Avengers vs X-Men: It's Coming

Avengers vs. X-Men

by Brian Michael Bendis, Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost

Seven action-packed tales to get you up to speed for the biggest comic event of 2012! Four teams - Avengers, X-Men, Young Avengers and X-Factor - all battle to determine who will hold the Scarlet Witch responsible for her crimes. Cyclops and Wolverine square off in the climax of the SCHISM event. Magneto gets caught on video murdering an anti-mutant group. Cable returns from the future with Hope and later tries to eliminate the Avengers from history!

COLLECTING: AVENGERS: THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE 7, X-MEN: SCHISM 5, MAGNETO: NOT A HERO 1, XMEN: SECOND COMING 1, HOUSE OF M 8, X-SANCTION 1, material from POINT ONE 1

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, X Men, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book

144 pages, Paperback

First published April 25, 2012

About the author

A comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim (including five Eisner Awards) and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics. For over eight years Bendis’s books have consistently sat in the top five best sellers on the nationwide comic and graphic novel sales charts.

Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics' superhero books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man.

Bendis first entered the comic world with the "Jinx" line of crime comics in 1995. This line has spawned the graphic novels Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso (with Marc Andreyko), and Total Sell Out. Bendis is writing the film version of Jinx for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to star and produce.

Bendis’s other projects include the Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Award-nominated Powers (with Michael Avon Oeming) originally from Image Comics, now published by Marvel's new creator-owned imprint Icon Comics, and the Hollywood tell-all Fortune and Glory from Oni Press, both of which received an "A" from Entertainment Weekly.

Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since its best-selling launch, and has also written for Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, as well as every issue of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate Origin and Ultimate Six.

Brian is currently helming a renaissance for Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise by writing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers along with the successful ‘event’ projects House Of M, Secret War, and this summer’s Secret Invasion.

He has also previously done work on Daredevil, Alias, and The Pulse.

Reviews

[Sonic · Rating 2 out of 5]

I probably gave all or most of this material at least 3 stars THE FIRST TIME I read and reviewed it, but since this was one big fat RE-PRINT, I feel a measly 2 stars is appropriate.

Glad I got this from the library is all I can say.

[Colleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh, it’s a mishmash of related(?) stories tied together by the thinnest of threads.

[Jay DeMoir · Rating 3 out of 5]

so this was interesting, yet weird. it's a mishmatched collection of related(?) stories around the theme of the 2 teams fighting

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

Essentially, this is a mismatched collection of teaser titles that came just before the Avengers vs. X-Men got started properly. All of them are parts of larger arcs that eventually fed into the whole huge Avengers vs. X-Men battle. Individually, none of them stand up well on their own. Few, in fact, make any sense in isolation.

If you can get hold of it at the library, it's worth looking at it to reread the end of the House of M storyline (which I'm kind of wanting to reread now). I vaguely remembered it, but I did appreciate the refresher. Otherwise, It's Coming is only worth it for the completist, and that only so this hypothetical individual can jot down the arc-titles of all the other books in order to go find out where those are collected in their entirety, always assuming they are collected in full somewhere.

The review, plus links, is on Bookwyrme's Lair, home of lots of other reviews, photographs, link lists of interesting and fun miscellany, and other good stuff.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of a disjointed mess. These stories don't seem to have much to do with each other. Maybe the payoff will come when the actual series itself starts showing up in collected volumes?

[Will Robinson Jr. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing speacial here. It is just your usual lead up to a grand Marvel event comic. However I did really like the highlights from the House of M story arc and the Young Avengers stuff.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a few others have already said this is a collection of oneshots that were already available in other volumes. Just a few were new to me.

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Seven stories showing the build-up to the conflict between the Avengers and X-Men.
The Scarlet Witch de-powered the majority of the world's mutants, pushing the survivors to take increasingly desperate measures to ensure the continuation of mutantkind. Cyclops of the X-Men looks to the young girl Hope, the only mutant born since M-Day as the salvation of his people. However, the increased tensions between mutants and humanity drives a wedge between the former allies on the Avengers and X-Men teams.

There is some really good writing on display in this book, with most of the stories presented being well-scripted, beautifully illustrated and engaging.

The problem is that each of these seven stories is pulled out of a larger story arc of its own. What they means is that here we just get a bunch of disparate comic issues which drop us into the middle of an already-ongoing story and then leave us hanging just as they get interesting.

As a recap of all of the poignant backstory and building tensions which lead the titular teams into conflict, this works fairly well. As an actual reading experience in and of itself, it leaves a lot to be desired.

* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *

[Craig · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a confusing collection of stories. It's like teasers for other series.

[Valerie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Huge X-Men fan, but this jumped around way too much to enjoy it.

[Madeline Rossell · Rating 2 out of 5]

... what's going on?

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was just ok for me. Artwork is excellent and I always enjoy time spend with these characters...but this collection doesn't really do much for me a whole. It's not one I see myself reading again.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of key single issues from several X-Men and Avengers titles - there's no original material here. That said it is a decent summary of those books which primes the reader who doesn't want to read these books in order to enjoy the upcoming X-Men Vs Avengers book. There are single issues from each of the following books: -

- House of M (which sets up the Mutant "Drought" where there were no more mutants thanks to Scarlet Witch)
- Second Coming (where Hope appears, the first mutant on Earth for years)
- Schism (where the X-Men split between two ideological camps, one led by Cyclops, the other by Wolverine)
- The Children's Crusade (where Scarlet Witch attempts to undo the damage done on M-Day leading to a new ultra-powerful Doctor Doom)
- Magneto: Not a Hero (someone seems to be setting up the newly-good Magneto as the old evil Magneto - but who?)
- X-Sanction (Cable travels back to destroy the Avengers to stop them destroying his step-daughter Hope who ends up saving the world)
- Point One (the Phoenix is headed to Earth)

[Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Public library copy. A mixed bag of older stories through the years of different titles telling tales of Avengers and X-Men. Unfortunately, much of what was in the book I'd already read before and none of the stories really offered anything about Marvel's current epic cross-over event AvX. Except, I guess Jean Grey is coming back. For like the billionth time. There's a lot of top talent on these books, but there's nothing to connect one story after the other so any new reader is going to either have a field day and mine back issues or become confused about abandon the whole thing. I'm betting new readers would choose the latter over the former.

[Ian Williamson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not exactly what I was expecting....I thought this was a prequel to the avengers vs xmen story. In a way it is, it's important stories that link into the crossover and helped shape it. The issues here are tasters and a good way for Marvel to try to get new readers to try different titles. I'd read a couple of the stories in this volume and after reading some I wouldn't mind reading some of the others. I wouldn't recommend to everyone as I can imagine it's quite a frustrating read for some, only reading part of the story and not the whole.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

This series was okay but it was a random collection of issues in support of the upcoming Avengers Vs X-men series and was kinda scattered and not a coherent collection. It jumped around to different groups and characters. without some background in the current titles, this leaves a reader wondering what is going on. There are about 8 issues collected and they support each other but do not tell a continuous story.

[Terry Collins · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pointless collection of one-shots and stories taken out of sequence as a set-up for the big Avengers vs. X-Men war that rises and falls on the creative teams involved. Thirteen creators are credited on the cover alone! There's no real story here so much as a series of tales that definitely do NOT stand alone. A big ol' mess that makes even the weaker sections of the Marvel Civil War titles look good.

[Susan Rodgers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved all the stories in here, but they weren't complete. I've got a lot of other issues to go pick up in order to fill in the gaps from what I've missed. However, I'm excited to read Avengers vs. X-men so it's good that I've been prepped. I'll definitely be reading ALL of those instead of jumping around.

[Robert Wright · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit of a mixed bag of stories, ostensibly to fill in the back-story leading to the giant crossover.

Having not read said crossover yet, it's hard to say whether it does a good job at that.

Still, some fun stories here. Just doesn't stand alone or make sense as a collection at this point.

Rating/review may be changed once I make it through the epic.

[Aaron Swensen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The individual stories I'd rate higher than 3 but they lacked much context as a collection. The collection as a whole gets inly 2 stars because it's not it doesn't stand well on its own. It works OK as a "previously on...". Definitely not required reading for AvX, but a way to get you up to speed on the events leading up to it.

[Jamie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The stories themselves are all good, but the two-star rating comes from making me buy material I've already read elsewhere. If you're at all familiar with events in the Marvel Universe over the last ten years, you don't need this to get into an enjoy the action of the main Avengers vs. X-Men title. However, if you haven't read a Marvel comic over the past decade, then yes, read this first.

[Kassie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The stories themselves are good but I would have preferred paying more for more stories or getting a full arc. The book is a bunch of pieces of various arcs that lead up to Avengers vs X-Men and it gets really confusing trying to keep every arc straight. Two stars because the art is good but it's too confusing to get the point of any arc across.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book collects 7 issues from a variety of X-Men and Avengers series, and I assume is setting up further the conflict that will be part of the Avengers vs. X-Men series. It contains issues from House of M, Avengers: The Children's Crusade, and Avengers: X-Sanction, all of which I just read, so really there were only 4 new stories for me. I'll be interested to see where this all goes...

[Todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid for what it is. Key issues from different miniseries that will help prime you for AvX in case it's been a while since you read them.

Worth checking out from the library or tracking down all the trades for each of the presented stories to read them in their glory. I'm going to have to track down Magneto because I missed that story line along the way.

[Alyssa Greatbanks · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although The Avengers vs The X-Men story seemed to be interesting, this book only had the first issue of many different series's, so you really couldn't tell, and you didn't get a whole lot of story from each of them, which seemed to be mostly un-related to each other.

[Cyborg · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a perfect example of what I dislike about super hero comics: stories stretched across multiple titles, no common thread or plot, no continuation of story. This was a thrown together collection of single issues that was kind of a waste of time.

[Rosa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This volume pulled one issue from several of the story lines that led up to A vs X. I felt myself getting frustrated b/c I wanted to finish those individual story lines. I feel like I could have skipped this.

[Sadie-Jane Huff · Rating 2 out of 5]

individually they are brilliant. I enjoyed them all. reading them together I felt just confused the reader.. The 2 stars are for how amazing the issues are on their own. wow.. This as a compilation just doesn't do it for me. oh wells..

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Be warned, this isn't an actual story arc leading into A vs X, it's more like a story sampler from multiple different events (children's crusade, House of M ending, Mutant Messiah) encouraging you to Get The Whole Thing (I remained unmoved). A waste of time.

[Bear · Rating 3 out of 5]

No dedication, alas. Fun read, but it's simply a collection of stories where the paths of the X-Men cross with that of the Avengers and therefore is a bit of a jumble. It really made me want all the in-between stories, too...so now I have to find them so it makes more sense.