A+X #1 Review

Avengers Vs. X-Men is over, and there was blood and lots of bad feelings.  Our resident Avengers fan (Geoff Arbuckle) and our resident X-Men fan (Victor Kutsenok) come together yet again to discuss the new series rolling out of a new era of Avengers and X-Men cooperation.  Join us as they share puppy dogs and ice cream in the new series A+X!

A+X #1

Geoff: Okay, Victor, how about some happy fun times involving the X-Men and the Avengers? No more of this battling each other or hating on each other. It’s time for A+X! Get that V out there!

Okay, so here we have a couple stories formatted similarly to the AvX: Vs. title. First up, a time jumping action tale involving Cable and Captain America. For me, this was a nice little story. For some reason, I just love stories with Cap in WWII. Then throw in Cable and a bitchin’ Nazi Sentinel, and I’m all in. What did you think?

Victor: I liked it. It added some new continuity to the Marvel U. As far as I know, Cap and Cable never really had a moment where they claimed to know each other. Also, I liked how the Trask bloodline survived into the future and is still trying to wipe out mutants.

The story was pretty quick, simple and to the point. Threat created. Threat averted. Add some limited action sequences. Some humorous one liners thrown in for fun. All drawn very well. A pretty decent overall tale.

Geoff: Yeah. I also appreciated the little line from Bucky about getting a mechanical arm. Nice way to wrap up a generally nice story.

The second story seemed even quicker but also seemed to set up something for fans to keep an eye out for. Present day Hulk and Wolverine fighting their future selves Maestro and Logan. This nice little ditty starts and ends with “Cake” which, I admit, made me giggle.

The main story was that Maestro and Logan were sent back to kill the Red Hulk. But the twist comes from who sent them back to do this… The Red Hulk. What did you think of this story?

Victor: This one is more of a set-up piece than a self-contained tale. It was extremely entertaining. I loved the quick bits of action and the humor as well. I really liked seeing the Maestro again. What I didn’t get was which timeline these two came from. Also, with the way they returned to the future, I was expecting Dr. Doom to be behind everything. Maybe, in this future, Doom is somehow the Red Hulk? I just don’t know why our Red has to die for this future to exist.

That was my only real complaint with this title. I wish there was more explanation. Also, being that it’s a new series stemming out of AvX, I was expecting it to be more connected to the current continuity While not really a big issue, it did feel like a bit of false advertising. Art was great though. Did you have any complaints, Geoff?

Geoff: Not really. I think I know where Maestro and Logan is coming from. Remember way back in the first arc of the Avengers title (the Heroic Age series)? Could it be they are from that future? Kang would be supplying the time traveling business.

I didn’t have that many complaints at all. I kinda like series like this and Avenging Spider-Man where it’s just a good old fashioned team up book. There are loose connections to regular continuity but nothing completely, or heavily, tied in. It’s not a book that will be groundbreaking, but instead, it will be a fun little title to read each month.

As far as grading, I’ll go 85. Great art, fun scripts. Again, not going to crush any preconceived notions of the Marvel U., but it should prove to be an enjoyable series enough to keep me entertained.

Victor: I’ll agree with you there. 85 seems to be a fair assessment if this title. Hopefully, in future issues, they stop with the two separate stories and stick to one self-contained team up. My theory has always been that taking away pages from one story to tell another completely different story makes both stories feel rushed. More pages per story allows for a more complete tale. But that’s just me.

Tags: Avengers Comics Books Avengers vs. X-Men Slider X-Men