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Avengers VS X-Men #7

Sep 2012
on-sale: Jul 4, 2012
Matt Fraction, Olivier Coipel

Avengers VS X-Men #7 cover

Story Name:

(no title given)


Synopsis

Avengers VS X-Men #7 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 5 stars
Last issue Scarlet Witch helped the Avengers take Hope Summers from the X-Men (and Hope agreed to go). In retaliation Cyclops declared "No more Avengers".

Now the Phoenix Five (Colossus, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Magik and Sub-Mariner) have taken over Avengers Tower, Avengers Mansion and Avengers Academy. They and the other X-Men are hunting for the Avengers. But it is Scarlet Witch they see as the real threat.

Magik, leading Gambit, Havok, Polaris, Warpath and X-Man, finds Scarlet Witch along with Captain America, Hawkeye, Iron Fist, Spider-Woman and Vision. Vision is still having problems dealing with the return of Wanda, the ex-wife who killed him, which is distracting her. But she holds her own against Magik until Havok and Polaris take down Vision. After a momentary loss of concentration Wanda blasts Magik to unconsciousness.

But then Emma Frost ports in via the Siege Courageous. Cap decides discretion is the better part of valour, and calls on Dr Strange to get them out of here. But not before Emma attacks Wanda with the Phoenix Force, Hawkeye intervenes and is burnt to a crisp for his pains.

Strange gets the rest of them away, to a secret base in Wakanda where Tony Stark has been monitoring the fight, compiling data to use in devising a weapon/defence against the 5 Phoenix-enhanced X-Men. Black Panther, Black Widow, Quicksilver and Wolverine are also there.

Hawkeye has been taken back to Utopia, and Cyclops intends to heal him. Emma apologises for going too far, but she got mad and the power got out of control. Cyclops wants to win hearts and minds. The people see the good they're doing (last issue), and see the Avengers as terrorists opposing them. He wants them captured not killed (and says they already have several unnamed prisoners). But Namor thinks they're at war, and should show no mercy. And Magik believes that Scarlet Witch is still the evil person who killed several Avengers and decimated the mutant race.

Black Panther is helping Tony Stark upgrade the giant robot armour and cannon he used against the Phoenix Force in #5. But the main effect then was to split the Force into 5 and infect the 5 X-Men. This time he hopes (with not much chance of success) to send the Force back to space. But Panther deduces that the effort, successful or not, will kill the pilot. He accuses Stark of egotism rather than heroism. He further suggests that Tony should allow a mixture of magic with his science.

Hope, who was *supposed* to be the Phoenix Force's vessel, came with the Avengers because she fears what the Force is doing to her friends. She also tells them that Scarlet Witch is the one they most fear. So Dr Strange proposes giving various Avengers Enchantments of Ikonn to wear. These will allow the wearer to appear to be Wanda. Which should also help if they have to escape from the X-Men's prison.

Daredevil, Falcon, Giant-Man, Luke Cage, Mockingbird, Sharon Carter, She-Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor and Valkyrie have joined the throng. Even Beast is there, despite walking out of a strategy meeting last issue. They're going out to gather more data for Stark, and to stall the X-Men while he completes his project.

Captain America, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Spider-Man and Sharon Carter (wearing the Ikonns) let themselves be found in New York by Colossus with Danger, Magma, Psylocke and Sunspot. Despite supposedly only using the Wanda-image sparingly as a last resort, Cap tells Sharon to trigger it immediately, and the X-Men retreat.

Emma Frost, with Boom-Boom, Domino, Surge, Velocidad and Warpath, sees an unspecified Scarlet Witch (probably Black Widow because she's not in any other group) with Falcon, Quicksilver, Thor and Wolverine in the Ukraine. Another Wanda (Valkyrie) in the Arctic Circle accompanies Beast, Giant-Man, Red Hulk and She-Hulk against Cyclops leading Armor, Dr Nemesis, and Magneto.

In the Pacific Ocean the real Scarlet Witch is caught with Dr Strange, Mockingbird and Thing by Namor, Iceman, Polaris and Transonic. Dr Strange ports with Mockingbird and Thing back to Wakanda, accidentally taking Transonic with them. Shuri, the female Black Panther, has Transonic taken prisoner. Wanda stays and sends Sub-Mariner back to Utopia. Which of course makes Namor even angrier.

Emma Frost decides to side with Namor. She tells him she can sense where Transonic is, in Wakanda.

Back in Wakanda Stark has detected a connection between the Phoenix Force and Wanda's hexes. Just then Iron Fist turns up with Lei Kung. They want to take Hope to K'un Lun to hide her and train her to deal with the Phoenix Force. Tony asks if the rest of the Avengers can hide there too.

Hope and Wolverine go through a portal to K'un Lun created by Lei Kung. The Avengers are going to send Tony Stark's equipment through and follow themselves. But then Namor attacks, riding a tidal wave, with an Atlantean army behind him.


 

Review / Commentaries


Avengers VS X-Men #7 Review by (July 13, 2012)
Does Spider-Woman get left behind with Hawkeye? She isn't seen in the group Dr Strange brings back, or anywhere later in this issue. The Children's Crusade limited series revealed that Scarlet Witch was possessed when she caused the deaths of Ant-Man, Hawkeye and Vision (all of whom have come back since) in Avengers Disassembled, and during House of M. At then end of that series she decimated the mutant race by removing their powers not by killing them. But admittedly some died as a result. Dr Strange has been mentioning Ikonn in illusion spells since 1966. The being himself has occasionally turned up as well, most recently in the Eighth Day crossover that started in Thor (1998) #17 and ended in Avengers (1998) #25. Lei Kung's appearance here obviously leads to the earlier New Avengers #27 where Hope is being trained in K'un Lun. The fact that the other Avengers aren't seen there indicates that Sub-Mariner's attack will foil their escape. Oliver Coipel's art is very good at depicting the displays of Phoenix power. And he's no slouch at handling Scarlet Witch either. Act 2 of this epic, which began last issue, feels more like a story than the succession of fights of Act 1. I'm persuaded to give this issue a 5.

The 2nd cycle of scripters continues with Matt Fraction for this issue. Once again I've added comments to #6 for the tie-in issues that came out in the intervening week. There's only 1 tie-in this week, which probably lies between this issue and last. Uncanny X-Men #15 has the Phoenix 5 attacking Mr Sinister. And some X-Men like Magneto and Storm are beginning to chafe under their rule. In this issue, as in the previous ones, there are main characters plus lots of cameo roles. This is especially true of all X-Men apart from the Phoenix Five and Hope Summers. Thus I have sometimes had to use the initial cast list to make tentative identifications on both sides. I have been successful this time except I can't see Angel in the body of the issue. I think I've realised one piece of mistaken identity in #4. Madison Jeffries was included in the cast list in #2-4. This issue has the same picture but with X-Man written under it. Jeffries probably *was* the character depicted inside #2-3 (although he didn't do anything distinctive). But the character in #4 didn't look like him, and appeared to be mentally controlling a dinosaur (very un-Jeffries). I now figure that was X-Man *telekinetically* controlling the animal. It's probably X-Man inside this issue as well, although again there is no distinguishing behaviour.

Extra comments on the next week's tie-ins:- The main AvX element in Wolverine and the X-Men #13 is Gladiator and the Shi'ar Death Commandos vs the Phoenix 5. As such it can fit anywhere between #5 and #8, but the events of W&XM#12 imply it is after #6. As usual Avengers vs X-Men: Versus #4 depicts 2 individual fights from the latest Avengers vs X-Men issue, namely this one. They both occur in the skirmishes involving fake Scarlet Witches. Daredevil vs Psylocke is from the New York battle, and Psylocke joins the ranks of X-men beginning to doubt the Phoenix 5. Thor vs Emma Frost is in the Ukraine. New Avengers #28 shows us some captives of the X-Men. Hawkeye has been healed, so this must be after the current issue, and probably after #8 as well. Spider-Woman is there, confirming my theory that she was taken along with Hawkeye. So is Luke Cage, which suggests he was captured during the New York Daredevil/Psylocke incident. And looking more closely at that scene, I now realise he is falling through the Siege Courageous. They escape from prison, but it turns out they're in a Danger Room simulation. X-Men Legacy #270 should also have been out, but it's been delayed for 2 weeks.


> Avengers VS X-Men comic book info and issue index

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Main/1st Story Full Credits

Olivier Coipel
Mark Morales
Laura Martin
Jim Cheung (Cover Inker)
Additional Credits
Plot: . Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos.
Editor: Tom Brevoort. Editor-in-chief: Axel Alonso.

Characters

All stories. Listed in alphabetical order.

Black Panther
Black Panther

(T'Challa)
Captain America
Captain America

(Steven Rogers)
Colossus
Colossus

(Piotr Rasputin)
Cyclops
Cyclops

(Scott Summers)
Daredevil
Daredevil

(Matt Murdock)
Doctor Strange
Doctor Strange

(Stephen Strange)
Falcon
Falcon

(Sam Wilson)
Giant-Man
Giant-Man

(Hank Pym)
Havok
Havok

(Alex Summers)
Hawkeye
Hawkeye

(Clinton Barton)
Iron Fist
Iron Fist

(Danny Rand)
Iron Man
Iron Man

(Anthony Stark)
Luke Cage
Luke Cage

(Power Man)
Magik
Magik

(Illyana Rasputin)
Polaris
Polaris

(Lorna Dane)
Quicksilver
Quicksilver

(Pietro Maximoff)
Scarlet Witch
Scarlet Witch

(Wanda Maximoff)
Sub-Mariner
Sub-Mariner

(Namor McKenzie)
White Queen
White Queen

(Emma Frost)
Wolverine
Wolverine

(James Howlett)
Plus: Phoenix Force, Warpath.

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