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AVENGERS VS. X-MEN #9

• Their numbers dwindling, the Avengers stage a daring raid on the X-Men’s prison to rescue their captive members—and you won’t believe where it is!

• Alliances begin to change as the nature of the Phoenix becomes apparent!

• And in the end, it all comes down to Spider-Man!

Story by Jason Aaron
Art by Adam Kubert & John Dell
Colors by Laura Martin & Larry Molinar
Letters by Chris Eliopoulos
Cover by Jim Cheung, Mark Morales, Justin Ponsor, Adam Kubert, Justin Ponsor, Ryan Stegman, & Matt Wilson

Price: $3.99
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 0.8%

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Comments

  1. Avatar photo misterckent says:
    July 30, 2012 at 2:17 pm

    This has been a lot of fun. I hope Spidey gets to use some of his smarts!

  2. Avatar photo Andrew Gaboury says:
    July 30, 2012 at 2:27 pm

    I dropped off a few issues back but this sounds so much like Civil War. Wasn’t that a lot about Spiderman too?

  3. Avatar photo CaseyJustice says:
    July 30, 2012 at 2:37 pm

    Last two issues were not great. Wondering if I wanna hang on…

  4. Avatar photo Zeppo says:
    July 30, 2012 at 2:53 pm

    I heard good things so I caught up, really enjoyed the first 6, the last two issues have been terrible.

    I’m hoping Aaron can turn it around. I think he has a great handle on Spider-man, better than anyone else at Marvel at the moment, so this should be good (if the cover matches the inside).

  5. Avatar photo Mono0521 says:
    July 30, 2012 at 3:04 pm

    Getting this just for the cover alone. Can wait for AvsX is over.

  6. Avatar photo thehungrywolf says:
    July 30, 2012 at 3:23 pm

    Marvel seems to love their hero vs. hero events, except they can’t help but make one side completely and utterly Evil, which defeats the purpose of them being heroes in the first place.
    Even worse in AvX is that they can’t even have the “cool” X-men be on Cyclops’ side. No, all the cool X-men are either with the Avengers (see: Wolverine, Beast) or defecting (see: Rogue, Xavier) or starting to have doubts (see: Storm, Psylocke).
    Let me put my money where my mouth is: I’m not gonna buy this.

    • fo sho says:
      July 30, 2012 at 8:13 pm

      Completely agree with this comment. What’s the point if you’re just gonna make the Phoenix X-Men act like villains? The Hickman issue was the last one that actually explored the question of why were the Avengers attacking the X-Men at that time if the X-Men were just performing good acts for the world.

    • Avatar photo KenOchalek says:
      July 30, 2012 at 8:30 pm

      @fo sho: But to be fair, 4 of the 5 Phoenix X-Men have had some serious darkness in their pasts. Magik has constantly struggled with the Darkchild side of herself, Collosus was possessed by Cytorrak when the Phoenix took over, Namor hasn’t always been a sweetie, and Emma’s hero turn always feels pretty tenuous.

      That was kind of the big issue when Scott created the Extinction team… these are the guys people were a little scared of even before they had a near-omnipotent cosmic entity running their collective shows.

      And even though he gets played as the Proto-X-Man and Natural Leader Dude, Cyclops has had a lot of crazy stuff happen to him. He’s a master of repression.

    • Avatar photo RobotZombie says:
      July 30, 2012 at 10:18 pm

      I hate that Colossus is being made into a villain in this.
      What made Colossus such a great character is that he is a gentle artist.
      Turning him into the new Juggernaut and then making him into one of the Phoenix Facists just makes him boring.

    • Avatar photo KenOchalek says:
      August 2, 2012 at 9:15 am

      You know, the more I think about it, the less I weight I think the “AvX = hero vs hero = Civil War” point of view holds.

      I recently finished reading the entire run of Uncanny X-Men (it took a long time).

      To the reader, the X-men are super-heroes. No doubt. But in the context of the Marvel Universe I think that’s a tougher claim to make. By and large, the X-Men have not spent a lot of time as public super-heroes and the few times they’ve been out in public, they often get misunderstood or mistaken for the bad guys they’re fighting.

      Other than the first couple X-Factor teams, Morrison’s X-Corps concept, Joss Whedon’s first Astonishing arc (not even the whole run), and a bit of the recent San Francisco stuff, the X-Men have primarily only dealt with direct threats to themselves or other mutants.

      And other than a few connections between the A-listers of both teams (Wolverine, Storm, Beast, Cyclops, and Cap, Iron Man, Thor, Black Panther), I think many of the Avengers don’t really know any of the X-Men. How would Hawkeye or She-Hulk know they ought to trust Gambit or Psylocke? How would Cannonball know that the Falcon is a nice guy?

  7. Avatar photo Neeks says:
    July 30, 2012 at 4:48 pm

    Hey this issue has got to be way better then the last two its Jason Aaron writing Spidey! Im looking forward to it

  8. Avatar photo tripleneck (@tripleneck) says:
    July 30, 2012 at 5:06 pm

    Hey Spidey’s on the cover! I couldn’t care less about AvX and haven’t bought any of the other issues, but I like Spidey. Maybe I’ll buy this just because Spidey’s in it. Ohhhh, I see what you did there Marvel. Ok, I’ll flip through this in my LCS and see how many pages have Spidey. If it’s alot, I just might buy it.

    • Avatar photo tripleneck (@tripleneck) says:
      August 2, 2012 at 1:57 am

      Ok, I read through this at my LCS and Spidey’s not in it *enough* for me to hand over 4 plus tax so I didn’t buy it. But, I am concerned enough to come back in two weeks to see what happens. But, I’ll just be skimming then, too.

  9. Avatar photo diebenny says:
    July 31, 2012 at 8:45 am

    I’ve been into this from the start, but yea, everyone is right: Last two issues were pretty blech. Let’s get back on track and close this baby down y’all! Get it done and over with and let’s move on. I think we learned our lesson: Let Hickman write the books. Or the opposite: Don’t let Fraction or Bendis write the books. Speaking of Fraction, I’m off to the Hawkeye #1 thread to praise David Aja! Later Days.

  10. Avatar photo livinglegend629@gmail.com says:
    July 31, 2012 at 3:29 pm

    I really hope they stop having some kind of big event like this for a good while (I’m talking about at least 12 months). If you go back and try to read through all of New Avengers, for example, you get maybe 9 – 10 issues of a progressing story and then BAM some kind of event is shoe-horned in. Look at new avengers, secret avengers and avengers currently, plenty of people I know that were following those books dropped them as soon as the AVX event took over. It just kills the momentum of so many books. (Don’t even get me started on Fear Itself and its billion crossover and one shot books)

    • Avatar photo Conor Kilpatrick">Conor Kilpatrick (@cskilpatrick) says:
      July 31, 2012 at 3:33 pm

      Following similar complaints from fans, Marvel took a year off from line-wise events between SIEGE and FEAR ITSELF and their line-wide sales tanked. So they brought back events and sales went back up.

    • Avatar photo KenOchalek says:
      July 31, 2012 at 3:52 pm

      In other words and too varying extents, comic book fans are their own archnemeses.

    • Avatar photo livinglegend629@gmail.com says:
      July 31, 2012 at 5:29 pm

      Yea and everytime I look at the sales #’s for the last few months, AvX ends up being at the top spots for sales so like Kenochalek said, we seem to do this to ourselves. Still sucks ass.

    • Avatar photo smo5000 says:
      August 1, 2012 at 8:45 am

      funny, lots of people I know picked those books up because of the AvX tie-in.

    • Avatar photo Smasher says:
      August 1, 2012 at 4:05 pm

      I’d really like for Marvel to attempt a 2 year event.
      Like have AvX with a change in the status quo but with unresolved plot lines that would build and get resolved in an AvX 2 event the following summer.

  11. Avatar photo saiyanzzrage says:
    July 31, 2012 at 4:09 pm

    Is this over yet?

  12. Avatar photo koryrosh says:
    August 1, 2012 at 2:29 pm

    Aaron writes Spider Man well.

  13. Avatar photo jonnyd83 says:
    August 1, 2012 at 3:09 pm

    I really like this issue a lot. After the last two issue I was think it was going to be another Fear Its Self but now I have some hope hat this will end well.

  14. Avatar photo LeviHunt15 says:
    August 1, 2012 at 3:26 pm

    Why are comic book fans always so negative? This series has been fun and this issue in particular was great, love Aaron writing Spidey.

    • Avatar photo Kamilo says:
      August 1, 2012 at 5:37 pm

      I think its partially the cool factor. Saying something is lame (especially something large and generally popular) naturally means that said person is better than that thing and the people who enjoy it. At the very least it says, “Hey, I’m smart/experienced enough to know that this is crap. Anyone who says otherwise (which is a lot considering the general sales figures for the series) is clearly dumber/less experienced/less sophisticated than I. *smug look of satisfaction knowing their supposedly better than several thousand people*” Basic Comicbook Guy worst-blank-ever mentality.

    • Avatar photo adrianrigter says:
      August 1, 2012 at 8:22 pm

      Or maybe people just don’t like a book. Just a thought.

    • Avatar photo LeviHunt15 says:
      August 2, 2012 at 1:52 am

      It’s fine for people not to like a book. Comic book fans (only the vocally minority perhaps) revel in shitting all over books though, particularly Marvel and DC. That’s much different than saying you don’t like it. Fanboys seem like they can only find happiness through negativity, cynicism, and sarcasm. It’s really frustrating. It’s not just this. It’s the New 52, and DC’s zero month, Marvel Now, etc.. I love independent comics as much as the next guy but a lot of comic fans seem to overcompensate for their indie love by acting like everything The Big Two put out is written with no effort and no care. It’s such a damaging attitude for so many fans of the industry to have. And the problem isn’t with people critiquing the material once it’s actually come out. The problem is that people have this attitude towards books that haven’t even come out yet and when the material comes out they read it with a cynical eye, looking for the bad rather than the good. It’s an attitude that says anyone who looks down on this industry is right.

    • Avatar photo LeviHunt15 says:
      August 2, 2012 at 2:03 am

      And I think Kamilo and KenOchalek both said things that I agree with but in a less rambling way. AvX as whole isn’t great and I’m certainly not trying to say that it is. It’s had great parts but also big problems. I’m just tired of people beating their hatred of it over everyone else’s head. Say what you want to say in and do it in a somewhat respectful manor (remember these are real life people making these comics and obviously, yes they’re doing it for the money, that’s why anyone does a job, but there’s also an artistic spark that led them to do these comics in the first place. These aren’t cold emotional robots programmed to take money out of your wallet.) And then just move on already.

    • Avatar photo LeviHunt15 says:
      August 2, 2012 at 2:04 am

      *manner*

  15. Avatar photo Zeppo says:
    August 1, 2012 at 3:27 pm

    Marvel if you want my money on a on going basis, put Jason Aaron on Spider-man.

    In this one issue, and his Astonishing Spider-man , he has shown a better understand of Spider-man than Dan Slott has in almost 100 issues. Wacker make it happen.

    My own critism was why not do the caption boxes the same as in Amazing to make it clear that it’s Peters thoughts

    • Avatar photo basedhockeygod says:
      August 1, 2012 at 3:36 pm

      Because at the beginning of the issue, I think that it wasn’t supposed to be obvious that it was Spider-Man. Although, I agree. I’d love to see Jason Aaron writing Spider-Man. He’s doing a really awesome job with Wolverine and the X-Men as well.

  16. loki2486 says:
    August 1, 2012 at 3:35 pm

    The whales!!

    Definitely the weirdest application of one’s omnipotence in a long time.

  17. Avatar photo cannibalskunk says:
    August 1, 2012 at 10:11 pm

    I’ve been pretty “that’s ok” for this entire series, but after redeeming all the digital codes I sat down and read the entire series so far and you know what? It’s actually pretty dang fun! I donno, maybe I have bad taste (I like to think not), but I have a hunch this is going to be looked back at more fondly than the general opinion while it was running.

    Anyway, looking forward to the last 3 issues!

    • Avatar photo cannibalskunk says:
      August 1, 2012 at 10:12 pm

      Also, say what you will about it, AvX is paced *way* better than Fear Itself was. It feels like they really took into consideration having an arc to the story that didn’t feel too rushed or too drawn out. I dig it.

    • Avatar photo KenOchalek says:
      August 1, 2012 at 10:30 pm

      I agree. I think a lot of the hate is from people that are just burned out on big-ass super-hero comics and can’t bring themselves to admit it and move onto different genres or styles. This series has been a lot of fun, and makes just enough sense for me to spend at least a few minutes each week thinking about what’s gonna happen next.

      Is it deep? Hell no. Is it dumb? Ehhh, maybe, but it’s not dumb enough to put me off.

      And honestly — with super-hero comics — I really don’t think you want to start pulling the string on “dumb”.

      Buy it if you like it. If you don’t like it, it’s fine to say so once, but once you stop buying it, give it a rest. Your dislike has been noted. Move on please and let us like our comics in peace.

  18. FrancisMH says:
    August 2, 2012 at 1:57 am

    5 stars. This issue was a huge rebound for me.

    Firstly, the story. This was packed with forward moving momentum unlike the past two issues. We see Spidey’s shining moment of the series, which I felt Aaron wrote very faithfully to the character. We also get the continued downward spiral of Emma (that scene at the dinner table was sick), the implosion of Illyana/Colossus, the reactions of non-Phoenixed X-Men, and even a divorce from Panther/Storm. Compared to some of the others in the series, this felt like giant-sized issue, but yet it was still 22 pages.

    Second, I thought Kubert’s art was way better in this issue than the last. I thought his character looked more detailed and less sloppy. The renditions of limbo were also great. Also gotta give it up to Jim Cheung/Mark Morales/Justin Ponsor for the awesome cover. Perhaps this one has been my favourite of the series.

    Finally, the AR app! I’m so glad that they finally decided to upgrade the video quality so that when I view the line art it doesn’t look like it was recorded on a 2004 cell phone. Also, I really like the addition, albeit brief, of voice-overs for Peter’s thought bubbles. And of course, the Aaron interview is great. Would be even better to hear from Kubert or other members of the creative team in future AR applications.

    A good quality issue. Wish Aaron or Hickman could’ve written this entire series.

    • Avatar photo neums says:
      August 2, 2012 at 3:04 am

      spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump spoiler bump

      I totally agree. I also find it great that it was li’l old Spidey that was the one to take out not one, but 2 Phoenices. And, they did it off-page. I wonder if this’ll be in an VS issue, but honestly, I don’t care if it’s not. Peter got his true hero moment, and it was a great one.

  19. Avatar photo WillupsBrighton says:
    August 2, 2012 at 3:19 am

    So…many…words…

  20. Avatar photo Luke says:
    August 2, 2012 at 6:07 am

    Love how Aaron writes Spidey. Highlight of the issue.

  21. badgerwolf says:
    August 2, 2012 at 8:31 am

    Dare I say it but I am really enjoying this series, yes I see similarities with Civil War but while the premise of hero v hero is the same, everything else is different. This is a story which illustrates how power corrupts and that while Cyclops may have begun with the best of intentions the Phoenix power cannot be controlled, it warps you. The only part I have had an issue with was that at the start it seemed that only Wolverine and Beast took the Avengers side, a lot of the X-Men have questions to answer….but at least their now coming around, but is it too late???

    Can see this ending with the death of Cyclops which would allow for the whole original x-men brought into the present thing that will happen in Marvel Now. In many ways the only development of Cyke left open, and its been the way he has been going for a long time, is to be the modern day Magneto type. Anyways I am starting to ramble

  22. Avatar photo smo5000 says:
    August 2, 2012 at 2:26 pm

    I like this issue, so far the whole arc has been mostly entertaining for me.

  23. Avatar photo psynetrix says:
    August 2, 2012 at 6:29 pm

    AvX #9 was amazing! Best issue so far. Despite the endless problems with the continuity and how the events relate to those of the tie-ins, this one was a winner. I have never been particularly impressed by Spider-Man, but he rocked this time around.

    Please check my mini-review of AvX #9 here:

    http://bit.ly/ReFSrd

    Comments and feedback are always welcome!

  24. GutterIsATool says:
    August 2, 2012 at 11:15 pm

    Did anybody else have trouble with their digital copy? I redeemed my code, but the comic isn’t in my digital library. Tried the code again and it says it’s been used.

    • Avatar photo Zeppo says:
      August 3, 2012 at 7:42 am

      Are you on Comixology? E-mail them to say. It didn’t happen to me this time but it has in the past. They should be able to sort it out.

  25. Avatar photo Firevine says:
    August 4, 2012 at 12:14 am

    I didn’t think the prior two issues were as bad as others did, but holy crap, this still really kicked it back up a few notches.

    I don’t understand why people are complaining about the Phoenix Force turning the X-Men evil. It kind of has a history of that. Then when you add in the traits of the characters involved, and the cues taken from Miracleman, of course the phoenix powered X-Men are going to be the villains.

    • Avatar photo KenOchalek says:
      August 4, 2012 at 8:33 am

      Exactly. Now the question becomes, how do the Avengers and the non-Phoenix X-Men defeat the apparently omnipotent Phoenix without killing the host bodies?

      I’m voting for Xavier to be the only one with the power and skill to confront and/or contain the Phoenix. I still think things might be lining up this way. Charles is considered a more experienced (if not stronger) telepath than Emma, and he’s been Scott’s father figure for years, so I think he has the skills and stature to gain a small advantage on both of the remaining Phoenix hosts. And he has that Infinity Mind Gem somewhere… which would give him an even better advantage, right?

    • Avatar photo rwpos says:
      August 5, 2012 at 10:52 am

      Since you posed the question, I’ll at least tell you what MY problem is with the way that the Phoenix force worked to turn the X-Men evil, and my problem with the story choices being made here. First, the mechanism. Jean Grey held the whole Phoenix force from Uncanny 101 through UXM 130-something (it’s hard to peg the exact turning point, but certainly she was Dark Phoenix by 135). Later, upon her return, Jean again holds the entire force for years and hundreds of comics without really turning evil. There was something heroic to be found in those stories too, witnessing her struggle against the corrupting influences of ultimate power. In AvX we skip that heroic struggle and just conveniently jump between a single comic from good guys with power into deeply corrupted and horrific villains. That’s a plot device, not a story. Secondly I really think that the writing choice to portray the X-men committing acts of extreme cruelty and murderous destruction greatly injures their potential heroic value. Jean Grey died in X-Men 137 because she was considered irredeemable by the editorial staff. And her acts were never depicted as graphically or as personally as those shown in this series. As escapist heroic fiction goes, this series leaves me feeling cold. KenOchalek suggests that the big challenge now is saving the hosts while defeating the Phoenix force. For me, the bigger challenging is finding the interest to hope for such an outcome. At this point I’d rather just see the Phoenix five killed off. Or at the very least thrown in a deep dark prison and forgotten for a few years. Does that help to resolve your confusion over what some readers might find objectionable in AvX?

    • Avatar photo WheelHands says:
      August 5, 2012 at 2:30 pm

      @rwpos: I’m gonna preface this by saying that I’m only reading Uncanny and W&TXM. But just to play devil’s advocate, I think an argument could be made that Jean was only able to hold the Phoenix Force at bay for so long due to the combination of her good heart and her near incomparable mental powers. Like a few have mentioned above, there isn’t a soul among the Five that hasn’t gone off the deep end at one point or another. Emma’s certainly a powerful telepath, but she’s no Jean Grey, and her potential ability to fight the Phoenix is rendered moot by her questionable character and her selfish, power hungry tendencies. So I don’t think it’s too far a stretch to believe that the Phoenix was able to “infect” the Five more quickly than it did Jean. Besides, do you really wanna sit through 100 issues of the Five resisting the Phoenix? Just because it’s a plot device doesn’t mean it’s unreasonable.

    • Avatar photo rwpos says:
      August 5, 2012 at 5:34 pm

      I said it wasn’t enjoyable to me, not that it was unreasonable. What I enjoyed about the Dark Phoenix saga wasn’t the 8 pages of Jean wrecking aliens. This series, for me, has been a distillation of the ugliest and meanest parts of past stories that I felt were better written and more enjoyable. I don’t like torture porn movies. I don’t enjoy excessive violence being dished out by former good guys. So for me this isn’t a great event. Sorry you find my opinion unreasonable, about a series that you aren’t reading.

    • Avatar photo WheelHands says:
      August 5, 2012 at 5:53 pm

      Relax. I wasn’t being confontational. Nor did I say your opinion was unreasonable. I got the impression that you thought the way in which the Phoenix force turned the Five evil was unreasonable (maybe “silly” or “poorly executed” are better terms?), and I was just offering a different angle. Your opinion is no less valid or reasonable than anyone else’s. Just making conversation. It’s a slow day. I’ve been reading these threads to see how folks have been digging the title, and the two titles I have been reading have given me the gist of the story. I’m plenty informed enough on the X-Men and AvX to discuss the topic. Wasn’t trying to strike a nerve.

    • Avatar photo Firevine says:
      August 5, 2012 at 7:08 pm

      @rwpos WheelHands nailed what I meant about the five. Namor has always been a bit of a bastard. Emma as well. The phoenix just magnified the personality traits of those characters. Jean always had heart and willpower, which could keep the phoenix contained, while Scott was an angsty little twat all the time. (What did she ever see in him?) It really just makes sense that the phoenix chose the five most warped members of the team, even over Magneto and Wolverine, because it could take advantage of those people.

      Imagine if this story took place 10 years ago. The five would include Marrow and Maggot instead of Namor and Emma, haha. Man would that suck.

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