AVX: VS #4

Issue Date: 
September 2012
Story Title: 
untitled
Staff: 

(1st story) Rick Remender (Writer), Brandon Peterson (Artist), VC’s Joe Caramanga (Letters and Production), Jordan D. White (Assistant Editor), Nick Lowe (Editor), Axel Alonso (Editor in Chief), Joe Quesada (Chief Creative Officer), Dan Buckley (Publisher), Alan Fine (Executive Producer)

(2nd story) Kaare Andrews (Writer and Artist), VC’s Joe Caramanga (Letters), Jordan D. White (Assistant Editor), Nick Lowe (Editor), Axel Alonso (Editor in Chief), Joe Quesada (Chief Creative Officer), Dan Buckley (Publisher), Alan Fine (Executive Producer)

Brief Description: 

(1st story)
Psylocke vs. Daredevil. On the rooftops of New York City, the two ninjas face off. After an initial attack, Psylocke tries to use her telepathy on Daredevil but is overcome by his hyper-senses. After another skirmish, both are bleeding and Daredevil disappears into the shadows. Psylocke follows but is ambushed by Daredevil and he knocks her off a rooftop. He saves her but she had tricked him and she kicks him in the chest. As she’s about to use her psychic knife on him, he talks to her and put doubts in her mind about that X-Men’s actions. He takes the opportunity to escape as Psylocke is left wondering if the X-Men will abuse their power. Winner: Draw

(2nd story)
Thor vs. Emma Frost. On Utopia, the two square off. Both muses on how powerful they are. Thor offers Emma one last chance to give up but she insults him instead. As they start to fight, Emma tries to use her telepathy but she can’t enter the mind of a god. Thor hits her with his hammer and a bolt of lightning. Emma is thrown from Utopia onto the streets of San Francisco. As Thor flies down, he goes to hit her again but she stops him. She insults him again and he hits her so hard her diamond form shatters and the shards are flung into orbit. Thor thinks he’s won but the shards rain down on him and reform. Emma then starts punching and kicking him to a bloody pulp. She leaves Thor crumpled up on the ground. Winner: Emma Frost

Full Summary: 

(1st story)

Daredevil vs. Psylocke

As he runs along the rooftops of New York City, Daredevil wonders how many years he has ignored it. The greatest army of X gathering in the west… more than an army… a family… bonded by genetics. He leaps between two buildings and uses his radar sense to see where he is going. He says they should have paid attention. Now with five of them omnipotent and the Avengers outlawed, they should have considered the potential for desperate action.

AvX Fun Fact: Daredevil’s radar sense gives him more information than sight gives you.

Daredevil’s radar picks up Psylocke standing on a rooftop. She realizes that they never cared about them. Their backs against the wall time and time again but no Avengers ever came. Now with the power to bring peace to the world, they don’t trust them.

Daredevil throws one of his batons at Psylocke but she deflects it with her katana and causes the surrounding pigeons to take flight. Daredevil kicks the katana out her hand and strikes her. He notices that she used the pigeons as camouflage and realizes she was also trained by the Hand.

AvX Fun Fact: Psylocke is not only a powerful telepath but she was once the Hand’s premier assassin.

Both fighters regain their footing and pause for a moment. Daredevil notices her stalling and figures she’s up to something. Psylocke sees that he is mirroring her every move and she knows she won’t defeat him hand to hand. She tried using her telepathy on him but she collapses in pain due to a feedback. In that moment, Daredevil realizes she is a telepath and muses on the fact that she just realized what it’s like to experience his hyper sense. Whilst she is distracted, he takes the opportunity to attack her. She manages to dodge him as the last moment, even though she is feeling a lifetime’s worth of migraines.

He kicks her in the chest and she falls backwards. He can feel her heart beating and realizes that this is no casual skirmish; she’s angry, probably imagining some personal resentment. She grabs hold of his foot and uses his momentum to swing him into a wall. She is thinking that their home was unilaterally attacked, even though they committed no crime. But they have the power to stand up to thugs and make them regret their intrusion.

Daredevil can see she is fighting with intention, which puts him on the defensive. It’s time to change that. Psylocke goes to punch him but he dodges and counters it with an elbow to the head. He takes the opportunity to disappear whilst she recovers. As she wipes the blood from her nose, she says they both know who they are dealing with now.

She follows a trail of Daredevil’s blood off the rooftop and onto a lower one. Daredevil watches her hunting like a ninja but she has no reason to expect he is one too. He leaps off a water tower above her and knocks her off the rooftop. Realizing she turned at the wrong moment, he tries to grab her before she falls to her death. He throws a baton to the water tower and then grabs hold of Psylocke’s sash. They swing downwards through a window.

As they crash through the glass, Psylocke says he is overconfident. She drew him out, leaving him vulnerable. It’s a shame to punish him for doing the right thing but here they are. As they land she kicks him in the chest sending him backwards.

AvX Fun Fact: Psylocke’s psychic knife can cause neurological collapse. Putting opponents to sleep for days.

Psylocke stands over him, ready to plunge her psychic knife in his head. He tells her she’s angry and she asks what gave it away. He says she feels persecuted and that now they have the power they will see how differently the X-Men do it. If the ambush is any indicator, it won’t be long before she has them on an island. Psylocke is taken aback, which daredevil uses to his advantage. His kicks her in the chest, knocking her down. He tells her they have a lot to think about and then runs off. As he leaves, he asks what she really wants. Psylocke is unable to say anything as she watches him swing away.

Winner: draw

(2nd story)

Thor vs. Emma Frost

Utopia

One Asgardian god stares across the floating asphalt into the eyes of a mortal woman. Or rather, a woman who once was mortal. But the Phoenix Force burns brightly within Emma Frost and even one hundred yards away Thor feels its unearthly heat. But Thor has felt heat upon him before. The serpents of Muspelheim, land of the fire demons. He has felt cold, the icy wrath of the frost giant of Jotenheim. The one thing he has not felt is fear towards such a delicate opponent.

But Emma Frost has made a life of being underestimated. Taking men of power and bending them to her will. No man ever stood in her way of her wants and needs and this one will be no exception.

Thor tells Emma he has no wish to lay hands on her and then asks her to stand aside. Emma simply tells him to address her as “Your Majesty” and then says before the day is out he will be kneeling before her. Thor readies his hammer and says she will not like what his hand has to offer. Emma replies that when alls a man has is a hammer then everything looks like a nail.

As the two rush towards each other, Thor tells her he is no mere man. She agrees and says he a talking dog with a shiny, blonde coat.

AvX Fun Fact: Emma Frost is one of the most powerful telepaths on the planet but has she ever looked into the mind of a….

Emma tries to touch Thor’s mind but she can’t. He raises his hammer high above his head ready to slam it down.

AvX Fun Fact: Mjolnir: A mythical weapon that can bend time and space, harness the weather and travel at twice the speed of light. Only the worthy can lift it, anyone else it buries.

AvX Fun Fact: When lightning strikes, you can see it before you can hear it.

Thor slams his hammer down on Emma and causes a huge lightning bolt to strike the earth. The bolt punches a hole through Utopia and hits the streets down far below. Emma is thrown down to the city below and lands with a thump. Thor flies down to her and tells her that he warned her that he wasn’t no mere man. As he nears the ground, he raises his hammer ready to hit her again.

AvX Fun Fact: In her diamond form, Emma’s body is virtually tireless. She has no need for food or water and she is numbed from pain both physical and emotional. Combine that with the power of the Phoenix and even a god should take care.

Emma grabs him hand before he can hit her and tells him she should have guessed that a boy who takes such girlish care of his locks would hit like one. She asks him if he has ever wished a woman would put him on all fours and take grab hold of that mane. She tells him she can keep a secret; even a god of thunder needs a whipping now and then. She smiles and tells him she has such pretty things to dress him in. He hits her with his hammer and sends her sideways. Before she can recover, he swings upwards and shatters her diamond body into a thousand fragments.

AvX Fun Fact: What goes up…

The shards of diamond are flung high up in the air and into space. Thor stands over her remains and says that gods are not to be trifled with.

AvX Fun Fact: Must eventually come back down

Above Thor the sky starts to sparkle and he looks up to see the diamond shards hurtling towards him. They rain down on him and Emma Frost reforms her body. In her diamond form, she tells him the Force inside her isn’t so easily beaten. With that, she engages him in hand to hand and easily beats him till he bleeds. Grabbing hold of his head, she says the Force inside her tastes like fire. She kicks him in the head and then slams her foot on him as he lies on the floor. She stares down at him and comments that man or god, she was hoping for something with a little more thunder.

Winner: Emma Frost

Characters Involved: 

(1st story)
Daredevil

Psylocke

(2nd story)
Thor

Emma Frost

(in Thor’s memories)
Thor

(in Emma Frost’s memories)
Emma Frost
Business Man

Story Notes: 

This is tie-in to the Avengers vs. X-Men event.

It’s hard to pinpoint when these fights take place but it must be after Avengers vs. X-Men #5, when the X-Men were possessed by the Phoenix Force. Thor would later be captured and defeated by Magik and Colossus in Avengers vs. X-Men #9.

(1st story)
An amnesic Psylocke was trained by the Hand in Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #256-258.

It’s interesting that both Psylocke and Daredevil seem very unaware as to each other’s histories and power sets. Even though they have had very little interaction on the past, they are both two significant heroes who should at least be aware of the other.

Whilst this fight is labeled as a draw, Psylocke was about to defeat Daredevil and he then escaped.

Avengers: 3
X-Men: 4
Draw: 1

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