Possibly The Low Point For This Blog

Mark Waid said sometime recently, in regards to his writing Champions, that he could make us like Cyclops. My response would be no, no you can't. Actually, it would be hysterical laughter, then a negative response, probably involving profanity. That said, I am capable of feeling sympathy for Cyclops. I know, I was horrified to learn that as well. The teen version, who gets side-eye looks from everyone because of his older self, but also the older, now deceased Scott Summers.

Because Marvel made a big deal, coming out of Secret Wars, about this horrible, awful thing Scott Summers had done that made everyone hate him. Hate him more than they already did, I mean. Over that whole killing Xavier thing. Which, let's face it, he was possessed by the Phoenix Force when that happened, so he should be getting at least a partial pass for that one.

But Marvel released Death of X, and the answer to the question of what Scott did that was so awful was, apparently, he got a mutant codenamed Alchemy to render one of those Terrigen clouds harmless (though this may have gotten Alchemy killed), and then started to attack Black Bolt, only to be killed by him. Or maybe not even that, since it seems like Emma was making everyone think that's what happened, but Scott may have already been dead from exposure to the cloud.

Hardly seems like something for everyone to throw up their arms about. It doesn't even seem like the Inhumans pulled some p.r. move where they lied about what happened. People just got pissed at Cyclops for convincing someone to help destroy a cloud (one of two) that kills a specific segment of the population. I know humanity has not demonstrated a particularly high level of intelligence this year (or ever, really) but that's pretty damn nonsensical.

But the whole Terrigen Cloud mess is nonsensical. For how panicky, stupid, and generally hateful the average denizen of the Marvel Universe is, they seem remarkably sanguine about Black Bolt just deciding to release this weird cloud on the entire world that alters some people against their will, and kills others, without so much as a by your leave. Where are the calls for giant purple robots who hunt down and kill the Inhumans? Nuhumans, whatever. It's all stupid, but that's not new, and not really what I'm interested in here.

What would have interested me was if Cyclops' actions in Death of X had been a recognition that Black Bolt was making the same mistake Cyclops made. Because for all the things Scott Summers has recently taken shit for which he shouldn't, one thing he should take shit for was his plan in Avengers vs. X-Men. If you'll recall, the plan involved Hope using the Phoenix to make people into mutants, without bothering to ask whether that's what they wanted*. Does that wreck your life, that you now uncontrollably secrete acid from your skin? Well, too bad, Scott Summers decreed you take one for the mutant cause. Who is Scott Summers to make that decision for you? Good question, but sure, "Cyclops was right".

And here's Black Bolt, doing the exact same thing. Deciding he gets to change people's lives without their input, because it suits his purposes. There was a fair amount of discussion online about how Cyclops promised some "revolution" after his actions in AvX, and yet, there was no clear sign what that was. He and the other X-Men with him found some of the new mutants, and tried to train them and look after them. Sounds like business as usual for the X-Men. Even before Black Bolt unleashed a mutant-killing cloud**, what revolution has Scott Summers produced? There were more mutants, but there had been lots more mutants previously. Some of them were putting on costumes, some weren't. Some were doing good, some evil, some just trying to live their life. Some people hated and feared them, others didn't. All Cyclops ultimately accomplished was to make a selfish decision that fucked a bunch of other peoples' lives up.

So he sees Black Bolt's done the same thing, made the same mistake, and he tries to stop it. Black Bolt's is actually worse, because the cloud is actively killing mutants (although I'd imagine there were a few people who were killed by the mutant powers they received courtesy of the Phoenix, but probably not nearly as many). And so Scott tries to stop it, maybe even tries to make Black Bolt and Medusa understand why it needs to be stopped, but failing that, he's going to try and stop yet another person from, well the mistake is already made, but keep them from making it any worse. Stop it from hurting any more people. And maybe that kills him, or Black Bolt just can't see it yet, and he stops Scott. Given that Black Bolt is royalty, used to ordering people around, and the Inhumans historically just do whatever they want, whenever they want, I'm not sure he'll ever understand why he was wrong, but one can still try.



* We'll set aside how the plan only worked after Hope got some training from iron Fist and an assist from the Scarlet Witch, neither of whom were part of Cyclops' plan. In this particular case, we don't need to belabor Cyclops' stupidity in risking the entire planet on his cockamamie scheme. 

** And let's pause here to once again thank Reed Richards for leaving that little gift in the reconstructed Marvel Universe. Great hustle, Reed. Excellent quality control there. I may be too tired to belabor Cyclops' stupidity, but I refuse to pass up a chance to dump on Reed Richards for being a dumbass.

I've Handed Concerns About AvX To My Subconscious

Three nights ago, I had this odd dream. I was reading a comic, definitely one from the '80s. Drawn by John Romita Jr., during his '80s stint on Uncanny X-Men. So somewhere in between Logan's marriage to Mariko that wasn't, and the Mutant Massacre.

There were two plotlines. One was someone either impersonating Wolverine, or controlling him, as a way to kill Xavier (who had use of his legs). There was definitely a panel of Wolverine sitting calmly in front of a roaring fire with his feet up on a footstool.

The other plot involved Cyclops being very confused and getting into it with the Avengers. Either they shot down a Blackbird with him in it, so he was kind of concussed, or he shot down a Quinjet because he was confused. His thought balloons were this run on stream of nonsense, mostly related to the idea of there being nothing left. It was as though he had a vision of a terrible future, and it turned his head inside out. Anyway, Cyclops decked Monica Rambeau, I guess because she was in a solid form, and he was still confused.

Everything lines up, timewise. Romita's style, the costumes, you could argue Cyclops confusion would fit if he's dealing with the conflict of whether to focus on X-Manning, or being a husband and father. Or, if we go with the future vision thing, he saw Magneto taking over the school and it freaked him out. There's just one detail that doesn't work: U.S. Agent showed up just as he knocked out Monica.

That was something I was very certain of in the dream. It wasn't Steve Rogers as The Captain (which didn't happen until a year or two after Mutant Massacre, anyway). It was definitely John Walker, because I saw him and thought to myself, "Things are going to get completely out of hand with that hothead."

My best guess is I was working out some things about AvX again. The story incorporates a Captain America figure you'd expect to behave like an abrasive jerk.Wolverine's the one trying to kill Xavier, which would seem more likely than Cyclops doing it. Besides, Logan's probably being mind-controlled, which is pretty normal for him, and it implies there's an actual malevolent force behind all this hero fighting, rather than it happening because all the heroes are big jerks.

The part that spooks me the most is my subconscious' apparently sympathetic reaction to Cyclops. The dream made it very clear he wasn't in his right mind, and wouldn't have struck Captain Marvel if he'd realized who she was. I'm not sure I approve of my subconscious doing that, though I can't argue with its conclusion.

I Can't Imagine Everyone Got The Cool Powers

Something I'm not clear on when AvX, is the new mutants. Are they simply all the people Wanda depowered in House of M, reset to their status prior to that story? Are they entirely different folks who didn't have the X-gene, but do now? Is it a mix of the two?

I tend to think the easiest thing would be to say Hope just undid what Wanda did. There were millions of mutants on the planet prior to that, so it would be easy to introduce any new character you want as a repowered mutant, because it's entirely likely the X-Men wouldn't have run into them before. It's a big world, and with all the crises X-Teams routinely face, they wouldn't have time to make a recruiting speech to every mutant.

Regardless, there are certainly a few people with powers now that didn't want them. Maybe they had a lousy mutation. I remember a guy in Rucka's Wolverine run, he needed alcohol to stay awake, but if he drank, he got drunk. There are people with legitimately dangerous mutations, to them and others, who probably didn't want them back. Say your mutation was sweat that's a corrosive agent. Summer would be hell, because you couldn't do anything with your clothes, shoes, the pavement, the walls of the pool, whatever, melting around you.Might have been glad to be rid of that problem.

Other people might not have minded their mutations, but they've settled into a new life without them. Not necessarily better than the old one, but not worse either. They get their powers back, and in the apparently heightened (re-heightened?) anti-mutant climate, that life is upset. Maybe they lose their job (though I'd think being a mutant would be protected under job discrimination). Maybe they grew to be 8 feet tall, and 900 pounds of solid granite, so that 4th floor apartment isn't going to work any longer.

While I'm sure there are plenty of people glad to have their powers (and we'll discuss them in a few paragraphs), there's likely to be a decent percentage who aren't happy about it. We could use this as another thing to bash Cyclops over the head with, that he never bothered to consult these people before unilaterally going ahead with his plan to repower them, but this isn't so much about Cyclops, though it may involve him. It's a question of what those people do.

Are they angry? Do they lash out? If so, at who? How much does the average person in the Marvel Universe understand about what just happened? Would they point the finger at Cyclops, attack his prison in an attempt to exact vengeance? It'd be interesting to see how he reacted to that, given his current position seems to be "I did horrible things, and I have to pay for them, but I believe they were worth it." Would he feel bad? Would he not care, tell them they were taking one for the team, so to speak? Would their attempt to confront him enable him to escape, so we have Cyclops dodging the authorities and lynch mobs?

They might go after Hope, reasoning, that since she gave them these powers, she can remove them again (depending on how much people know, they might turn to Wanda for the same reason). Reading discussions of Generation Hope, it seems she can exercise some sort of control over the Five Lights, make them do what she wants. Could she do that with these people, and if so, how many at once? Would she use the ones she could control against the ones she couldn't, or take a different route entirely? I think she tried to do the best she could with a situation she didn't ask for, so maybe she'd work to help the unhappy ones.

There are a lot of ways one could go with it. You could see people struggle with it for a bit, but resolve to carry on with their lives like before. Other people could abandon their current lives and try to start anew. Still others could give up entirely and take their own lives. There could be increased interest in a mutant "cure" from people who'd gladly take it. Obviously the potential for abuse of such a thing is considerable, but if it can be developed, should the people who want to take it be prevented from doing so? Some could decide to hire themselves out as weapons or simply rampage, angry at the world and eager to take it out on anyone. We could have newly repowered people who love it fighting with the ones who don't, with humans as allies on both sides, as well as on their own sides.

Among the people who are glad to have powers, there's a lot of ground to cover. Beyond people using them for good (would the Avengers get swamped with people trying out?), for ill, or just for kicks (the skies are full of people just flying around whilly-nilly!). Would some of them start to worship Hope? It could be new fashion trends. All her followers would wear green-and-yellow spandex with a ragged cloak on their shoulders. What does she do if she finds herself with an army of devotees? There's potential there, if Hope doesn't carefully weigh what she says or does, for things to go very wrong. Would people try to influence her as way to use those followers to their own purposes? What if they simply get out of control on their own, doing things they think Hope wants, without bothering to check with her first? And, of course, Hope could always let the power go to her head.

There could religions that form around the Phoenix (which they did in Ultimate X-Men, but I'm not sure about the Marvel Universe). That could just be an interesting background thing, it could tie into Hope's situation (since she harnessed the Phoenix' power), or they could be a serious problem. Say they want to bring the Phoenix back, and someone in the group starts muddling about with mystic forces, trying to speed its, what, resurrection, recoalescing, but releases something else? Or they do, by force of will/focusing or giving of their life energies/mystic handwave bring the Phoenix back full force. Then what? Is it really angry, confused, just ready to get off Earth and never come back?

This is thing about Marvel events. For as much as I frequently don't like the idea behind them (usually because it makes the heroes behave like jerks towards each other), they do, on occasion, set up a status quo with the potential to be interesting. Or reestablish that status quo in this case, I guess. The question is whether Marvel will stick with it long enough to get anything out of it.

Treating AvX With All The Seriousness It Demands

I know a lot of important events revolve around Earth in the Marvel Universe, so it isn't surprising the Avengers and X-Men would both assume they were the destination of choice for the Phoenix. Especially when we consider how Cyclops pinned all his hopes on the Phoenix. That doesn't mean everything is going to involve Earth, though. There's a big universe out there, full of all sorts of horrors and dangers.

So I think it would have been funny if the Phoenix wasn't headed to Earth at all. Maybe someone was letting the neutron galaxy out of the M'Kraan Crystal again. Or it wanted another rematch with Galactus. Or Thanos made it back out of the Cancerverse and is still pissed at Death (and everyone else). It just so happens, Earth was along the way.

Sure, it would be a remarkable coincidence the Phoenix would pass by (or through) Earth on its way to wherever it was really going. But it's also remarkably coincidental the Phoenix would need to pass through all those other worlds it destroyed on its way to Earth. I guess even cosmic firebirds need landmarks to navigate by. You think it'd know better than to go near Earth, assuming it wanted to avoid entanglements, but I suppose it couldn't anticipate Cyclops losing his damn mind, or Iron Man building a "disruptor". Really, Earth in the Marvel Universe is not a friendly place for tourists, is what I'm saying.

"Come to Earth! Be blasted into pieces, then have your abilities stolen by a bunch of fanatics for their own purposes! Then get yelled at once you pull yourself together and express displeasure at your treatment!"

Mostly, I like the idea because I picture Cyclops standing out in an open field, Hope next to him, as he waves a big sign. Giant Space Birds Welcome Here!, or something to that effect. The Phoenix approaches, closer and closer, close enough to see every detail. . . and then it keeps going. Passes right on by and back into space, like a meteor skipping across the Earth's atmosphere. And Cyclops is left standing there, the sign slipping from his grasp, a dumbfounded look on his face. Hope sighs and asks if she can go back to Utopia.

Meanwhile, the Avengers all high five and congratulate each other on a job well done saving the planet. Iron Man tries to take all the credit by claiming he sprayed the entire planet with "Phoenix Repellent" he had loaded inside special satellites. Everyone smiles indulgently, while thinking "jackass". The exception is Hawkeye, who actually calls Stark a jackass.

As for the Phoenix Force, it continues onto its destination, blissfully unaware of all the stupidity back on Earth. Oh, and it stops whatever the menace was, ensuring the continued existence of the universe. Everybody wins. Except the menace. Oh, and Cyclops.

Cyclops Was Right? Has The World Gone Topsy-Turvy?

I'm not sure I'm ready for a Marvel Universe where Cyclops gets to be right. Especially since it's given him a martyr complex. Gad, he'll be insufferable. Thing is, was he right?

Yes, Hope used the Phoenix Force to restore mutants, just as Cyclops said. But there seems to be an implication Hope needed the training she received in K'un-Lun to actually control the giant space bird. Without that, it's likely she'd have gone the same route Scott and the rest of the Phoenix 5 ultimately went.

Of course, I get the impression no one writing the damn crossover ever explicitly pointed this out. Which isn't surprising. You'd think people co-writing a book would bother to get things straight. Or their editors - oh right, never mind. Anyway, it would have been a nice way to deflate Scott. Point out that if he had simply thrown Hope in front of the Phoenix unprepared, it'd have been a disaster. Have Hope be the one, as she tells him what it felt like to try and control an ancient, incredibly powerful force hellbent on destruction.

Because I have a hard time believing restoring mutantkind is what the Phoenix actually came there to do. If so, why does it need a host? Just spread its wings, and make the magic happen. Why destroy a bunch of innocent planets? Surely the Giant Space Fire Bird is maneuverable enough to avoid them? That's not even getting into the question of why the Phoenix cares what the Scarlet Witch did.

Ultimately the results were  what Cyclops wanted, so I guess he doesn't care about the methods. Ends justify the means, and all that. Considering the circumstances though, calling Cyclops "right" is a stretch. If the Avengers had stayed out of it, assuming Wolverine and his crew of X-Folks didn't step in*, the Earth would have been destroyed, which puts the kibosh on Cyclops "restore mutants" dream. Then again, maybe he wouldn't care. I get the impression Cyke doesn't think Earth should continue to exist if there aren't mutants. Which is at least one more good reason to not like Scott Summers. Add it to the pile, then.

* I don't know if they would have. Did they even know the Phoenix was on its way until the Avengers showed up and started throwing their weight around? That's the really disappointing thing from the Avengers' standpoint. If they had just been more reasonable, they could have come out looking a lot better in contrast to Cyclops' idiocy, I mean zealotry.

They'll Get To Genosha As Soon As Ultron Goes Away, Alright?

I was reading Chad Nevett's discussion of an earlier conflict between the Avengers and the X-Men. It's the '80s mini-series where the Avengers and Soviet Super-Soldiers are trying to bring in Magneto for his various crimes, and the X-Men end up protecting him. Nevett points out the X-Men take a protect mutants stance, regardless of the circumstances, since Magneto did actually do all the stuff he's accused of (like, you know, try to take over the world and sink Soviet subs).

In the comments, the issue is raised that the X-Men have no reason to trust the Avengers when it comes to mutant rights. The Avengers don't take stances against Weapon X or the Sentinel program. They did act against Genosha's systematic oppression of mutants*, nor did they show up to help when the country was largely wiped out. It could be construed the Avengers don't care much about mutants, except those on their team. Not necessarily a bad point, and the X-Men's point that the Phoenix has existed peacefully on Earth before has some merit.

Of course, so does the Avengers' point that the Phoenix was destroying every planet in its path on the way to Earth, inhabited or not, and oh yeah, it's done that before.

There's another aspect, and that's if you're going to play the continuity game, it isn't hard to highlight some occasions where the Avengers could question whether the X-Men care about the safety of the planet. Defending Magneto for one thing, but hell, look at the Busiek Avengers run. Ultron wipes out an entire country, then turns out to have an army of himself. I guess there were no mutants in Slorenia because the X-Men don't show up. Count Nefaria prepares to detonate an ionic bomb so he can control anyone in the world who gives him lip. Do the X-Men (who would presumably find themselves as much under his thumb as the rest) help stop him? Nope. When Kang took over the entire planet, did the X-Men help? No. Admittedly, I doubt Kang cares about mutants in any way other than if they serve or oppose him, but still, no help from the X-groups.

It can work both ways, and make both groups look bad. Or there's another option: Both sides are busy people.

I came to this conclusion reading Amazing Spider-Man #229-230. Spider-Man vs. the Juggernaut. Spidey realizes he's outclassed and tries to call reinforcements. The X-Men, Avengers, Fantastic Four (there's another thing, I don't see the X-Men showing up to fight Galactus), they're all out of town, busy with their own stuff. The editor even added a helpful footnote directing the reader to precisely which comics would describe those adventures.

That's become my stock answer for why such-and-such hero didn't show up to deal with a threat. They're busy with something in their own book This has been harder to maintain in the Bendis years, where Avengers spend an inordinate amount of time sitting around coffee tables talking. Prior to that, it wasn't hard to point out other heroes are occupied with their own difficulties.

It still doesn't mean both sides haven't behaved like idiots in the current mess, but I find it a useful answer to questions like "Why doesn't Batman call the Justice League to clean up Gotham?", or "How is Daredevil the only person around to fight the Hulk?" You've probably had it happen where you try to get a bunch of friends together for something. It can take awhile, because they all have their own lives, and things are happening all the time. Why wouldn't it be the same for heroes?

Look, I either go with this idea, or I accept the Avengers really don't give a damn about mutants and the X-Men are a complete pack of lunatics who don't care if the world's at risk as long as mutants aren't involved.

* I'm not clear on when that became common knowledge. The X-Men didn't even know until the Australia years, and they were pretending to be dead, so I'm guessing they didn't mention it to the Avengers. So when would they have found out. Post-X-Tinction Agenda? During the crossover in the early 90s, Bloodties, Bloodlines, something like that. And by the latter, I'm pretty sure things had changed and mutants had earned full rights.

Some Thoughts About Cyclops' Mental State

I did flip through a couple of issues of the main AvX mini-series two weeks ago. I was in Hastings, they were there, I'd heard Spider-Man was gonna get a cool moment, and what the heck. I'm not made of stone here people.

And it wasn't a bad moment. Probably a bit silly he survived the first hit from Colossus, but heck Piotr always (or at least used to be) a pretty nice guy, so he probably held back. Even if I should question whether someone dumb enough to think simply giving whales arthropod legs would enable them to live on land (without regard for how their bodies are designed to work with water to support them) would be capable of restraining himself enough to not kill a much weaker opponent. And that wouldn't apply to Illyana, but she was probably taking her time, a kid pulling the legs off an insect one at a time.

Anyway, I'm always up for Spider-Man being defiant and refusing to quit.

I did have a though about Cyclops, and surprisingly, it wasn't "Loser!" He's so convinced Hope is going to save mutantkind, and that the Phoenix Force is how she'll do it. I don't entirely understand the first (though I can guess, based off what I hear other people say about the X-Books), but I certainly don't understand the second. The Phoenix' job is to protect life by guarding the M'Kraan Crystal, correct? Making certain no one unleashes the neutron galaxy contained within. When it isn't doing that, it occasionally goes nuts from experiencing life as a human and destroys a bunch of stuff. So I don't know how that translates to "Will restore mutantkind", unless he figures the Phoenix Force can allow Hope to use her powers on a worldwide scale all at once. Which is, maybe, possible? I don't know.

But I wonder if Summers has stopped to consider what he's asking her to do. To take control of this entity, incredibly powerful, ancient, sometimes destructive force, and use it in a specific way. It seems like he would pay more mind to the "control" part of the equation. A lot of Scott's life has been about control. He has considerable power, Phoenix Force or no, but it's on all the time. So he always has to keep the ruby quartz eyeglasses on, or the visor. Cyke can't even do an '80s style glance over the top of the shades without risking blowing someone's head off. I think he'd have the most respect for the enormity of what he expects of her, especially as his allies all seem to be losing their grip on what is, at most, a portion of the Phoenix.

Setting aside whether Hope even wants to try and control the Phoenix Force (or restore mutantkind), there's the idea of whether she can, and what'll happen if she can't. I picture a failure being something similar to what'll happen if Flash loses control of the symbiont, only the planet will crack in half. The Phoenix was destroying worlds on its way to Earth (would it be funny to find out Earth simply happened to be in the way, and the Phoenix was actually headed for Knowhere, or the Badoon homeworld?), then it was split up and used for purposes it might honestly not give a damn about, and it might be a little pissed.

I'd kind of come to see Cyclops as a pragmatist, looking at the current mutant situation and trying to figure out how to keep as many of those remaining alive until they could figure out how to fix things. And to that end, he'd plan, play nice when needed, intimidate when needed, but he'd be trying the best idea he could to keep mutants alive. I don't know whether this whole cockamamie idea is a sign of how desperate he's become, or if it shows he's always been desperate, the drowning man, grasping at straws.

What I Bought 6/6/2012 - Part 4

For a while there, I'd convinced myself I would ask Jack not to send the AvX tie-ins for Secret Avengers. Just ditch the book for a few months, come back after. Then I figured it was only three issues, how bad could it be? Silly Calvin.

Secret Avengers #26 & 27 by, Rick Remender (writer), Renato Guedes (artist), Bettie Breitweiser & Matthew Wilson (color art), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer) - AT least we have Alan Davis on the covers. That's pretty much the high point here, by my reckoning.

So we have a group of Avengers out in space, trying to stop the Phoenix with some cage Beast devised, based off his past experience with the Phoenix. This plan fails, as first Thor can't keep it distracted long enough, then it severely injures War Machine (whose armor was powering the cage), then when Captain Britain tries to run it off his armor, there's not enough power and the whole thing blows up. The Avengers are spared only because some Kree use a piece of the M'Kraan Crystal to summon the Phoenix to their location, where it destroys them but in the process resurrects, sigh, Captain Mar-Vell.

Brief digression. I've never cared about Mar-Vell. At all. I think it's because he'd been well and truly dead for quite some time when I started reading comics, so like Gwen Stacy, I don't see him as an integral active part of the Marvel Universe. I was going to lump Adam Warlock into that, but I think my distaste for him stems from other factors. Digression over.

The Avengers' ship was damaged so they land on Hala, Kree homeworld. Turns out there's some Kree guy with a huge brain making everyone believe the Phoenix will cause their rebirth and make them more powerful. So nobody evacuates when they hear Phoenix is on the way. Mar-Vell's under this control, and oh goody, so are Ms. Marvel and Noh-Varr, since they're part Kree, I guess. The three of them beat the crap out of the rest of the Avengers, take the wounded prisoner to be executed. Oh, and Carol's sucking face with Mar-Vell. I'm going to assume all this stuff about here loving him is a result of the Kree mind control, and not some '70s comic stuff absolutely nobody has bothered to bring up in any books featuring Carol Danvers I've ever read. I hope that's the case, even if it means Carol's being mind-controlled into another romance. At least this one can't possibly end as badly as the one with Marcus, right? Right?

By the end of the issue, the Phoenix has almost arrived, but Mar-Vell is starting to figure out something isn't right here. Of course, it took seeing some Kree civilians the Vision had freed from the mind control gunned down to do it, and most of the Avengers are unconscious, so good luck fixing this one.

Renato Guedes drew both issues, and the art's too busy for my tastes. Too many very fine little lines, everything feels stiff and awkward. It's probably realistic, but I tend to prefer a more simplified style. It can accomplish just as much, without looking so busy. Guedes does draw a very nice giant fire bird. I'm curious, though, whether I was supposed to have the impression Thor and Valkyrie are hammered drunk in issue 26. Yes, they're drinking, but the way Thor's drawn as he comes through the door, and with how Val's leaning against him, they remind me of Alex on some of the New Year's Eve parties where he let himself go. I can see Asgardians drinking before a big fight, sure, but getting that drunk? I'd expect they'd have moderated themselves slightly in deference to the times, or so as to not overly concern their teammates at least. But maybe Remender wanted them that sloshed, I don't know.

One other thing. Thor and Val get Captain Britain to drink with them, over his initial objections that he's a mean drunk. Then, when the Avengers head into space to confront the Phoenix, Braddock isn't amongst them during any of the panels leading up to the fight. He shows up after Thor's engaged it and War Machine is in the process of capturing it. Was it done that way intentionally, like Braddock was sleeping it off and got a late start, or wasn't supposed to be out there at all? Or did he just get omitted from the earlier panels because there wasn't room? I think it was a deliberate choice, but I'm not clear how it plays in with his actions that followed, or the Beast's subsequent dressing down of Brian.

Oh well, just one more issue and then the book can get back to what I'm actually interested in. Hopefully. For tomorrow, I saved the best book for last.

We Have To Choose A Side, Don't We

In terms of Avengers vs. X-Men, whose side are you on?

The Avengers? The X-Men? Hope? The Phoenix Force?

Maybe you're rooting for Thanos to get out of the Cancerverse, still mightily angry about being used by Death, and out to bust some skulls to make himself feel better. Or for Magneto to go heel turn and trounce everyone. You know, something that brings all the heroes together against a common villain. Like the old days.

I rather like those last couple of ideas. Doesn't have to be those specifically, but something like, some baddie rising up and making all the good guys stop the macho posturing. I suppose that's what the Phoenix Force is for, but I've never much been a fan of it. Besides, I thought it was supposed to defend life, so what's it doing going cuckoo bananas? I've never understood that. Is it everything it experienced pretending to be Jean that made it nuts? You'd think it could get over that eventually. It's been years. Why can't the blasted thing just guard the M'Krann Crystal like it's supposed to?

Anyway, I can't say I'm rooting for a return of the Phoenix (Rachel Summers was the only one I was even marginally interested in). I'm really irritated by all the solicitations promising to connect Iron Fist to the Phoenix Force. What a stupid idea. He got his power by killing a giant dragon. Why does that have to connect to some outer space Fire Bird? Yes, the dragon is endlessly reborn so it can be killed again, like a phoenix, but cripes people, leave it alone. Don't dragon the Iron Fist mythology into the X-Men's crap!

I'm not any fan of Hope, and while we're at it, does it seem wrong her name is Hope Summers? She had a family before, didn't she? True, they were slaughtered, but it feels like an attempt by Cable (or Scott, or whoever gave her the name) to erase that part of her past. Like it doesn't matter, she's a Summers, she's the mutant savior, blah, blah. Since she was an infant, I don't suppose she remembers them, but it still feels strange somehow. Maybe just because there was no formal adoption, just Cable hightailing into the future with a baby.

I keep drifting off-track. Nothing new there. I suppose I have to be with the Avengers, if only because the other option is to side with Cyclops, and that isn't happening. Still, I'm concerned we're seeing the continued Fall of Steve Rogers. How having to be Boss of All Superheroes is going to make him into as much of a bad guy as it did Tony Stark. Which I would prefer not to see happen. In my youth, I disliked Cap as much as Cyclops. Stodgy, uptight, always making boring speeches and not just letting the "cool" characters do what they liked. Busiek's work on Avengers did quite a bit to turn that around, and I'd hate to see it lost.

Just have to hope for the best.