Marvel got its biggest success of the 2000s with the superhero versus superhero event Civil War, a comic that would go on to inspire Captain America: Civil War. Superhero comics have always used heroes fighting heroes as a trope — two heroes would meet and have a misunderstanding, fight, and then team up to face off against a bigger foe. However, for years after Civil War, Marvel threw more and more stories that pit heroes against each other at readers. At first, it was novel and interesting, but after a while it became a little much. Fans stopped enjoying these stories as much as they used to, and they began to have diminishing returns for Marvel. This led to the publisher using them much less, and fans breathed a sigh of relief.
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However, that was until editor Tom Brevoort, who was behind most of the superhero versus superhero events, took over the X-Men books with the From the Ashes reboot. Suddenly, readers are getting two superhero versus superhero stories — “Raid On Graymalkin,” which puts the two X-Men teams against each other, and an Avengers vs. X-Men rematch in Avengers, stemming from the fact that Jed MacKay is writing both X-Men and Avengers. Marvel had seemed to turn a corner on these kinds of stories, and going back to this well is disappointing, especially with how their place in the new X-Men reboot.
The Marvel Universe Works Better When It’s United
Marvel wasn’t the first superhero universe, but the company revolutionized the concept. The Silver Age Marvel superhero comics mostly all took place in New York City. Spider-Man was friends with Human Torch, and he tried to join the Fantastic Four, because he thought they could pay him. The Avengers all lived at Avengers Mansion, which was formerly the Stark family home. The X-Men didn’t live in the city, but they were an hour’s drive away. Eventually, heroes like Daredevil, the Punisher, Iron Fist, and many more would be introduced, have their introductory fights, and then become friends, or in the Punisher’s case, uneasy quasi-allies.
The Marvel Universe was built on a sense of camaraderie, and readers felt that. The company even did something similar with their creators, with Stan Lee creating the myth of the Marvel Bullpen, where all of Marvel’s artists and writers worked together in a communal area banging out the stories on a daily basis. Events in different comics affected the lives of other heroes. This aspect of the Marvel Universe made the universe feel lived in and “realistic” in a way that DC’s sprawling universe of cities with their superheroic protectors didn’t, until DC started to copy Marvel’s shared universe. The Marvel Cinematic Universe borrowed this trope from the comics, and the interrelated nature of the movies are part of what made Phases One through Three such a huge success.
Of course, heroes battling other heroes was a part of all this, but it was only one part of the story, never the whole story. Readers are always going to want to see their favorites duke it out and answer the age old questions like, “Can Spider-Man beat Captain America?” or “Would the Thing clobber the Hulk?” However, these fights were just appetizers for the main course, which was the team-up that would come afterwards. While there were times when certain heroes would never truly become friends — basically 1980s Wolverine and any non-mutant hero fit this bill — they would still find common ground and work together. This was as much a part of Marvel’s DNA as the Marvel Method. It’s what made the Marvel Universe such an exciting place to hang out in for readers.
The Predictable Discord Isn’t Worth the Drama
The end of the Krakoa Era was rather traumatic for the X-Men. The team lost the island nation they had built and the unity that the mutant race had built up. Mutants are suddenly more feared and hated than ever, with the public quaking in their boots over rumored diseases that can make normal humans into mutants, as well as mutants themselves dealing with the consequences of Krakoan resurrection. Meanwhile, a schism between Rogue and Cyclops has separated the X-Men into factions, ones which will come to blows in “Raid on Graymalkin.” Not much is known about the upcoming story, other than it will pit the two teams against each other over whether to raid the X-Mansion, which has been taken over by anti-mutant forces.
Meanwhile, over in Avengers, December’s Issue #21 promises to see Captain Marvel and Cyclops face off in a story that will have repercussions for the future. What makes this so weird is that this exact team of Avengers worked with the X-Men to defeat Orchis at the end of Krakoa Era. The X-Men and the Avengers have definitely had their issues in the past, but much like the wounds of previous hero versus hero stories, they are squarely in the past. Bringing those back up feels cheap and hearkens back to the ’00s, a time when this sort of drama was the main focus of the Marvel Universe. However, it’s decades later and that dog just don’t hunt anymore.
Pitting heroes against heroes is never going to completely going away, nor should it. However, Marvel definitely needs a moratorium on using it as a major part of any story. The unity of the Marvel Universe is its greatest strength, and these superhero fighting superhero stories muddy that. Sure, it always feels good when everyone gets back together for the big triumph at the end, but by this point, readers know exactly how all of these stories will go. The X-Men will fight, team-up against a worse villain, and then go their separate ways after “Raid on Graymalkin,” eventually coming back together to battle an even bigger threat, take back the mansion, and then rebuild in an MCU friendly fashion just in time for their big screen debut. The X-Men and Avengers will growl at each other, skirmish a bit, and new Avenger Storm will make peace at some point between the two factions. It’s all so predictable and that makes it doubly worse.
Marvel is willing to smash the cohesion of its two biggest franchises just for some short term drama. It had looked like Marvel had learned its lesson when stories like Inhumans vs. X-Men disappointed and they pivoted away from these stories, but it seems like readers are getting another dose of medicine they don’t want.