Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Avengers And X-Men Axis #2Avengers and X-Men: Axis #2 of 9
Marvel Comics
Remender, Kubert & Martin

Axis provides an issue that is mostly centered around Iron Man. While this is a pleasant surprise, the execution to whittle the cast down to one is very confusing and feels entirely too choppy. The book proves to be a fast paced story that isn't trying to do too much other than entertain the reader in the moment. This is a good thing in my opinion. The artwork holds this comic book back from being a fun read straight through. This issue helps to hold my interest in this event for another issue.

The story is fairly basic. The heroes make plans to take down Skull and his two sentinels, that were created from Tony Stark's tech. Wave after wave of attacks, heroes keep disappearing. Stark keeps coming up with plans but each time they try something they vanish one by one until he is the only one left.

The interesting part of this comic book is how the action is basically non-stop. The book feels like the ending to a major event and not the second issue. This is a good thing. The comic is also a very nice Iron Man story. He's dealing with some guilt in this issue and that is explored. He's also dealing with plenty of personalities that dislike him and that is also explored. This is a good look at the character. Oddly placed, but a welcome shift from the last issue where no single character had a deep focus.

Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle ReviewsThere are plenty of downsides and they mostly seem to be related to the art. The powers that the sentinels seem to use are not rendered clearly at all. They seem to have a blue energy that makes the main characters vanish, but even after this explained a little bit, (after we've already seen some characters disappear) the force field and its usage is odd to understand. Kubert has done much better in most of his long career. These characters seem to be absent emotions (and in some cases facial features). The book feels like it is too heavy on the inks and not detailed enough in the pencils. Sure, there are epic panels but too much of the comic book looks like thumbnails. This book appears rushed and that is not acceptable for an event with this much hype and lead-time on the schedule.

Axis is an event that is hatched out of Uncanny Avengers but is slowly breaking away from that book. The comic book contains action and a nice character focus but can future issues continue to juggle this huge cast while sticking with one and only one character? The book is slowed down severely by artwork, in flow, rendering and details. This is an okay read, even for the casual reader.

3 out of 5 Geek Goggles