AvX Review: Avengers vs. X-Men #0 By Brian Bendis, Jason Aaron, And Frank Cho

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Avengers vs. X-Men #0

Written by Brian Michael Bendis and Jason Aaron

Art by Frank Cho and Jason Keith

 

 

The short of it:

 

Scarlet Witch is aspiring to be a hero again, but it’s not easy. She’s out of practice, lacking faith, and it’s not a huge secret that she caused Disassembled and M-Day. A few female Avengers invite her back, but she can’t get one foot in the door of the mansion before one member verbally strikes her down and tells her to never return. Meanwhile, Hope is stealing Scott’s jetpack to go fight bad guys, as we’ve seen in previews, and after knocking him down with his own blasts she goes to fight the Serpent Society. Raised to be a soldier, understanding that her destiny is the Phoenix, Hope knows no fear.

 

 

What I liked:

 

  • After so many months of horribly drawn versions of Ms. Marvel and Spider Woman it’s so damn refreshing to see Frank Cho draw the female Avengers again.
  • Wanda as vintage Wanda was actually pretty great. Hex blasts instead of reality warping, super heroing instead of crazy bitchness. I missed this Wanda.
  • M.O.D.O.K. and his…creatures were great designs and made for an entertaining fight. A giant red T-Rex head sticking out of what looked like a bullet. The fight was great.
  • Same goes for Hope versus the Serpent Society, which displayed a lot about her to readers who may not be familiar. She’s headstrong, literally. The story gave us a nice little introduction to just what exactly she can do, and for those of us familiar with her, it didn’t feel like much of a retread.
  • Wanda’s verbal berating at Avengers Mansion was perfect. She deserved every last word.
  • The throwback to Wanda and Carol being close was nice, it’s one of those rare perfect uses of a character that makes me wonder how intentional it was. You know, like, did Bendis use her because of the history, or was it because Cho loves to draw her?

 

What I didn’t like:

 

  • The issue felt way too brief. I mean, there’s a good deal of things going on here, but it just feels over too quickly. The downside to doing two stories by two writers is that neither really got the pages to do more than a fight and some talking.
  • Hope beating a group of people until a room is filled with blood just seems…extreme. Yes, she’s a soldier. Yes, she was raised by Cable. I’ve never gotten a blood thirsty feeling out of her before.
  • Hope does not look like a teenager.
  • Hope is really my biggest issue here, she’s just an extreme version of herself. She treats Scott like crap, is a complete bitch, and seems to have forgotten she’s part of two teams and isn’t a loner.

 

Final Thoughts:

 

You’ll believe that even an Android can be a dick.

 

The Serpent Society jobs to a seventeen year old girl, and if anything, I think she should have offered them a handicap.

 

So maybe it’s just me, and maybe I’m late in making this connection, but the last time I read an arc with Phoenix it was written by Grant Morrison and nobody was viewing it as approaching doomsday. Now, however, the X-Men are all scared shitless of something that they used to just view as “Jean”.

 

Beast and Wolverine appearing in the Avengers section does a nice job of reminding us that when it comes down to Avengers vs Cyclops’s X-Men, we’ll have X-Man vs former X-Man, but once the Avengers take the fight to Logan’s school then we’ll see them be baffled that their friends want to categorize them with the rest.

 

I wonder how much of AvX I can get without buying Avengers or New Avengers….

 

The smartest choice here was letting Bendis and Aaron each write their own story instead of having them co-write a single one. It let both writers play to their own strengths without creating a cluttery mess.

 

I never thought I’d admit to missing a Bendis written Wanda, but after Children’s Crusade….I missed a Bendis written Wanda.

 

This was actually a pretty good issue to set up the event. We know the main players on each side as far as ‘key’ characters go. We understand that one of them is seeking redemption she doesn’t believe she deserves, while the other is headstrong and seeking to understand why everyone thinks she’s so special. Wanda and Hope are very different characters, and it should make for some interesting story telling if done right.

 

Overall: 8/10

A lifelong reader and self proclaimed continuity guru, Grey is the Editor in Chief of Comics Nexus. Known for his love of Booster Gold, Spider-Girl (the real one), Stephanie Brown, and The Boys. Don't miss The Gold Standard.