Marvel's X-Sanction Miniseries and Avengers VS X-men

This past week Marvel released issue 4 of 4 in it's miniseries "X-Sanction". For those of you who don't already know, X-Sanction is the transitional miniseries supposed to tie the current Marvel Universe with the upcoming storyline, "Avengers VS X-men". Issue 4 was just released this past week, and we're all dying to know- what's going to happen next!?

[SPOILERS BELOW]

Let me just get right into it. The cover is misleading. Most covers are, but for a miniseries and such a huge one at that, I was personally disappointed to see the cover-art NOT have the costumes shown. It was so cool to see Wolverine in his X-force suit, and Spider-man in his Black/Symbiote suit, but alas- no such luck for the actual story. The entire issue is in their classic costumes, which isn't so bad considering they arrived on the scene the previous issue in those costumes and there'd be no real reason for them to change. Oh well.

So what's in this issue? Fighting. Lots and lots and lots of fighting. That's practically all they do. The issue opens with Wolverine figuring out that Cap, Falcon, and Iron man are missing, and that Red Hulk has been gone some time too. After leaving the scene he was at to Luke Cage and the New Avengers, he and Spider-man take to the trail of the missing heroes. This of course was just a small flashback, and since we knew they were already there from the previous issue, I'm not sure why they wanted to include this.

There's two parts to this fight. The first part, is that Cable gets beaten. He gets beaten straight through to submission, left on the ground pretty much about to die. The other part of the fight is that Hope thinks to herself all that she has learned from Cable, and begins to deactivate the prisons for the Avengers. Eventually she succeeds, which is the overall reason Cable gets beaten. Additionally, we see the Red Hulk burning out the Techno Organic Virus given to him last issue. As he says, it's like fighting a disease with a fever!

Which leads into the next part of the issue, Hope touches the dying Cable on the arm, and absorbs the Techno-Organic virus! Now how does this tie in to the Red Hulk's situation? Well as any comic-reader knows, the next "Avengers VS X-men" has to do with the arrival of the Phoenix Force, and Hope uses her own inner flames to burn out the virus. We can only assume Hope is the Phoenix, as noone but the writers are 100% certain, but look at the image at the top of the page for reassurance. Mind you, everyone in the room witnessed this transformation, so this is not some little secret. That aside, Cable was left in his human form, no evidence of the virus, and everyone goes their separate ways.

Then we reach the last few pages of the issue. This is where we get the confirmation- Cable contacts Cyclops telepathically, and lets him know that Hope is the Phoenix, that her existence pretty much invalidated the future he foresaw, and that things are going to get tough for everyone.

Overall I give the issue a meager 5/10. The fights were expected, the outcomes were "meh" at best, and let's face it- do you know why Avengers VS X-men is coming? I don't, at least not directly. These events only confirm that the Phoenix is here, but if you've kept up with comics you knew this already. The biggest outcome we can get from this is that Cable no longer has the virus, which depending on the development of the character can turn Cable into one of the most powerful mutants...

If you see it in the store, finish off your 4-book set of X-Sanction, but otherwise don't bother. Aside from Cable being back in our time without the virus, there's nothing you don't already know. Until then, get ready for Avengers Vs X-men!