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[Father_Brain]

Well, that's certainly a straightforward title. Marvel just can't stay away from Hero vs. Hero as a theme for events, can they?

Yes, this is the "It's Coming" Phoenix event that Marvel has been teasing for a couple months now, and has been built up in the X-books since Hope first appeared in Messiah Complex. And WHY IS KIERON GILLEN NOT COWRITING

It's probably going to be a long time before the Avengers face off against the X-Men on a big screen near you.

However, comic-book fanboys only have to wait until spring for a full-scale war between Marvel Comics' two most popular superhero groups and movie franchises.

Avengers vs. X-Men is Marvel's major event series next year, running 12 biweekly issues and featuring five of the industry's most influential writers: Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron, Ed Brubaker, Jonathan Hickman and Matt Fraction.

"It's one of those legendary ideas: What if the Avengers fought the X-Men? It doesn't get much easier to describe than that," Brubaker says.

Kicking off in a special "zero issue" prologue in March written by Bendis and Aaron, Avengers vs. X-Men begins the next month with an extinction-level event barreling its way toward Earth, namely the cosmic entity of death and rebirth known as the Phoenix Force. It's looking for a new host who will possess all of its power, which may or may not be the mutant teenager Hope Summers.

Cyclops, Wolverine, Magneto and the other X-Men want to protect her and prepare her if she's to be the new Phoenix. Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man and their fellow Avengers want her handed over to them so they can figure out what to do with her and keep the world safe from a potentially fiery fate.

Suffice it to say, tensions — and fisticuffs — arise.

"You've got two populations whose motivations are simple and understandable and defensible," says Axel Alonso, Marvel's editor in chief. "That's part of the beauty of this. You're seeing a story that evolves out of 'What would you do?' "

Of Marvel's recent annual events, Fraction says this is the one that will most appeal to hardcore comics fans as well as mainstream pop-culture mavens who've seen all four X-Men movies and the films featuring Thor, Captain America and Iron Man that have been leading up to the release of The Avengers in May.

"They've become two huge franchises that the average Joe on the street knows just from movies and cartoons and everything else," Aaron adds.

But you won't see Avengers vs. X-Men on a movie poster anytime soon, Bendis promises. "If you want to see it, come look what comics does because there are things we do better than anybody. And this is one of them."

And a few more details from Marvel's site:

This April, The Avengers and the X-Men—the two most popular franchises in comics history—go to war! Marvel is proud to announce AVENGERS VS X-MEN, a landmark 12-issue pop culture event bringing together the world’s greatest super heroes—Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Magneto and more—for an unforgettable battle beginning in April 2012.

AVENGERS VS X-MEN is written by a team of the top-selling authors in the comic book industry today: Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron, Jonathan Hickman, Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction. This unprecedented assembly of acclaimed writers is joined by a trio of the industry’s superstar artists: John Romita Jr., Olivier Coipel and Adam Kubert.

The Avengers and X-Men have learned that the all-powerful embodiment of both death and rebirth known as the Phoenix Force is on a crash course for Earth…and it needs a new host to unleash its immeasurable power. But what is the shocking decision tied to the Phoenix’s return that will pit the Avengers against the X-Men? And when good friends become bitter enemies, what does this mean for the future of the Marvel Universe?

Shipping twice monthly, this epic 12-issue limited series will be available in comic stores and on the Marvel Comics app on the same day—additionally, each print issue of AVENGERS VS X-MEN includes a code for a free digital copy of the issue on the Marvel Comics app at no additional cost to fans or retailers.

...

Plus, for the first time ever, fans can watch and take part in the groundbreaking AVENGERS VS X-MEN Live Kickoff beginning at 3:00pm ET, Wednesday, December 7, on Marvel.com and http://new.livestream.com/marveluniverse. A unique event produced in collaboration with Livestream.com’s cutting edge streaming services and the Hangout functionality provided by Google+, we’re bringing the writers and editors of AvX directly to the fans. Make sure to follow Marvel on Google+ as five lucky fans will be chosen to join in on the AvX hangout with their favorite writers and editors! Even if you’re not part of the Hangout, your questions can still be answered via Facebook and Twitter. using hashtag #AvX—just make sure to send in your questions before the event ends!

You’ve heard It’s Coming—and this April the War Is Here in AVENGERS VS X-MEN #1! All your favorite super heroes enter—and only one team will emerge victorious!

EDIT: Missed this at first, but USA Today has a second article with some significant additional details, which provide a good indication of just how AvX is connected to Children's Crusade. CC #9 had better actually ship in February!

Avengers vs. X-Men is a social experiment for its creators, too. A departure from recent Marvel events such as Fear Itself,Secret Invasion and Civil War, the series is scripted by a different writer from issue to issue, and artists John Romita Jr., Olivier Coipel and Adam Kubert will each illustrate one four-issue "act."

And the prologue issue, drawn by Frank Cho, features stories starring two pivotal characters in Avengers vs. X-Men.

Bendis takes on the Scarlet Witch, and for good reason: He was the Avengers writer when the mutant heroine, after being driven insane and thinking that her fellow Avengers took her children, lost control of her magical powers. She became responsible for one of the group's darkest days, when Avengers Mansion fell to its doom along with some of her teammates.

She's been off the table for the last few years — "I'm primarily to blame for that," Bendis quips — but Scarlet Witch came back in a big way in the recent Avengers: The Children's Crusade miniseries.

"She's been on a road of almost impossible-to-perceive redemption over the last few years and now is going to come face-to-face with the Avengers," Bendis says.

Aaron pens the other story in the prologue focusing on Hope Summers, the first mutant born after the Scarlet Witch de-powered all but 198 members of the mutant population worldwide.

Fraction likens her to John Connor from The Terminator: Hope's been told her entire life that she's very important to the future by people who think she's more than just a little girl. "Some people treat her as though she's a messiah, some people treat her as though she's a monster, and really she's just like any 17-year-old kid."

The prevailing theory among mutants is that she will be the next host of the Phoenix Force when it comes, and the fact that she has green eyes and red hair like the most famous Phoenix of them all, the late X-Man Jean Grey, causes some to feel she may even be Jean Grey reincarnated.

Hope and the Scarlet Witch will finally cross paths, though, because the Phoenix Force is coming and it's what kicks off the conflict in the first issue of Avengers vs. X-Men.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

Bendis....and....Aaron?

Uh oh. This has Michael Mann/David Milch written all over it.

 

[Urban Scholar]

Ok now this is an event I'll follow. I often tell myself hey this sounds interesting! I'll follow it! Then I don't. The return of the Phoenix sounds like a good enough reason for me to see the fight.

 

[Penguin]

Sold!
Bought!
Day 0!

Whatever cliche you want to use, I'm there with bells on!

 

[bangai-o]

omg its like a Civil War!

 

[Pie and Beans]

boiling down the event crossovers just to ____ vs _____ is at least being honest I guess. Still feels a bit like a 'how low can you go?' moment.

 

[ReturnOfTheRAT]

Would this be available on the Kindle or would I have to go the iPad route?

 

[Father_Brain]

Bendis....and....Aaron?

Uh oh. This has Michael Mann/David Milch written all over it.

I know. I would be vastly more excited if the creative team were Aaron/Gillen/Hickman on the writing side, but right now, I'm looking forward to the X-book tie-ins more than I am to the main series. At least Gillen should be getting some juicy Generation Hope scenes to write.

Also of note - key lead-in books to this are supposed to be Avengers: X-Sanction (from the dubious pen of Jeph Loeb and featuring the return of Cable, #1 of which ships Dec. 14) and the ending of Avengers: Children's Crusade (though #8 is now scheduled to ship Dec. 28, meaning that the last issue might not ship before AvX #0 in March).

 

[bangai-o]

Would this be available on the Kindle or would I have to go the iPad route?

you would go the comixology route.

 

[Deadly]

Wonder where Wolverine's side goes in this, kinda looks like he's sticking with the Avengers.

 

[DR2K]

Get rid of the shitty Hope Summers and bring Jean back already.

 

[Parallax Scroll]

is wolverine gonna stand in the middle and claw guys on both sides?

 

[Urban Scholar]

Is Spidey going in on Mags? I really can't tell on that splash page

 

[ep85]

Wonder where Wolverine's side goes in this, kinda looks like he's sticking with the Avengers.

This looks like Cyclop's X-Men so I'm pretty sure Beast and Wolverine are on the Avengers side.

Wonder which side is Storm on..

Edit: Nvm it looks like she's attacking Iron Man so I guess she's on the X-men side.

 

[SpeedingUptoStop]

Seems like they really shoulda talked this one out before things escalated.

 

[parrotbeak]

Makes me want to dig out my old issues of this:

Actually, I wonder if I still have them.

 

[bangai-o]

WHOS SIDE WILL HE/SHE CHOOSE?

 

[MightyKAC]

Bendis....and....Aaron?

Uh oh. This has Michael Mann/David Milch written all over it.

I've been meaning to ask this for a while now and this seems to be as good a time as any.

Why do people hate Bendis so much?

I've been reading his work for about a decade now and I still don't get why folks think he's so bad.

 

[ReturnOfTheRAT]

you would go the comixology route.

Ok then. Thank you.

 

[FoneBone]

I've been meaning to ask this and this seems to be as good a time as any.

Why do people hate Bendis so much?

I've been reading his work for about a decade now and I still don't get why folks think he's so bad.

He's (often) good at dialogue, but not very good at plotting - the endings of his stories are often criticized in particular, and for good reason. And he needs to let somebody else take over on Avengers already.

 

[Spike Spiegel]

Bendis will never live down his style of writing dialogue, that's why.

And this event definitely excites me.

 

[Toki767]

Who is part of the Avengers/X-Men now?

 

[Orin GA]

So is wolverine gonna fight his ownself?

 

[distantmantra]

Wonder where Wolverine's side goes in this, kinda looks like he's sticking with the Avengers.

Cyclops, Wolverine, Magneto and the other X-Men want to protect her and prepare her if she's to be the new Phoenix. Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man and their fellow Avengers want her handed over to them so they can figure out what to do with her and keep the world safe from a potentially fiery fate.

I wonder if this will end up reuniting the factions?

 

[Father_Brain]

He's (often) good at dialogue, but not very good at plotting - the endings of his stories are often criticized in particular, and for good reason. And he needs to let somebody else take over on Avengers already.

Also, he has a cavalier disregard for continuity and (more importantly) past characterization of the characters he takes on from other writers.

 

[Measley]

Is that Jimmy Cheung's artwork?

Damn, I wish they'd put him on a steady book. Love his stuff.

Anyway, Magneto, Colossus, White Queen, and Storm under Cyclops' leadership equals instant X-Men victory.

 

[Hero]

Man it's so cool that this past year we had Schism which the X-men wound up being divided and now next year's event looks like they're uniting again to fight the Avengers over something not worth fighting over.

 

[dabig2]

I'm definitely getting some House of M/Scarlet Witch vibes from this.

Anyways, should be interesting. Might read a comic book for the first time in nearly a year. Avengers still need some damn telepaths on their team.

 

[Father_Brain]

I wonder if this will end up reuniting the factions?

That quote is from USA Today, not Marvel PR, so it's possible that the writer wasn't quite aware of the Regenesis status quo. I can't see the split being reversed that fast.

Damn, I wish they'd put him on a steady book. Love his stuff.

I'm pretty sure that the delays on Children's Crusade are only partially due to Heinberg's tendencies as a scripter. I don't think there's any way that Cheung could do an ongoing book.

 

[Nesotenso]

Also, he has a cavalier disregard for continuity and (more importantly) past characterization of the characters he takes on from other writers.

This, and the fact that his dialogue can suck so much. His team books suffer the most because he writes everyone with the same voice and fails to make them distinct.

Coming to the event itself, it is predictable how the sides will eventually come to some understanding, but it is a simple premise which doesn't require much thought so I like it.

 

[ultron87]

So who is the heaviest hitter these days on either of those teams? Thor, Red Hulk, or Colossusnaught? Or someone else I'm not thinking of?

 

[mightynine]

Next year, will it be this?

 

[bengraven]

For once I can't be cynical about Marvel news.

This actually might be a cool idea.

 

[Parallax Scroll]

hopefully they resolve their differences before phoenix gets 5 bars

 

[the_log_ride]

I'm game. Schism was enjoyable, and this one looks fun, too.

 

[FoneBone]

This, and the fact that his dialogue can suck so much. His team books suffer the most because he writes everyone wit the same voice and fails to make them distinct.

There was this great Photoshop of one of the recent Avengers issues where dialogue was swapped between various characters, and it was utterly impossible to tell which was the original version.

 

[parrotbeak]

Next year, will it be this?

http://i.minus.com/ibuq00A0rV5w09.jpg

Then this!

 

[krypt0nian]

I'm pretty sure that the delays on Children's Crusade are only partially due to Heinberg's tendencies as a scripter. I don't think there's any way that Cheung could do an ongoing book.

Scion from Crossgen, and it was brilliant. Far better than Civil War 2.1.



Please let this be Bendis' swan song for the Avengers and give it to someone who still cares.

 

[Rorschach]

"It's one of those legendary ideas: What if the Avengers fought the X-Men? It doesn't get much easier to describe than that,"

Sigh.

 

[Father_Brain]

Missed this at first, but USA Today has a second article with some significant additional details, which provide a good indication of just how AvX is connected to Children's Crusade. CC #9 had better actually ship in February!

Avengers vs. X-Men is a social experiment for its creators, too. A departure from recent Marvel events such as Fear Itself,Secret Invasion and Civil War, the series is scripted by a different writer from issue to issue, and artists John Romita Jr., Olivier Coipel and Adam Kubert will each illustrate one four-issue "act."

And the prologue issue, drawn by Frank Cho, features stories starring two pivotal characters in Avengers vs. X-Men.

Bendis takes on the Scarlet Witch, and for good reason: He was the Avengers writer when the mutant heroine, after being driven insane and thinking that her fellow Avengers took her children, lost control of her magical powers. She became responsible for one of the group's darkest days, when Avengers Mansion fell to its doom along with some of her teammates.

She's been off the table for the last few years — "I'm primarily to blame for that," Bendis quips — but Scarlet Witch came back in a big way in the recent Avengers: The Children's Crusade miniseries.

"She's been on a road of almost impossible-to-perceive redemption over the last few years and now is going to come face-to-face with the Avengers," Bendis says.

Aaron pens the other story in the prologue focusing on Hope Summers, the first mutant born after the Scarlet Witch de-powered all but 198 members of the mutant population worldwide.

Fraction likens her to John Connor from The Terminator: Hope's been told her entire life that she's very important to the future by people who think she's more than just a little girl. "Some people treat her as though she's a messiah, some people treat her as though she's a monster, and really she's just like any 17-year-old kid."

The prevailing theory among mutants is that she will be the next host of the Phoenix Force when it comes, and the fact that she has green eyes and red hair like the most famous Phoenix of them all, the late X-Man Jean Grey, causes some to feel she may even be Jean Grey reincarnated.

Hope and the Scarlet Witch will finally cross paths, though, because the Phoenix Force is coming and it's what kicks off the conflict in the first issue of Avengers vs. X-Men.

 

[erlim]

Then this!

what a boss.

 

[LuCkymoON]

I knew beast and Wolverine would be on the side of the Avengers.

 

[Slayven]

Finally the greatest leaders in the Marvel Universe go toe to toe. What I been smashing for!!!

 

[~Devil Trigger~]

Wolvy's with Avengers?

man, when you hate Cyclopes...

 

[Slayven]

Kind of unfair to have Spidey in on it, he has soloed the X-men numerous times.

 

[ilMikhail]

Who is part of the Avengers/X-Men now?

Avengers (Main Team):

- Cap America
- Hawkeye
- Protector
- Iron Man
- Red Hulk
- Spider Woman
- Storm
- Vision
- Quake

New Avengers :

- Luke Cage
- Spider Man
- Wolverine
- Iron Fist
- Mockingbird
- Ms Marvel
- Power Woman
- The Thing
- Dr. Strange
- Daredevil


X Men (Cyclops Team) :

- Cyclops
- Emma frost
- Magneto
- Colossus
- Magik
- Psylocke
- Domino
- Storm
- Warpath
- Sebastian shaw
- Hope Summers
- Nate grey
- Sunspot
- Warlock
- Moonstar
- Namor

 

[parrotbeak]

I'm super out of Marvel for the past 20 years but how did Hellfire Club members end up with the X-Men?

 

[Slayven]

I'm super out of Marvel for the past 20 years but how did Hellfire Club members end up with the X-Men?

Wow you have been out. White Queen wanted to redeem herself, so Prof X had her and Banshee create Generation X. That blew up and she fell into some Summer's wang and now they are better characters for it. Fuck Jean Grey

 

[thechristoph]

I wonder which side that big car is on?

 

[Father_Brain]

Scion from Crossgen, and it was brilliant. Far better than Civil War 2.1.

That was a number of years ago, and it might not be possible for Cheung to draw as fast as he used to. IIRC, the Illuminati miniseries ran a few months late, and that was a bimonthly book written by Bendis, who's never been known for lateness with his scripts.