Avengers

• Title: Avengers vs. X-Men #3
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
• Artist: John Romita Jr.

Round 3 finds Hope on the run, the X-Men surrendering to the Avengers, and a big throwdown between two old friends. Cyclops and the X-Men’s surrender is a feint that allows the group to escape and begin a search for Hope. Meanwhile the Avengers split into five groups to find the young girl before the Phoenix Force finds her.

Although we get very little of Hope in this issue (she makes little more than a token appearance hiding on the streets of San Fransisco) we do get Cyclops outsmarting the Avengers and Captain America and Wolverine coming to blows over Logan’s plan to murder Hope before the Phoenix Force can claim her. We get far less story progression than I’d like, but the fight between Wolverine and Cap makes up for it.

By the end of the issue we now have three distinct groups. Cyclops and the X-Men who want to keep Hope away from the Avengers, the Avengers who want to keep Hope away from becoming the new Phoenix, and Wolverine who just wants her dead. Worth a look.

[Marvel, $3.99]

• Title: Avengers vs. X-Men #2
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Jason Aaron
• Artist: John Romita Jr.

For an entire issue that only covers a handful of minutes this one’s full of action. Picking up right where issue #1 left off the Avengers invade Utopia and throw down with the X-Men as Captain America tries to talk some sense into Cyclops before the Phoenix Force arrives from deep space.

There are quite a few interesting match-ups as we get Cap vs. Cyclops, Iron Man vs. Magneto (which isn’t as over as fast as you might assume), Colossus vs. Red Hulk, Storm vs. the Black Panther, and Wolverine sneaking into Utopia through the sewers to assassinate a teenage girl… you know, for the good of humanity.

But it’s bad news for the Avengers as it seems Cyclops has bought Hope enough time as the Phoenix has indeed started to rise. The fallout of this issue, in two weeks, should be very interesting. Worth a look.

[Marvel, $3.99]

• Title: Avengers vs. X-Men #1
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
• Artist: John Romita Jr.

How far would you go to protect your planet? How about your entire species? With the Phoenix Force returning to Earth for the obvious chosen new host of Hope Summers, the Avengers and the X-Men find themselves with opposing viewpoints that aren’t going to solved by mere words.

Captain America wants to take Hope and sequester her away from the Phoenix Force before it arrives. Cyclops wants Hope to embrace the power, and with it help Mutant-kind back from the edge of extinction. Not surprisingly, given the stakes, neither man cares much for what Hope wants for herself.

The rise in tension leads to Cap and Cyclops having a frank discussion on the shores of Utopia that ends far from peacefully with Cap blasted back into the sea, the Avengers assembling overhead, and the X-Men preparing to defend their homes and Hope from the invaders (who include former X-Men Wolverine and Beast) who have arrived to kidnap a teenage girl from a sovereign nation.

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