Warning -- this article contains full spoilers for Avengers vs. X-Men #11!
Most event comics can be broken down into a series of watershed moments. Civil War had the debut of the Superhuman Registration Act, the unmasking of Spider-Man, and the assassination of Captain America. Fear Itself had the breaking of Captain America's shield and the (apparent) deaths of Bucky Barnes and Thor.
And Avengers vs. X-Men has its own watershed moments. There was the original spark that ignited a war between the two teams. There was the pivotal moment when Hope refused the power of the Phoenix Force and it was divided among five of the X-Men. And now, as issue #11 hits the stands and the final battle between the Avengers and the X-Men begins, there's another major development that may come to define the event for many readers.
Last chance -- don't continue if you don't want to be spoiled!!!
That moment comes when Cyclops finally gives in to the corrupting influence of the Phoenix and kills his former mentor, Professor Xavier. Though the body count in AvX has been zero so far (unless you count the death of the briefly resurrected Captain Marvel), the writers changed that in a big way this week. We were able to sit down with both writer Brian Michael Bendis and Marvel Senior Editor Tom Brevoort to discuss the big death and how it will impact Marvel's post-AvX plans.
Brevoort noted that the decision to kill Xavier came fairly late in the planning process. "We didn't start out looking for someone to kill or having a hit list or anything. In fact, the discussion about killing Xavier went back and forth for a good, long while as we were dealing with the middle point. The five guys who were working on this weren't always of one accord. By the end of it, one writer was still regretful that we ended up going this way. He was just out-voted by the rest of the group." He continued, "It was such a visceral thing. Their relationship was so Shakespearean that it proved, at least in our estimation, that it was the direction the story needed to go."
Brevoort laid much of the credit/blame for the decision on Bendis himself, saying that Bendis and Jason Aaron "did a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of outlining the super-structure of AvX. Brian is sort of the main Avengers guy, and Jason was the guy most currently heavy in the X-Men world. It made sense for them to do a lot of our outline process and run those outlines by the other three writers and have them vetted."
Bendis said, "I was moving into the X-office, and I was surprised how out of the loop Xavier was. He wasn't really a part of the plans or any books going on. It just seemed to me, and maybe it's because I'm a father, but his point of view was one of the most interesting. I kept pushing for it, and they were like, 'Well, he's not in any of these books right now.' And then we started talking about why Xavier had outgrown the X-Men franchise. He wasn't really part of it. I thought that was interesting. Is he more interesting now in death than he was in life? Does the idea of him being sacrificed to all of this make the X-Men as characters that much more interesting? And if so, what kinds of stories can we get out of it? And that's when the serious talks started happening."
Bendis pointed out that the issue leaves room for interpretation as far as whether Xavier willingly allowed himself to perish in battle. "Does he do an Obi-Wan and just close his eyes, or does he fight to the death? I kind of have it up to interpretation. This didn't happen privately – this happened in front of the entire Marvel Universe. So a lot of people are going to have a lot of interpretations about what they saw and what it means. That is certainly something to consider. Even if he fought to the death, does he somehow know that, either way, he might win? Is this the final thing he could give to the X-Men – his final sacrifice?"
Towards the end of Grant Morrison's New X-Men run, Xavier chided Magneto with this speech: "The worst thing you ever did was come back, Erik. Magneto had become a legend in death, an inspiration for change. Now look at you -- just another foolish and self-important old man with outdated thoughts in his head. You have nothing this generation of mutants wants... except your face on a T-shirt."
We asked Brevoort if the same was now true for Xavier, and if he was more important to the mutant race now as a martyr rather than a living, active figure. "Especially with M-Day and with Cyclops coming to prominence as the new general of the X-Men, Xavier, by necessity was sort of forced to take a back seat and be off to the side. There can't be two chiefs... I don't know that I'd reduce Xavier to being better off dead than alive. He's a person with ideals and dreams and hopes and so forth. The power of this moment and what it means for Scott to strike him down, even in a moment of losing his cool, striking down the guy that was essentially his father. Xavier took him from being a guy who was homeless and had these uncontrollable optic blasts and gave him a life to live in and surrounded him with friends and got rid of his loneliness and gave him purpose and a cause to believe in so strongly that Cyclops took it to this point... As a moment or a capstone or the beginning of the end for the journey of Scott Summers, it was a necessary, important beat."
Throughout the latter two acts of this event, the Phoenix Five have fought a losing battle against the influence of the Phoenix Force. The question now is whether Cyclops is wholly responsible for the death of Xavier, or if he had finally been consumed by his newfound power. Though obviously neither Bendis nor Brevoort could definitively reveal whether Cyclops survives the final battle in issue #12, the question of his culpability will be addressed in short order. Bendis said, "I'm getting right into that in my new series, because a lot of people have very specific ideas about just how much he is to blame for what has happened, including himself. That's a question we're going to explore throughout the book, and writing a character in this situation is just about as interesting a challenge as I could have as a writer. This is as big a hole as you can dig for yourself. Let's say the Phoenix was completely responsible and Scott wasn't in his right mind. How do you live with that?"
For Bendis, one of the benefits to launching a new X-Men series after AvX is the opportunity to explore the ramifications of Xavier's death. He said, "I'm coming into the X-books with a lot of notoriety. In a positive or negative way, I don't know. It was weird with House of M, particularly with Wolverine's memories, to put such a giant piece of storytelling out into the world, yet not be the one who takes it to the next step." he continued, "But now, at least with Xavier -- and a lot of this is happening after AvX -- I'll be able to be one of the guys following through on the promises made in the event. And as I've discovered over the years, that's really the best part."
The X-Men franchise entered a new status quo last year in the wake of Jason Aaron's Schism mini-series. Where once the mutant community was split in its support of Xavier or Magneto, now Cyclops and Wolverine became the two opposing figureheads in the struggle for mutant survival. Another common question regarding AvX as been how the event will affect this status quo. With many of the X-Men now united with the Avengers against Cyclops and Emma Frost, is the schism healed? Bendis said, "There's definitely a sense of unity, but if you pay close attention, it's not every X-Man. Only the ones who want to team up are there. And what they witness when they show up is not what they signed up for. They didn't go there to see Xavier be murdered. And how they all react to that and what they do next will be the stuff we deal with afterward. And on top of that, even though some of them agreed to team up for this fight, they may not like how the fight went. They may not like the aftermath and depart soon afterward. So there won't be what you've called a schism or a civil war. There will be lots of characters with different points of view to push forward. And I think the audience is going to gravitate naturally to who they agree with or who's got the most interesting point of view in all of this."
Bendis also elaborated on how Xavier's death will impact the course of All-New X-men, specifically how the five original X-Men respond to the discovery. "I'm certainly excited that this element of the story is finally revealed to the public. One of the big questions since we announced what All-New X-Men is partially going to be about is 'Well, what about Xavier? How does this happen?' With the death of Xavier, people can start to put together 'Oh, that's why they're here.' This is Days of Future Past to the original X-Men. This is a nightmare. Xavier is gone and Scott killed him? This is definitely worth pursuing from the eyes of the original X-Men. Now people can see where we're coming from a little better. Here's the original five. Now imagine you're Cyclops and you're at your most idealistic in the original days of the X-Men, and you come here to find out it all goes to hell. And how do the other four feel? Can Jean possibly still love Scott when she discovers what he's capable of becoming?"
Brevoort directed readers to All-New X-Men and Uncanny Avengers as the two primary books to deal with the fallout of Xavier's death, as well as the AvX: Consequences mini-series. "Xavier's death is going to have a greater impact than just AvX #11. It's going to be a central point in all the material Brian has coming out during Marvel NOW!. It's part of All-New X-Men. It's certainly going to be a central, motivating factor in Uncanny Avengers. Xavier's funeral is going to be in Uncanny Avengers #1, so it's the big kick-off of that. You're going to see it reflected throughout the Marvel line, at least for now."
Avengers vs. X-Men #12 will wrap up the event on October 3rd, while Uncanny Avengers #1 will hit the following week. All-New X-Men #1 is currently scheduled for release on November 7th.
Jesse is a writer for IGN Comics and IGN Movies. He can't wait until he's old enough to feel ways about stuff. Follow Jesse on Twitter, or find him on IGN.
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