Avengers vs X-Men

Nozawa Bar

Raindancer and I had dinner here tonight (We’re in LA for the Christmas weekend).  The sushi was pretty darn amazing, but not 4x as good as the regular omakase at Sugarfish.  More than happy that we did it, would do again, but we’ll generally be satisfied with Sugarfish in the future.  The taste/value ratio is off the charts there.

AvX 0-2

Avengers 25

Uncanny X-Men 11

New Avengers 24-26

I know that I didn’t finish buying this series.  I’m not sure why, but I suspect it has something to do with my main takeaway from the first 3 issues of the main storyline:

Cyclops is a mega-douche.  

He may have some valid points as the Avengers and X-Men fight over Hope Summers with the impending arrival of the Phoenix Force, but I just don’t care.  He’s a self-righteous, sanctimonious dick with a massive persecution complex, and I can’t wait for him to get smacked upside the head.  Multiple times.  

Bendis, who writes the mini-series plus the Avengers and New Avengers tie-ins, does a fine job with the initial battle between the two teams.  In a surprising move, he succeeds primarily through the use of captions, neatly summarizing why each of the individual moments are awesome.  I’ve rarely (if ever) seen this technique used to such good effect.

Avengers is drawn by Walt Simonson, and its main source of awesome comes from seeing Simonson draw Thor again, this time in his new costume:

Like coming home.

There’s also a satisfying moment between Thor and Cap, aided by some nice colors by Jason Keith:

Nothing like an old friend to cheer you up.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? No

Rating: Fine

Uncanny X-Men recaps the events of AvX 1 and 2.  I wonder if this is because as not-Bendis, Kieron Gillen felt that he owed a more straightforward retelling to his readers.  (As opposed to Bendis, who veered more sharply from the mini-series with his other titles)

After all these years, I’m still undecided in my verdict on Greg Land.  I know most of his work is tracing model references, but it’s still very nice to look at.  More on this as I get to his main work, I’m sure.

I’m having a ton of fun with the New Avengers side of things.  Aside from Ultimate Spider-Man and Miles Morales, the Jessica Jones/Luke Cage relationship may be the best thing that Bendis has brought to the Marvel Universe.  It reads as such a true relationship between two loving people with both powers and major issues.  (Though for people with huge problems communicating with each other, they have some of the best talks.)  

By the time you get to this point in the issue, you know everything that's going on in his head.  It adds so much weight to this moment.  

I’m also loving the Iron Fist flashback.  It reads like a hidden chapter from Ed Brubaker’s Iron Fist run, and I want to see Mike Deodato on a martial arts title.  An Iron Fist/Shang Chi comic from him would be heavenly.

Part of me wants to know how many of these trainees were drawn individually and how many were copies.  The other part can't be bothered to do the Where's Waldo.

Iron Phoenix?  I'm all in.

I’ll grade everything that’s not Avengers 25 tomorrow, when I read the last parts of those storylines.

Other notes:

I've asked this same question myself.

Be. Successful!  B.  E.  Successful!

Avengers West Coast, Avenging Spider-Man

Avengers West Coast 102

I probably bought this for a combination of two reasons: I got the previous issue because it was part of the Bloodlines crossover w/ the X-Men; It was the last issue of the series, and high school me thought it might be worth something someday.  

Both were stupid reasons, but I’m glad past me did, because this is a fun little issue.  Nothing but Avengers sitting (and standing) around talking about shutting down the team.  The interpersonal conflicts fit with the characters, and the story zips along at a perfect, brisk pace.  I’ve read this issue several times over the years, it’s the perfect comic book example of comfort food.  

Bitter much?

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Nice

Looking at the ratings I’ve been giving for the past month, I haven’t used Okay once.  So I’m going to deprecate that one, since it’s what I mean by Fine, which is basically replacement level comics.  Nice is new, and will mean comfort food.  

Avenging Spider-Man 1-5

So.  Much.  Fun.  How did I forget about this?  I remembered this series for the Joe Madureira art.  And as wonderful as it was, Zeb Wells’ writing is what really shines.  I can not recall another comic with this density of lol moments.  This review will basically be a collection of these moments.  

A few more notes before I get to those:  Joe Mad is as amazing as always.  His inks show a greater variety of line weights than I’ve seen in the past, lending the finished work a sketchier quality that I’m a huge fan of.  I’m also thrilled to see him drawing Spidey, something I’ve wanted more of since he (Spidey) made a cameo in Uncanny X-Men

Back in 1997

Fifteen years later.

Excellent tagline for a sword.

Heh.

Things I didn't know I needed #281: J Jonah Jameson in battle armor.

Things I didn't know I needed #282: Hulk Clap on a flock of seagulls.  (I choose to believe that none of them suffered lasting injury)

Heh 2.

Goes on my list of favorite quotes.

Aside from the humor, Wells also injects some sweet moments into the issues.  Hawkeye’s motivation behind his need to never miss and Spidey’s attempts to bond with Cap veer dangerously close towards the twee side, and nudge a toe over the line, but they worked for me. Also liked Spidey standing up to Red Hulk about doing what’s right.

Never figured Yu as an artist who could pull off humor, but that's some prime Spidey/Cap posing.

Not so much the ending of issue 4.  On the one hand, Spidey’s being nice to Hawkeye because he know how important hitting the target is to Clint.  On the other hand, it comes across as patronizing a grown man.  

As I was reading this, I kept wondering why I stopped buying with issue 5.  I was already considering buying more issues so that I could read more of Wells’ Spidey-quotes.  Turns out this was as far as he got before handing it over to other writers.  Oh wells.  (He also wrote for Robot Chicken, including the excellent Star Wars episodes.  I’m not surprised.)  

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Good

Avengers: The Initiative, The Force Awakens

Avengers: The Initiative 26-30

Skipping another trade’s worth of issues, the title’s now embroiled in the Dark Reign era.  Norman Osborne’s taken over everything, and Taskmaster and the Hood are in charge of the Initiative.  

It all sucks.  Why did I ever want to own this?  (It’s another used bookstore bargain.)  I’d say that it’s no fun reading about villains, but any number of titles disprove that theory, including Ellis’ Thunderbolts and Morrison’s Earth-2.  I fell asleep reading this, and couldn’t wait for the reading to be done.  

Everything just feels so generic.  The villains are boring in their villainy, and the heroes are boring in their struggle to fight back.  This was the only entertaining part of the whole ordeal:

Regret buying? Yes

Would buy again? No

Would read again? No

Rating: Stupid

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

So let’s talk about this instead.  I’m watching it right now as I continue to want to watch The Last Jedi again.  

As I said when I reviewed Episode VIII, this movie isn’t very rewatchable.  There aren’t many scenes that pass that test.  Really, the only one is the lightsaber fight at the end of the film.  And let’s be honest, it’s specifically the moment where the lightsaber flies into Rey’s hand.  Which I can get any time on Youtube.  

Chills, shivers, and everything else that is good in life.

That said, it’s not like there’s nothing else that was good about it.

Things I liked:

• BB-8 - Amazing design and execution, and even better comic relief than Artoo/Threepio.
• Rey - Loved her from the start.  “Mary Sue” my ass, go ahead and have her do all the things for all I care.
• Kylo Ren - Such a bad boy wannabe who will never be able to fill anyone’s shoes.  Adam Driver kills it.
• Chewie humor.  He does so much with body language, it’s great.

Things I didn’t like:

• Finn - His false bravado rubs me the wrong way.
• Phasma - Under-utilized.
• Starkiller Base makes no sense on so many levels.
• It’s a slow movie.  Jakku drags as much as Tatooine did in Episode IV.  The Rathtar scene was unnecessary, and a waste of the two guys from The Raid.

The movie really gets by on the strength of its characters, far more than the story.  It’s similar in that way to The Last Jedi, but it also lacks the stunning action sequences.  Still, it’s Star Wars.  Seeing Han and Leia again, accompanied by the classic John Williams music, sets my heart aflutter.  That counts for a lot.

Regret watching?  No

Would buy on DVD? Yes

Would watch again?  Yes

Rating: Fine

Avengers: The Initiative

Avengers: The Initiative 14-19

Not nearly as bad as yesterday’s debacle.  Skipping ahead eight issues (I got this trade at a used bookstore), the Initiative is smack in the middle of the Skrull Secret Invasion.  Yellowjacket’s been revealed as a Skrull, and there’s an imposter on each of the fifty Initiative teams.  Triathlon, now 3-D Man and in possession of the magic Goggles of Skrull Seeing, teams up with the Skrull Kill Krew to eradicate all fifty of them.  

Crusader, one of the Initiative cadets, also turns out to be a Skrull, but one who’s gone native.  He fights for his adopted Earth while using his Freedom Ring (hah, I just got it) to help keep his identity hidden.  Dan Slott and Christos Gage do a decent job of getting into his head and explaining his motivations.  I did find myself wondering if he would get away with his deception, but not enough for me to be that moved when 3-D Man shot him in the head at the end of the book.  The art didn’t help, with an odd choice by Harvey Tolibao to play 3-D Man’s reaction comedically.

Talibao’s art, by the way, looks a lot like Tom Raney’s.

Tolibao

Raney

I’m torn about what to do with this trade.  It wasn’t bad, but wasn’t really good, either.  It isn’t part of a run that I want to keep intact, but...Huh, it turns out I have the Secret Invasion mini-series.  Might as well keep this, it’s not a bad sidebar to the main story.  

BTW, She-Thing?? I had completely forgotten she existed.  Slott and Gage really had to dig deep to find heroes for the Initiative.

Also, you can apparently gain the ability to see Skrulls if you eat Skrulls.  Let’s just leave it at that.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? No

Rating: Fine

Avengers: The Initiative

Avengers: The Initiative 1-6

And lo is born the Stupid rating.  This made me angry at how stupid it was.

Things I disliked:

• The lame German accent on Von Blitzschlag, the resident Nazi scientist that every undercover US government-run group has to have on retainer.  (Though he does to a nice job of putting Hank Pym in his place by calling out all the deaths his creations have caused - Ultron, Salvation I, Clor…)

• Hank Pym.  He plays the role of government stooge, which brings out the unpleasant screaming-about-security side of him.

• Henry Gyrich.  The reader’s always supposed to hate this guy, but he’s not even interesting in his misguided I-know-what’s-best-for-the-country dickishness.

• Gauntlet.  Boring one-note drill sergeant.  Dan Slott devotes all of five panels to his home life, in a far too little too late attempt to humanize him one page before he gets beaten into a coma.  Having failed to make me care about him, Slott fails to make me care at all about the search for his assailant. 

And that’s the problem with this series.  I don’t care about any of these people.  At all.  And I haven’t even gotten to the trainees themselves.  Any of the meager time Slott spends on character building only accentuates the unlikability of these idiots.  That’s when he chooses to devote any time at all; During the interrogation sequences of issue 6, I legitimately asked, “Who’s that?” out loud at least twice.      

Was the ending of issue 6 supposed to be a huge shock or something?  Whee, Slapstick, whose presence on the team made no sense with his second-rate Plastic Man impression, is secretly a bloodthirsty psycho.  Don’t.  Care.

My apathy towards this team is amplified because it comes on the heels of reading Dennis Hopeless’ Avengers Arena series, where he didn’t just get me engaged, but invested in the fates of a bunch of C-listers I’d never heard of before.  So I know it’s possible.

I don’t know what possessed me to buy this trade.  Doesn’t look like it was on sale or anything.  I want to burn this with fire.

Yep.  Way to point your finger, Rage.

Regret buying? Yes

Would buy again? No

Would read again? No

Rating: Stupid

Avengers Undercover

Avengers Undercover 1-10

Sequel to yesterday’s Avengers Arena.  The kids deal with the fallout of their ordeal, which was filmed and released to the public by Arcade.  In what is probably a terrifyingly accurate portrayal of the general population of the country, Dennis Hopeless writes of a culture that makes the survivors instant celebrities, with all of the blind judgments and unthinking opinions that come with the package.  Because we’ve already spent eighteen issues getting to know them, the readers are in the rare position of seeing celebrity from the other side, and we’re reminded that these figures we’re so quick to bash or praise are actual people.  It’s not the most profound of messages, but it’s more than one normally gets from a comic book.  

Kev Walker again does a fine job on the art, but departs midway through for a new assignment on the New Avengers.  His co-workers use the letters page to sing their praises and express joy at his promotion to a more prominent book, but they could not have been happy to see him go.  Tigh Walker, one of his replacements, does zero for me.  He’s got a Paul Pope thing going on with his faces, and it’s flat out ugly to my mind.

No idea what's gong on with that captain's face.  At all.

Paul Pope. I know it's the Joker, but all his faces look like this.

Hopeless doesn’t sugarcoat the ethics of these kids.  When faced with the opportunity to kill Arcade, at least one of them is willing to pull the trigger.  And it’s not hard to imagine anyone acting differently in that situation.  It’s refreshing to see it happen, instead of artificially concocting a morality where everyone decides that it’s the wrong thing to do, even after everything that they’ve been put through.

On the other hand, I don’t buy Death Locket’s conversion to the dark side.  (Or as the comic states it at least two different times, “breaking bad.”)  While Hopeless does a nice job of developing her growing friendship with her villain friends, I find it difficult to believe that she’d ditch her old group so easily.  

Overall, a nice 28 issue run for Dennis Hopeless and (mostly) Kev Walker.  Oh, and I liked this panel, thought it was cute.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Pretty Good

Avengers Arena

Avengers Arena 1-18

I doubt if Battle Royale was the first book of its type, but it’s the one most people think of as the progenitor.  The genre’s taken its name from it, after all.  Avengers Arena is Marvel’s foray into the category.  It makes no bones about its inspiration; The cover of issue one is a homage to the movie adaptation.  (There are a number of cover homages throughout the run, summarized nicely here.

Not issue 1, but I love the Deodato art.

It really is a compelling formula.  Gather a number of unsuspecting players (usually teenagers) and force them to kill each other.  Let the reader get to know each of the characters so that their deaths hurt more.  Make sure someone survives to beat the system.

Dennis Hopeless hits all the beats here, and quite effectively.  Marvel gave him leave to kill a number of C-listers, and he provides enough backstory to make them sting, even though I had never heard of most them before.  Nara’s death, in particular, was surprisingly poignant despite the sappiness of the narration.  Still worked.  

For a battle royale, there are surprisingly few deaths - over half of the kids make it through.  That's okay; This is primarily a character piece, focusing on the relationships between the players as they deal with an insane situation.  By the end of the series, each of them had ceased to be plot device cannon fodder.  I was invested in their fates, and genuinely wanted them to make it out alive.  It’s a testament to Hopeless’ writing.  I was happy to hear that their stories would continue in Avengers Underground, which I’ll be reading tomorrow.

Kev Walker does most of the penciling, but the release schedule of eighteen issues in one year necessitated a few fill-in artists.  All of whom were fine to good.  

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again? Yes

Rating: Good