In this issue we get some pretty great stories featuring the teams of Black Widow & Rogue and Iron Man & Kitty Pride. Though both stories are pretty different, they both contain a great amount of comedy, which isn’t really seen much in this series or it’s predecessor, ‘AvX: Versus’, so it was a joy to read both tales in the book.

In the first story, Black Widow has the day off and she decides to take some time to get pampered.  Things get out of hand when a Sentinel appears on the scene, shortly followed by Rogue, who is trying to stop it. Chris Bachalo handled the writing, penciling, and coloring on this part of the issue and he blew it away in all three departments. I hope to see him on some bigger stories in the future. Also, I thought that Rick Remender had a creative way for Rogue to use her powers, but Bachalo might have him beat. Of course, I’m pretty much kidding here, but it was still a nice unexpected twist in the story. A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do, in both battle and in life, super-powered or not, and this story did a cute job of showing that.

The second story featured Tony Stark trying to recruit Kitty Pryde to work for him, or more specifically, to work for Pepper Potts, which pretty much means that she’d work for him. Why seek out the girl who can phase through solid objects? Well, she’s also a genius who may even be able to rival Mr. Stark himself which is why he wants her on his team. So, during a tour of the Resilient facility, Tony and Kitty encounter some Brood warriors. Now, I never really saw Kitty as a major player in the Marvel Universe even though I do like her, but she totally took charge of the situation in this story and is even referred to Iron Man’s kryptonite at one point. Cheers to writer Peter David for reminding the world not to underestimate the Shadowcat.

Overall, the book was very entertaining. In some books like this, sometimes you only get one worthwhile story, but this one delivered both times. Definitely a fun read and sort of a nice break from the grim continuity of some of the other Marvel NOW books.

Final Score:

 

 

A+X #2

Written by CHRIS BACHALO & PETER DAVID

Art by CHRIS BACHALO, TIM TOWNSEND, & MIKE DEL MUNDO