In the last issue of AvX, we saw Namor committing an act of war on the country of Wakanda, and now, we see the ramifications of the attack that have devastated the land of King T’Challa, the Black Panther.

The first thing that I noticed was the change up in art style again. This time, Adam Kubert handled the penciling duties and the change was very fitting. His style is very dark and aggressive and it fit the tone of this part of the story that pits The Avengers against one fifth of the Phoenix Five. Kubert just has a way of drawing faces that really delivers on the agony of battle. I also enjoy the way that the panels are laid out. There’s one page where Namor is fighting Thor and two panels on the page are positioned so as to represent a hammer. Panel placement throughout the issue was very fun to follow.

On the story side of things, since this book called for a whole mess of Avengers to enter the fray, why not have the go to Avengers guy write it? Brian Michael Bendis was in good form with the script for this issue. Spider-Man, another hero that Bendis is quite familiar with, had a few good lines in there, and I’m not sure whether I should attribute this to the writer or not, but the noises of the battle like KRAKOOM and KTANG were quite creative as well.

The one disappointing thing about this story (and it’s a really minor thing) is that there was no Illuminati. At the end of issue 7, we were told that there would be the return of the Illuminati from ‘Civil War’, which consisted of Iron Man, Namor, Mister Fantastic, Doctor Strange, Black Bolt, and Professor X, but that group was nowhere to be found. Actually, they could be found, but they didn’t have any scenes together aside from some one on one battles here and there between members. Don’t tease me like that, Marvel! It’s not very nice!

After learning what we learn in this issue, it’ll be interesting to see how the battles with the other Phoenix Force members will be like in the coming issues. Also, it’ll be interesting to see how it all ends up considering issue twelve is rapidly approaching. AvX is coming to an end, people, so expect big things in the next four issues!

Verdict: Buy

AVENGERS VS. X-MEN #8
Written By BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
Art By ADAM KUBERT, JOHN DELL, LAURA MARTIN, & LARRY MOLINAR
Cover By JIM CHEUNG & JUSTIN PONSOR