Avengers/X-Men: Utopia

The 2000s were a time of major change in the Marvel Universe, probably due to the company trying to reinvent itself after nearly going out of business following the comics collapse of the 90s. This led to a ton of major story events happening that often drastically changed the status quo for the Marvel Universe.

Like the disastrous Secret War and Avengers: Disassembled, which would build into the superhero Civil War. Fallout from Civil War would include the Superhuman Registration Act, where only heroes licensed with the Government could use superpowers, and that led to things like the Thunderbolts, a group comprised of super-criminals essentially playacting as superheroes, officially licensed by the government and run by OG Green Goblin Norman Osborn, of all people.

Osborn and his Thunderbolts would then distinguish themselves during the Secret Invasion, while trust in the Avengers was eroded, leaving Osborn to take control and create his own Avengers, the Dark Avengers.

They’re so dark. They’re, like, so dark.

More relevantly for mutants was the House of M story, that ended in the Decimation, which left only a few hundred mutants in the world with their powers. No new mutants would even be born until the events of Messiah Complex, which involved a mad dash from multiple factions to gain control of the child that devastated an entire town and left the Xavier Mansion in ruins.

With their numbers dwindling, a renewed anti-mutant hysteria sweeping the world, and the home and sanctuary for many of the remaining mutants in the world destroyed, mutants decided to all gather together in a new town for sanctuary: San Francisco.

I mean, it worked pretty well for another group that receives lots and lots of undue hate. Why not mutants?

All that upheaval brings us to our story today, which sees the remaining X-Men facing off against Osborn’s Dark Avengers while anti-mutant sentiments explode across San Fran. Find what happens when these various groups clash and click on the video above!

Breakdown

My biggest issue with Utopia I’ve kinda already said: it just glosses over a lot of the details. The story moves so fast that all the plot points just seem to explode out of nowhere and with no reason, even though if you pay close enough attention you can see they’re pretty much all hinted at or directly stated before they happen. Still, they don’t actually explain in the comic what Utopia is or where it comes from, and that seems like a really weird choice to me for a comic called Utopia. Same with Trask and his Bio-Robots. That whole plot point seemed like it was being built up to be a BFD, but instead it was just cleared from the slate halfway through the comic without much lasting consequence. Weird choice, but okay. Other than that, though, I have little complaint here. Matt Fraction and the various artists do a great job of telling this story. It’s relatable, it’s understandable, it’s prescient, and it’s such a perfect example of an X-Men story through and through. It’s got all the hallmarks. Lots of action. Lots of cool mutant powers. Lots of fights that didn’t need to happen if people had just talked. And, most importantly, lots of reflection on social issues.

Series Recommendation Level of: High

It’s such a great fit into all the madness that occurs throughout the Messiah trilogy that you should absolutely read if you’re going through that era.

If you would like to read other Avengers/X-Men crossovers, I recommend:

Avengers vs. X-Men by Jason Aaron, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, et al.

Avengers/X-Men Bloodties by Bob Harras, Fabian Nicieza, Scott Lobdell, et al.

If you would like to read more about the Dark Avengers, I recommend:

Thunderbolts (2006) by Warren Ellis and Mike Deodato Jr.

Dark Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato Jr.

Collected Edition:

Avengers/X-Men: Utopia gets (1) X-Men X symbol. Which we’ll say is a good thing, of course. It’s not just the six issues of the main series. It’s all those bonus issues giving extra background and info, and it includes a good sized bonus cover gallery and a good collection of bonus art. This things over, like 350 pages of yummy X-Men goodness in a single package. Yum!