Avengers vs. X-Men #3
Story by Jason Aaron, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, and Jonathan Hickman
Script by Ed Brubaker
Art by John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna, and Laura Martin
The short of it:
Wolverine wakes up after his Phoenix frying to find out that the X-Men surrendered to the Avengers. Captain America and Iron Man argue, with Cap wanting to throw them all in jail and Iron Man pointing out that Cap is being absolutely ridiculous, not unlike Tony was during Civil War. Wolverine winds up getting back to the party too late to tell the Avengers that IT’S A TRAP, and the X-Men are gone across the country to find a Cerebra with which to find Hope. Wolverine’s school has one, though, and Scott has a mole. Hope builds a device that makes her harder to be tracked, and Logan is already getting Cerebra readings to say where to go look. Captain America divides up teams to go and scout out each location to try and find her, before completely over stepping his authority. There’s a fight, and one Avengers who will never call themselves one again, and the issue ends with Captain America having made the worst enemy he could have made.
What I liked:
- Iron Man pointing out that Captain America really is turning into Civil War Iron Man.
- Man, where the hell has this John Romita Jr. been the past few years?
- Cyclops outsmarting the Avengers was just brilliant. And I mean, it really should feel easy to do given how inept Captain America has been. But he’s just so good at it, and it’s nice and clever.
- The big fight at the end is just freaking awesome. Romita at his best drawing two characters he knows well at their best.
- There is nothing more awesome than a pissed off Wolverine.
What I didn’t like:
- I figured that when Brubaker came to the table we’d get a well written Steve Rogers, but I was wrong. If anything, he’s even more one note here than he has been thus far. He’s got this bag plan to save the world, and it has more holes than Swiss Cheese.
- For as great as everything in this issue looks, Spider-Woman still looks horrible.
- The Avengers really are just a big team of bullys in this book. Like, even Hank Pym turns into a bully in this issue. Hank Pym! He’s like, the one guy who wouldn’t boot someone out of a jet, and here he is, booting someone out of a jet. That makes me sad.
- The Hope scene could have stood to be far less vague. Or longer.
- Blood thirsty Wolverine is just….”let’s protect the kids but I’m going to gut this one first”.
Final Thoughts:
Man, Cap is as crazy as Norman Osborn. The only difference is that Norman completely embraced the fact that he was batshit insane, and Cap still thinks that he’s right and everyone is wrong.
I’m surprised it took this long to find out that not only does Scott have a mole in the Jean Grey school, but that she somehow hadn’t been called in yet. I mean, come on, it’s obvious and I’m still not a hundred percent why she chose Logan…actually, now it kinda is.
A red wash over a fight just makes it sometimes, I’m not sure why, but as soon as I see two characters in a red room with any exuse to fight I hear ‘Danger Zone’ and just wait for the fight.
I love how this series is making little attempt to hide the fact that it’s just fan service fights. Seriously, that’s the substance here and it works.
When Iron Man is citing Civil War as reasons why you’re crazy, you might be crazy.
I’m still not sold on the Phoenix as some big creature representing universal destruction, but I’m also still not remembering her doing that save for Dark Phoenix and this series.
Overall: 7/10
