One Epic Avengers Vs. X-Men Event Completely Derailed the Biggest Mutant Story Ever Told

The Avengers and the X-Men are Marvel’s two biggest modern superstar teams, long since passing the Fantastic Four in relevance and popularity (curiously enough, right now, Marvel’s First Family’s comic is better than either of theirs, though). Over the years, both teams have starred in some blockbuster comics and have had numerous big crossovers, stretching back to their first Silver Age brawl (go look up X-Men (Vol. 1) #9; that cover is Kirby madness that shouldn’t work but shines). The modern era of comics has seen them trade the top spot at Marvel numerous times and one of the House of Ideas’ biggest story of the ’10s was Avengers vs. X-Men.

The two teams ended up at each other’s throats when it was discovered the Phoenix Force was coming to Earth, leading to a war that saw the rise of the Phoenix Five and Cyclops becoming the latest Dark Phoenix. This story was basically a cash-in event for 2012’s The Avengers, showing the team in the best possible light and basically destroying everything that the X-Men had been building since the end of House of M. The Decimation Era and Utopia Eras were two of the richest eras in the group’s history. They presented readers with one of the most ambitious X-Men stories ever, one that was ruined by 2012’s biggest crossover.

House of M Destroying the Mutant Race Was the Beginning of the X-Men’s Biggest Story Ever

X-Men fans have lot of opinions on Scarlet Witch de-powering the mutant race in 2005, but it’s impossible to deny that the team started going in some cool new directions. The immediate aftermath of M-Day wasn’t amazing, but once the team left the destroyed X-Mansion in 2007 and went to San Francisco, things picked up. Hope Summers had been born in “Messiah Complex”, the first mutant since M-Day, and things suddenly got even more complex and violent.

There were 198 known mutants on the planet. M-Day hadn’t just affected Earth-616, with other worlds of mutants also de-powered. Cable was jumping through time with Hope, on the run from Bishop, and the X-Men would soon battle against Norman Osborn’s Dark Avengers and establish Utopia, an island for the minuscule remnants of the mutant race. There was an energy to the books at the time, with the Hope Summers plot continuing through stories like “Messiah War” and Cable (Vol. 2), with its culmination coming in “Second Coming” as she helped the X-Men stop the attack on Utopia by Bastion and his Prime Sentinels.

Hope Summers was joined by the Five Lights, new mutants who had also popped up, and was being built into the next big mutant character, something that Avengers vs. X-Men, at first at least, seemed to play into. The book’s zero issue featured her and Scarlet Witch, two characters who would go on to play the biggest role in the book’s resolution. From the beginning of the story, Hope was one of the most important characters, culminating in her getting the Phoenix Force and working with Scarlet Witch to re-power the mutant race.

Then Hope was gone. The ending of the story saw her decide to go out there and find her destiny, which is a cool ending if Marvel was planning on putting out a solo book following her through her new adventures, not so much if they aren’t going to do anything with her. Instead, she was just put on the shelf so the original five X-Men could be brought to the present. They were suddenly the big teen mutant focus and Hope went the way of the dodo until the Krakoa Era made her important again… and then ended by shunting her away to the White Hot Room of the Phoenix, where we’ll almost certainly not see again her for years.

Avengers vs. X-Men Ruined the X-Men’s Hope

Hope Summers, from the beginning, was a massive deal. She became the focus of one of the most interesting eras of the X-Men’s history. The Utopia Era could be grimdark at times, which hurt it, but it was also a huge change from the status quo fans were used to and was quite exciting. Hope was a great character and it honestly felt like they were going to push her as some kind of Jean Grey replacement (it would later be revealed that a time-traveling Jean used the Phoenix Force to impregnate Hope’s mother, bringing that full circle in a way) and fans were into it. Even her ending in AvX led readers to think she’d go on to bigger and better things.

However, it wouldn’t be until ten years after AvX that we’d get Hope back and for the last several years of the Krakoa Era, she was fantastic. However, it made readers wish that maybe her original story, the one that had made her popular and important, had ended a different way. Marvel created her to be the next big thing and then packed her away for years before making her important again and then packing her away again. AvX had a lot to answer for and messing up Hope is a major part of that.

What do you think of Hope Summers? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!

10 Best X-Men Stories for Non-X-Men Fans