In ‘Avengers vs. X-Men’, we get to see the two premiere super teams in the Marvel Universe go at each others’ throats. However, the main series just isn’t big enough to fit all the battles in, so that’s where ‘AvX: Versus’ comes in.

On the first page, there’s a question and answer section that addresses what exactly the series will contain. Apparently it’s the “fightingest book  you’ve ever read, where we take the fights from ‘Avengers Vs. X-Men’ and expand them into all-out smash-ups.” After reading this sentence in the book, it sounded to me like the Michael Bay of comic books: all action and no plot. Essentially, that’s what it is, but I’m more invested in this series than I ever was with anything Michael Bay has done.

In this issue we get to see Iron Man versus Magneto, written by Jason Aaron with art by Adam Kubert, and The Thing versus Namor, written by Kathryn Immonen with art by Stuart Immonen and Wade Von Grawbadger.

The first fight on the card seems to be a no-brainer considering that man in a metal suit is fighting the master of magnetism, but that’s not the case anymore. Though I haven’t been fond of Aaron’s past work, he put together a pretty good fight with moments that I didn’t expect to see. He threw some excellent twists our way, and each one was beautifully depicted by Kubert.

The second match is almost the definition of a grudge match. Namor has had quite the history with The Fantastic Four, so seeing Ben Grimm take on the Sub-Mariner again has been a long time coming. Considering that the fight was in Namor’s territory, it’s hard to see the Thing gaining any advantage, but the outcome is quite genius. Kathryn Immonen wrote a great fight as well.

Something that I found to be fun was the AvX Fun Facts that popped up throughout the book. I’m hoping that they continue to do those throughout the series because they add a nice bit of humor to the action.
Overall, the book delivered everything that it promised. There were beautiful pages filled with Avengers fighting X-Men and very little plot advancement. There may have been a hint of plot in there somewhere, but not much. Like I said, this series is essentially Michael Bay’s ‘Transformers’, but since you’re not sitting through 90 minutes to 2 hours of it, it’s a lot of fun seeing these talented artists show off a bit.

Verdict: Buy

AVX: VERSUS #1
Written by JASON AARON AND KATHRYN IMMONEN
Art by ADAM KUBERT, STUART IMMONEN, AND WADE VON GRAWBADGER