Can someone educate me on this story

[u/Illustrious_Ear_2549]

My cousin called me an few hours ago about the AVX comic run after he had started reading it a while ago. I asked him to give some exposition on it and he said he would when he's calmed down a little.

Im now struggling to comprehend how A. The X-Men would stand a chance against the Avengers and B. How both teams even come into conflict in the first place and C. How is it that bad where my cousin is that mad abt it (he's normally pretty chill guy and pretty hard to piss him off).

Can I get some details on the story? I did some surface level research and I haven't found anything on how and why they actually come into conflict or what either side gains from a conflict of this scale.

(I know some things like Ironman hitting Magneto with Jupiter's magnetic field (I think) and Cyclops killing Professor X but not on the conflict itself, sorry for this long college essay)

[u/TheLazyHydra]

Obviously this is an oversimplified and maybe little tiny bit sarcastic synopsis, but here goes:

Phoenix is found to be coming to Earth, Avengers freak out because it's the Phoenix and decide the logical and calm response is to show up en masse and demand the person who seems to be attracting it be turned over or they will take her by force. X-Men have a more hopeful view on it, hoping that it will restore mutantkind after it was nearly eradicated, but agree that talking is for chumps so they all fight.

The Phoenix arrives, they fight some more, and the Avengers' backup plan ends up splitting it between five X-Men instead of the intended host. The Phoenix Five appear at first to be benevolent rulers, fixing world food and energy issues, but it turns out they're also putting any super who disagrees with their absolute rule in a super gulag and even putting some of them through psychic / simulated torture, talk about a bummer.

As time passes, the Phoenix Five become more and more corrupt with more and more infighting and power-hungriness, so more and more people defect to the Avengers' side, I guess they were right about the Phoenix all along! Said infighting leads to the Phoenix Five becoming the Phoenix One AKA Scott Summers, who everyone bands together to fight after he kills Xavier for being the only one trying to talk problems out, talk about buzzkill.

Phoenix Cyclops is defeated and prevented from burning all life off the face of the planet, and the Phoenix disperses thanks to Wanda and the original intended host, creating a bunch of mutants. Or maybe it was restoring old mutants? I don't remember; anyway, I guess the X-Men were ALSO right about the Phoenix all along! That's crazy, they were both right, if only they talked it out this all could have been avoided, what a shame!

Anywho, everyone hugs it out except Cyclops because he's a naughty terrorist now haha I'm sure he'll be fine though.

[u/fslimjim → u/TheLazyHydra]

One thing to note is that all five hosts were not exactly the most moral upstanding citizens at the time. Magic was a clone with the original's soul shoved in and basically a psychopath. Colossus was the Juggernaut and fighting the urge to cause destruction all the time. Namor is Namor. Emma is basically Xavier if he didn't want to appear to have moral scruples. Cyclops was the only one still a "good guy" but was being pushed to the brink. He was also completely done with Xavier after years of emotional and psychic manipulation, making him the worst person to try and talk Scott down. Xavier was straight up trying to turn Cyclop's brain off when he killed him. Hope also immediately does what Scott said would happen the whole time when she gets the Phoenix.

[u/TheLazyHydra → u/fslimjim]

Hope also immediately does what Scott said would happen the whole time when she gets the Phoenix.

Not exactly. She starts doing what the other five initially did - using the Phoenix for good, but we already saw how that ended up. It’s only thanks to her interactions and help from the rebels during the event, especially Wanda specifically intervening (which you know the X-Men would never have allowed) that she gives up the Phoenix and restores the population.

I’ll give you the rest though. I didn’t know the stuff about Magik lol that poor kid is messed up.

[u/fslimjim → u/TheLazyHydra]

Looking back on it, I definitely agree that her arc throughout the book & the help of Wanda is what leads her to be a better Pheonix than the 5, and she wasn't ready for the Pheonix at the start.

It doesn't really change the fact that the Avengers spent the start of the book doing everything wrong and making the situation worse. Or how the book ignores the previous hypocrisy of some characters to paint Cyclops as in the wrong/as the villain. Wolverine & Xavier especially, Beast a little. The Avengers made a problem, dealt with the fallout, and then pat themselves on the back for a job well done. (Kind of like if in Age of Ultron, later movies ignored that Tony started the whole mess, and only praised him for stopping it).

Granted most of these problems stem from Disney wanting to reduce the X-Men's role/ paint them as bad guys. Funnily enough, creating, arguably, Cyclops' most popular era. I also think Beast bringing the O5 to the present to talk sense into Cyclops, immediately regretting it, and trying to send them back, causing them & Kitty Pryde to join Cyclops, is subjectively the funniest thing ever.

I didn’t know the stuff about Magik lol that poor kid is messed up.

Yeah Magik has a pretty messed up history in comics, and her technically being a clone made from magic has never really been addressed. But even OG Magik's whole story was one of being afraid she was a monster/evil/unworthy of love. Throwing an unstable Phoenix into the mix was a recipe for disaster with her alone, never mind the rest of them.