- Title: Avengers vs. X-Men #5
- Comic Vine: link
- Writer: Matt Fraction
- Artist: John Romita Jr.
If you were wondering how Marvel Comics was going to draw out Hope Summers becoming the Phoenix over a twelve-issue maxi-series, issue #5 answers that question with an unexpected bait-and-switch.
On the moon where the Avengers and X-Men battle and the Phoenix Force arrives, Iron Man and Giant Man create an ill-explained kamikaze robot created to disperse the the Phoenix Force before it can completely merge with hope. However, their plan doesn’t quite give them the expected outcome.
Although Hope Summers is denied the Phoenix Force, it instead it finds itself dispersed among five of the X-Men – Cyclops, Colossus, Magik, Emma Frost, and Namor who take Hope “home” to save here, heal her, and prepare her for what is to come.
Honestly, as twists got this one is pretty damn dumb, but having the power dispersed among five different X-Men may create some unusual battles over the next few issues before Marvel finally relents and gives us the only thing we’re reading this comic for – the new Phoenix. Hit-and-Miss.
[Marvel, $3.99]