Saturday, June 9, 2012

Avengers vs. X-Men #5

I'll give this issue credit - it at least managed to surprise me a bit.

As we saw in the Avengers movie (and in five decades of Marvel Comics), it's a tradition for Marvel's heroes to meet and fight. I love that tradition.

But the Avengers vs. X-Men series seems determined to beat it to a pulp.

The plot of the story is simple enough - the two teams meet on the Moon (conveniently in the Blue Zone, where there's atmosphere). They fight. The Phoenix finally arrives (it obviously took the scenic route). Then something surprising happens, which should propel us nicely into the next issue.

While it's not as blatant about it as some comics, this series is really dragging its feet, trying to allow the maximum time for all the spin-off features that are advertised within. See Namor fight the Thing (again)! Black Widow vs. Magik! Red Hulk vs. Colossus / Juggernaut (again)! Hawkeye vs. Emma Frost (my guess is they end up making out).

You get the idea.

The best thing about the series is the excellent art by John Romita, Jr. and Scott Hanna, running the gamut from intense emotional expressions to full-blown cosmic collisions.

Hopefully future issues will manage some more surprises and lean a bit less on the formula. I'd hate to suffer a burnout on such a treasured tradition.

Grade: B+

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1 comment:

Dom said...

I'm pretty burned out on JRJr's art. I'm looking forward to the next batch of issues which I believe feature different artists.