Comic Review -- Avengers vs. X-Men #4 / Jonathan Hickman, John Romita, Jr., Scott Hanna, and Laura Martin

I know I've been pretty critical of this series, but I must admit I like this cover.  It says, "Get Hope."  We've got the young lass on the run, the Phoenix getting nearer, and two teams full of heroes hot on her trail.  It sells the issue pretty well, and Jim Cheung's pencils here really make it look pretty.

Wolverine, who has done a hilariously admirable job of surviving in the Antarctic since Captain America marooned him there last issue, is picked up by Hope Summers, who tells him he's the only one she trusts to finish her off if she can't control the Phoenix--but, she stipulates, she deserves a chance to try.  Wolverine reluctantly agrees, and as the other teams fight each other while trying to track Hope down, he raids  the A.I.M. Worldworks and helps her secure a shuttle to the moon.  Once there, she is confronted by the Avengers and the X-Men, who threaten to start fighting over her fate once more, until Thor comes careening into their location.  He's been hit hard by the Phoenix Force--which has just appeared to all of them.

It's too late.  For better or worse, the Phoenix is on hand.  If it's gunning for Hope, it will probably get her.

Things finally got a lot more interesting in this issue.  I'm not sure if it's due to Jonathan Hickman's deft handling of the material or if there was an emergency editorial meeting that mandated things actually get more readable, but either way, this issue is a marked improvement over what's come so far.  Hope's seeking out of Wolverine for the reason she ostensibly ran away--that he was willing to kill her--was unexpected, and makes me a little more willing to give the girl a chance in the hero department.  Up until now, she's just been a badly written teen, full of snot and noise at all the wrong times; now, she's shown a real willingness to own up to how big all this Phoenix business is, and I do like that.

The beginning of this issue had me in stitches, for two reasons.  First, seeing that Wolverine killed a polar bear and used it as a gory overcoat was nothing short of hilarious.  And of course, Hope using beer cans as bread crumbs to lure Wolverine to her aircraft was a tension-breaking touch of genius that showed that Hope--along with Hickman--knows how to motivate the tough-talking mutant.  Brilliant.

The montage of fight scenes between the two teams as they work their way around the world in search of Hope felt a little obligatory and really did little to add to the story except remind you to BUY AVX VS FOR THE FULL STORY OF THESE FIGHTS.  While I intend to do so--the writing in the first one was better than the writing I'd seen in the first three issues of this main series--I think it's worth saying that this kind of blatant salesmanship is a little insulting to the reader.  If you want to make these fight scenes important to the main narrative, I'm all for them, but for fate's sake, MAKE THEM RELEVANT.

Finally, there's the artwork.  I don't think I've made any secret that I'm not fond of John Romita, Jr.'s artwork for something this expansive and wide-ranging, so I'll stop crowing as much about it for a while.  I will say there's been some moderate improvement in various scenes, particularly the ones where he's just focused on one or two characters per panel.  I really did like the partially shadowed Wolverine at the A.I.M. base after he's just gotten done slaughtering a bunch of bad guys.  His renditions of Hope are also pretty good in some places as well.  It's like when he's just got a little to concentrate on, he does decent.

Overall, I'd say this issue is worth picking up.  The writing is engaging, the artwork is a little more palatable, and things really appear to be coming to a head.  Highly recommended.

Comic Review -- Avengers vs. X-Men #3 / Ed Brubaker, John Romita, Jr., Scott Hanna, and Laura Martin

I really like the cover of this issue.  It's intense, personal, and vicious as Cap and Wolverine struggle for dominance.  Costumes are torn, sweat and what appears to be blood are flying, and both men are determined to beat the other.  The artwork itself is wonderful, and it really sells the idea that this issue will contain some violence.

Wolverine recovers from his ordeal with Hope and is told that Cyclops and the X-Men have surrendered.  While Cap and Iron Man argue about how to handle their new prisoners, Wolverine immediately recognizes that the X-Men are merely playing possum, and isn't able to prevent them from escaping by using Magik to teleport away.  Both teams set out to locate and retrieve Hope, but she's gone and found a way to scramble Cerebra's sensors into putting her at five different locations across the world, forcing them to split up.

While talking with her over the intercom from Wolverine's school, Wolverine detects some attitude from Rachel, who it turns out is feeding information to the X-Men.  Cap confronts Wolverine about his inability to follow orders and how he tried to kill Hope, and Wolverine responds that he knows how to deal with the Phoenix, and that Cap won't be able to save Hope from the Phoenix Force.  A fight breaks out between them, and Wolverine is expelled from their shuttle.  Calling Cap a blind old-fashioned fool, Wolverine pulls himself up and sets out after them, convinced that their fates are all up to him.

I will say, the writing in this issue has gotten a little better than what I saw in Round 2, but that's actually not saying much.  I think Ed Brubaker is doing what he can to ameliorate the poor direction of this story, which has clearly been written by committee.  Great swaths of action get glossed over, and some plot points are just flat-out ignored.  So the X-Men all surrendered, off the page?  Not impossible, I suppose, but given the amount of event skipping already portrayed in this series, I'd think the writers would want to keep bridging events on the page.  And why was the fight between Dr. Strange and Magik not shown?  If she can beat the Sorceror Supreme, I want to see how!

Also, if Emma was effectively de-psionicized in the last issue, why does she only regain her abilities after they've escaped from the Avengers?  If she actually had recovered her telepathy at that point, she could have just shut all the Avengers down psychically.  Why didn't she?  It just seems the logical effects of the storyline are discarded or ignored at the whims of the writers, no matter how ridiculous it looks.

I was happy, however, to see that Wolverine's conflict with Cap didn't directly involve him having a change of heart and deciding he wanted to fight on Scott's side now.  It came about for a perfectly plausible reason, though I am more than a little skeptical that Captain America is only now realizing how far Logan would go to defeat the Phoenix Force.  It really raises the question of just how much research Cap's done about the Phoenix Force and the X-Men's brush with it.  Any idiot should know that the X-Men have faced this thing several times, and are both more experienced and more vicious in dealing with it.

I was also glad they at least acknowledged the parallels to the Civil War in this issue, as they were becoming very obvious.  While Scott is not free of blame here--he was written like a crazy person in issue #1--Cap is increasingly showing his lack of preparation and realism in this arc.  He's brushed off the input of two X-Men experienced in dealing with the Phoenix; he was willing to imprison the X-Men for getting in his way, when there was technically no call to do that--I'm glad Iron Man was the one to call him on that; and he basically pulls a Spock on Wolverine when he won't start marching to his orders, ejecting him out the shuttle.

Art-wise... John Romita, Jr. is again drawing far too wide a scale for his work to come off as anything but rushed, blocky, and distracting.  Nuff said.

Overall, I'd say this is an improvement over the last issue, though between JRJR's art and the flawed storytelling, it still leaves a lot to be desired.  The fight between Wolverine and Cap is pretty cool, and while I'm not surprised to see the X-Men still have a few tricks up their sleeve, they didn't really do much this issue.  Recommended.

Comic Review -- Avengers vs. X-Men #2 / Jason Aaron, John Romita, Jr., Scott Hanna, and Laura Martin

This cover is okay, but it does seem a little crowded this time around.  You've got nearly a dozen people on it, engaged in battle, and with the exception of the characters in the forefront, everyone's a bit overlit from the Phoenix flash coming from Hope Summers in the background.  It's not bad, really, and I can understand the need to convey the grand scale of the battle between the teams, but I think this effort could have come off better.

The gauntlet has been thrown down, so to speak, and the Avengers are engaging the X-Men in hand to hand combat, now that Cyclops has fired on Captain America.  As the battle begins, we see a jumble of match-ups and taunting as friends fight friends, lines are crossed, and relationships are stretched to the breaking point.  By the time the Avengers reach Hope, she has begun to feel the power of the Phoenix Force, and busts her way out of Utopia, leaving the skirmish behind to go and look for the Phoenix Force.  Meanwhile, in outer space, a team of Avengers has reached the approaching cosmic entity, and are preparing to battle it in the hopes of stopping it from reaching Hope.

I've got quite a few problems with this issue, a few of which stem from the previous issue's lead-in to the present.  For instance, Scott starts fighting with Cap out in the water, and the X-Men and the Avengers rush into the fray soon afterwards.  Now we seem to be back just before the fight, where something completely different happens.  Scott's standing with the X-Men, who are now asking him what the hell he's done, while the Avengers, up in the Helicarrier, contemplate the fact that they're about to engage the X-Men.

How the hell is that scene logical in terms of the previously established action?

There's a lot of taunting and smack-talking in this issue between combatants, which I can understand, but there is an undeniable air of awkwardness that comes from it all, as if in an attempt to squeeze as much meaning into each conflict, it all comes out stilted and artificial.  Yes, I know Tony Stark and Emma Frost had a thing some time back, but you don't need to insert that into the dialog.  Just pit the two against each other and let them fight.

Now, I will say that some of the descriptions are engaging, as Aaron puts a perspective on, say, the punch thrown by Emma Frost at Iron Man, or the Mach 5 family reunion between Quicksilver and Magneto, or the marital discord between Storm and Black Panther, complete with hurricane-force winds.  They get a little cheesy and overused at some points, but I do like them a lot more than much of the dialog employed.

I continue to dislike Hope, who continues to vacillate between brashness and idiocy at all the wrong times when she's not swaying to the call of the Phoenix.  By the time she's taken down the friends and allies trying to protect her and Wolverine shows up intent on killing her, I halfway want him to gut the little brat.  This isn't something I fault Aaron's writing for so much as the direction that's been taken with her by committee up to this point.  She's a Mary-Sue character without any redeeming qualities so far, and I have no sympathy or even liking for her at this point.

Finally, there's the art.  I know there are people out there who love John Romita, Jr. and worship the ground he walks on, and under certain circumstances, I'm a fan of his too.  But when it comes to large-scale, wide-ranging epic scenes of battle, I just can't get behind his style.  The art looks too rushed in panels featuring more than three characters at a time, and the overall aesthetic just comes off as too cartoony and awkward. Please, for the sake of reason, find another artist for this story!

Overall, I'm more than a little disappointed by this issue.  It has its good points, but between the clumsily relayed jumble of activities going on, the artwork that leaves much to be desired, and the central character who just oozes unlikability, I'm just not impressed with this one.  I think there's too much crammed into this story, and if the creators could take a less bloated and chaotic approach to the story, it would improve it immensely.

Many of the tie-ins to AvX work very well because they're telling a story, not squeezing an elephant onto a canoe.  It's for that reason that I'll stick with this limited series, but I don't think the main title is all that impressive, so far.

Barely recommended, with serious reservations.

Comic Review -- Avengers vs. X-Men #0 / Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron, Frank Cho, and Jason Keith

I'd been meaning to read this issue weeks ago, but only recently got around to it.  Since I've already started the AvX stories, I figured I should get this one read and reviewed.  So, here goes!

I like the cover, though the Scarlet Witch and Hope Summers don't really appear together in this issue.  Instead, they have separate stories that feature each of them.  Still, the image is very evocative, and does a good job of selling the notion that these two will play some kind of prominent role in the coming saga.  Hope's apparent role is already pretty obvious, but Wanda's is a little harder to divine.  Still, we only know what's been written up to this point, so anything goes.  Did anyone notice the barely visible greyscale Ms. Marvel and Iron Man also on the cover?

In the first story, the Scarlet Witch makes a reappearance on the superhero scene by foiling as assassination attempt by M.O.D.O.K. and A.I.M. on one of their former scientists who tried to leave them.  While she isn't able to hold them off on her own, she keeps them occupied long enough for Ms. Marvel and Spider-Woman to arrive and help her finish the job.  They are happy to see Wanda, and insist on bringing her back to Avengers Mansion, but she is highly reluctant to go.  When they get there, she is greeted by Vision, her husband, who coldly rejects her and tells her she has no home among the Avengers.  Ms. Marvel flies a crying Wanda off the scene, while Vision silently weeps for his loss.

Hope's story features her flying off Utopia with Cyclops's jetpack.  Apparently she's been taking it upon herself to play solo vigilante to blow off steam.  Cyclops confronts her about it, and she uses the opportunity to ask him about the Phoenix Force.  When he's less than forthcoming, she leaves the island and goes to break up a late-night bank burglary underway by the Serpent Society.  By the time Scott and Emma find her, she's taken down their members and is beating Cottonmouth to a pulp.  She tells Scott that she's not afraid of the Phoenix Force, and that she's ready for it and wants it to come.  Emma expresses that this is all too much pressure for Hope, and Scott replies that either way, for good or bad, Hope is special, and will find a way to handle it.

I really enjoyed the Scarlet Witch's story.  I'm not terribly familiar with Wanda as a character, but I know she has a long, deep history with the Avengers.  It's also not hard to imagine that she's something of a pariah, as she nearly obliterated the entire mutant race with the phrase, "No more mutants" a few years ago to spite her father Magneto.  She's very aware of all of this, and even though she's trying to do better by playing the hero again, she knows she can't go home again, at least not yet.  When Vision rejects her, you can see the fear realized in her face as she tearfully apologizes for her past actions.  Clearly there are a range of opinions about her return: Wolverine and Beast seemed less than thrilled to see her--probably in light of the mutant issue--but Thor and Iron Man, long-time comrades in arms of hers, seemed sympathetic, and even sad to see her go away at Vision's behest.  It makes me more interested in Wanda's backstory up to this point, and I will have to endeavor to read all the Avengers Disassembled, House of M, and Decimation stories where she features so prominently.

I was not so keen on Hope's story.  Again, I'm not terribly familiar with her character either, but all the depictions I've seen of her haven't painted a very good picture.  She comes off as an overpowered, petulant teenager whose sense of self-importance is a little too confident for her age.  She openly defies Scott, blows off his concerns and attempts to discipline her, and barely seems moved by the impending events concerning her.  While she's ostensibly resorting to her vigilante activities as a form of coping with it, I'm still not feeling any real sense of fear, or trepidation, or uncertainty from her.  That would go a long way towards making her portrayal more sympathetic.

The art in both stories is very good.  I like Frank Cho's pencils, and while I have some issues with how old Hope looks if she's supposed to be an actual teenager, I have nothing but praise for how his adult heroes look.  Wanda looks beautiful and almost lost in her apprehension.  Iron Man and Beast looked a little off during their brief appearances, but I'm perfectly willing to forgive that, since they were little more than talking heads with up-or-down thumbs in that story.  Very enjoyable to behold.

Overall, it's difficult at this juncture to see how relevant these stories are to the upcoming AvX arc.  Each is intriguing in its way, and I will be keeping an eye on these two characters throughout the story, but there's little that's conveyed that directly ties in to the main arc.  It informs it more than anything else.  Still, they're good reads--I obviously think the Scarlet Witch feature is better than Hope's--with good art, and worth a glimpse, at the very least.  Recommended.

Comic Review -- Avengers vs. X-Men #1 / Brian Michael Bendis, John Romita, Jr., Scott Hanna, and Laura Martin

The cover for this issue is decently drawn, but suffers from two things.  First and foremost, it's crowded as hell, which I understand.  Some covers are simply going to look like this, especially when you have a story covering two large super-hero teams.  That doesn't stop it from looking primarily like a bunch of angry heads on one page.  There's no real opportunity for action or dynamism.  The second problem is exposure: this image has been promoted for months, so we knew this was coming.  Still, it sets up the story and gives us an idea of who will be fighting who.

The plot, which has also been known for months, is that the Phoenix Force is on its way back to Earth, this time seeking out Hope Summers, the apparent mutant messiah, as its host.  The Avengers are intent on taking Hope into protective custody, while Cyclops and the X-Men are intent on keeping her on Utopia and dealing with the problem themselves.  Cyclops seems to be of the opinion that the Phoenix, though a destructive force, always brings rebirth, and that part of the equation could be the key to somehow resurrecting the mutant people, who were all but obliterated by the Scarlet Witch on M-Day.

The only thing Scott will ever have in common with Han
Solo?  He shot first.  This issue makes the X-Men--or at
least their leader, Scott--look like the aggressors.

The actual issue itself doesn't reveal too much that isn't already known, it just gets the game started.  Cap and company come to Utopia, hoping to peacefully retrieve Hope, and Scott, who's already been obsessively--one might almost say brutally--training Hope, brashly refuses to turn her over, to Cap's--and apparently Emma Frost's--disappointment.  He basically acts like a complete and total ass during this issue, which doesn't make me optimistic for the X-Men at this point.  Not only are the Avengers a larger team, but where Cap went diplomatically, with a good head on his shoulders, Scott is shooting from the hip, casting insults, and basically acting like a child.  I know being leader of a mutant team isn't easy, but he needs to get his head on straight, and quickly.

I'm guessing this has something to do with the fact that Bendis has been an Avengers-centric writer for a while, and either has to do with an unfamiliarity with or contempt for the X-Men.  That's fine--write what you know, I say--but I am hoping we'll get a more balanced view of both teams as the story arc widens.  I'm sure we will, as other writers and artists get involved, but with this kickoff issue as the only AvX title this week, it leaves things looking a little one-sided in terms of who has the moral high ground with this struggle.

It fulfills the sense of anticipation, and reads pretty well once the primary conflict is brought into play, but the lead-up does drag on a little bit--and for me to say that is a rare thing.  It consists primarily of material that was included in the previews, and some material involving Nova that seems contrived to provide action where there otherwise would be none.  I'm hoping things will be considerably tighter as this goes on.

Speaking of art, I have to say that I'm not a big fan of John Romita, Jr.'s work in this issue.  I've said it in the past, and I'll say it again: he does pretty well in more intimate, less wide-ranging stories, but when you have something as grand and sprawling as the Avengers versus the X-Men, his pencils really become distracting, to where I notice the style all the time, to its detriment.  It's something about the line work, the faces... I don't know if they just look overly cartoony, but something is making notice it, and not in a good way.

Overall, I'd say this issue suffers primarily from overexposure, and while I'm not too thrilled with the introduction, the actual start of the conflict brings things up to a more interesting level.  My issues with the artwork, I'm sure, are simply my own, but I just have issues with Romita's depictions of multiple characters over a wide-ranging group.  Nevertheless, as the start of the Marvel's premier summer event, it's a must-read for anyone who wants to get involved.  Recommended.

Comic Review -- Uncanny X-Men #9 / Kieron Gillen, Carlos Pacheco, Cam Smith, and Guru eFX

I like the cover for this issue.  It's dynamic, not too crowded or busy, and it's always nice to see team-ups between groups of superheroes.  The composition is particularly satisfying for me, as you've got eight bodies on one page, which could be potentially taxing visually, but they're spaced very logically.  Iron Man and Magneto are back to back, knocking each of their opponents off-screen, while Cap in the front and Magik in the back do similarly with their opponents.

I know I've been on a warpath lately about banners (DC, I'm looking at you), but this one's not as much of an issue for me.  Sure, I'm not crazy about it, but I'm willing to give it a pass because it's advertising an upcoming in-comics event.  An event that's already been ridiculously promoted and which you can't go anywhere without hearing about, but hey, what are you gonna do?

Incidentally, I don't know what creatures the heroes are fighting on this cover.  Someone with more knowledge, please feel free to fill me on in whose butts they're kicking.  I would appreciate it.

The story begins with some observations from Danger, who is essentially Magik's jailer when she's not out on missions with the X-Men.  Her reservations about continuing Illyana's imprisonment are shared by Colossus, who starts to voice this to the X-Men leaders when a distress call from S.W.O.R.D. gives them an urgent mission to perform.  The Peak, S.W.O.R.D.'s prison for intergalactic fugitives, has been sabotaged in cataclysmic fashion, and several dangerous groups of criminals fall to various points in the Earth's surface.  The X-Men quickly take out a group of aliens in Nevada, and then agree to team up with the Avengers to take on multiple threats across the western hemisphere.

Meanwhile, a creature by the name of Unit, who is presumably the one who engineered the Peak's explosion, has landed in Canada, where he murders two human beings after cutting one of them open to see how they work.  After Hope Summers joins up with her team and teleports to his location, he sends the rest of them away and talks about how excited he is to meet her.  The issue ends with him advancing on her in a manner menacingly reminiscent of how he approached the man he dissected.

This was an enjoyable issue for several reasons.  First off, it was fun to see the Avengers and the X-Men teaming up and coordinating, even if the actual team-up was confined to just four panels spread out over two pages.  It's always interesting to see how such a diverse assemblage of skills and power sets can be blended to solve the more powerful problems.  And given that these two groups are scheduled to throw down on one another soon in AvX, you can bet this will be the last time they cooperate for a while.

Unit, the antagonist of this issue.

Unit is also an interesting character.  At times he seems virtually android-like in his detachment from emotional concerns, but he gets excited when meeting humans, and then mutants for the first time.  He seems to be able to make people do exactly what he says, and can spontaneously kick out a powerful mutant signature whenever he wants.  He looks, as one character put it, like an iPhone redesign, but he's clearly shown himself to be powerful and dangerous.  There's a lot of potential use for a character like this, and while I don't expect him to last very long in this story, he could be of interest down the road.

Finally, there's plenty of internal drama on the X-Men team, and while it doesn't take center stage, it's given various glimpses enough to show that some issues, like Illyana's imprisonment and Emma's recent trauma enduring the near-loss of her arm, won't likely stay on the back burner for long.  Given the amount of action that occurs in this issue, and the unspoken anxiety Scott is undoubtedly feeling at the impending return of the Phoenix Force, it's a testament to Gillen's deft plotting that these issues are able to receive their due coverage.

I do enjoy Pacheco's pencil work in this issue, though there are some places where I was distracted.  At times, the eyes on some of his characters seem a little too long for their faces, while at others, they're dead-on and perfect. His art style reminds me a little bit of John Romita, Jr.'s, though it's less distinctive, and I feel, more fitting to the narrative.  Pacheco clearly does action very well, and his linework on Unit, which could have been overwrought or underdone, was clean, efficient, and effective.  Smith's inks and line work frame everything up nicely and shade appropriately, while the colors provided by Guru eFX look vibrant and pleasing to the eye.  I'm overall very impressed by how everything turned out.

Overall, this was an enjoyable issue, with a lot of action, a subdued allusion to the standing drama on the team, and good artwork.  There's an inter-team team-up, and an interesting new creature who could be a formidable foe in the future.  All-in-all, an X-Men issue that was a worthwhile read.  Highly recommended.

Comic Review -- Avengers X-Sanction #4: Sundown / Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness, Dexter Vines and Morry Hollowell

Oh, jeez.  Let's get into the laundry list of issues that I have with this issue, and the mini-series.

What was the point of this cover?  It lies, even as it tells the truth.  Sure, Wolverine and Spider-Man "fight" Cable in this issue, but why are they wearing completely different costumes from the cover?  I'm also none too impressed with the artwork, particularly how Wolverine's claws are sticking out of Cable's knuckles with no blood, no torn or strewn metal, and no reaction from Cable to that.  Underwhelming.

We start with an arguably unnecessary flashback to how Spider-Man and Wolverine realize their comrades are missing, and go off to find them.  Then, back in the present, Wolverine tears into Cable, disarming him of his gun, which Hope takes and fires at Spider-Man.  He dodges, pulls the weapon away from her, and then gets blasted by an annoyed Cyclops, not to be seen for the rest of the conflict.

While Cable struggles with Wolverine, Blaquesmith directs Hope to disarm the bomb Cable has planted on the captured Avengers.  With little time left, she yanks the bomb wiring out, with no harm.  The Avengers come to, and Red Hulk burns out the techno-virus Cable porcupined him with in the previous issue.  Against his own techno-virus and them, Cable stands no chance, and is handily defeated as the virus kills him.  Cap agrees to let Cyclops take Cable to Utopia as long as Cable's technology and weapons remain with the Avengers.

Hope visits Cable in the infirmary, where the techno-virus starts to infect her, but she engulfs both herself and Cable in a vortex of phoenix-shaped flaming energy.  It burns out the virus completely, apparently resurrecting Cable, who is now appears to be free of the techno-virus.  Cyclops and Cable have a conversation on the astral plane sometime soon after, and Cyclops promises Cable he'll protect Hope from the Avengers, if and when they try to attack her.

While I will admit this is the best segment of the story, I'll also qualify it with the realization that it's not saying much for the whole story.  As a setup for the upcoming Avengers vs. X-Men storyline (AvX), it is a success: it sets up the coming conflict between the two groups and teases the fact that this all-out fight will be caused by the return of the Phoenix Force as it seeks out Hope.  But it really doesn't do much more than that, the rest of the story feeling all too much like filler material that gives Cable an excuse to fight the Avengers.  Because, you know... that'll sell comics.

It's not due to any failing of the story plot, which is actually very simple.  It's basically due to poor execution, a sense of glossing over some very important details (Cable's continued ability to keep on going and capture prime superheroes, even as he gets progressively worse; Red Hulk's ability to simply "burn out" the techno-virus), and the feeling that many of these characters, who have such history together, simply ignore or miss out some prime opportunities for characterization and development... even as they bash each other's brains out.  And don't even get me started on Spider-Man's brush-off in this issue.  There's no way he would have stayed out of the fight that long.

Art-wise, things look passable, even good in places.  The 2-page splash featuring Wolverine and Cable joining the battle looked really good, and I think Hope's moment of Phoenix scariness looked appropriately powerful and unsettling.  Scott's reaction to her was right on the money.  I did, however, think the floating heads shot of the Avengers as Hope huddled over Cable's body could have been done differently.

Overall, I'll damn this issue with faint praise, since it's the only one of the whole mini-series that deserves it.  It does try to flesh out Cable's reasons for doing what he does, but the flimsiness of his present actions ruin the narrative too thoroughly for it to be truly saved.  If you can be happy with pure superhero slugfest action, then you might like this series.  If you need a little substance, this issue is really the only one that I feel has any of it.  Recommended.

Comic Review -- Avengers X-Sanction #3: Noon / Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness, Dexter Vines, and Morry Hollowell

Alright, so I've got the all-red variant cover for this one, which doesn't look too bad, given the content of the issue, but I do have some issues here.  First of all, the all red feels like a lazy cop-out.  I can understand altering some of the tones to give the cover a different look, but really?  One-tone red, for 99% of the shot?  Give me a break.

I'll save my commentary for how he's fighting Red Hulk for my analysis below.

Cable has taken down Falcon, Captain America, and Iron Man, all because he's convinced the Avengers are directly responsible for the inability of his adopted daughter Hope Summers to save the world at the dramatically appropriate time it needs saving.  This has had a serious effect on his timeline and future, so he travels back in time, with tech from his time, to take on Earth's greatest heroes.  He's dying as the techno-virus overtakes and destroys his body, and he's fought alongside the Avengers innumerable times, but neither of these things will stop him from destroying them so that his daughter may live.

But things have hit a serious snag.  Red Hulk has shown up, and he's no pushover.  With the help of Blaquesmith, whose version of the future is what brought him back to assassinate the Avengers, a final psi-blast, and one seriously weird power stunt to take him down.  Cyclops and Hope show up, brought by Blaquesmith, but before they can contain the situation, two more Avengers show up, who will presumably feature in next month's final fight: Spider-Man and Wolverine.

To say I'm feeling let down by this story at this point is something of an understatement.  First of all, there's very little action going on in this chapter--which actually makes sense, as any kind of sustained fight with Red Hulk would surely end in Cable's destruction or death.  Instead, we see more flashbacks of what led us here, and how Cable got some of the tech that's allowed him to beat and capture some of the most premier heroes of the day.  When Red Hulk finally gets Cable in position to grapple and crush him into submission, readers get the most surprising and ridiculous display of power yet...!

Cable PORCUPINES a bunch of metallic spines out of himself and THROUGH Red Hulk's steel-like hide and body, apparently infecting him with the techno-virus!

Now, I'll admit, I've not read many of Cable's recent exploits.  It's perfectly possible that he's developed this power over time, even if it doesn't seem like something that would match his power set by anything I have read.  But the idea that this situation--you know, the one in which he's on his last legs, and being consumed by his own illness--and his love for Hope alone is what triggers this "unthinkable" turnabout in the tussle, just comes off as contrived and downright ridiculous.  I also think the paucity of action scenes between Cable and Red Hulk was a major cop-out.  At this point I really would have preferred to watch Red Hulk just pound on Cable until he shattered, bent, or broke.

I can't find much more to comment about with the art that I haven't already said.  Cable and Red Hulk look big and impressive enough in the few action scenes where they're actually fighting each other, but I was underwhelmed by the appearances of Scott and Hope, visually.  I don't know why exactly, but Hope in particular looked a little too wide-eyed and cartoony in her appearances.  Maybe that's simply emphasizing her youth, but it just didn't work for me.  And Scott just looked wooden and flat.  Oh, wait, never mind, McGuinness nailed him perfectly!  Even Spidey and Wolverine seemed a bit off in their one appearance.  Not a great setup for your final smackdown.

Overall, I'm really starting to get pissed at this story.  Unless something fan-frickin'-tastic turns things around in the last issue, I'm going to see this as simply a puerile, pointless piece of fluff fiction that's not even passable as a setup for the next story arc.  I don't want to have to say that about Jeph Loeb's story, and I'm willing to acknowledge again that this might not all be his fault, but this entire experience has been nothing short of disappointing, thus far.  NOT recommended.

Comic Review -- Avengers: X-Sanction #1-2 / Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness, Dexter Vines, & Morry Hollowell

Avengers: X-Sanction #1: Midnight

The cover for this issue isn't bad, but not great, either.  I like the use of colors, and the depiction of Cable and Captain America, who have fought on the same side many times, locked in mortal combat is conceptually interesting, but the facial expressions ruin it for me.  This is a vicious, balls-to-the-wall fight--there should be more expression on both their faces.  Gritting teeth, eyes locked on each other... something more that what I'm currently seeing.  As it is, it just seems too contrived and pre-posed for me.

The Avengers are called out to stop a jailbreak.  As they take on the Lethal Legion, Captain America goes after Whirlwind.  Falcon gets shot while watching Cap's back, and Cable drags him off to his base.  Cap eventually pursues, and upon finding Falcon held captive in a medical vat, gets ambushed by his former ally.  Both put up a vicious fight, but Cable narrowly wins, shackling Cap to a chair, turning a gun on him, and pulling the trigger with a loud bang, ending the issue.

So, apparently Cable's been dead for a while, having sacrificed himself for his adopted daughter, Hope Summers.  Now he's back, looking to kill all the Avengers with the vague goal of protecting her.  It seems that when people come back from the dead, or limbo, or wherever the heck they are that takes them away from the world, they come back with a few screws loose.  It looks like Loeb has decided to take this tack with Cable, and it gives me pause.  Much as I've enjoyed his writing in other stories, I can't help the feeling that, come the climax of the story, we're going to see that Cable's been made into a foolish old man, manipulated by someone else into doing something he otherwise never would have done.

It's not just the sickish sense of discomfort created by Cable so coldly and unfeelingly shooting down Avengers, or viciously beating down his former comrades, which he justifies ad nauseum throughout the narrative.  It's not just how he's able to best Cap in hand-to-hand combat, however narrowly.  It's not just the feeling that this plot feels so much like a flimsy excuse for a lead-in story to the upcoming Avengers vs. X-Men event later this year that I know there's no real risk here.  I mean, really--Captain America's going to die in a limited series, at Cable's gun?  Come on.

It's all of these things together.

I've generally liked Jeph Loeb's work, particularly when it involves showcasing one adversary per issue during a larger story arc, then moving to another.  But this is off to a shaky start, for a number of reasons.  I realize he may be constrained by narrative mandate at Marvel, but I'm so far only mildly intrigued by the Cable-as-Terminator thing we've got going here.  Hopefully it'll get better.

Artistically, I'm only moderately impressed.  Ed McGuinness does a good enough job with the supporting characters--Spidey, Wolverine, and Iron Man all look great in their appearances--but falls a little shorter when it comes to the two heavies in this issue.  Cable, I know, is not a small man, as neither is Cap, but they seem a little too widely rendered at various points in their fight, as if they've both consumed large amounts of cheeseburgers right before their brawl.  I'm also not sure I like how Cable's face is looking, and I don't just mean due to the effects of the techno-virus.  It's like every scar, vein, and wrinkle have been purposely exaggerated, and I don't like it.

Overall, I can't help but feel more than a little disappointed at how this story is starting off.  I like the overall concept, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.  I'm confident in Loeb's ability to turn things around, but I have to say the start doesn't feel so great.  Recommended, with reservations.

Avengers: X-Sanction #2: Dawn

Okay, I like this cover because it basically shows that Cable's playing the role of the Terminator.  It's very simple, but sinister and expressive.  But I have to wonder, does he have to adorn all his guns with stylized X insignias on them?

Iron Man notices that Falcon and Cap have disappeared, and follows Redwing, Falcon's sidekick, to Cable's hideout.  Cable, of course, is ready for him, and they engage in a duel of technological and firepower proportions, with each getting the upper hand on the other at various points.  Cable finally dispatches Iron Man and shackles him to another torture chair like Cap's, and starts his version of monologuing before he's shot in the back by Red Hulk, who's eager for a crack at the mutant from the future.

For someone who's getting closer and closer to death with each passing minute, Cable's putting up a hell of a fight.  He just physically bested Cap, and now he puts his brain and technological know-how to the limit by taking down the "mighty" Tony Stark and his vaunted Iron Man suit.  I'm hoping he'll finally stay down now, with his breathing problems and the techno-virus working him over so thoroughly, but I'm skeptical that will be the case.  By all appearances, Red Hulk is on deck for the fight next issue, and I'm sure Cable will reach deep down and think of Hope and suddenly have the ability to fight him.  I hope not, but that's what I fear will happen.

Artistically, there's been improvement, now that Cap isn't one of the focuses.  Iron Man appears comparatively slight to Cable, which is appropriate.  It looks like there'll be plenty of thick-fest next issue with Red Hulk, which is fine for that hero.  It just really bothered me with Cap.  Cable's facial expressions are also better in this one; there appears to be more emotion in his face and less emphasis on veins, wrinkles and scars.

Overall, I'm still none too impressed.  We're halfway through this, Red Hulk will be the fight in the next issue, and I'm sure Cable will find some way to beat him, too, despite his ridiculously deteriorating condition.  I'm just none too excited for what's coming next.  I'll continue to read, because I'm a completist, but at this point I'm not expecting things to get much better.  I hope I'm proven wrong.  Barely recommended, with serious reservations.