writer: Rick Remender / pencils: Terry Dodson
Well, wherever this latest crossover event is going, it’s clear that we’re stuck with it for a while. Marvel usually handles their events a little better than what we seem to be getting this time around (except Original Sin…that’s best left without further discussion). And with Rick “Writer of Black Science” Remender at the helm, you would think this epic would be a bit more epic. Alas, it seems to be just barely carrying its weight. Maybe, this week can turn things around. Or maybe not.
We open up with Spider-Man running into Nova on the way to a big Avengers meeting. Spidey stops to give Sam a little hazing, being the new guy in town and trade a couple of union secrets. This is mostly entertaining because it’s a departure from the depressing nature of the book so far. But that’s where the entertainment value basically stops. After that, it’s back to opposing sides being ridiculously, mustache twirling evil towards each other. Now, don’t get me wrong. It’s not like we haven’t seen this before. Of course, there’s been Civil War, Siege and Battle of the Atom (not that BOTA was good enough to count as admissible evidence but bare with me), but in those instances, there were reasonable arguments to both arguments that forced the reader to pick which side spoke to their personal values the most. Here, there’s not even an argument, really. It’s just the Avengers and X-Men being complete douchebags.
Maybe one day when you have an hour to kill and I have a bottle of Wild Turkey, I’ll tell you why that was the ENTIRE problem with X-Men: First Class. And what about the “inverted” villains? Unless you’re actively reading their respective solo titles, in the context of this book, you’re basically forced to take it on good faith (except in Magneto’s case and he hasn’t really been truly evil in a while for that to count as an inversion) that the bad guys are now good guys. By those standards, reading this book means you really only getting a third of the story. The upside is the art. Rachel and Terry Dodson churned out of goddamned good looking book this week. Granted, so far, this makes for a weird looking event when you eventually have to read all this shit together in one story and you have all these different art styles. However, I’m totally okay with living in the here and now, enjoying the delightful visuals for the week.
Bottom Line: This event is quickly devolving into a shitshow, but at least Rachel and Terry Dodson give you a good looking shitshow. 5 out of 10.
Show Comments