AVENGERS #368

Plus X-MEN #26, AVENGERS WEST COAST #101, and UNCANNY X-MEN #307

"BLOODTIES PART ONE: FAMILY LEGACY"
Writer: Bob Harras | Penciler: Steve Epting
Inker & Colorist: Tom Palmer | Letterer: Bill Oakley
Editor: Ralph Macchio | Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco
Special thanks to X-MEN scribes Scott Lobdell & Fabian Nicieza

The Plot: In Hammer Bay, Capital of the island nation of Genosha, Fabian Cortez holds Luna and looks down on the city. In Washington, D.C., Doctor Valerie Cooper briefs Henry Peter Gyrich and Nick Fury on the fact that Genosha has devolved into civil war between its human and mutant populations. Gyrich says that the president has hand-picked a civlian to travel to Genosha in an attempt to broker peace, and Gyrich is to escort this individual. Later, at Avengers Mansion, Fury and Gyrich brief the assembled East and West Coast teams about the situation in Genosha. Gyrich takes U.S. Agent with him for a secret mission, while Crystal realizes that Cortez may come for Luna. She goes to check on the child, who reveals herself as a disguised Genoshan mutate. The Genoshan lets loose an explosion which blows the roof off the mansion.

At Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, Gyrich and U.S. Agent, along with Genoshan expatriates Philip Moreau and Jenny Ransome, recruit Professor Charles Xavier, the president's ambassador. Xavier asks that the Beast come along as well. Meanwhile, in the Danger Room, the X-Men conduct a trianing session. Xavier telepathically informs them that he and Beast are leaving immediately, and reminds the X-Men to meet them in Genosha in twelve hours. Back at Avengers Mansion, Crystal has used her powers to save herself and her friends. The Avengers attempt to depart for Genosha, but Fury tells them that the United Nations does not want them to interfere in Genosha. When the team reaches their hangar, they find several SHIELD troops blocking their exit.

Aboard their Air Force plane to Genosha, Xavier, Beast, and the rest see Cortez on television, announcing that he has assassinated Genosha's rulers and, if the Genoshan army does not surrender by the next morning, he will begin executing every human in Hammer Bay -- beginning with Luna.

X-MEN #26: "CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE!" by Fabian Nicieza, Andy Kubert, and Matt Ryan -- Aboard their Blackbird jet en route to Genosha, the X-Men and Quicksilver witness Cortez's broadcast, in which he rallies Genosha's mutate population to action, and claims to speak for Magneto. At Avengers Mansion, Earth's Mightiest Heroes fight their way through SHIELD's forces to their Quinjet. Crystal, Scarlet Witch, Black Knight, and Captain America board the craft and take off, followed by Sersi and War Machine. In Genosha, Xavier, Beast, Gyrich, U.S. Agent, Philip, and Jenny are attacked by rebels. It is an assault staged by Xavier to allow Beast and him to get away from their escorts. The duo escapes in the chaos to meet up with Doctor Renee Majcomb, a colleague of Xavier's working with a group of Genoshan humans and mutates intent on bringing a peaceful resolution to the war. But unknown by all, U.S. Agent follows them as they depart.

The X-Men land in Genosha and are confronted by militant mutates called the Unforgiven, as well as by Cortez himself, who is not surprised to learn from Quicksilver than Magneto has been rendered comatose following a recent battle with the X-Men. Meanwhile, the Avengers arrive in Hammer Bay and begin working to break up the civil war, but all humans in the area are incinerated by the arrival of Magneto's chief Acolyte, Exodus.

AVENGERS WEST COAST #101: "GENOSHA, MON AMOUR" by Roy Thomas, Dave Ross, and Tim Dzon -- Hawkeye, Black Widow, Hercules, Vision, and Giant-Man storm into a meeting of the United Nations security council, where Hawkeye threatens to pull the Avengers out of their U.N. charter over SHIELD's interference in their mission to Genosha. Meanwhile, Exodus confronts the Avengers in Hammer Bay, and War Machine challenges him one-on-one in the skies overhead. The mutate and human populations begin to fight again, leaving the rest of the Avengers to deal with them, but Crystal and Scarlet Witch depart in search of Luna. In tunnels beneath Hammer Bay, Professor X, Beast, and U.S. Agent, who has caught up with them, find a chamber filled with imprisoned mutates, presided over by Cortez's shock troops, the Magistrate Elite. Elsewhere, the X-Men battle the Unforgiven and make short work of them. "Cortez" reveals himself as a shapeshifted mutate, taunting the X-Men over his deception. Meanwhile, Exodus defeats War Machine -- but Sersi ascends to the sky seconds later to challenge him next.

UNCANNY X-MEN #307: "NIGHT AND FOG" by Scott Lobdell, John Romita, Jr., and Dan Green -- While Professor X protects the mutate prisoners, Beast and U.S. Agent battle the Magistrate Elite. Meanwhile, above ground, Exodus and Sersi fight. At the United Nations, Black Widow chastizes the general assembly over its cowardice, then pulls the Avengers out of their U.N. charter. The X-Men, less Jean Grey and Quicksilver, who split off in search of Luna, arrive in Hammer Bay and set about helping those they can. Exodus defeats Sersi and retreats. Quicksilver and Jean bump into Crystal and the Scarlet Witch beneath Hammer Bay, but Cortez shows up a moment later with Luna his prisoner. However Exodus arrives directly after, and Cortez begs the heroes to save him.

Continuity Notes: As usual with a crossover event, our notes here are only concerned with the AVENGERS issue unless otherwise stated.

Though it is not footnoted, Doctor Cooper mentions Magneto's electromagnetic pulse wave, as seen in X-MEN #25, as the catalyst for the Genoshan civil war. However the issue is footnoted later, when Xavier mentions the X-Men's recent battle with Magneto aboard his space station, Avalon.

Crystal Recalls Professor Xavier's warning to the Avengers back in issue 350 as she goes to check on Luna.

When Beast appears, reference is made to his history with Gyrich from the period where Beast was an Avenger and Gyrich was the team's heavy-handed government liaison. Ordinarily, this is where I would go into a weird mini-rant about how Beast literally lives in Xavier's house, yet they try to pretend as if they're only distant colleagues (something which happened more than once in the X-Men comics of the nineties) -- but since this post is devoted to the Avengers and not the X-Men, I won't. But it will never stop bothering me. (Also, how weird is it that this story features three characters named Henry -- Beast, Giant-Man, and Gyrich?)

Quicksilver is apparently on leave from X-Factor, hanging around with the X-Men following the events of X-MEN #25, where he sojourned with them to Avalon. He mentions that he's thinking about paying a visit to Crystal and Luna before returning to his team.

Deathcry doesn't appear in this story, though her ship is seen in the Avengers' hangar when they try to leave for Genosha.

In UNCANNY X-MEN 307, Black Knight believes he recognizes Exodus from somewhere. Their past together would eventually be revealed in a one-shot some three years later. I'm considering looking at it after I finish the AVENGERS run.

Assemble: War Machine shouts the cry in X-MEN 26 as the Avengers try to push through SHIELD for their Quinjet, but since we're only concerned with the main series and its annuals, we won't count that. Thus, while we get one utterance in this crossover (so far), the overall count does not go up. ("Avengers Assemble!" count: 7 in 36 issues to date.)

My Thoughts: So at some point, somebody at Marvel realized that the Avengers and X-Men would both reach their respective thirtieth anniversaries in 1993, and the decision was made to have a joint celebration. The two groups were not particularly interwined, however. They had led mostly disparate existences; aside from the fact that the Beast had been a member of both teams, their biggest connection was that two X-Men villains -- Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch -- had reformed and become Avengers fairly soon after their debut.

So if you're going to do a crossover between the two teams to celebrate this shared milestone, that connection is the place to start. And when your AVENGERS writer is also the X-MEN editor, it's pretty easy to set it all up, too. An appearance by Professor X in AVENGERS 350 to seed the idea that Magneto's Acolytes are at large and may be interested in his granddaugther, Luna, followed in a couple months by the formal return of the Acolytes in UNCANNY X-MEN and then the appearance of Magneto himself a few more months later, and you're all set.

Which brings us to "Bloodties". Now, I like the idea behind this story, and overall I find it a decently executed crossover, though it also somehow has more minor hiccups than did the nineteen-part "Operation: Galactic Storm" -- but it's also an example of marketing concerns trumping all others. There's really no need for this to be an event spread across four titles and two editorial offices, other than that someone decided the Avengers and X-Men must have a co-birthday party. As noted above, the Avengers had already been warned about the Acolytes in their series, and the Acolytes had already returned in the X-Men comics. I see no reason, with those seeds planted, that this couldn't have been an event confined simply to the AVENGERS title, since it's really more of an Avengers story. It uses X-Men villains and the backdrop in an X-Men location, but that's all window dressing. This is, at its core, an Avengers-centric tale. Aside from bringing Quicksilver into the fray, which certainly could've been accomplished via other means, the X-Men are mostly superfluous to the story through four chapters so far.

But nonetheless, I won't deny that it's cool seeing some of the stuff this crossover brings about. Though the two teams have not yet fully crossed paths, we get things like Beast's reunion with Gyrich, the unlikely duo of Beast and U.S. Agent fighting side-by-side, Jean Grey getting hammered by one of the Scarlet Witch's hex bolts, which surely must have happened to her some thirty years earlier, Exodus battling War Machine and Sersi, and so forth. If you're going to do a crossover which (again, I assume) was mandated by Marketing, why not make lemonade from the lemeons and throw in fun bits like this?

Next week, the event concludes in the Avengers' fourth and final giant-sized, foil-enhanced issue of 1993!