So my number one complaint as of late has been a severe lack of the villains in my series and in the latest issue of ‘Avengers & X-Men: Axis’ we actually see what many of them have been up to, but is it enough to turn the tide on a stale crossover? Let’s find out below!
In this issue, Rick Remender really gives us a mixed bag of nuts here. The heroes are mostly ignored aside from a few pop ups that are rather cardboard in nature. So while the villains are talkative and interesting and finally on page, they mostly do a lot of taking and not much doing. This felt much more like a weak tie-in and I think even this week’s AXIS Revelations issue had more to offer on the characters.
Terry Dodson’s artwork is one of the highlights of the issue though it wasn’t the saving grace that it was for the previous issue. Moments of inconsistent detailing, a lazy first page that was mostly black panels, and a splash shot at the end that could have worked if half of the characters had actually been shown on panel a bit more really made things fall flat for me.
For the lineup? We get a bit of Mystique, Sabertooth, Dr. Doom, and Loki which are all almost truly stand out moments. Only, they all are a little rushed and while they are expounded upon in the tie-in issues it feels that without them the main story doesn’t have a cohesive enough narrative to be pushing forward an overall plot. Honestly, it feels like a convoluted mess at this point and while we are finally getting to the characters I was most interested in, they really feel to drag it in a way that would have worked better if shown about two issues sooner.
Marvel has the ability to pull off a high stakes event that actually matters but they keep getting in their own way. We need a six to eight month break of any major crossovers and really be able to plan one out instead of having one every other month at this point. I read somewhere that the events in AXIS were initially set to take place just in the ‘Uncanny Avengers’ line and I really feel that maybe they should have left it there. Condensed, this would have been a much more enjoyable read. I feel they are doing a great job at mainly focusing on the Illuminati story line, “Time Runs Out” in the ‘New Avenges’ where the actions are somewhat spilling out into other titles but you don’t need to pick them up to understand what is going on in the main book. More events like this in the near future and really plan out the bigger ones going forward. Think back to the glory days, the tie-ins to the ‘Infinity Gauntlet’ were awesome but you didn’t need them to understand or appreciate the full picture of the main story.
A lot of the bigger plots do get pushed forward this issue but much of it happens off panel as is shown by the very first page of the book. We’re finally getting into the moments of this crossover event that I was hoping would turn things around, but with only a few issues left, this felt like a filler issue that needed tie-in issues to make sense and wasn’t able to stand on it’s own. I keep telling myself to wait for the next issue but with where we’re left at the end of this one,it feels that the next issue has to finally get to the story telling. Of course I think I’ve been telling that to myself for the past three issues.
AVENGERS & X-MEN: AXIS #6
Writer: Rick Remender
Artist: Terry Dodson
