This is going to get ugly. I mean that in a good way. WHAT IF? stories give writers free reign over telling whatever kind of story they want. While the original AVX was seemingly meant to be a big epic story, there were some areas where it fell flat. In the WHAT IF? format, plus the fact that this is a four-issue miniseries instead of a one-shot, Palmiotti will be able to dig deep and really cut loose on the Marvel Universe. That alone is reason enough to check this out. Read Full Review

When picking up AVX last year I was expecting something along the lines of civil war but having it pit X-Men against Avengers, instead we get Marvel vs five mutants controlled by the phoenix force (oh no we've never seen that). But this time war has been declared and feels precisely how I feel AVX should have originally felt. Read Full Review

Why didn't Jimmy Palmiotti write the "actual" Avengers vs. X-Men? Only one issue deep and we have a death take place!? I love it! This is what would REALLY happen if these two went head to head. Read Full Review

Much like the inconsequential scenes though, many of the events have no rhyme or reason to them. They appear to happen simply to switch things up which is a bit annoying. I'd like to know why Magneto is training Hope for instance but it's not explained. I suppose the reason for this is because the whole point of this sreies is to see things play out a little differently. The whys will come when things start to change. Read Full Review

In the end, while this issue gives you a lot of things to say that happened, there isn't much else there to hold on to. While the originalAvXevent had suffered from similar problems, theWhat If?question that Palmiotti is presenting is probably the least interesting one that could have come from a comic book that is using itas it's premise –what if Hope possessed the Phoenix Force?, what if Professor X wasn't killed?, what if Cyclops had stayed in control of the Phoenix Force?, etc. There's a myriad of more compelling story ideas to tackle here. Fortunately, there are still three issues left to save this four-part miniseries from becoming a complete wash. Read Full Review

Molina's art is also fairly dull, with little consistency to his character designs and some less than effective facial work. Molina's work on Wolverine and the X-Men during AvX was a much stronger effort all-around.In short, nothing here offers encouragement to stick around for the remaining three issues. Maybe some year Marvel will manage to restore the What If? franchise to its former glory, but clearly not this year. Read Full Review

As someone who loves What If?, generally, I can't tell you how disappointing this comic is. Sure, it'd be perfectly fine as the first issue of "AvX," but this? This is no "What If?" Read Full Review

I suggest a new book. What If Avengers Vs. X-Men Was Way Way Better? Read Full Review

Overall, I enjoyed it and await the next issue. Palmiotti and Gray very rarely steer me wrong and Jimmy alone is still a great writer. I think the major problem was making this a multiple part story when What If books are typically tight "one and done" issues. Read Full Review

As for the issue's attempt to incite a desire to return for more, close readers will see that there's potentially a little more going on than the page makes explicit, but it's still in typical "What If"?" territory: unexpected deaths, things going rapidly awry, but no particular point to make -- at least, not yet. A 4-issue series means there's the potential for a closer examination of the themes and ideas than the average one-issue cover version can manage, but let's face it: like all "What If"?" stories, it's a novelty at best. Read Full Review