Comic Review: Avengers vs. X-Men 0-12 (April to October 2012)

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Language: English

The Writers:

1. Jason Aaron

2. Brian Michael Bendis (winner of 5 Eisner Awards)

3. Ed Brubaker (winner of 4 Eisner Awards)

4. Matt Fraction (winner of 1 Eisner Award)

5. Jonathan Hickman

The Pencillers:

1. John Romita, Jr.

2. Oliver Coipel

3. Adam Kubert

by Rogue

Synopsis:

The Phoenix Force is approaching Earth, and in the events of Avengers: X-Sanction we

learn Hope Summers is its next host. Unfortunately the X-Men and Avengers have very

different ideas on how to handle the situation and it breaks out into a war.

*NOTE: This event closes an arc that started with House of M in 2005 and it launches

Marvel into their Marvel NOW! relaunch initiative.

Review:

Story:

The concept is not particularly original since we’ve already read heroes battling heroes

(Civil War), but AvX does contain some unexpected twists and turns. It should not be read

as a stand alone, it has a poor introduction to the events and characters, and references

past events. I suggest reading the “Dark Phoenix Saga” (The X-Men #129-138), Avengers:

Disassembled (Avengers #500-503), House of M, Messiah Complex, X-Men: Second

Coming, and Avengers:X-Sanction. The event starts out action packed and well written,

but as it reaches the middle it loses focus, it gets boring and drags on forever. If the writers

would have used a couple more issues for the set up and premise of the story instead of

rushing headfirst into the action and conflict, they wouldn’t have had a climax at the 5th

issue and then had to drag out 7 issues of falling action. It’s not a bad story, it simply didn’t

need 12 issues to be told.

Execution:

Some issues were more successful than others. Issues by Brian Michael Bendis (#0, #1,

#8, and #11) were the best executed in my opinion, but sometime after issue #6 it gets

messy. Everything from issue #7 to #10 is the equivalent of a Zack Snyder movie (300,

Watchmen, Man of Steel), loud, lots of explosions, and could be done in one issue. It was

just too much. The most worrying thing was that I could identify which writer wrote which

issue, they had their stamp all over the page making it impossible for the story to flow. One

writer (or two at the most) should have done the script for the entire 12 issues to keep the

event clean and consistent.

Artwork:

Out of the three artists that illustrated AvX, I would have to single out Oliver Coipel as the

most successful, and occasionally John Romita, Jr. They were able to illustrate clean and

concisely a battle between a cast of 78+ characters. Unfortunately Adam Kubert wasn’t as

successful and it shows in his panels, they’re crowded, muddled and inconsistent.

Characterization and Character Development:

For an event called Avengers vs. X-Men, there’s not a whole lot of Avenger action going

on with the exception of Captain America and the Scarlet Witch (who is not exactly an

Avenger at this moment). On the other hand the X-Men are everywhere; Cyclops, Hope

Summers, and a random cast that I still don’t understand why they were chosen.

Personally, the only character who I saw change throughout the event was Cyclops, who

despite not being a favorite of mine, I was glad in the shift in his demeanor after 48+ years.

Issue #11 is my favorite out of the entire event, because it illustrates the relationship

between Cyclops and Xavier that has been strained since the events of X-Men:Deadly

Genesis (I highly recommend this title). Other than that, the characters weren’t nearly as

interesting as they have been in past events.

Conclusion:

This event is not essential for anyone interested in reading Marvel NOW! I appreciated

some aspects of it but it is not at the quality that it should have been. It’s not awful, but it’s

not great either.

Comic Book Origins: The Case of Pietro Maximoff in Marvel Comics and Movies

By Snow Drift

Origins in comic books have always been one of the biggest and most important aspects that characters have in this medium. Publishers will make one or more comic book issues explaining the origins of characters, announcing the publications of these with much enthusiasm and promotion. In these issues, the readers witness the development of their favorite characters from birth to their present state of self.

In the movie X-Men: Days of Future Past, viewers witness various mutant characters, one of them being Peter Maximoff, or as he is known in the Marvel comics, Quicksilver. However, this version of him is vastly different from his comic book counterpart. In the comics, Pietro Maximoff is the son of Magneto and a Romani woman named Magda, who fell in love with each other and escaped the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust. After escaping and living in peace for a short while, Magda ran away from Magneto when he killed a mob of Ukrainians. She eventually gave birth to twins, Pietro and Wanda, before she died. Thus, this makes the twins Jewish-Romani in terms of ethnicity. They wandered throughout Eastern Europe for years, having only each other for love and comfort. This is them living in a communist environment, running away because of their powers or because of discrimination every so often, and having been raised by an adoptive Romani couple.

However, to change that to a white, American boy with an Anglo-Saxon version of his name, living in a capitalist country, with a white American mother and a little sister instead of a twin, changes a lot of his character. Although the Jewish heritage is still intact because of Magneto, the Romani side has been erased, along with Magda, her experiences, and the twins’ life in Eastern Europe. When personalities and identities are important, taking away essential aspects of Pietro affects them. Growing up as a Jewish-Romani mutant in Europe with a twin sister leads a character down a certain path in life. The circumstances of living in a society where the twins were not only hated for being mutants, but also because of their ethnicity, affects how they view the world and how the world views them. The development of a character is based upon specific experiences and their perception of them.

With this in mind, I have to wonder what will happen to Pietro in the movie Avengers: Age of Ultron. The Walt Disney Company does not have the contractual right to associate any Marvel character with the X-Men or any concept of mutants. Thus, the movie has to change Pietro and Wanda’s origin and experiences, HYDRA holding them captive for who knows how many years. Not much is known yet, but it will not be surprising if the twins’ parenthood will be changed too. This personally worries me, for there is a possibility that the twins in the movie will be characters that will just happen to have the same powers and name as their counterparts, but not their identity as Pietro and Wanda Maximoff.

Of course, this is all speculation, but the possibilities are worrying for this particular comic book fan.

SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #31 REVIEW

By. Samurai Millo

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Classification: Teen

Language: English

Writer(s): Dan Slott, Christos Gage

Art: Giuseppe Camuncoli, John Dell, Terry Pallot

Coloring: Fabela

Cover Price: $5.99

Page Count:  55

Synopsis:

SERIES FINALE! The end of an era! A tale of triumph and tragedy! The GREEN GOBLIN unmasked! A hero reborn! But what does this mean for OTTO OCTAVIUS?! There’s only one man who can save us from the Goblin Nation… PETER PARKER: The one, true SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN!

Review:

This issue marks the end of a magnificent saga. Superior Spider-Man has been one of the best Spider-Man storylines that I have read in a long time and it was told in a total of 31 issues. The idea of killing Peter Parker and replacing his role as the wall crawler with someone else is not new. I remember reading in the 80’s fanzines about a proposal along this lines that was shot down by Jim Shooter, Editor-in-Chief at that time. Let us go forward in time to the 21^st century, specifically Ultimate Spider-Man 133, where they killed that universe’s Peter Parker and replaced him with a brand new Spidey named Miles Morales.

But still the Peter Parker from Marvel Universe Proper (Marvel Earth-616 for the purists) remained untouched, that is until the end of the year 2012 when Dan Slott wrote the story that I thought I would never see in my life. That’s right, Peter Parker’s mind was replaced by Otto Octavius’s beginning the 1.5 year long bi-weekly saga of The Superior Spider-Man. During this storyline the readers were treated to a very different work philosophy in terms of day to day superheroing, a way of doing things that turned Peter Parker’s world upside down courtesy of Otto Octavius’s “Superior Spider-Man”.

Issue 31 was the culmination of this saga. All mayor plot points were taken care of, setting this up and paving the way for Spider-Man’s latest re-launch on April 30, 2014. As far as I’m concerned, Dan Slott has gained his place in comic book history with this masterpiece. His evenly paced style shows that this is a man who knows what makes this characters tick. I wasn’t disappointed, not for one single issue or one single page. My favorite moment was during the climatic final battle. I’m talking, of course, about Spidey’s crack about Green Goblin’s choice of accessories for his costume. The art on all 31 issues was superb thanks to the outstanding talents of people like Ryan Stegman, Giuseppe Camuncoli and Humberto Ramos.

Final Verdict:

The Superior Spider-Man #31 is a fitting end to an epic story. It has my highest recommendation.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier review

 

By: Silent Jay

  I'll start by saying that there should be a special place in hell for people who talk during movies. Is it too much to ask of people to keep their mouths shut until the end of the movie?

  With that out of the way, let’s talk about the movie. This will be a spoiler free review of the regular version of the movie, since I don't believe in 3D unless it’s also in I-MAX.

  By now, everyone should know the Marvel Studios formula: movies of the individual heroes that are fillers until the next Avengers movie, alongside an obligatory Stan Lee cameo and a secret scene after the credits. But you know what? The formula still works. As long as I stay entertained, Marvel can keep using that recipe. Captain America 2 is no exception to the rule. It’s still a filler for Avengers: Age of Ultron, but you’ll enjoy every minute of it, assuming you didn't see any or all of the trailers (which do spoil a lot of the action). The movie is subtitled The Winter Soldier, yet to my surprise, he's not the main plot of the movie. Once I noticed this, I started thinking that the studio just forced the character into the movie, but the Winter Soldier does have a legit reason for him to be there. I might not have gotten to see as much of the character as I was expecting, but it was still cool that he was there. Something that kind of bothered me is that they weren't too subtle about the clues Winter Soldier’s identity. I’m nit picking a little since I already knew his identity, because the comics, but I felt that it killed the surprise. I actually can't talk about the main plot, because it really goes in to spoiler territory. The only thing I can say is that I wasn't expecting it, and because of that, I really enjoyed the movie’s story. The ending will leave you with questions over how this movie will affect the next Avengers movie, as well as the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series. I guess that's part of the formula to force people to watch the upcoming movies. But it worked out wonderfully, so I personally don’t mind.

 If you liked the first Captain America, then The Winter Soldier will be right up your alley. I highly recommend seeing it as soon as possible. Plus, there are two extra scenes after the credits, showing that Marvel can spice up that formula every now and then, so try staying until the end. Score: 8/10.

CAPTAIN MARVEL #1 (2014)

By. Samurai Millo

Publisher: Marvel

Classification: T+

Language: English

Writer: Kelly Sue DeConnick

Penciller: David Lopez

Coloring: Lee Loughridge

Cover Price: $3.99

Page Count:  24

Synopsis:

The following paragraph is a description of the comic taken from Marvel’s official website:

“Hero! Pilot! Avenger! Captain Marvel, Earth's Mightiest Hero with death-defying powers and an attitude to match, is back and launching headfirst into an all-new ongoing series! As Captain Marvel, a.k.a. Carol Danvers, comes to a crossroads with a new life and new romance, she makes a dramatic decision that will alter the course of her life and the entire Marvel Universe in the months to come. It's time to go HIGHER, FURTHER, FASTER and more in the most super-powered comic around!”

Review:

I usually count on first issues to be an adequate starting point for either new or returning readers. I expect that a first issue of any given comic book title will have all the necessary information in order to put the reader up to speed. Captain Marvel #1 is not one of those issues. This comic throws you right into the middle of a setting right out of your favorite episode of the now defunct TV series “Firefly” without giving us readers the slightest inkling as to what is going on. This for about five pages only to fade to black, show us the comic book’s credit and waste with only three words a perfectly good page that could have been used to give us a quick recap of the current status quo of Carol Danvers. Instead the plot about a month a half into the past to show us how Carol was faring on Earth and the changes in her life that place then, but since I wasn’t Miss Danvers’s previous comic I was quite lost and unable to recognize any of the secondary characters. Both Iron Man (Tony Stark) and Iron Patriot (James Rhodes) make guest appearances in this issue. Still, having established that the lack of introductory information is this issue’s biggest negative point then is only fair to say that that the characterizations and dialogues of every character in this book is this issue’s positive point. Scenes during a birthday party and between Captain Marvel and Iron Patriot are a good example of this.

The art by Spanish comic book artist David Lopez is of top quality and show a domain for both facial expressions and body language. The action scenes and the quiet scenes are both equally powerful. I especially liked the last page which to me was poster material. My compliments go to Lee Loughridge for a superb coloring job that shows us how color gives each location its own voice whether that setting is an alien planet or the docks of New York City.

Final Verdict:

Captain Marvel gets a “C” on storytelling for the reasons stated before, but gets an “A” for the art. It is still worth giving it a try.