Avengers VS X-Men : A Loser’s story

After having it in my possession for over a week, I finally got round to reading the closing issue of Avengers VS X-Men. Why did I wait so long? Was it because I was too sad to see the story end? Was I not ready to see Hope finally accept her destiny? Was I attempting to delay the inevitably of the Scarlet Witch finally finding redemption for her “mutant genocide”.

Of course not.

The simple reason was that after all the hype I couldn’t bring myself to read what was sure to be a very unfulfilling and predictable end to an unfulfilling and predictable series. Harsh you say? Maybe. I guess I should focus on what went right with the series:

Iron Fist had some pretty sweet moments: 
Especially in the final Issue...one young Danny Rand finally earned his place on the Avengers mantle...but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before he goes berserk and puts that Iron Fist in the wrong place...

Mutant life was restored: 
Yes, one Wanda Maximoff managed to restore mutant life with the utterance of “No More Phoenix”...and with that the golden bird was gone, and its life force scattered - returning the powers of mutants all around the world.

A good set up to Marvel NOW:
Loose ends were tied up and nearly all the major marvel players were involved...exactly what you need before embarking on a new series.

But the amazing lead up to this one moment, (provided by my faves Jimmy Cheung and Allan Heinberg in [Young] Avengers: Children’s Crusade ) was somewhat deflated I felt...

So what was so wrong with it?

This shit just got real:
I found myself really comparing this series to real life, in other words ‘normality’ vs ‘difference’, this really would be a sociologists dream. I was quite confused by the idea of Cap and his band of superpowered heroes (but human let’s not forget) ‘waging war’ on those who were ‘different’ – Cyclops and his band of mutants. The Avengers became the very people that the X-Men have fought so hard against. It seemed all too like “Lets eradicate the ‘mutant threat’ by destruction and control”. And it’s safe to say that by issue 2 I was very much on the side of the X-Men.

Inconsistencies:
I’m a massive fan of Jim Cheung (who did the cover art for the main series) and although I knew that he didn’t illustrate the issues, I thought the calibre of the artwork would be off the scale...no offence to Romita...I just wasn't feelin it...although Kubert did a great job with the final issues. I felt the writing was great, but just didn't gel well with the art.

     Scarlet Witch who?:
All the hype and she was barely the eye candy of the main series which is a damn shame. Let’s be honest now, as per usual Cap and Iron Man were the stars of this show...Cho did a great job with AvX #0...Wanda looked ah-MAZING but she was definitely overshadowed.

    Heroes on the run: 
Umm, i'm pretty sure that Cyclops, Colossus, Namor, Majik, Emma Frost have saved the world like countless times...so what if they made a tiny little "let's erase the world and start again" mistake...who hasn't? I mean look at Iron-Man and Cap...Civil War and a few dead superheroes much? Talk about forgive and forget...

So what would Doom do? he'd have eaten the Phoenix for breakfast and worn Cyclops' silence of the lambs-esque shackles like a crown.