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Earth’s Mightiest Heroes take on the Children of the Atom as the two teams meet as adversaries once more. While both teams feature several all-star mainstays, they also have a deep bench of powerful superhumans that have filled out their rosters over the years. Often finding themselves at odds with one another, the Avengers and the X-Men clash on the battlefield yet again.
“And there came a day, a day unlike any other, when Earth’s mightiest heroes and heroines found themselves united against a common threat. On that day, the Avengers were born—to fight the foes no single super hero could withstand!” That fateful day began with the mischief god Loki conspiring as always against his brother, Thor. To that end, he planned to manipulate the Incredible Hulk into confronting the thunder god. Alerted by the superhero groupies of the Teen Brigade, Iron Man, Ant-Man, and Wasp assembled with Thor to combat the Hulk, before they all realized who the true enemy was. With Loki defeated, the heroes decided to band together in a more official capacity, birthing a storied institution that commands the utmost respect in the Marvel Universe.
Based out of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, the mutant heroes of the X-Men are sworn to protect those who hate and fear them. Inspired in part by the civil rights movement of the ‘60s, the X-Men represent an approach more akin to Martin Luther King Jr., while their nemesis Magneto embodies a more Malcolm X-esque style. As mutants’ powers typically emerge during puberty, members of the X-Men and its affiliated teams must contend with the challenges of coming of age in addition to fighting dangerous enemies.
In the 2012 crossover event Avengers vs. X-Men, the two teams came to blows over the fate of young mutant Hope Summers, who was destined to become the host of the cosmic Phoenix Force. In a strange turn of events, the Phoenix is split amongst five X-Men (Cyclops, Emma Frost, Namor, Magik, and Colossus) and with their combined might, the “Phoenix Five” begin to shape the world to their will. Additionally, the empowered mutants take down many of the Avengers, and as the power corrupted them, each other. Eventually Cyclops came into sole possession of the Phoenix Force and became the infamous Dark Phoenix, killed Professor X, and easily defeated almost all of the heroes who dared to face him. Through the combined efforts of Hope Summers and Scarlet Witch, Cyclops was purged of the Phoenix Force, which was then erased from existence by the pair of heroines.
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