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Longer answer. Bendis is leaving Avengers after AVX. I think he would want his final statement on the Avengers to be there (in Avengers and New Avengers) rather than in Marvel's big summer event. Leave on the story he wants to tell on his terms, not on the story that has a dozen cooks.
I'm pretty certain the Return of Ultron with Bryan Hitch is the final Avengers story he is building up to kinda like how Secret War and not Disassembled was really his first Avenger story.
Longer answer. Bendis is leaving Avengers after AVX. I think he would want his final statement on the Avengers to be there (in Avengers and New Avengers) rather than in Marvel's big summer event. Leave on the story he wants to tell on his terms, not on the story that has a dozen cooks.
I'm pretty certain the Return of Ultron with Bryan Hitch is the final Avengers story he is building up to kinda like how Secret War and not Disassembled was really his first Avenger story.
I certainly enjoyed it. I did feel it built upon the goodwill from the last issue and made for an entertaining read.
I was almost, almost shocked at Hawkeye's "death" until I realized the Phoenix-Five were probably going to revive him (which was later confirmed in dialogue.).
This for a Fraction written issue was quite good I have to say. It was definitely an improvement over his previous issue which was issue five. "Namor is Here." was my favorite line in the issue. I got chills when Steve said that. We're finally having stuff happen now. Oh and that kiss between Namor and Emma...oh dear. Phoenix force influencing their passions?? We know that it basically feeds off of human emotions...and as Hope stated in her little address to the Avengers, the Five have not been trained or conditioned to handle the Phoenix force at all...we've seen little pieces of it influence them already IMO. The finale is going to be most interesting.
I must say I'm really enjoying this series. Yet somehow it feels like they're rushing through events and even the endless tie-ins aren't enough to cover all the story beats and battles that are being shown in single panels of the main book.
At first I thought the Phoenix Five was a dopey idea, but I really like where they're going with it. They're just trying to make the world a better place (and yes, slowly becoming corrupted) and Avengers are just relentlessly coming after them. When the Avengers staged an invasion to abduct a teenage girl against her will... well, again... it's nice to see both sides acting dubiously.
I will say that it has gotten better since the first act. I know this is basically Bendis' swan song (along with Age of Ultron) but I think it would have served the story structure better had Jason Aaron or Jonathan Hickman written the opening act. That whole first act almost felt like "Fear Itself" again with the way it was structured and paced. Also for the most part the tie-ins have been better than the actual series IMO.
While not as good as Issue 6, Issue 7 of Avengers vs X-Men is another welcome addition to this storyline. I only hope it can be sustained as it goes along.
Leave it to Fraction to write a sympathetic Cyclops. Out of all of them, Peter should be the most peaceful of them (although he's been largely ignored) with Scott behind him. It makes sense for Namor and Emma to be the most corrupted by the Phoenix's power.
Once again, the tie-ins seem to do a better job of explaining certain details, like why the regular X-Men are going along with the Phoenix Five. On the Avengers side, Black Panther is easily coming across the strongest while Steve still seems like a complete douche.
As for Hawkeye, well, he deserved a beatdown from all the years of his "my shit doesn't smell" attitude.
He was almost brought back a year earlier in a time travel adventure in Dan Slott's Shehulk but, horseshoes and hand grenades, that's neither here nor there.
New Avengers 28 was kinda "meh". It was an entertaining enough read showing us the details of Hawkeye, Spider-Woman and Luke Cage's imprisonment at Utopia and their attempt at escape, but the twist at the end,...
... that it was all in their heads courtesy of Danger, gave the story a "re-set button" feel, and I don't care for that kind of ending.
Ultimately, the story went nowhere, literally ending right where it began.
-THE PREMIERE AVENGERS VS. X-MEN TIE-IN! Two incredible fights every issue, torn from the pages of AvX.
-Daredevil vs. Psylocke! By Rick Remender (UNCANNY X-FORCE) and Brandon Peterson (NEW AVENGERS, UNCANNY X-MEN)!
-Thor vs. Emma Frost by Kaare Andrews (ULTIMATE COMICS covers, SPIDER-MAN: REIGN)!
In the first story, Daredevil is minding his own business in Hell's Kitchen when Psylocke attacks him. They're pretty evenly matched, and the fight ends in a draw.
In the second story, Thor and Phoenix-Frost tangle. The artwork is nice. The story... Well, Thor disables Emma Frost when she tries to read his mind (his god-mind is too much for god-powered Emma Frost), but she recovers by turning herself into diamond. Thor smashes Diamond-Emma in a billion little pieces, and these pieces rain down on Thor and rip through his body leaving him broken while the pieces come back together and turn back into Emma.
So, after being defeated by the Avengers in Wakanda, the Phoenix Force abandons Namor and splits its power amongst the remaining four hosts. I think it pretty clear that Emma is by far the host most corrupted by the Phoenix. Given that the cover to AvX 11 depicts...
...Scott and Emma duking it out, the fall of Colossus and Magik can't be to far behind.
I liked the issue cover, which was a call back to the Byrne/Austin cover of Uncanny X-Men 135, the first issue of the first Dark Phoenix saga.
I have to admit that I was pretty firmly on the X-Men's side before the events on the moon, but the power of the Phoenix is a proven corruptor. Pretty much only Rachael has been able to control it for the most part. I have to ask that if Cyclops thought that the power of the Phoenix could re-ignite the muitant species, then why hasn't he taken any steps in that regard?
Interestingly, today's issue of Fantastic Four had a direct connection to the events of this issue of AvX. Enough so that, if this had been done in the day of Crisis on Infinite Earths or Secret Wars II, it probably would have been advertised as a crossover.
I wish their was more of an explanation of why the Phoenix Force left Namor, but I suppose it isn't really necessary. He got beat down, and it abandoned him, I'm sure it's just as simple as that.
I am curious what Xavier has in store. It's pretty apparent he's been holding back, hoping for a better outcome to all this, but he's at the point where I'm sure he realizes that won't happen.
Yeah, as Guy stated, the Phoenix doesn't like losers, it craves power and emotion, and once Namor got the snot kicked out of him, it transferred what it bestowed upon him to the others.
Well this was a Bendis written issue. Characterization was pretty much what you'd expect. Spider-Man was once again used as inappropriate comic fodder during serious situations, this is driving me nuts with Bendis. How he can write him so well in "Spider-Men" and still continue to write a caricature of him in 616 is baffling. They're not even funny jokes for the most part, he just has Peter babbling. The attack on Wakanda was pretty severe. Probably influenced by the Phoenix force, Namor has always been an emotional person and prone to action, the entity probably found him to be one of the easier Utopians to corrupt and influence. I don't have much else to say about this issue. The Spider-Man centric issue is next up...it will be interesting to see how they use Peter in this. The solicits suggest that it is up to Spider-Man now...and have a cover featuring Spidey's torn costume and injured.
