Judgment Day (Or Not)

 

As an unofficial encore to Captain Marvel's role as chairwoman of the Avengers during writer Roger Stern's run on the title, those of you who have followed Stern's Marvel work and were fans as well of either The Avengers or X-Men might have caught the four-issue limited series The X-Men vs. the Avengers from mid-1987, which Stern would write ¾ of (at which time a different writer/artist team would take the reins of the story for its conclusion). The series takes place roughly between the time Captain Marvel accepts Captain America's nomination for the team's leadership position, and the Avengers' mission to Olympus which would conclude Stern's work on the book. The true focus of the series, however, would prove to be Magneto, the Master of Magnetism--and, more specifically, the resolution of the Paris trial which had been convened to hold him accountable for past crimes against the human race.

Yet the prelude to this story occurs years earlier, with the explosive arrival of an alien we would come to know in the New Mutants as Warlock.

Magneto survives the impact, thanks to the ministrations of Lee Forrester, who fishes him out of the ocean and brings him to the island where he once fought a pitched battle with the X-Men--the repercussions of which led, in part, to his trial. As for his asteroid, two sizable parts of it survive their fall to Earth a few years later, and draw the interest of not only Magneto but three super-teams which would vie to decide his ultimate fate.

It's the Avengers who would manage to intercept one of the asteroid portions and safely bring it down--and a representative of the National Security Council is on hand when two members of the team discover hidden properties of the piece that pique the NSC's interest further.

Meanwhile, the closing panel depicts a rail yard in the then-Soviet Union that's been affected by the second portion of the asteroid on its descent--and here, it's the Soviet Super-Soldiers who intervene to save lives, after which a member of the K.G.B. (the Crimson Dynamo) puts them on a path to an agenda that plays on their pride as Soviet citizens.

(I would think there just has to be an action figure somewhere of the Gremlin emerging from the Titanium Man, but I'll be darned if I can find one.)

At a cove along the Atlantic shore, our third group of players, the X-Men, are enjoying some R&R when Magneto, who agreed to take over for Charles Xavier at his Westchester school, overhears a news announcement that sets him off to investigate the second asteroid fragment which impacted in southeast Asia--his departure watched closely by Wolverine, who has his concerns as to Magneto's motivation.

The pieces of this story (no pun intended) nearly assembled, our attention turns back to the Avengers, where Captain America briefs the team on a new development which, even in light of the prior crimes of Magneto, puts them in an awkward position. When all has been said, however, they decide to err on the side of justice.

Clearly a meeting of the minds is in order for all parties involved in finding Magneto. But with the Avengers first to arrive on the scene to intercept Magneto at the site of the second fragment, they find that they're working at cross-purposes with both the X-Men and the Soviets (and the Dynamo in particular)--and their authority proves to carry little weight with either the team which is out to protect their fellow mutant from unjust treatment, or those whose homeland and officers have been the targets of Magneto's fatal wrath.

In the melee, the X-Men manage to escape with Magneto, at least temporarily, though answers are short in coming as far as Magneto offering any concrete reasons that would justify his behavior.

Eventually, Magneto manages to break away in order to further investigate the second asteroid fragment, recovering from the remnants of "Asteroid M" his helmet along with valuable circuitry designed to work in tandem with it--but his presence at the site prompts another battle between the Avengers and the X-Men, while he himself feels even less inclined to share the truth about what his thoughts are regarding this matter. Yet as the X-Men board a freighter bound for Singapore, we finally learn just what it is that preoccupies those thoughts.

An attack by the Soviets, however, causes a disaster instigated by the Dynamo that forces the X-Men and Magneto to take refuge in Singapore, where the other two teams converge in a catch-me-if-you-can series of encounters. During his time there, Magneto is intercepted by a group of mutants who wish to help him evade his pursuers--but an encounter with the authorities serves to prod him toward making use of his helmet's modifications, even as Captain America strives to convince him of his folly.

And so Magneto is finally brought again before the International Court of Justice in Paris to face the judgment he avoided once before.  The prosecution and defense counsel remain the same (respectively, England's Attorney General, Sir James Jaspers, and Israel's Ambassador to Britain, Gabrielle Haller), with jurists from France (Chief Justice Du Motier), England (Lady Southerland), and Switzerland (Gustave Uderzo) comprising a pared down tribunal (omitting this time judges from China, the Soviet Union, and the U.S.). As intimated above, this final issue of the series has changed creative hands*, which helps to explain the almost frantic and haphazard pace of this trial's motions and witnesses--for example, a defense motion objecting to the court's jurisdiction over Magneto is flatly denied, and yet, at story's end, the court concludes it has no right to judge him by reason that it has no jurisdiction over him. Inbetween, there are parallels to be found between this trial and the previous one (e.g., a a rehashing of the Leningrad incident), as well as rulings that have Magneto thinking the worst of those who sit in judgment of him.

*Tom DeFalco and Jim Shooter, co-plotters (DeFalco scripts); Keith Pollard (breakdowns), Joe Rubinstein finishing (along with contributors Bob McLeod, Al Williamson, and Al Milgrom).

Magneto does himself, and the story, no favors in reasoning that only a verdict of "not guilty" can guarantee peace between the human race and those mutants who will interpret a "guilty" verdict as an act of war (a far cry from the impassioned words he delivered previously to the courtroom in his own defense)--no trial court that I'm aware of would instruct its jury to consider the possible repercussions of their decision when rendering their verdict. And so Magneto's attempt to prove his suspicion that Du Motier is a mutant who wants such a war tends to come across in just the way that Captain Marvel describes it (a man "grasping at straws"), though the fate of The Light and his group would seem to lend credence to what might seem a rash assumption.

How interesting, then, that a bit of eavesdropping on Captain Marvel's part makes it clear that DeFalco intends for this trial's ruling to possibly hinge on that very point. Regrettably, Magneto makes his own decision accordingly, only to discover that the very conflict he sought to avoid appears to be certain no matter which way his verdict is rendered.

Curious reasoning, indeed: An International Court of Justice, posing the question of whether it has "the right to try the accused for violating the protocols of the International Laws of War." You'd be hard-pressed to find a better match of both venue and jurisdiction here; if there are international laws of war, why the need for an international court to punt this case back to the aggrieved nations? Regardless, this court's answer to its question is a resounding "No," a decision which must have made the Soviet Super-Soldiers livid in light of their own decision to allow the Avengers to handle Magneto's disposition.

---

A bit of trivia to close with, and some joy to send you on your way...

Reportedly, the new creative team for the final issue was put in place for reasons which involved both Stern and artist Marc Silvestri--the latter having moved to his new gig as regular artist on Uncanny X-Men, while Mr. Stern had this to say on his own situation:

"Well, in the first place, I wasn't planning on making any sweeping change in Magneto. Mind you, I thought the idea of the X-Men (and their readers) so easily believing that Magneto was "a good guy now" and accepted as their leader/teacher in Xavier's absence was at the very least unwise. But that had become the status quo in the X-books, and it wasn't my place to monkey with it. I intended to just ignore it.

"But then, the marketing folk decided that there should be an Avengers vs. X-Men miniseries (and a Fantastic Four vs. the Avengers) miniseries. And I was told that if I didn't write it, someone else would. With that hanging over my head, I had to deal with the fact that a notorious international terrorist was in charge on the X-Men. So, I had to come up with a way of allowing Magneto to go on doing what he was doing in the X-Men, without making the Avengers look foolish for letting him go.

"I thought I had. I outlined the entire miniseries before I started, and got it approved. I wouldn't have even started on the project without that approval. But then, after the final plot was written, everything was changed. And I never got an answer as to why. So I passed on scripting the final issue. If I'd known that I was soon going to be fired from the Avengers, I probably would have passed on the entire project."

Also, I'll leave it to more contemporary readers and writers to follow up with the reverse-billing of this concept--2012's crossover event Avengers vs. X-Men. Matt Derman writing for Comic Book Resources, for instance, has some interesting thoughts on a comparison of the two efforts, and on the '87 series in particular.

Today the PPC takes the rest of the year off to enjoy the holidays--
we'll see you back here in 2023!

(with a nod to the folks at Family Christmas Pajamas)