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Avengers VS X-Men #8

Sep 2012
on-sale: Jul 18, 2012
Brian Michael Bendis, Adam Kubert

Avengers VS X-Men #8 cover

Story Name:

(no title given)


Synopsis

Avengers VS X-Men #8 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
Last issue ended with Sub-Mariner's attack on the Avengers in Wakanda with a tidal wave and his Atlantean troops. This issue describes that attack.

Lei Kung had created a portal to K'un Lun, and Hope Summers and Wolverine went through it. Now Iron Man takes Lei Kung to follow them, telling him to close the portal behind them, lest the Atlanteans find the way. His parting words to Captain America are to use their 'secret weapon'. Black Panther and Iron Fist are left behind with some Wakandan spear carriers (well, advanced weapon carriers).

Cap heads off with the others, supposedly to talk sense into his old friend Namor (but he never gets much chance to do that). Along the way he points out that this attack on innocent Wakandan civilians with water and sea-monsters ridden by Atlanteans proves that the X-Men are the villains of the piece, and therefore the Avengers are the good guys.

Cap baits the flying Sub-Mariner to come down and attack him, and then he sends out the call for all Avengers to converge here. Meanwhile Iron Fist and Black Panther tackle Namor, while Cap faces a hulking Atlantean warrior. Sub-Mariner KO's Iron Fist, but merely trades threats with Panther. But that holds him long enough for a horde of other Avengers to descend on him (Beast, Daredevil, Dr Strange, Falcon, Quicksilver, Red Hulk, Spider-Man, Thing, Thor, Valkyrie and Vision).

The assembled cast commence pounding on Namor, who doesn't inflict any significant counter-blows except to break Red Hulk's arm. (Some Avengers don't do much, including Dr Strange.) The battle boils down to a fight between Sub-Mariner and Thor, which Namor seems to win. Then Cap calls in Scarlet Witch for a duel between Phoenix Force and her Chaos Magic (which last issue we learned were somehow connected). The effort exhausts Wanda, but Namor is down too. (Wanda is rescued by her ex-husband Vision, who as of last issue definitely hadn't forgiven her for killing him during Avengers Disassembled.)

The other Phoenix-infected X-Men (Colossus, Cyclops, Emma Frost and Magik) have been watching the events with Magneto in Utopia. Now the 4 of them arrive via the Siege Courageous, and the Phoenix Force abandons Namor and shares his portion between the others, increasing their individual power.

Cap chooses this moment to use Iron Man's 'secret weapon'. A device on his wrist reopens the portal to K'Un Lun, and the Avengers stagger through, reuniting with Hope Summers' small gang. The X-Men are left to face a mental vision of Professor X, who asks them to stop, or he will have to stop them.


 

Review / Commentaries


Avengers VS X-Men #8 Review by (July 24, 2012)
The cast has shrunk a lot since last issue. Especially all the hangers-on have dropped off on the X-Men's side, leaving only the Phoenix 5 and Magneto, with Beast and Wolverine supporting the Avengers, and Hope and Prof X on their side too. There are some Avengers who've disappeared as well. New Avengers #28 confirmed my theory that Spider-Woman was captured with Hawkeye by the X-Men last time. But it also showed Luke Cage a prisoner, and I can now see him falling through the Siege Courageous portal to Utopia last issue. The group around Lei Kung's portal to K'un Lun has changed since the last pages of last issue. Iron Man has joined them, after armouring up. Beast and Spider-Man have gone, to reappear in the group attack on Namor. But who knows what happens to Black Widow, Giant-Man and She-Hulk? And Mockingbird and Sharon Carter haven't been seen since the small battles last time. All these don't appear to go through the portal to K'un Lun. Also Shuri the female Black Panther is on the splash page cast list, but I don't see her anywhere. How does Sub-Mariner get a tidal wave to (I believe) land-locked Wakanda? He's had experience with this. Back in Timely comics he managed to flood the Congo home of Ka-Zar (not the current character of that name). Why didn't the Avengers just retreat to K'un Lun straight away rather than stay and fight for a while? But now that they have gone, Hope, Iron Fist and Spider-Man's appearance in K'Un Lun in New Avengers b#27 must follow from here. Although the rest of the Avengers were conspicuous by their absence.

The current scripter on the merry-go-round is Brian Michael Bendis. As usual I've added comments to #7 for the tie-in issues that came out in the intervening week. The 2 tie-ins this week are continuations of previous stories. They probably happen before last issue. Avengers Academy #33 has Emma Frost dismantling Juston's pet Sentinel. It ends with Hank Pym closing the Academy down. In Uncanny X-Men #16 the battle between the Phoenix 5 and Sinister continues, and hasn't finished yet. Danger, Magneto, Psylocke and Storm are still not happy.

Extra comments on the the next week's tie-ins:- In Avengers #28 Red Hulk tries to kill Cyclops (but fails of course). I would place this before or during AvX#6. The other 2 issues in this week occur correctly between #8 and #9, even though X-Men: Legends #270 was delayed from 2 weeks ago. Magik has created an extension of her Limbo dimension on Earth to hold the X-Men's prisoners. She has Hawkeye, Luke Cage and Spider-Woman from New Avengers #28 and Ms Marvel from XML#269. She also has Quicksilver who must have been captured after AvX#8. Rogue tries to rescue Ms Marvel, and Magik sends Rogue to another dimension, where she'll spend the next 2 issues. In Wolverine & X-Men #14 Colossus takes time off from running the world for a date with Kitty Pryde. Iceman has doubts during a fight between Magik and some Avengers in which Thing gets captured. This completes the set of captives going in to AvX#9.


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

Elektra

Excelsioring your collection:
KOTOBUKIYA BLACK PANTHER MOVIE BLACK PANTHER ARTFX STATUE
Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Main/1st Story Full Credits

Adam Kubert
John Dell
Laura Martin
Jim Cheung (Cover Penciler)
Justin Ponsor (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)
Iron Fist
Iron Fist

(Danny Rand)
Iron Man
Iron Man

(Anthony Stark)
Magik
Magik

(Illyana Rasputin)
Professor X
Professor X

(Charles Xavier)
Red Hulk
Red Hulk

(Thunderbolt Ross)
Scarlet Witch
Scarlet Witch

(Wanda Maximoff)
Sub-Mariner
Sub-Mariner

(Namor McKenzie)
Thor
Thor

(Odinson)
White Queen
White Queen

(Emma Frost)
Wolverine
Wolverine

(James Howlett)
Plus: Lei Kung, Phoenix Force.

Thor

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