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Posted April 4, 2012 by Earl Maghirang in Comics
 
 

COMIC BOOK REVIEW: Avengers vs X-Men # 1

Comic book review for Avengers vs X-Men # 1 or AvX # 1 written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by John Romita Jr.

What’s to like:

- No Wolverine over-exposure

-  Lots of Avengers action scenes in preparation for the movie.

- The optic blast that started the war.

- Hope Summers still acting like a teenager

- Solid artwork from JRJR

- Bendis still writes his trademark “witty banter”

- A very stunning AR (Augmented Reality) bonus to kick start the “Marvel Infinite Comics” initiative.

 

How Much: Php 200

Availability: Hot Item; selling like hotcakes

The Phoenix is coming to Earth and it seems like it’s headed for Utopia, the island home of the Uncanny X-Men and their latest addition, the mutant messiah Hope Summers.

We’ve already seen how things are starting to build up for this big event from Marvel Comics in Avengers vs X-Men # 0 but this is where the first blow lands and where things escalate to the war that we’re already anticipating since it was announced last year.

Unlike Marvel’s last event “Fear Itself” there is no central villain that needs to be smacked down. While the Phoenix force might be argued as the book’s main baddie, Marvel lore would otherwise tell you that it is more than just a destructive force. As I was saying earlier, there is no real central villains in this book. There is no Mephisto that will be brainwashing Captain America to lead Earth’s Mightiest Heroes to Utopia. Certainly Magneto wouldn’t be sending Cyclops to New York just to beat the crap out of Captain America.

AvX # 1 also features the brilliant work of JRJR. Some fans and readers might have been turned off by his earlier work for the ongoing volume of Avengers but in this book, we get to see that the artist definitely brought in his A-Game.

image courtesy of Bleedingcool.com

What really got me going for this book aside from the AR (augmented reality, more on that later) bits that have been sprinkled in the pages of the book was the sheer simplicity of the book. We as comic book readers have become so desensitized with story development that we sometimes forget that it evolved from a more simple storytelling approach. I’m not saying its a bad thing that our tastes have evolved; all I’m saying is that some readers might not like how things were built in this issue.

The whole point of this first issue isn’t to start with a bang and show the whole mutants in Utopia battling the Avengers. No, in today’s comic book generation, the first issue is usually done to sell millions of copies and at the same time also move things forward to where they should be. Get my point?

Moving on, the book has definitely gotten hold of my interest in a big way. This is because of the premise. Yup the premise might be too simple and might even turn off a few fans because of the lack of originality but I honestly did enjoy the first because.

image courtesy of Bleedingcool.com

The augmented reality definitely took the cake for me. It made my whole commute to the nearest LCS worth it because of the sheer amount of goodies loaded into each page. From the booming voiceover to the commentary provided by Bendis himself over the crash landing of *spoiler* in New York, everything was sweetened. If this is the quality we should all be expecting from all the AVX main books then its definitely time to go and preorder all the issues.

Special thanks to an officemate of mine for lending me her iPad to check out the Marvel App.

 


Earl Maghirang