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SuperMegaSpeed Reviews

Avenging Spider-Man #5 - Lenil Yu has his "everybody looks like a zombie" tendencies kind of under control in this issue, but i still don't like his art. Especially the weird panel on page 3 where Spider-Man and Captain America are posing together like they're on the cover of a romance novel, but more generally i don't like the facial expressions and poses, even if you ignore the bloodshot eyes. As for the story, it's odd that the fact that Steve Rogers had a career as a commercial artist for a long period in the 80s isn't even mentioned in the context of this "you should revive your childhood drawing skills" plot. I know it's more focused on "young Steve Rogers drew super-heroes" but it still seems odd. I think the whole premise was kind of shaky. A clearly very young Steve Rogers once drew a super-hero comic so therefore Peter Parker, who, as the story points out, was a science nerd, not a comic geek, wants to bond with him? Even if Peter was a huge comics geek, just because Rogers drew some super-hero comics as a young child... i don't really get it. The banter was all good, but i wasn't buying the story.

New Avengers #23 - For a story that built up and dragged on forever, it sure got wrapped up quickly. Skaar's on our side; all done! I liked it, though.

Avengers #24.1 - So i'm reading this and feeling like the art is falling apart, getting worse and worse as i get further into the book. To the point where Captain America was really looking his age on page 17. And i'm like... this is a Point One issue... it could have been published at any time. So why rush it? Then i read Avengers vs X-Men #0. Oh. Yeah, i guess having this issue come out after that one would have been even more of a trainwreck than it already is. More on that in a minute. I did think the Vision/She-Hulk scene was pretty good. The Vision/Magneto scene, on the other hand, was awful. Awful. Histrionic. Really poorly written. And that's not even getting into the geeky question of "is the Vision even made of metal?". The scene with Cap was about right, i guess, but i don't think anyone likes the Hawkeye/Spider-Woman "romance" and that scene surely isn't going to endear anyone to it. Pretty bad. I mean, i'm the internet's last Bendis defender, but i can't work with this.

Avenges vs. X-Men #0 - So ok, we just read the issue where the Vision has been going around looking for his wife and ready to get himself killed in order to find her. Here, she shows up at his doorstep and he acts like a complete ass, completely out of character even based on what we just read three minutes ago, forget 40 years of backstory, and sends her away. And the two issues were BY THE SAME WRITER! Sure, we can make up a story that some time has passed between the two issues, even though they came out on the same day, and the Vision has had some kind of revelation or change of heart, but why am i doing your work for you, Marvel? But i just can't stay mad at you. Because in the same story, you give me Devil Dino-DOK and MONKEY-DOK and many other strange little MODOK derivatives, and that's enough to make up for the Vision's poorly written bad behavior, and the fact that the awesome MODOK was used as the disposable villain of the month, and the Scarlet Witch's giant boobs, and everything else. On to the second story... Man, no one can keep the Serpent Society locked up for long, huh? The Avengers just defeated Anaconda and Cottonmouth over in Avenging Spider-Man, which, again, came out the same day, and they're already over on the West Coast robbing a bank or whatever. Maybe Sidewinder just teleported them all out of jail, except that he was just defeated in the previous issue of Avenging Spidey and in Villains For Hire #.1 just a few months ago (and that's not even counting the Serpent Squad guys that were in the Captain America book two issues ago). I know i was complaining when it was the Wrecking Crew who was getting dragged out for an ass kicking every time Marvel needed generic villains to fill pages, but i didn't mean to just swap out one villain team for another. That aside, i have an impression of Aaron as being a "zany" writer, but this was relatively straightforward and a decent introduction to Hope, who i've had limited exposure to. So it worked as a zero issue in that regard. I'll note that neither of these stories did anything to set up any kind of Avengers/X-Men conflict.

By fnord12 | April 2, 2012, 9:36 PM | Comics


Comments

I agree with all of your comments except the cool different MODOK's making up for the many, many flaws of the Bendis written AvX segment.

He can't even keep is own horrible characterizations straight!

It should have been MODOKs, right?

And "his", unless you've gone Cockney. This is why i'm considering upgrading our commenting system to something that allows editing.

I dunno, though. I think Devil Dino-DOK makes up for just about anything.

AvSM: i was going to credit the inker for doing their best to make Leinil Yu's art presentable.

i found the plot to be weak, and frankly, a bit weird, for all the reasons fnord12 mentioned.

NA: why the hell are there so many hulks running around!!!

Avengers: Hawkeye and Spider-Woman - *shudder*

Magneto and Vision - *shudder* stop writing like it's a day-time soap!! i'm begging you! the X-Men can be good without being a soap opera! just try it. please!

A vs XM: the Wanda/Vision confrontation - a) the Vision was a total asshole and b) was it a deliberate choice to have all male Avengers inside the mansion with the Vision and the 2 female Avengers outside with the Scarlet Witch? was it a subconscious Guys vs Girls thing, what with all the guys inside the mansion going "yeah, we totally understand why you were an asshole just now"? and yeah, she did a terrible thing while under the influence of an outside force but exactly why does that make it ok to be deliberately cruel? every guy standing in that doorway is guilty by association and dubbed an asshat from now on.

having just been in the elevator listening to this discussion, i'm surprised neither of you mentioned your theory that Hope won't be the Phoenix based on her mutant power being the ability to channel someone else's mutant power.

Right, we stumbled on the idea that since Hope's powers seem to be the ability to draw on the powers of those around her, and she manifested the Phoenix Force while training with Cyclops, maybe *he's* gonna be the Phoenix. It was just a random thought, anticipating some kind of plot twist.