Avengers Vs. X-Men: Vs. #5 Review
Avengers Vs. X-Men is here. And what better way to handle this than to have our resident Avengers fan (Geoff Arbuckle) and our resident X-Men fan (Victor Kutsenok) come together in a place of neutrality to talk about their favorite teams coming to blows over a cosmic power coming to Earth. So, let’s talk about the fifth issue of the companion series featuring battles that couldn’t fit into the main book. Let’s talk Avengers Vs X-Men: Vs. #5!
Avengers Vs X-Men: Vs. #5
Victor: Well, It’s time for another issue of beatdowns. This time around we have Angel vs Hawkeye in round 1 and Storm vs the Black Panther in round 2. I was really looking forward to the second battle here. My first impression, after finishing the book, was not really positive. Maybe it was the results. Maybe it’s because my head is in a bad place right now. Maybe it was just the actual lack of fighting. I just did not like this issue at all. There was so much more that could have been done.
Let’s start with the first battle. It felt that we were looking at 4 seconds of a fight instead of a complete battle. Also, wasn’t this supposed to be 1 on 1? What? Did Psylocke need to mess up another battle after choking on hers to Daredevil? Why was she even here? Secondly, Angel was written completely incorrectly. This is Angel before the Dark Angel Saga. Currently, he has no memories. He is not connected to Psylocke in any way. He also does not have his steel wings either. Bad research work on the part of the writers. Also, the battle was incredibly dumb. I think Hawkeye was written more like his Ultimate counterpart than the current 616 version. At least the art was sensational. What did you think Geoff?
Geoff: I have to echo your thoughts on the book completely. I just didn’t care much for this issue as a whole. It felt a little uninspired. The fight with Angel and Hawkeye left me trying to figure out why I should care and, more importantly, reminded me that didn’t Hawkeye get burned up really good in one of the main AvX stories? We never actually saw him get out of being cared for. I guess I can say the incarceration that we saw in New Avengers was part of that and then later, in AvX #9, I guess he was busted out but that’s one of the few real missteps in this series so far. I ultimately didn’t really care and couldn’t find anyone to root for in the story – which is odd because of how much I like Hawkeye.
As far as the art goes, I’m a little hot and cold on Leinil Yu’s work. At times I really like it, at other times, there are little things that always seem to stick out to me and cause distractions once I notice them. Overall, not the best of experiences in this first story.
Victor: I guess this fight happened before the burning because Emma, at the end threatens to pick up the battle with Hawkeye when they meet again. As for the art, with so much else wrong with the story, I had to pick something to enjoy. I was a big fan of the way Yu showed the action movements. His line work has always been impressive in making the picture leap from the page. In any case, I agree with the lack of caring. There was no backstory to this fight. Why are they battling to begin with? I don’t remember them fighting in the main series. Their powers do not have any comparisons so it really was pointless all around.
Let’s move on to the second battle. Now here, I was expecting SO much more. I wanted to see Storm use her POWERS to fight. The Black Panther should win in the end, but the battle should not have ended in the first two pages. Without her powers, I don’t care how good of a fighter Storm is, the Black Panther would wipe the floor with her. Speaking of which, technically, there is no way that the Black Panther’s technology can take away Storm’s ability to control the weather. She should still be able to create a storm or a wind. She connects to the earth itself. For the sake of the story, though, I’ll go with what happened. There were other issues with the tale too. But I’ll get into those after I hear how you felt about it.
Geoff: This one had a tad more emotional impact. These are two people who are acting out on a lot of different levels – failed marriage, X-Men vs. Avengers, Mutant and Brilliant Tactician. It’s much more solid, but my biggest issue with it was that this would have been better served in an issue of Avengers or Uncanny X-Men. It’s too short and forces the internal dialog within both characters to be short and precise to the point in which it makes them sound somewhat cold at times. I definitely could have gone with some more depth, but at least Tom Raney gives us good visuals.
Victor: I definitely agree. The biggest thing missing from this battle was the dialogue. We had a better exchange in AvX 10 in three panels than we did this entire fight. This was such a huge missed opportunity to add humor to an already tense and emotional situation. The internal dialogue was nice but not surprising. It didn’t have as much impact as a verbal fight expressing the individual’s position would have been. I agree on the art. Great work there. Better than Yu’s work for sure.
With the weak stories and fights in this issue, I am now starting to fear that the final installment will be crappy. Especially since it involves a bunch of fights that we “missed”. I predict 1 page random battles that will be terrible to read and serve no point whatsoever. Oh well. Another Marvel tradition of starting a series strong but ending it on a low point continues.
Grading time?
Geoff: I have a bit higher hopes for #6 since really the main event we hoped to see since Avengers Vs. X-Men #0 should be the bulk of the final Vs. book.
As far as grade, I’m going to go with 50. It’s not terrible, but it’s not terribly memorable when every one of these six issues were given the tools to be a home run each and every time.
Victor: I’ll agree with you here. 50 sounds fair here. With a big thumbs down in wasted potential. Maybe next issue will redeem this one. At least the main story is still pretty awesome. Until then, make mine mutant.
Geoff: And make mine Avenger!
A COMIC BOOK BLOG RATING
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Good art for both stories. | A little lifeless. Stories don’t have the impact we expected and the Panther/Storm story could have been an entire issue. |
| Rating |
1 Comment
The art for Hawkeye vs. Angel was pretty bad. There was one scene where trees were floating in the air, and someone had forgotten to draw the ground underneath them!