Similarly to film, summers tend to lend themselves to huge blockbuster story lines in comics. With seven years of planning behind it, Marvel's 2012 foray pits the Avengers against the X-Men. The Hope-centric plot brings together the world's greatest heroes and places them on opposing sides; one fights to save the world, the other to preserve its very existence.

A mysterious force has been killing Green Lanterns left and right and John and Guy have taken a team deep into space to end this intergalactic threat. The team arrives on the planet Xabas, only to come face-to-face with the Keepers. The Keepers quickly dispatch many of the Lanterns and gain the upper hand and force Guy and John to call a retreat. Many of them transport back to Oa using one of the present Lantern's natural teleportation powers, but they quickly find that Stewart and a small number of Lanterns have been left behind to fight for their lives.