BIOGRAPHY - Page 21
The X-Force hit squad was also in a state of disrepair. After the deliberate but “necessary” murders of Archangel and her brother Jamie Braddock, Psylocke could no longer stomach being with Logan’s team. She and the lovelorn Fantomex left separately, leaving Wolverine’s team substantially undermanned at the worst of times. Sabretooth and Mystique continued their revenge against Wolverine by teaming up with Daken, the Shadow King and several of X-Force’s targets to create a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. They murdered Fantomex and captured Genesis for the purpose of revealing his true “Apocalyptic” nature to him. The coup de grace came when the Super-Sentinel called Ultimaton, freed of the late Fantomex’s misdirection, snapped Gateway’s neck and unleashed his super-cell energies and destroyed Cavern X with X-Force inside.
The team only survived because Psylocke prodded Gateway to send them to safety with his last breath. X-Force ended up in a future of their own making, one where X-Force’s methods led to their inevitable conclusion. In this world, Evan became the Apocalypse everyone feared he would become, killing his way through Earth’s heroes. Wolverine was forced to assemble an army of X-Force to stop him, and they were hailed as saviors when he was killed. Wolverine and Psylocke were given control of the world and after killing all the criminals, they began focusing on pre-criminals, identifying and killing anyone who even thought about committing murder.
Betsy could not handle the revelation, and tried to kill herself rather than allow the future come to pass, but their future selves saved her. As they prepared to return to the present, the future Wolverine whispered to Logan that he had the opportunity to kill Daken in the past, but couldn’t go through with it. As a result, Daken murdered the students at the Jean Grey School.
Once they returned, X-Force located Evan and the Brotherhood in Genosha. The operation went badly when Nightcrawler betrayed Wolverine for the opportunity to strike at his wife’s killer, the AoA’s Blob. Logan was left at the mercy of Daken, who tied him up for a father-son chat. Daken boasted about his plan to corrupt Evan and unleash him on the Jean Grey School to murder all the students, while letting everyone know this Apocalypse only existed because of the “great” Avenger and headmaster Wolverine and his secret band of killers. Daken’s jealousy over Logan’s relationship with Evan and the other students was so obvious he didn’t even bother to deny it. In the end, though, Daken said it was too late to turn back or repair the rift between them, as he tossed Wolverine into a pit of water.
Wolverine would have drowned if Deadpool and Genesis hadn’t pulled him free, and he went after Daken before his son could escape. Logan and Daken fought in the ruins of Genosha, and Logan silently acknowledged that there was no hope for his son. Turning Daken’s tactics against him, he drowned his own son in a small pool of water. When the deed was done, Sabretooth stepped out of the shadows to claim credit for Logan’s loss. It seemed this was Creed’s endgame all along: forming the Brotherhood, encouraging Daken to act out maliciously to garner his father’s attention, all to push Logan into the position where he had no choice but to kill his own son. Genesis was furious that someone could do something so unspeakably evil and nearly killed Sabretooth in revenge, but Logan stopped him. He told Evan to look around him, and witness just where revenge leads in the end. [The Final Execution Saga]
Thanks to White Sky technology, the team was able to revive Fantomex despite his death, but the entire team was done with murder and therefore done with X-Force. Wolverine allowed the team to disband as he returned to Japan to bury yet another child, and wonder about how things might have been. Although he didn’t completely reverse his stance on killing when it needed doing, Logan resolved to look for other solutions. [Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #35] While hunting the prepubescent Hellfire Club, he later instructed Rachel to remind him that no one was killing children on his watch, not even him, and not even if they deserved it. [Wolverine and the X-Men (1st series) #19]
The schism between the X-Men factions was tested when the Avengers detected the Phoenix Force heading for Earth. Logan, like the rest of the X-Men, believed it was coming for Hope Summers, being the destiny she was supposed to fulfill. While Cyclops firmly believed Hope and the Phoenix represented the rebirth of mutantkind, though, Captain America feared it signified the destruction of the Earth itself. Long range scans indicated the Phoenix Force was tearing its way through the cosmos to reach Earth, destroying entire worlds in its path. Reluctantly, Wolverine agreed to help the Avengers approach Utopia so that Cap could convince Cyclops to turn Hope over to them for protective custody. As Logan correctly warned them, however, Cyclops utterly refused to do so, and a war began on the beaches of Utopia between the Avengers and the X-Men. [Avengers vs. X-Men #1, Wolverine and the X-Men (1st series) #9]
Remembering the promise he made to himself months earlier, Wolverine broke off from the main battle to seek out Hope and execute her before the Phoenix took hold of her. Unfortunately, the proximity of the Phoenix Force made Hope more powerful than ever, and she casually burnt Logan to a crisp with her cosmic flame. Believing she could control the Phoenix Force when it arrived, Hope fled Utopia before she could be taken into custody. [Avengers vs. X-Men #2, Uncanny X-Men (2nd series) #11]
When Logan woke up after healing, he found the X-Men had apparently surrendered after it was clear Hope was no longer on Utopia. Smelling a rat, he was too late to stop Magik from teleporting Cyclops’ team away from the Avengers. [Avengers vs. X-Men #3] As the Avengers planned their next move, Wolverine escorted Utopia’s student population to Avengers Academy for safe keeping before returning to the Jean Grey School for a respite. Logan was as surprised as anyone when Cyclops and Magik teleported in under a white flag. Scott wanted one last chance to convince Logan they were doing the right thing for mutantkind, but ultimately both men refused to budge on their opinions. [Wolverine and the X-Men (1st series) #10, Avengers Academy #29]
Wolverine wasn’t the only X-Man present at the school, though, and some of the others did listen to Cyclops. He soon found several members of his staff fighting alongside the other X-Men against the Avengers in the hunt for Hope. His alliance with the Avengers wasn’t any smoother. Captain America realized Logan intended to kill Hope when he found her and Cap refused to sanction an execution. When Wolverine wouldn’t back down, Cap tossed him out the Quinjet they were flying in, leaving Logan stranded in the middle of nowhere. [Avengers vs. X-Men #3]
Oddly enough, it was Hope who rescued Wolverine from the wilderness. She insisted she felt capable of handling the Phoenix Force when it arrived, and wanted Logan to give her the chance to do so. Wolverine agreed to accompany her to the Blue Area of the Moon to meet the Phoenix, but secretly felt that killing her was still the only way. When they were attacked en route by the Shi’ar Death Commandos, fearing another rogue Phoenix manifestation, Hope went cosmic. Seeing the power of the Phoenix flowing through her, Logan had the chance to eliminate Hope, but ultimately found he couldn’t pop his claws on her any more than he could against Jean years earlier. Instead, Wolverine sent a coded signal to Captain America, alerting the Avengers to their destination. [Avengers vs. X-Men #4, Wolverine and the X-Men (1st series) #11]
The X-Men and Avengers met in battle again on the moon when the Phoenix arrived. Tony Stark attempted to disperse the Force before it landed, but instead he accidentally scattered its power, turning Cyclops and four other X-Men present into separate hosts for the Phoenix Force. [Avengers vs. X-Men #5] Over the next ten days, the Phoenix Five declared peace on Earth, using the power of the Phoenix Force to end war, feed the hungry, improve the environment, and so forth. Despite their good deeds, Wolverine and the Avengers continued to fear the onset of a Dark Phoenix manifestation, and tirelessly planned against such a scenario. Although the Phoenix ultimately passed her by, Iron Man and the other scientists reasoned that Hope was still a key element to the situation, and they decided to make another effort to acquire her. The Avengers infiltrated the reconstructed Utopia, but would’ve failed without the sudden arrival of the Scarlet Witch, whose hex power proved an anathema to the Phoenix Five’s power. Their attack was the final straw for Cyclops, though, and he and the Phoenix Five declared… No More Avengers. [Avengers vs. X-Men #6]
Over the next several days, Wolverine and the Avengers trained Hope to harness her abilities, as the Phoenix Five became increasingly erratic. They were fighting a losing battle, though, which became especially clear when everyone learned that when one of the Phoenix Five fell, their power transferred to the remaining members of the quintet. With the fall of Namor, Colossus and Magik, the Avengers still had the now indescribably powerful Cyclops and Emma Frost in their path. [Avengers vs. X-Men #7-10]
As the Phoenix’s corruption was now evident to all, Wolverine welcomed his staff back to the Jean Grey School, as X-Men and Avengers alike prepared for the final battle against the Phoenix hosts. [Wolverine and the X-Men (1st series) #15] On Utopia, Cyclops turned on Emma Frost to increase his own power, and began channeling the full might of the Phoenix Force himself. Driven mad with power, Cyclops could not be stopped when he killed Charles Xavier with a passing thought. The Dark Phoenix Cyclops brought devastation to the planet until Hope and the Scarlet Witch succeeded in transferring the Phoenix power back to Hope. Hope held the Phoenix Force long enough to reverse the catastrophes caused by Cyclops and undo the Decimation, before willing the Phoenix to leave her and the Earth behind. [Avengers vs. X-Men #11-12]
The X-Men and Avengers did their best to pick up the pieces after Armageddon was nearly visited on the Earth by one of their own. A memorial shrine was created for Charles Xavier at the Jean Grey School, and Wolverine delivered the eulogy. [Uncanny Avengers (1st series) #1] Despite preaching Xavier’s message of peace and brotherhood at the ceremony, 
Wolverine privately could barely restrain himself from killing Cyclops for what he had done. Summers was being held in prison pending trial for his actions, and Captain America asked Logan to speak to him about asking his fellow Extinction Team members to turn themselves in. Logan reluctantly had the conversation he had been dreading, and confronted Cyclops in the prison about Charles’ death. Scott’s grief had made him virtually suicidal, and he nearly succeeded in taunting Logan into killing him in his cell, before Logan realized how badly Scott wanted to die. [AVX: Consequences #1-2]
Although Scott admitted his guilt and culpability in everything that happened, the emergence of new mutants made everything regrettable but necessary in his eyes. He was content to be a “political prisoner” of the U.S. government for the time being, while the public digested his message of mutant brotherhood. At least, he WAS content until a new mutant housed in the prison with him was murdered before his eyes in the first of a new era of human-on-mutant hate crimes. Logan came to Scott after the boy’s passing and begged him not to do anything rash. Nevertheless, Cyclops staged an escape from the prison with the remnants of his Extinction Team, and took vengeance for the fallen mutant. Scott left Logan a letter during his breakout. He told Logan how much the latter had matured since he met him, and that Logan was an excellent choice to represent mutantkind at the school… but someone had to be the man who did what was necessary. And now Cyclops would be that man. [AVX: Consequences #3-5]