It feels like forever since Marvel first started pushing that there would be some big time deaths upcoming in this book, and I’ll be honest, I could have sworn they were supposed to happen last issue, and I hated on it for that reason. Because there was nothing delivered in the way of a body count.
Whoops, spoke too soon! This issue went ahead and rectified that, and, as promised, some name brand characters died. Generally when Marvel says something like “An Avenger will die!” you need to look no further than the fringe members of the current roster to figure out who it would be, and honestly, I came in expecting Sunfire to kick the bucket. I mean, Marvel already hates him, look at his last ten years! He’s had his legs cut off, Rogue take his powers, M-Day take what’s left of them, an AoA makeover to work for Apocalypse and Sinister to get back his legs and powers, and then all of it shoved aside until a few mentions in this book. I fully expected Shiro to die here.
What I didn’t expect, however, are the characters who did die.
I mean, Wanda JUST came back! Not that she was dead, just radioactive and covered in Disassembled and House of M stank. Children’s Crusade was supposed to redeem her and bring her back into the fold, and while it did the latter of those things, the former was handled as ‘blame it all on Doom’ and I still hate them for it. Then Avengers Vs. X-Men was supposed to be her returning to prominence as a key member of the cast, but she really just showed up for the beginning and end to say how M-Day wasn’t her fault (kinda was). Which brings us to Uncanny Avengers, where she’s really just been a giant bitch since the first issue.
Maybe this is Marvel’s way of saying that they give up on her? I mean, it’s sure as hell not a push to give Rogue depth or angst, despite the initial push that things are heading that way.
Since she’s the other death, cleaved in half by the Grim Reaper while Wolverine goes berzerk. Which is lame, because Rogue has really grown into a really strong character over the past few years, almost entirely due to the work of Mike Carey who has truly redefined her. She’s no longer the angsty southern belle that can’t touch anyone for fear of killing them, nor is she the deus ex machina that she morphed into in the early 2000’s, she was just….well, Rogue. She was simplified, she made sense, and given that she’s using Wolverine’s claws, and he’s clearly used his healing factor during this arc, I can’t imagine her death sticks.
Or maybe I can, jeez, I forgot that this was Remender. He who knows what he’s doing, and thus, how to close obvious loopholes. I’m not sure even Wolverine could come back from that, and he has the full force of the healing factor.
So here’s the thing, though, Wanda didn’t just fall over dead after getting impaled on a pair of claws. She crawled around, did some magic, and then Simon did something very Simon like.
He sacrificed himself. Not the first time, not the last time, but he sacrificed himself to save the day, and we’ll find out next issue whether or not Wanda lives, and sometime down the line about the true casualties of the issue.
Rogue and Wonder Man.
