maybe if characters like Professor X and Captain America tried working with him they could have achieved something greater and avoided the conflict all together. But instead the Avengers and a handful of former friends came at him with an antagonistic attitude. Maybe the Phoenix Force didn’t appreciate the hostility towards it.

I don’t mean to be a Cyclops apologist, but it pains me to see him fall this far. It’s really sad to see characters like Iceman attack Cyclops and talk about how it’s time they shut him down. The scene on the beach which initiated the final conflict was well done because it showed all of Cyclops’ frustrations come to a head. Unfortunately it also represented Cyclops’ final turn. There’s no denying you’re the villain when the Avengers have you surrounded and shackled in magical chains.

* 

Rating: Great, action and art. Good, story. Meh, characterization and writing. 5/5.

This issue reinvigorated the event which at times has suffered from the size of the story as well as the months it has taken to tell it. The story is entertaining, despite the death not feeling as dramatic as it could have been, and the art team delivers a fantastic product for the penultimate issue. The majority of this issue is all action and it doesn’t disappoint. There are still a couple things to wrap up in the finale, such as Tony’s ultimate plan to defeat the Phoenix Force, Hope’s final role, and how they plan on salvaging Cyclops’ character after his murderous act.

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“Remember that one time during the fight when it looked like you might actually win? No? Me neither.” – Marvel vs. Capcom 3
“Did I mention I beat up Firelord once? No, seriously. Firelord.” – Ultimate Alliance 2