GN Review -- Avengers: The Children's Crusade / Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung

In continuing my exploration of the Scarlet Witch's recent past, I've skipped ahead to more recent developments, which are nevertheless surprisingly connected to some of the events I saw in Avengers Disassembled.  I was a little surprised to see that this was told mostly from the standpoint of the Young Avengers, who had apparently come about soon after the Disassembled story arc.

During a pitched battle with a group of overpowered zealots, the Young Avengers defeat their opponents only when Wiccan's powers seem to augment beyond his control.  Several Avengers witness this, and remembering all too well how powerful Wanda was, bring him and Hulkling to their headquarters for observation.  They eventually bust out of their new "home" with the help of their teammates and embark on a quest to locate the elusive Scarlet Witch, who Wiccan suspects is his and Speed's mother.  They end up enlisting the aide of Magneto, who may therefore be their grandfather, and travel to Latveria, where they suspect she is in hiding.

When they prove successful in locating her, there are still a number of complications they have to deal with.  First and foremost, she is about to marry Doctor Doom, who seems to be shielding her from her past memories, and also may be intent on keeping her nearby because she's so potentially powerful.  Iron Lad takes them to the point in time just before Jack of Hearts explodes in front of Avengers Mansion, and snatches Scott Lang to bring to the present, much to his daughter's delight.

The rest of the Avengers show up, as do a large group of the X-Men, who then start to argue and fight over Wanda's fate and who should decide it.  In the chaos, Cassie is killed by an over-powered Doom, who soon burns out from the power he stole from Wanda and escapes.  The X-Men decide to leave Wanda alone after an impassioned plea from Wiccan, and she decides to take some time to figure out what she will do with her life now.  The Young Avengers disband, but not before Captain America tells them that they will always be considered Avengers, whether they continue to be heroes or not.

Obviously, there's a lot going on in this story, which at times feels a little out of hand in terms of focus.  In addition to the main plot involving the Scarlet Witch, you have a sub-plot that's still very significant involving Iron Lad--who is apparently Kang at a younger age--saving Cassie Lang's dad, Scott, from his original death in Avengers Disassembled.  There are guest appearances from Doom, Magneto, the Avengers, the X-Men, X-Factor... it can get a little confusing to keep it all from spiraling out of control.

There's also more suspension of disbelief required to read this story than is usual in a superhero comic, mainly because of the involvement of magic and magicks as plot devices for the characters.  Apparently Speed and Wiccan are the "children" Wanda created before Avengers Disassembled, as they look remarkably similar to one another, and to Magneto and Wanda and Quicksilver, and their power sets mimic those of Magneto's children.  It's a very flimsy premise, and essentially one you have to decide to believe simply for the sake of allowing the story to continue.  I was willing to do so, but I will understand if many readers have a problem with this plot point.

Still, for all the events going on, it never really feels clogged or blundering, and Heinberg actually manages to juggle the multiple plots as well as could be expected, managing to infuse them all with feeling, value, and enough action and drama to keep you turning the page.  Wiccan is ultimately the main protagonist, and his quest to find Wanda is genuinely rendered.  Wanda, when finally found, is given plenty of room to shine, and the magnitude of her crimes against both the Avengers and the mutant population is explored in depth.

Art-wise, this is a great story.  I've seen Jim Cheung's work before, but I have to say that he's really got a talent for rendering superheroes in clear, dynamic fashion, and he has no problem with scale.  Be it just a couple of characters or twenty five in a panel, everyone looks marvelous.  Action scenes flow effortlessly, and everyone looks distinct, even if you take away the iconography that would be associated with their powers and costumes.  Very good work.

Overall, I think this is a great story, perhaps a little too big and unwieldy in places, but overall a good telling of the Scarlet Witch's return to the world at large that she helped create, for better or worse.  The believability factor is easy to gloss over in light of the rest of the action and drama, but some readers may feel cheated by it.  Still, the narrative flow really carries the reader through the action in some places, and the artwork is a wonder to behold.  Definitely a must-read for Scarlet Witch fans, Avengers completists, and anyone who enjoys comics primarily featuring teenage superheroes.  Highly recommended.

Comic Review -- AvX: VS #1 / Jason Aaron, Adam Kubert, Kathryn Immonen and Stuart Immonen

While I'm generally not a huge fan of big banners or title logos taking up an inordinate amount of space on a cover, I can actually get behind this one, since it serves as a divider between the two teams.  There's no action here, but rather the calm before the storm as the two teams get ready to fight one another.  Which is, of course, what this issue is all about.  It's certainly cleaner than some of the covers on the main series, and the art by Adam Kubert looks fantastic.  More, please!

Two battles from the pages of Avengers vs. X-Men #2 are elaborated on in this issue, where Iron Man and Magneto fight one another, and Namor takes on Thing in the underwater depths.  Whereas each encounter was hinted at and spans perhaps a few panels in that issue, in here, they're each given a 10-page treatment, replete with dialog, attitude, and a hearty helping of AvX Fun Facts that shed various amounts of information on the match at hand.  At the end of each story, a winner is declared, and presumably they head back into the larger battle at hand.

Now, to be clear, I'm almost always going to choose good storytelling over knock-down, drag-out action with no point.  But I feel I should point out two big factors in why I like this issue so much.  First, if you take an actual look at the storytelling going on over in the main series--where, you know, they're supposed to be doing the actual storytelling--then you know there's not much going on in terms of engaging, enjoyable storytelling and writing.  Second, I've really wanted to see an Avengers-X-Men match-up for some time, and see who could beat who, and under what circumstances.

Neither of the fights depicted here actually ended the way I wanted them to, but that didn't take too much away from the enjoyment of the issue, as there's actually quite a lot on display here.  The fights are very personal, as I imagine personal combat should be between warriors, and much of their individual attitudes shine through the action, lending an engaging and often amusing sense of personality to what easily could have been a straight-up, comparatively bland slug-fest.  I have to congratulate the writers on taking a project with so little on the surface and really making it quite enjoyable.

I laughed through most of the fight between Iron Man and Magneto, as these two, who I don't know to have that much personal enmity toward each other, fight for their side.  We see both personalities quickly--Tony doing a snide little, "Hi, you must not know me!" bit when Magneto realizes his Iron Man suit isn't made of any metal, and Magneto immediately retorting sarcastically about how he could possibly defend himself... as he prepares to drop a 170-ton silo on Tony.  The rest of the fight is a freewheeling and expensive clash of intelligence, experience, and ingenuity that is spectacular in scope yet also believable.

Thing and Namor's fight, on the other hand, was very personal.  I don't even know much about either of these characters, but it came across very quickly that they have a prior history, and that it is not a good one.  I especially liked Thing's dialog in this one, as Ben wasn't able to actually say much underwater--but his thoughts were clever retorts to all of Namor's yammering.  Ben also proves mightily resourceful in what is Namor's natural environment, while Namor himself is the picture of underwater might.

Another nitpick is that these fights do ignore a few important details.  For instance, Luke Cage's proximity to their fight in AvX #2--I mean, he's fighting Namor with Thing--is completely ignored.  He's not in the Thing/Namor fight at all.  Emma Frost was also in close proximity to Magneto and Iron Man when their fight began, and is also completely absent.  I know I deep-sixed the main series for continuity, but they're the ones who are supposed to be handling the good writing.  This series is a slugfest, and doesn't pretend otherwise, so I'll let those details go in the name of enjoying these simple pleasures for what they are.

The artwork in both of these stories is also worthy of praise.  Adam Kubert's splash page of Magneto about to drop a silo on Iron Man is particularly beautiful, and Stuart Immonen makes the underwater fight between Thing and Namor pop with intensity.  Both art teams do an excellent job of making the fights look realistic, three-dimensional and full of action and drama.  If the artwork in the main series were this good, it might distract more from the abysmal storytelling going on over there.

Overall, I found this to be an enjoyable and engaging read, especially compared to the hodgepodge going on over in the main series.  The artwork was great, and it was nice to see some scope and personality given to these battles.  This is what I wanted to see from AvX, and these VS titles seem to be delivering it.  If you have to choose, ditch the main story and go with this one.  It's honest about what it gives you, and it delivers nicely.  Highly recommended.

Game Review -- X-Men Legends / Activision

Back in 2004, when the Playstation 2 and the X-Box were slugging it out for dominance in the console gaming market, Activision put out one of the most epic comic book games of its time.  It was an action-RPG, featuring Marvel's X-Men characters, who were enjoying a massive upswing in popularity due to the success of two feature films. It ended up being a milestone, not just for the acclaim brought about by its own performance, but also because it was the start of a legacy, becoming the template for 3 sequel games.

I am, of course, referring to X-Men Legends.

Admittedly, it ended up being a few months before I got around to playing X-Men Legends.  The basic plot centers around the emergence of teenager Alison Crestmere as a mutant, one with the power to control and manipulate molten earth.  Fittingly, she eventually takes the codename Magma, but before she does, she become the target of an attempted kidnapping by Mystique and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.  The X-Men arrive on the scene and manage to stop them from taking her, and bring her back to the mansion to offer her a place at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.  As the X-Men try to figure out what Magneto wants with her, they engage in a series of adventures against a multitude of some of their most dangerous adversaries.

The action-RPG style of X-Men Legends combines the best of freestyle button-mashing, combos, and basic hack-and-slash fighting with the kind of layered, engaging character advancement you get from the best role-playing games.  At the heart of it all, you have a wide-ranging, dynamic story featuring an enormous cast of playable X-Men, their most memorable allies and enemies, and a plot that, while not the most complex in the world, leaves plenty of room for a sequel to follow--which, it totally did.  While you experience a lot of story through Magma's eyes and character, there is plenty of development that occurs among the main X-Men characters, including a few very nice flashback scenes that recall old comic book stories and show some of the retro looks the characters sported in earlier years.

There's also a high level of versatility incorporated into the game world and mechanics behind utilizing your characters.  Some puzzles can be solved in multiple ways, through use of force, thought, or clever use of mutant abilities.  A wide range of powers and abilities, both passive and active, are available to every character as they level up, and they're managed through a clever and intuitive scheme of button combinations that make good use of controller layout.  There are also combination moves that grant extra experience and damage, when you manage to combine one mutant ability with another against a foe in battle.

Leveling up your character is also an engaging process, with more than just their raw powers up for improvement.  With the utilization of gear and ability points, you can also upgrade their basic combat characteristics as well.  That means you can make them more resistant to damage with armor, increase their defense, attack, stamina, and HP stats with ability points, and upgrade their powers and abilities, often all in one go.  This is the game that came before you got the option of alternate costume skins for your character, so that element is missing, but gets addressed and taken care of in the sequel, Rise of Apocalypse.

In the area of play control, there's plenty to praise and a little to gripe about.  Overall, it's very intuitive, with directional, attack, and other mechanical necessities rendered smoothly.  I do have issues with how the camera will occasionally zip to a highly inconvenient angle, but this occurs fairly infrequently, and can usually be corrected with a quick moment on the directional stick.  By and large, the game handles extremely well.

The graphics are also awesome, with plenty of faithfully rendered cel shade animation for the characters, and believably destructible environments.  It's not the most advanced graphics work, but again, this was the first of its kind, and subsequent titles update based on the classic look of this game.  The voice work is stellar, with the most notable bit of casting going to Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier, reprising his role from the hit movies.

Overall, this is a great game, and a wonderful beginning to the franchise that spawned X-Men Legends II: The Rise of Apocalypse, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, all good-to-excellent games in and of themselves.  It combines an engaging story with good graphics, dynamic action, excellent voice work, and a feel to the X-Men universe that is very genuine and well done.  Highly recommended.