No, not Avengers vs. X-Men, the 2012ish tentpole event that gave us Wolverine killing polar bears in Antarctica. I'm not touching that crock of shit with a ten-foot pole.
This 4-issue mini-series from 1987, running almost concurrently with Fantastic Four vs. X-Men (see Sunday Splash Page #190), which started two months prior. That story focused a little more on the desperate situation the X-Men were in after Mutant Massacre. Hiding out on Muir Island, searching for some way to save Shadowcat's life, especially once Reed Richards turned them down.
That mini-series did spend some time on the difficulty Magneto faced trying to move to the other side of the tracks after joining the X-Men. The FF met his plea for help with suspicion and anything that started to go wrong only reinforced their doubts. This mini-series leans more heavily into that side of things, as well as the fallout of Magneto's interrupted trial in Uncanny X-Men #200.
Parts of his old Asteroid M base fall to Earth, and Magneto goes to make sure some important devices he left behind are either destroyed, or don't fall into other hands. The Soviet Super-Soldiers are on his trail, determined to bring him in for sinking that Soviet submarine, dead or alive. Preferably dead. The Avengers are not OK with this, for various reasons. Thor thinks it's dishonorable, She-Hulk and Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau) question the legality of it. Captain America just really thinks Magneto needs to stand trial for his crimes, and does not agree with the finding of a previous court that this is a different Magneto from in his early years because of that Defenders story where Magneto got de-aged then grew up again from a baby.
I'm not sure about Roger Stern having Captain America compare Magneto to Hitler, when he says the world must not be denied its chance to see Magneto stand trial the way they were with Hitler. That feels like a bad analogy to use, for a host of reasons.
In the middle of all this are the X-Men, unsure where their responsibilities lie. Magneto is being cagey about what he's after, and keeps taking off alone. He's actually trying to keep the X-Men from being dragged into his mess, but since they're already dragged in, Wolverine feels like Mags is playing them for patsies and ditching them once they aren't useful. Should they make Magneto stand trial? Can he get a fair trial? He's been an X-Man for about five minutes, how much leash do they give him? Do they keep trusting him until he explicitly goes bad, and would that be too late?
On top of all that, they're outgunned. If not by the Soviet Super-Soldiers, definitely by the Avengers. Especially when you consider this is an Avengers' roster with Monica Rambeau, when she's being written by Roger Stern. Stern really plays her up as this weapon neither of the other teams has any defense against. She can slip through Magneto's force fields, and catch up to Rogue or the Blackbird effortlessly. Short out Titanium Man's armor when he's possibly overpowering Thor (who is under Hela's curse of having brittle bones at this point.) Although Stern came up with a vague excuse for Longshot and Psylocke not to be around (they "stayed behind" while the rest of the team went to lounge at a lake somewhere). I suspect a telepath would have leveled the odds at least a little against Captain Marvel, and leveling odds is what Longshot does best.
But this way it plays into the feeling of the X-Men being off-balance and just scrambling to stay alive while under attack from enemies on all sides. There's too many threats, too few people they can trust, no mansion in Westchester or any other safe haven. They just don't have enough firepower to stand up to it. So they have to play hit-and-run, try to hide and sneak around.
The last issue is written by Tom DeFalco and Jim Shooter, and drawn by Keith Pollard and Rubenstein, with three inkers. I don't know if there was some editorial difference of opinion leading to Stern and/or Silvestri getting pulled, or it was just a deadline crunch. It sure feels like they decided to change the ending for some reason.
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