Avengers vs X-men

Drawn in by the Messiah War and the surrounding events, I wanted to see what became of young Hope after all the difficulties of getting her into the world – and besides, this event was part of the reason I read that one in the first place. They feel like they followed hot on the heels of one another to me, but in fact there were a couple of years to build up to this. Hope helped with the powers of other newly-awakened mutants, and then in a schism involving Cyclops sending his youngest out to battle against a powerful sentinel made by the new kiddy Hellfire club (who are thoroughly lame and unbelievable), Wolverine left to found his own institute to keep them safe and out of battle. Of course, that couldn’t last too long, and when it becomes apparent that Hope is attracting the powerful and destructive Phoenix Force, Cyclops’ desire to protect her and Wolverine preferring to let his fellow Avengers take charge of the situation bring things to a head.

Yes, once again it goes back to the Phoenix. Too many major events in the X-Men’s canon go back to it, as do adaptations like the cartoon series, when in all honesty it wasn’t that interesting a plot in the first place. That said, my distaste for the idea didn’t last all that long when it soon became clear that going back to themes prodded at a few decades ago through the cynical, gritty, trying-to-show-maturity filter of present-day comics allowed for some interesting new angles. And honestly, if the underlying concept is Avengers vs X-Men, there isn’t really that much of a contest unless the mutants get a bit of a power-up. Several of the most powerful X-Men (and former X-Men villains) are Avengers anyways, and the X-Men are after all not made up largely of characters powerful enough to each carry a title since the silver age and compete alone against major cosmic forces. On the other hand, the phoenix power-up was if anything too far the other way, making the X-Men far too powerful to be opposed until inevitably it’s the corrupting influence of the bird that makes them lose their way. If anything, this was my major complaint with the event – the most interesting questions it raised, like what the Avengers could do if the X-Men genuinely were making Earth perfect and forcing them to stand down, or whether power must be earned (as if most of the Marvel roster earned their power when it first appeared) – get left by the wayside for the easy ending offered by absolute power corrupting absolutely.

But still, everyone loves heroes turning against their fellow heroes – just look at Civil War – and this is Marvel’s most broad attempt at that yet. The decimated X-Men stayed out of the War, but now pretty much everyone who fought in it – as well as several of their former friends – are against them. And I have to say, I found it very compelling reading, and yet again asked myself why the big Hollywood adaptations couldn’t take on this sort of plot, based on betrayal and comradeship.

Not everything works. The clash between the Avengers Academy and the mutant captives was rushed and unconvincing. The Hellfire kiddies I definitely could have done without – as I said, they are very unconvincing, like when the kid promises money for prestige in prison, as if that wouldn’t just get him assaulted. Xavier deserved a greater presence, only shining in a brilliant chapter where a secret council meets, and most of the miniseries of one-on-one fights were terrible, either ending with one person getting distracted or just leaving, with one of the last ones, a series of gag comics, just the sheer laziness of a studio throwing things at a comic to see what stuck. The Iron Fist side-story was boring and Iron Man was a bit irritatingly too capable of doing anything with some nonsense built into his suit.

Still, overall I got very carried away with this and very much enjoyed the moments where the world-destroying firey force was forgotten and two people dug into one another’s pasts and the differences in their approaches. Luke Cage in particular got very much humanised and I like how modern Marvel doesn’t shy from sex, drugs, infidelity or decadence. Though having Namor as some sort of sex-pest only made me snort in derision. 

X-men – Messiah War

I’m not entirely sure why I decided to read the Messiah War storyline – I think perhaps it was because I saw Hope in a glimpse at the Avengers Vs X-men comics (a gimmick no fan can quite resist, no matter how much they might roll their eyes), and thought I needed more context. There are a lot of mutants, even with the much-reduced post-decimation roster, that I don’t recognize here either, though – Pixie, Elixir and Vanisher sent me back to Wikipedia, and (the cameo from) Peepers made me remember a long-forgotten silly character, may he rest in peace.

Messiah War covers a major event in the wake of The Scarlet Witch very nearly depowering every mutant in her Marvel universe. Only a handful remained – though predictably just about all the established favourites either stayed mutants or regained their powers through twisted plot contrivances. Anyway, after a long period of searching, the X-men finally see what they had hoped for on Cerebro – the light of a new mutant life. Indeed, Hope’s birth causes the whole machine to shut down. Unfortunately, other factions also knew of her birth, and from the start Hope is both a symbol and a threat. After much carnage, it is Cable who saves her, and eventually he feels forced to take her into the future to keep her safe. However, she is anything but safe as Bishop chases him, determined to kill her, and besides, the future is full of numerous other threats, from cockroach people to a Stryfe risen to dominance. Marvel’s rather confusing view of timelines involves a definite confirmation of multiple possible futures, with time travellers coming from them, but one master timeline, so that when a character goes back and changes something, his future then no longer exists. Thus Bishop is determined to prevent his from coming to pass.

Young Hope gets to spend a fairly pleasant early childhood with a surrogate mother (from whom she gets her name) in a community hidden from the world, then learns survival and combat skills as a child frequently in a lot of danger, spends two years fending for herself in a dystopian city (and finding a taste of love), comes very close to death in an X-Force side-story that I have to say I enjoyed mostly for Apocalyse, then grows to young adulthood in a capsule, Lion-O stylee. As soon as she is back in the present, it’s very clear that the modern X-Men writers want to be gritty and hard-hitting, though if anything, their constant bloodiness, killing-off of fan favourite characters and - rather awkwardly given a long history of undoing deaths and heroes and villains alike surviving the most unlikely things - trying to make moral tensions between killing and not killing.

Ultimately, the Messiah War and Second Coming arcs feel rather more inconsequential than many such major events. But I certainly like Cable much more now, and find the new X-Force compelling – especially interacting with Deadpool, who for once was written in a very enjoyable way as a kind of long-suffering clown and extreme punching bag. Also nice knowing Doug and Warlock are still around, and that the stupid Predator X has finally died. Now it remains to be seen if Hope can be a likeable and important character beyond being a vulnerable child who needs protecting.

Every time I read a decent event like this one, though, even if it’s not a brilliant one, I wonder why the makers of the Hollywood adaptations never try to adapt one of these larger-scale stories, especially with the modern comic book mixture of sincerity, grit and ironic self-awareness (without being smug about it).