Avengers VS X-Men #2: Review

There are several other issues this month billed as tie-ins to the series. But Avengers #25, which I'm also synopsizing, has only a tenuous link, and is at best a prelude to the saga. Two issues fit within #1 of this series. Wolverine & X-Men #9 included Cap inducting Beast into the outer space team, and Wolverine agreeing to help. Also the Shi'ar started to get involved. New Avengers #24 included the Avengers preparing for the assault on Utopia. But both of these also had large amounts of stuff not connected to the crossover. The largest number of tie-ins this month will be in the upcoming week. Avengers vs X-Men: Versus #1 promises to expand on the Iron Man/Magneto battle and the fight between Sub-Mariner and Thing (and Luke Cage?). Uncanny X-Men #11 seems to feature more on the Colossus/Red Hulk clash, but probably has other stuff as well. Secret Avengers #26 will follow the space team. And New Avengers #25 will start a storyline about Iron Fist's connection to the Phoenix Force, which seems to have him helping Hope.

It seems I got my answer as to which side Storm would be on a lot sooner than I thought. But there isn't any hint here (apart from the splash page) of her conflicting Avengers membership, except before the fight when she suggests that she be sent to talk to the Avengers. It also seems strange that Cap went to ask help from Avenger/X-Man Wolverine, but didn't contact Ororo who's actually on Utopia with Hope Summers. I see Mockingbird fall in the water, but I don't see her in the fight. Various Avengers carrying battlestaves last issue and at the start of this one must lose them in the water. I don't know whether Magik is supposed to help all the X-Men escape, or just Hope. Either way it doesn't happen. Hope takes the time to change into her costume before running away.

Of all the X-Men involved in this issue, only Wolverine and Beast are on Wolverine's X-team in the Westchester school since the Schism (and they're both also Avengers).The rest are on Utopia with Cyclops. Although Psylocke is also secretly a member of X-Force, which works for Wolverine. If Wolfsbane is here then she's the only one from X-Factor. Maybe she was *supposed* to be Dazzler. If Jubilee's here then that's OK too. Some of the others are members of sub-teams (which have or had their own comics). Magma and Sunspot are still part of New Mutants. Danger, Dr Nemesis and Madison Jeffries are in the X-Club science team. Hope, Pixie, Transonic and Velocidad are some of Generation Hope, with Loa and Surge recruited from the ex-Xavier Institute. I think Colossus, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Magik, Magneto, Storm and Sub-Mariner tend to be in Uncanny X-Men, while Domino, Jubilee, Psylocke and Warpath tend to occupy X-Men. Dazzler fits in somewhere.

Reality has seemingly been rewritten slightly in the few seconds between the closing pages of last issue and the opening pages of this one. Storm is now standing on the beach beside her X-Men teammates Cyclops, Sub-Mariner, Emma Frost, Colossus and Magneto. And the roster of additional X-Men included in the background of 1 panel near the end has been expanded from Danger, Domino, Magma, Warpath (and 2 others I couldn't identify) to include Dr Nemesis, Madison Jeffries, Magik, Psylocke and Sunspot. The Avengers team remains the same. The splash page cast list has Dazzler as among the X-Men. There is a blonde character with a sweat-band in a few panels which might be her. But I think the pointy ears and tail mean she's more likely to be Wolfsbane. There are also some unidentified partial shots which feature a long yellow coat and red sunglasses. If these belong to the same person, it reminds me of Jubilee.