Review: Avengers vs X-Men, issue 9

Script: Jason Aaron

Pencils: Adam Kubert

The Avengers mount a desperate rescue mission to save their comrades who have been taken prisoner by Magik and Colossus. Meanwhile, in the mystical city of K’un Lun, Hope is training in the kung fu arts in preparation for the inevitable final confrontation with the remaining Phoenix Five.

Warning: Spoilers follow.

The first thing that I really enjoyed about this issue is that it’s partially narrated by Spider-Man. I always find Spider-Man’s dialogue to be a light-hearted antidote to all the epic action going on in the rest of the story. It makes for a nice counterpoint.

After last issue’s showdown Namor seems to have completely disappeared. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t killed though, I thought he was just defeated and lost his portion of the Phoenix Force. Anyway, I will have to retract my prediction that Emma Frost would be the next to give in to the corrupting influence of the Phoenix because it looks like Magik and Colossus have abandoned almost any pretext of morality or decency. Meanwhile, Emma appears to be genuinely afraid of the influence the power is having on her and the things she feels tempted to do. Unfortunately, it looks like her powers of resistance aren’t likely to endure much longer.

As usual Scott is entirely focussed on his own agenda and doesn’t seem to have noticed that his fellow Phoenix Five (Phoenix Four?) are going off the deep end. Even when Emma attempts to reach out to him for help in her own struggle he seems unaware of her plight or the danger she represents. When Magik and Colossus conveniently destroy one another their portions of the Phoenix Force pass to Scott and Emma neatly setting up an inevitable confrontation between the two.

I was a little bit disappointed with the way that Colossus and Magik were removed from the action in this issue. It was very anti-climactic and almost felt like an after-thought. One minute they’re terrorising the world like a super-powered Bonnie and Clyde and the next, with very little build-up, they just attack one another. It’s all over in three panels.

In the cliffhanger ending to this issue Scott turns up in K’un Lun in search of Hope. Things are rapidly coming to a head and with only three issues left to go in this event it looks like Hope is finally about to be forced to step up. She claims she’s ready but, then again, that’s what she said last time and we all know how that turned out. 7/10

Bernice Watson