With Axis finally inching towards it’s finale, this latest book is the best one to date. That being said, much like the last issue of this crossover event I still am not overly impressed on what Remender has been giving us. We already have been told a lot of the changes to our heroes and villains will be undone, aside from Tony Stark at least, and I have a feeling that we won’t see much fallout from this. Even though we have the X-Men about to kill all of humanity after having already taken over part of New York.
I’m pretty sure that instead of a new wave of cries of mutant menace we’ll see things go almost right back to normal as the event comes to a close. I don’t know if this will be from the actions of a new spell by the Scarlet Witch or the Red Skull, who will probably now briefly be a hero as he makes the world forget, but I hope we at least get a partial explanation on why the planet isn’t up in arms over the events of this issue.
Rick Remender has decided to tone down the actual characters focused on in this issue and while there is still a lot going on it feels a lot more cohesive than any issue to date. This narrower beam really helps tell part of the story but I feel that the damage may have already been done and unless this closes with something completely out of the box and amazing that we won’t be able to come to terms with this major crossover event as being worth the price of admission.
Adam Kubert knows how to draw battle scenes so it is pretty fitting that with how light the plot is the issue that we get a lot of fighting. Heroes and villains and more heroes all battling one another in a variety of pages and styles completely work here and are excellently executed.
The stars of this issue are outright Evan, erm Apocalypse, and Deadpool. Not to say that Cyclops, Havok, Spider-Man, Magneto with his children, and a few others don’t have their own on screen dialogue but really it is the confrontation between these unlikeliest of friends turned enemies. Though I’d like to point out that the Magneto and his children piece may have just given us one of the largest twists in mutant history depending how that plays out on page going forward.
While still the best issue in the series to date I feel that we’re having to pay far too much to get the overall story and I’m not happy with where it looks like the end result is heading. At this point even a completely unexpected twist ending that actually changes something in the status quo might not be able to pull this past just being an event of mediocrity. I can’t see the actual events that are happening have long term consequences as I don’t feel we’ll see anyone asking a few months down the line, “Remember that time the X-Men took over New York and almost wiped out humanity?”
AVENGERS & X-MEN #7
Writer: Rick Remender
Artist: Adam Kubert
