Now that's what I call Event Fatigue (Avengers & X-Men: AXIS #1 Review)
Reading time: 3 minutes
Avengers & X-Men: AXIS is the next big-event story from Marvel Comics. These tales can be tricky, especially in the case of a title like this, which is spinning directly out of a comic plot thread that has been going on for such a long time. The first thing that absolutely needs to be said about this book is that this is not the start of a story. Rick Remender authored the script to the latest event, who has been at the forefront of several huge books in the Marvel Universe.
The inciting incident does not happen in the pages of this story.
That moment was picked up in the last installment of Uncanny Avengers.
That’s probably going to make some of the demographic that is not reading this book a little angry to start with. Another factor that is going to seriously deter fans away from this title is how much continuity is interlaced within this book. Sam Wilson is acting like he has been Captain America forever, which was extremely disappointing for me to see. That character is someone who needs to continue to grow towards that role. However, the most ridiculous aspect of the continuity that is hard to digest is how Steve Rogers has aged up again. This continuity angle that is being so heavily thrust upon into the comics’ world is a bitter pill to swallow. All of these mini-fires sort of swell together in the context of this book that makes the title harder then it should be to read.
There are characters whose voices don’t quite ring true, and scenes clobbered with heavy-handed exposition. The fatigue that has already set in about the Avengers & X-Men continually fighting each other will likely also start to wear on more than a couple people actively engaged in the Marvel Universe. It’s also hard to see where the narrative is going within the space of the first installment; the powered-up Red Skull spends most of his time looking menacing. Lately when these important events spin out of the regular narratives of series that are well established. Avengers & X-Men: AXIS has not one, but two text pages that are completely required to enjoy the issues to their fullest. Even as a hardcore fan, some of the changes are difficult to keep up with. There are a couple attempts of humor with varying degrees of success, although there is a large portion of these comics that actually fall on their faces. To make matters worse, the cliffhanger in this issue is a lousy third act reveal that will likely not have much impact on the overall story being told.
Adam Kubert’s artwork is bizarre in this issue. The artist cannot stick to one sort of pencil style in this tale, which leads to him rendering a lot of strange things within only one installment of the series. The women in particular both look extremely strange, and have far too much cleavage at times. This is distracting, as the dark story doesn’t call for the kind of artwork that the artist is providing in the tale. The two creators sort of feel out of synchronization in the comic book, which will further obfuscate the storytelling which can be jarring at times do to all the strange leaps in recent continuity. Kubert isn’t helping make this story any easier to read, which is distracting given that he has previously turned in some great work on various Marvel projects.
The biggest offense of this first issue is just that it is borderline underwhelming. The pencil style is strange; almost everything in this tale is completely overwritten. There are numerous moments where this comic needs to improve. Another problem is that the tale is shipping so fast, so the big continuity moments may be stitched together and not given enough time to build into something truly remarkable.
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