I’ve got several weeks of comics here to work through, so covering them all in one go isn’t really an option. \u00a0Let’s start off with the backlog of AvX tie-ins that have come out since last we spoke…<\/p>\n
Avengers\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>#28-29<\/strong> – Brian Bendis has developed an odd approach to crossovers on the\u00a0Avengers<\/em> titles. \u00a0Instead of trying to continue any ongoing stories, he more or less seems to put everything on hold in favour of a string of one-off stories, either filling out the background, or just… filling the pages, sometimes. \u00a0These two issues are certainly written in the margins of the crossover, but they’re also entirely self-contained, with no attempt at any flow between them. \u00a0It’s an unusual way for an ongoing series to deal with crossover events.<\/p>\n Issue #28 is the crossover from the perspective of the Red Hulk. \u00a0As the ex-military member of the Avengers, he decides that his great contribution should be to do what Captain America clearly can’t order, and assassinate Cyclops. \u00a0So we get a story in which the Red Hulk changes back to human form, sneaks onto Utopia, tries to assassinate Cyclops, and (obviously) fails. \u00a0The pay-off is that the X-Men don’t kill him, and he takes that as a sign of weakness which proves that they’ll eventually lose.<\/p>\n It’s a reasonable take on the character, but it does feel as though Bendis is casting around for something to fill up all these tie-in issues. \u00a0It’s a little strange to devote an entire issue to a character who has his own book, too – but then, that book isn’t participating in the crossover, and besides, this story is at least in part about the Red Hulk’s role within the Avengers.<\/p>\n There’s a curious little storytelling device where the Red Hulk narrates scenes in a sidebar, while the art shows silent conversations and so forth. \u00a0It’s a decent idea in theory; it ought to put the focus on the Red Hulk’s internal monologue and bring out the fact that he feels alone in group. \u00a0But I’m not sure Walt Simonson’s bold, strident art style is the right match for it.<\/p>\n Issue #29 is a more conventional crossover issue, showing the fight scene in\u00a0Wolverine and the X-Men<\/em> #12 from the Avengers’ perspective. \u00a0The emphasis in this version is on the Avengers trying to enlist a mystery telepath to help them level the playing field. \u00a0That telepath turns out to be Professor X, who can’t bring himself to keep fighting the X-Men, and walks out. \u00a0Xavier also features heavily in\u00a0New Avengers<\/em> #29. \u00a0Even so, I can’t quite figure out the thinking behind the scheduling here. \u00a0The X-Men’s half of this story came out back in June, and since Xavier doesn’t stick around to help the Avengers, it’s not obvious what the point was in delaying the reveal like this.<\/p>\n Nor does it fit very well with the X-Men’s version. \u00a0That story focussed on Rachel Grey, and the pay-off was her rejecting her role as a Hound, and apparently deciding to let Hope go. \u00a0In this version, Xavier confronts Rachel and she angrily denounces him as a traitor to the cause. \u00a0There’s no outright contradiction since (in the manner of such things) Xavier erases everyone’s memory of his being there – but it doesn’t fit very comfortably with Rachel’s arc in the other story. \u00a0I suppose the idea might have been that her encounter with Xavier subconsciously leads her to change her opinion, but if so, it doesn’t come across at all clearly.<\/p>\n Still, I do like the use of Xavier in this story – which at least tries to explain why he hasn’t played a part in the crossover until the final act, and makes for a nice reveal when he finally shows up. \u00a0And psychic combat plays to Walt Simonson’s strengths.<\/p>\n Avengers vs X-Men<\/strong><\/em> #9-10, Infinity<\/strong> – Well, we’re building to the climax. \u00a0These are the issues where the pendulum swings back towards the Avengers and things finally start going wrong for the Phoenix-powered X-Men in a big way.<\/p>\n Issue #9 sees even Cyclops starting to worry that things are going wrong, but choosing to charge off in search of Hope instead of sticking around to sort it out – a nice idea for the character. \u00a0Meanwhile, Emma is also losing her mind, and is now using her powers to go around killing people who’ve hurt mutants in the past. \u00a0Black Panther summarily divorces Storm, in a scene that I have mixed feelings about. \u00a0On the one hand, Marvel made such a big deal of that marriage that I’d have preferred to see more attention given to something like this. \u00a0On the other, I really, really hated that marriage. \u00a0If this is Marvel taking the opportunity to hurl the story down the deepest available well, then good. \u00a0Oh, and now that some of the X-Men have split from Cyclops, Professor X finally shows up to intervene properly. \u00a0So quite a lot going on in one issue.<\/p>\n The main set piece of the issue, though, sees the Avengers trying to rescue their teammates from Magik’s prison, which previously showed up in\u00a0X-Men Legacy<\/em>, but naturally gets reintroduced here for people who aren’t reading the lesser tie-ins. \u00a0That leads to a good Spider-Man scene, where he heroically tries to hold off Colossus and Magik singlehandedly, and ends up actually winning by provoking the increasingly lunatic duo into turning on one another. \u00a0Spider-Man is always best used in these crossover epics as an underdog out of his depth, and this issue really plays off that well.<\/p>\n With issue #10, Cyclops shows up at K’un-L’un to politely “invite” Hope back, while Emma has completely lost it and enslaved the remaining X-Men as her worshippers. \u00a0In the scene that surely everyone saw coming a mile off, Hope fights back and turns out to be able to hurt him, and everyone stands around proclaiming it a turning point. \u00a0I’m less keen on this issue; it hits the story points that need to be hit, but they’re not very interesting story points. \u00a0Perhaps that’s because, as of yet, it still seems as though Hope can beat Cyclops simply because the story dictates that this should be so. \u00a0It all feels a bit empty.<\/p>\n The issue #10\u00a0Infinite<\/em> book puts a bit more effort into selling the idea that Hope is Really Really Important For Some Reason. \u00a0Basically, it’s the Avengers using a Plot Device Machine to consider the possible outcomes of their battle with Cyclops, and realising that Hope is the only one who can actually come out on top. \u00a0Somehow. \u00a0It’s still all rather arbitrary, but at least by spending that long pushing the idea that she’s important, you get the idea across.<\/p>\n It’s also a story that makes very good use of the digital format. \u00a0The Infinite books aren’t really comics in the conventional sense so much as a series of full-screen panels, which take advantage of the possibilities offered by having elements appear on an existing background, or making slight changes in the art. \u00a0There are real storytelling opportunities in these tricks, and this issue has some clever experiments, such as sequences where three possible outcomes are shown running in parallel. \u00a0They’re not just a gimmick – though I have no idea how they’re going to work in the collected editions, which we are assured will (bizarrely) include them.<\/p>\n New Avengers<\/strong><\/em> #29<\/strong> – Say, you know what this crossover hasn’t had yet? \u00a0An Illuminati issue!<\/p>\n And actually, that’s not a bad idea. \u00a0Namor is, logically, the member of the Phoenix Five whom the Avengers would try to speak to, and convening an Illuminati meeting seems a reasonable enough way for Captain America to try and do that. \u00a0Of course, this is a Brian Bendis comic, so what the issue actually consists of, for the most part, is the members of the Illuminati sitting around and talking about stuff (or just walking out) while they wait to see whether Namor will show up. \u00a0(He does, right at the end, and unsurprisingly elects not to stop the crossover.)<\/p>\n It’s an all-talk issue, and it’s not really a\u00a0story<\/em> as such, but it does have a couple of decent ideas about the characters. \u00a0This one apparently takes place at the point where the Phoenix Five are still arguably doing good, so while we have Professor X showing up to express his sorrow and self-recrimination at what’s happened to his team, we also have Reed Richards turning up to (tentatively) take the X-Men’s side. \u00a0As far as he’s concerned, everything’s going pretty well so far, and the Avengers only have themselves to blame for provoking the X-Men. \u00a0Or at least, there’s enough prospect of that being the case that he’s prepared to sit back and see how things work out.<\/p>\n Again, it’s probably a story that should have come out at an earlier point in the crossover in order to have maximum effect, but on its own terms, it’s a decent conversation scene.<\/p>\n Wolverine & The X-Men<\/strong><\/em> #14<\/strong> – This came out\u00a0ages<\/em> ago, which shows just how much catching up we’ve got to do…<\/p>\n While Jason Aaron’s been trying to keep the book’s subplots in play during the crossover, this issue pretty much throws in the towel and just gives us a single-issue story reuniting Kitty and Colossus. \u00a0Still, the book’s tone is very much present and correct, and it’s also an issue that uses the crossover to do some character work that can only really be done now.<\/p>\n Powered up by the Phoenix, Colossus decides to have a go at rekindling his relationship with Kitty. \u00a0But since by this time in the storyline he’s increasingly out of touch with reality, the result is a vastly powerful Colossus cluelessly attempting to impress Kitty with what he perceives to be grand romantic gestures, and only belatedly realising that she’s just humouring him because he’s a vastly powerful maniac. \u00a0Colossus isn’t part of the regular cast of this book, and in many ways this is more his story than Kitty’s, but it’s a good issue for him nonetheless. \u00a0Colossus’ utter lack of perspective could have been played purely for laughs, and for much of the issue it is, but there’s enough of the character still recognisable, albeit in a very distorted way, to give the issue a tragic undercurrent, with the real Colossus still in there somewhere.<\/p>\n Fill-in artist Jorge Molina isn’t the most distinctive artist we’ve had on this book, but he gets the points across clearly enough, and captures Colossus’ oblivious enthusiasm very nicely.<\/p>\n X-Men Legacy<\/strong><\/em> #270<\/strong> – The focus of this book is drifting back towards Rogue as a solo character, even though the book now appears to be heading towards a reboot as a Legion title, of all things. \u00a0Perhaps that’s being done in order to help give the current run some resolution.<\/p>\n One problem with\u00a0Avengers vs X-Men<\/em> is that the middle act unavoidably casts the X-Men as a bit dim, cheerfully following the Phoenix Five despite the increasingly glaring evidence that they’re not right in the head. \u00a0That was a major difficulty with issue #269, but it’s less of a difficulty here, as this is the point where Rogue\u00a0does<\/em> realise the glaringly obvious and chooses to fight back against Magik, at least to the extent of trying to break out Ms Marvel. Ultimately this turns out to be a segue into the next storyline, with Magik just dumping Rogue in another dimension and leaving her to do her own thing free of the crossover entirely.<\/p>\n It’s an alright issue, but the confrontation with Magik is done better with Spider-Man in\u00a0Avengers vs X-Men<\/em> itself. \u00a0Besides, Magik is one of the characters who works less successfully in the Phoenix Five role, since she was already a manipulative and unreliable character to start with; consequently, it doesn’t really make sense for the X-Men to trust her with the Phoenix power in the first place, nor does it entirely work when Gage tries to write Magik as someone corrupted by the Phoenix force and still believing that she’s a hero. \u00a0The Phoenix Five are rather odd choices at the best of times, but Magik is a particularly curious selection – though at least it gives a major role to a character who isn’t one of the usual suspects.<\/p>\n Anyway, not a bad issue as far as it goes, but very much a step on the way to getting the book back to telling its own stories in issue #271.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve got several weeks of comics here to work through, so covering them all in one go isn’t really an option. \u00a0Let’s start off with the backlog of AvX tie-ins that have come out since last we spoke… Avengers\u00a0#28-29 – Brian Bendis has developed an odd approach to crossovers on the\u00a0Avengers titles. \u00a0Instead of trying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-x-axis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1531"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1533,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531\/revisions\/1533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}