Back in 2012 at the end of Avengers vs. X-Men (AvX) we suffered the loss of Charles Xavier, the founder of the X-Men. Xavier was struck down by Cyclops – who possessed by the Dark Phoenix, and is currently wanted for his murder. Now a lot has happened since then, but was Scott Summers (Cyclops) really to blame?
Everyone was quick to proclaim that the Phoenix was too dangerous to control, but Jean and Rachel proved that they were both able to control the Phoenix for a very long time without any cataclysmic events coming from it. In fact if you were to go back to classic X-Men you would see that the real start of most Dark Phoenix incidences was usually brought upon by some other force’s meddling trying to manipulate the Phoenix force. For the sake of this discussion though I’ll try to focus on just what happened in AvX.
Now in AvX the Avengers have a run in with the new Nova (Sam Alexander) and he gives them a cryptic warning about something coming. Also important to note that Sam was concussed and was only 13 years old.
Iron Man took this warning and looked into it, and quickly called a meeting with the President and explained that the Phoenix was coming and implied that if they didn’t do something the world would end. Naturally the President and the powers at be felt they needed to back Iron Man and the Avengers since the only alternative they were being given was waiting till the world ended.
Now skip a little ahead and we have Cyclops and Captain America talking on the shore of Utopia which eventually resulted with Cyclops attacking Captain America. From there everything escalates very quickly as a S.H.I.E.L.D. Hellacarrier descends and it goes from a disagreement to an all-out war in seconds. The X-Men are the only ones who really have any experience and expertise with the Phoenix Force, but the Avengers weren’t really interested in talking to them about it. Really the only Avenger who should have been taking the science lead on this was Beast, but instead they sent him off world. Tony Stark felt the only option to save the world was trying to destroy the Phoenix Force which is a cosmic force tied into the very creation of the universe, which he wasn’t able to fully understand after nonstop study for an extended period of time. In Iron Man’s effort to destroy the Phoenix Force his device did not destroy it, but instead broke it into five pieces. The Phoenix was then forcefully bound to five different heroes (Cyclops, Emma Frost, Colossus, Magik, and Namor) without them wanting it or having any choice.
Now what did Cyclops and the rest of the Phoenix Five do with their new god like powers?
- Ending drought
- Ending food shortages
- Ending genocide/civil uproars
- Disarming the world of WMD
- Putting an end to know terrorists cells
- Among other noble tasks.
Despite all of the mental stress they were under they managed to use and control the Phoenix Force for the betterment of mankind. The only thing that actually started to cause them to lose control was the stress from the Avengers repeatedly harassing them. In the end Scott Summers is only human and can only hold onto control for so long before giving into the destructive nature of the cosmic force that was trapped inside of him especially when you have an army of Earth’s mightiest repeatedly trying to hurt you.
If you just look at the facts here Tony Stark was the one who brought this to the president and set the stage for things to escalate out of hand. Tony Stark was the one who built the device that forced the Phoenix into Scott Summers and the rest of the X-Men. Tony Stark’s planning had the Avengers continuously go up against the Phoenix Five in order to buy more time for him to figure out a solution to a nonexistent problem. I’d also like to point out Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four (the worlds smartest man) also didn’t believe there to be any issue when the X-Men were using their powers responsibly.
Thus I believe that the death of Charles Xavier was none other than the result of events brought about by Tony Stark’s hubris, and he is truly the one responsible for the death of Xavier. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below, or on Google+, Facebook, or Twitter.
Last Updated on November 28, 2018.
