Avengers #29 Review
The Avengers try to set a trap to draw out one of the X-Men’s telepaths, but only find they’re the ones led into the trap themselves.
Avengers #29
The Avengers are in a bad way. At war with the X-Men, they’ve been completely over matched by the Phoenix Five. Based on a suggestion from Spider-Woman, they decide that the only way to truly protect themselves from a potential mental attack from the X-Men, they need to find themselves their own telepath. With Wolverine’s relationship with Rachel Summers, they opt to go for her and hope she can see the error of the Phoenix Five’s way. As insurance, Cap makes a call to Professor X to help them. However, in the end, they don’t bring Rachel over to their side and Professor X walks away from them declaring his dream has been snuffed out.
Brian Michael Bendis has done some solid work with his AvX tie in issues in both this series and New Avengers. This one is an interesting one. A short while ago, Wolverine and the X-Men #12 told this same story. While that was definitely from the X-Men point of view, this one takes the Avengers angle.
With this issue we do get to see Professor X’s involvement a little more with the Avengers and their overall plan to appeal to Rachel’s “sanity”. It’s, at best, a risky move tell this story yet again. It’s not like a more detailed type of plot that opens the door for both Jason Aaron and Bendis to bring the different perspectives to the same moment that wasn’t even portrayed in the main Avengers Vs. X-Men story. Were both issues good on their own? Yeah, they were good enough. The main problem is asking people to spend a combined $8 before tax for two comics that tell the same story. Sure, it’s from two different points of view, but the big issue is that there were many more stories you could create in these tie-ins. There wasn’t a need to really see how Professor X was pulled in to end up on the other side of the aisle from the Phoenix Five. That was made clear that would happen in the main story. There are so many other characters you could pull from and so many different ways you can view this “war”, just rehashing this particular moment is a tough sell, and I’m willing to bet the general public will find the same issues I have.
All that being said, is this issue good? If you look at this specific issue without thinking about the issue over at Wolverine and the X-Men, this story does work. It’s got a clear plot that isn’t too muddled by dialog (though I totally admit that Hawkeye talking about all the chicks he’s hit on during brainstorming sessions as to how to not lose a war against cosmically powered X-Men isn’t a great idea) and has a lot of great work from Walt Simonson. His battle scenes are spectacular. If you didn’t read the Wolverine and the X-Men issue, then you likely won’t have the same problems I did. But if you did read both issues, you might feel a little ripped off, for a lack of a better term.
A COMIC BOOK BLOG RATING
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Good art and clear plot. | Unfortunately, that same plot has already been seen. |
| Rating |
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4 Comments
The story was okay, but I’m pretty tired of Bendis on the Avengers. I’m not sure how old you are, but I started reading the Avengers when Roger Stern was writing, and both the writing and the pacing of stories was much better than what we have now. As an aside, I believe the cover with Cap may have been taken from a panel from the Uncanny X-Men during the Dark Phoenix saga
You know what? I think you’re right about the cover. But it sounds like we’re close to the same age. I started on the Avengers while Stern was there doing the Masters of Evil story when they stormed the Mansion. For the most part, I agree with you, the pacing has always been a problem in this era.
We are close. I started with #237. In that issue the Avengers and Spider Man were trying to stop a jailbreak at Project Pegasus. It was a great two part story. If you haven’t checked them out, I would also recommend some of stories surrounding Ultron in the 160s and 170s I believe, as well as a Count Nefaria storyline also in the mid 160s with John Byrne as an artist. Enjoy your blog!
Oh yeah, I definitely know the books. That Nefaria story is awesome.
Thanks for commenting and the compliment!