Didn’t We Just Have A Marvel Event With The Avengers And X-Men A Few Years Ago?

Yes, yes we did. It was Avengers vs. X-Men (or just AvX if you like your abbreviations) and ran from late spring to early fall of 2012. The story put Marvel’s two most prominent teams at odds over the return of the Phoenix Force, which ended up powering up five different X-Men and generally making a big mess of things.

Eventually, someone traveled back in time to kill Hank Pym and … wait, that was a different event. AvX actually ended with Cyclops possessing the entire Phoenix power and killing Professor X before Scarlet Witch and Hope Summers were able to defeat him. Cyclops was imprisoned (only for a bit!), Xavier stayed dead and his brain was taken by the Red Skull, and the Avengers got to kind of, sort of feel some satisfaction that they were more right than the X-Men when it came to Hope and the Phoenix Force.

This is relevant because Marvel just revealed at C2E2 that the Fall 2014 event will be called AXIS, a title that incorporates the Avengers and X-Men logos as its first two letters. Considering that Original Sin is just getting underway, Marvel will probably let the details about AXIS sit for a bit, but it’s safe to say both teams are again prominently involved.

IGN’s Joshua Yehl posted some informed guesses as to what AXIS might be about, and his commenters have some excellent ideas too. But since I have the floor, I’ll throw my two cents in on some of these theories too:

• It could be Wolverine-centric

I like this idea of a literal axis, and since Wolverine was a member of both teams, he could be the key. Marvel has hinted that his death in September will have ripples felt in many places, and the timing for a fall event would dovetail with Logan’s passing perfectly.

• It might spin out of Uncanny Avengers

If you aren’t reading Rick Remender’s Uncanny Avengers, you’re missing a crazy, epic story that I don’t have time to recap here. The scale is so big that it already feels like an event, and members of both the X-Men and Avengers are already knee-deep in it. Oh, and Red Onslaught would tie AXIS back to AvX and the original Onslaught from way back in the 90s.

• Those other two letters might not be a coincidence

People have taken notice of the ‘I’ and ‘S’ and suggested they might stand for Inhumans and S.H.I.E.L.D., respectively. I’m guessing this is not the case, but if it is, it would up the ante on the story versus it just being an Avengers/X-Men thing.

• It’s not going to be a sequel to AvX

At least it better not be. We’ve already been there, done that.

Anyway, if Marvel follows the same game plan it’s been using for Original Sin, we’ll be getting teasers at some point, plus there’s that Comic-Con thing during the summer to do serious reveals. Until then, speculate away!