State of the Marvel Universe

The Marvel Universe changes fast, only a few years ago Iron Man and Captain America were on opposite ends of a civil war that didn’t really take them that long to get over it seems. Recently it seems like Marvel has been reliant on big events to push sales. I don’t think it’s that bad, but I can see why it’s tiring. The past couple of events haven’t been bad though, so be thankful for that. Buy more not-event books and maybe Marvel will get the message.  

That being said, I wanted to take the opportunity to fill you in on what happened in AvX, last year’s big Marvel Event because it impacts large parts of the Marvel Now relaunch. Hope, the mutant messiah with power mimicking abilities was the projected vessel for when the Phoenix force returned. It did, and the Avengers want to secure her before she gets world killing abilities. Cap seems pretty genuine, but Wolverine wants to kill her, remembering what the Phoenix did to Jean Grey. The Avengers go to San Francisco and confront the X-Men. Cyclops is snarky with Cap eye lasers him. Both teams fight and Hope escapes. She finds Wolverine later and they go to the moon to see if she can get the Phoenix force and control it. Wolverine agrees but secretly alerts the Avengers.  The teams meet and a battle ensues, the end of which involves Tony Stark shooting the Phoenix force and separating it into 5 parts. Cyclops, Emma Frost, Colossus, Magik and Namor all get some of the power. They become the Phoenix Five and begin making the world better by providing infinite energy, clean water, food, etc. This is all cool until the Avengers provoke them by stealing Hope to study her.

They fight again and the Avengers lose, a bunch of times. They hide in Wakanda, the Black Panther’s country, and discover Hope and the Scarlet Witch have complementing powers. Namor attacks Wakanda and it takes the combined efforts of the Avengers to take Namor down. Iron Man, Hope and Wolverine take a portal to K’un L’un, the mystical place where Kung-Fu was born, to train Hope to control the Phoenix. Once Namor is defeated, it is revealed that the remaining Phoenixed member of the X-Men get his powers, they get stronger and the Avengers get more desperate.

Magik and Colossus, go crazy in a mad search for more Phoenix power, defeat each other in battle, relinquishing their shares of the Phoenix to Emma and Cyclops. Professor X and Magneto, recognizing Cyclops and Emma’s inability to control the Phoenix any longer, rally mutants to join the Avengers to defeat them. They fight again Cyclops, desperate to beat them, attacks Emma to take her share of the Phoenix. In the final battle, Cyclops has become the Dark Phoenix and kills Professor X. Hope and Scarlet Witch manage to narrowly defeat him and Hope sends the power away.

Cyclops is now a fugitive and mutants have begun springing up all over the world because of the Phoenix. Captain America tries to counter the anti-mutant sentiment by creating a new Avengers team (Uncanny Avengers) lead by Havok. All New X-Men has Beast bring the original X-Men (Young Cyclops, Jean Grey, Ice Man, Angel and Beast) to the future to see what has become of their older selves. Cyclops, Magneto, and Emma’s powers have been negatively impacted by exposure to the Phoenix and they are now either severely depowered or having trouble controlling them.

The reviews will start soon, I swear.