Marvel teased that the final chapter of the AvX first act would be a game changer. After reading Avengers vs. X-Men #5 I was left stunned and surprised.
WARNING
SPOILERS AHEAD
IF YOU HAVE NOT READ AVX #5 STOP READING NOW
SERIOUSLY
HERE IT COMES
OK – I DID WARN YA!
Iron Man made have showed off why he’s a genius badass but he made a serious miscalculation. The Phoenix Force was meant to bond with Hope but it’s now bonded with five of the most powerful X-Men: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Namor, Colossus and Magik. The Avengers now have to deal with five cosmic powered mutants who were already pretty ticked off at them – guess we know why Marvel has been teasing No More Avengers.
“The mutants are now the Earth’s mightiest heroes, capable of doing all this cosmic-scale, epic (stuff). And the Avengers are scrambling to keep up and keep things in perspective,” writer Matt Fraction told USA Today. “They’re wildly evolving the world overnight. They’re doing the work of a Phoenix, only instead of one there’s five and each one has their own personality and thoughts, and things are great at first. But they’re the X-Men. They’re going to stop getting along at some point, and batten down the hatches.”
“There’s a specific reason it resonates that it would be these five,” Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso added. “It has to do with what our master plan for these characters has been for some time.”
Thanks to Comic Book Resources for the quotes and preview images – you can read and see even more there.
I feel like you really have to read Uncanny X-Men #13 this week too. I have to wonder if the Five Lights (the mutants of Generation Hope) were intended to be the Phoenix Five instead of the adult members of Cyke’s Extinction Team. Maybe Kieron Gillen’s use of the extinction team moniker was appropriate because Cyclops and company certainly have the power to destroy and reshape the human race.
As I read this week’s AvX issues I could help think back to Greg Pak’s Warsong and Endsong epics. I hated them – hear me out – because the stories were so gut wrenching the watch because I loved these characters – which is the sign of great writing. I sense we’re going to that kind of storytelling with act two.
John Romita Jr deserves huge accolades for his final chapter in the epic. The smaller cast in the moon battle allow the artist to show his best work of the story so far. The determination of a scorched Wolverine, the fear in Hope’s eyes, Tony Stark’s sense of awe as he tries to kill a God like force are standout moments.
The act one twist takes us into new territory (maybe darker shades of House of M?) The writers have shown us anything can happen next.
By Editor