A+X or Avengers + X-Men have been an ongoing series of Avengers/X-Men character team-ups that started happening right at the end of AVX. Think of it like the Avenging Spider-Man stories. They take place in canon but are technically just team up stories that are fun to read and have no major effect on the Marvel Universe on the whole.

This one is no different and like previous issues gives us two team ups to enjoy. While the first issue had a great Wolverine and Hulk team up, and the third issue had the first Storm and Black Panther interaction since their marriage fell apart which was great, but these haven’t been a big selling point to me. Even with the chuckle worthy Gambit and Hawkeye trying to save the same girl in issue two I just haven’t been able to get into these – until now.

The first part of this issue was a team up of Iron Fist and Doop. Why is that a selling point to me? Honestly it’s not. It’s the second story that really sucked me in but I’ll get to that in a moment.

Iron Fist and Doop are paired together, grab food and, an take on the bad guys in the latest issue #5. Honestly it’s a trippy and ridiculous fun read but doesn’t really have too much going on. I won’t lie that these two have great chemistry and are just a fun read to see them bantering back and forth. Well to see Iron Fist bantering and figuring out what Doop is saying exactly. You’ll start at the end of the short tale and come full circle by the time you are doing reading it. The fun part though is that there is an entirely different meaning to the introduction once you’ve reached it the second time around.

While it was a fun read the second portion was truly my favorite. We see a team up of Mr. Sinister and Kid Loki. This entire episode feels extra short and I’m not sure if it was from a lower page count or just that I wanted more of it. The concept is that Dr. Doom stole some of Loki’s essence and Loki wants it back to prevent a clone of himself from being made. He tricks Mr. Sinister into stealing what is rightfully his and it’s an all out battle with the two is great, specially with Sinister doing most of the heavy lifting. Not only is he doing the heavy lifting but he’s doing it with weapons made out of rehashed mutant powers taken from clones.

Huh?

Well he turns Dazzler’s power of turning sound into light into a weapon that keeps Loki from casting any spells, and he uses cloned Cyclops eyes as ammunition in a laser musket. It’s going to be one of those kind of stories. Honestly I’d love to see Sinister use this idea even more frequently in the future.

In the end they get away and Loki lets Sinister keep his stolen essence. Lamenting to himself that while Doom could use a mixture of Science and Magic to create a clone of him there is no way that Sinister would be unable to master the chaos that makes up a God to have any real use of it.

Anyone following the X-Men know that this may not prove entirely true but I doubt it’s a plot line we’ll see again down the road unfortunately.

Both of these were a fun read but for two short stories that both would have felt better longer I think Marvel needs to reconsider how they are doing this format.

Writer: Kathryn Immonen
Writer: Zeb Wells
Artist: Dale Keown
Artist: David Lafuente