Avengers & X-Men: AXIS #9 Review: The End of Nothing
Avengers & X-Men: AXIS has been the product of a high amount of messy plot beats, feeling like a slave to a demanding editorial office. The series has jammed so many revelations into each and every chapter of the title that it just feels like a story repurposed and cobbled together for the sake of being called a Marvel Comics event. Getting through the storyline was rough, especially when this issue in particular pretended like it was about something that the series has never been about this entire time. Really that’s the problem as a whole with AXIS, it’s the sense of focus that has caused the series to be pulled into so many different directions at once. This thing is packed with inverted Avengers, villains, Apocalypse, Magneto, Doctor Doom, two Captain Americas, and more. On the credits page of the issue alone, there are over thirty characters that Remender is trying to deal with here. Hitting all the plot beats or character details in just nine issues would have been completely insane.
Marvel Comics Infinity event was about this ambitious, but it also had a string of titles to read each and every week causing Infinity to be massive. That series had Avengers, New Avengers, and Infinity, which meant it was coming out weekly between three titles. The big plot points of AXIS, all shipped across nine issues. There were a few comics that helped flesh out some of the ideas along the way, but there was no possibility that this was going to be explored to it’s fullest within the structure of the story. It’s disappointing really because this comic could have been so strong. The series is lacking as a whole is just the process of how the content itself was developed.
SPOILERS For Avengers & X-Men: AXIS
A factor about this comic that has the potential to alienate the largest amount of fans, is how the first page featured a heavy focus on Wolverine, a character who has been pushed to the sideline of this whole series. Sabretooth, another player in obscurity of this tale is left to tackle a large portion of the issue, with the closing and ending narration being centered around him. The narration at the end tying everything together is even still harder to swallow, it’s this random unwieldy element to the story that has had people going crazy about the results of AXIS.
Here’s the thing about this issue: everything with Sabretooth is actually pretty good. Rick Remender has a great handle with the voice of the character and plenty of fresh ways to make his narration unique to that of Wolverine.
His scenes with Mystique are full of so much adept characterization that has been played in a very unique manner. These two are aware that their time as heroes could be coming to an end. They both have the chance to reflect on their life and the mistakes they have made, this is just such an intensely nuanced piece of information that really makes these moments in particular hit home. While it is incredibly annoying to get the narration from Sabretooth over everything at the end, having the character pay for his crimes is another wonderful manner in which to frame his brand new change of heart. Remender is going to get so much out of this wonderful character in the upcoming Uncanny Avengers relaunch. Still, there are a lot of things wrong with AXIS.
Unfortunately, I haven't bought the Inverted version of Thor that Remender has been writing, the character just seems too obvious and brutish. Thor is not stupid, his modern turn as a character from the initial Stan Lee material has never depicted him that way, and I believe that ultimately Thor would be a powerful villain instead of a stupid all powerful God. However, on a fight scene in the middle of the moon contained within this tale, Loki finally gets a chance to shine in the spotlight. Loki is already villain, or atleast this new version is. The inverted version of the character is both hero and villain. The author strongly plays up that version of the character to all his complexities in the moon scene. It’s another wonderful moment that leads to a massive fake out that will have fans screaming in lovely jest.
Also, the twist with the old new Captain America is actually played off here to a very nice and unique way. He’s such a stoic and wonderful superhero that plays such a great role in this series. After seeing some of the reaction that Sam Wilson pays to Cap, I really hope that the mantle is passed onto someone else. There are people in this story that have lived up to the name of Captain America with a much more integral tie to how the story plays at the moment. Nomad in particular fought harder to live up to those harsh expectations.
Unfortunately, AXIS feels like a rush job art-wise. Marvel is obviously having problems maintaining the schedules of all these different people around this issue. Another two or three pencillers would have kept the quality of this tale to the point that they would have wanted it at. It’s a shame because many of these individuals are producing work that would have been good if they they weren't so obviously rushed. Terry Dodson, Leinil Yu, Jim Cheung, and Adam Kubert are all excellent artists. This title is simply just not representative of his best work.
Avengers & X-Men: AXIS #9 is the best issue of the series by far, but it still does not save the comic book event from falling into mediocrity.
