X-Men Legacy #269

It seems that the tie-in books are going to be spoiling things for AvX on a regular basis. This issue of X-Men Legacy features Rogue going up against Ms. Marvel. It’s status quo, though, because I guess as of the next issue of AvX, the X-Men are actively hunting down and capturing the Avengers! It’s a pretty great high concept, and Gage does a great job with it.

Even though every person reading the series knows that the Phoenix Five are a bad idea; that they’re going to turn bad, I love that the X-Men are in denial. They really are making the world a better place, now that they don’t have to hide anymore. It’s easy for the X-people to dismiss the Avengers’ fear. Gage gives a great argument: The Avengers really liked the status quo before, so they never tried to change the world. Now that the X-Men are actually making the world a safer place, the Avengers are just jealous.

Rogue and Ms. Marvel have a long history, and that certainly plays into the tensions between them here. Rogue reacts in a fashion much more violent than usual, and Ms. Marvel spends most of the fight trying to maintain her composure. It makes sense that Rogue’s re-taking of the Ms. Marvel power-set would set Carol Danvers off. (Any hope that Rogue gets to keep those powers full-time again? Maybe adding in other mutants too?)

David Baldeon does a nice job once the book turns violent. I’m not a huge fan of his style, but I have to say he does a great job with fight choreography. I almost got upset when Rogue absorbed the electrical current and punched Ms. M, but I looked again and saw that Rogue was just channeling the current through her Ms. Marvel-boosted form.

Good