The Avengers: Doomsday speculation took an interesting turn when the Russo Brothers posted a big tease on Instagram, leading some to believe the next big Marvel Cinematic Universe movie will give us an Avengers vs. X-Men element.
This wouldn’t be the first time the Russo brothers pitted Marvel’s heroes against one another, having previously directed the hit Captain America: Civil War. Knowing that, there are some important things to note as you consider the comic book source material further.
Avengers vs. X-Men Notes
I still have a coaster that came out as part of this 2012 series. It went on for 13 issues and had a six-issue, tie-in series called “Avengers vs. X-Men: Versus” that expanded on fights from the main event. (For example: The first issue of the tie-in featured Iron Man vs. Magneto and The Thing vs. Namor.)
Scarlet Witch and Hope Summers are two key players at the center of the comic event, in which Wanda was fresh off her “No More Mutants” fiasco. With Elizabeth Olsen seemingly not in the mix for Avengers: Doomsday and there being zero rumblings about Hope, a.k.a the Mutant Messiah, for this movie (or the MCU in general), there’s not much point in digging into them specifically. More so wanted to note their significance in the comic book event to establish a quickly identifiable, notable change.
A big thing that could carry over — as much as I’m very skeptical — is the Phoenix force. Jean Grey (Famke Janssen and Sophie Turner) wasn’t part of the big rollout, so it seems she won’t be in the mix. But that’s OK.
In the Avengers vs. X-Men comic book event, the Phoenix force returned to Earth and was believed to be in pursuit of the aforementioned Hope Summers. Through the acts of the Avengers, it splintered and attached itself to five X-Men: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Namor, Colossus, and Magik.
From there, tensions arose between the two Marvel teams — and within the X-Men themselves.
Marvel Civil War Differences
Captain America: Civil War was influenced by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven’s Marvel series that was simply titled Civil War. Superhero registration was still very much a part of the movie’s plot, but it wasn’t the lone driving force. With the comic book event, it was all about who was on which side and how everyone handled their business.
There were far more fights and characters involved in the comic, which is how these things tend to work. Captain America: Civil War still had plenty of characters, but it was nowhere near the same level. As such, Millar and McNiven could move around the Marvel landscape freely. With the movie, Cap, Iron Man, Black Panther and Baron Zemo were the ones primarily driving the bus.
Certainly a Civil War with the MCU, but quite different from the source material.
Avengers: Doomsday Expectations
All of this is a long-winded way of saying: I have a hard time imagining that any Avengers vs. X-Men wrinkles in the Avengers: Doomsday series will line up with the comic book event that was brought to life by Brian Michael Bendis, John Romita Jr., Jason Aaron, Olivier Coipel, Ed Brubaker, Adam Kubert, Jonathan Hickman and Matt Fraction.
If the Avengers vs. X-Men speculation comes to fruition, we’ll probably get something like the OG big-screen X-Men against the group Avengers rumored to be involved in Avengers: Doomsday. At some point, they’ll realize how they were wrong and join forces to combat Doctor Doom. (This is speaking from a foundational perspective. One would hope there are a lot more layers and twists throughout the movie.)
