Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Avengers X-Men: Axis #9 of 9
Marvel Comics
Remender, Cheung, Dodson, Yu, Kubert
Mercifully, this event ends. What a terrible landing this comic book had at that. Nine pencil artists and inkers, with three self-inking their own work made for an uneven and messy read. While, the story drifted in and out of focus leaving small plot holes left and right and couldn't decide whose story this was really about. In the end, I believe the purpose of this story was to make three or four characters change from good to bad or bad to good. Professional wrestling does a much better job at having characters switch sides than this. This is a really poor comic book with such a heavy spotlight shining on it.
The comic book moves at a good pace. This is a good thing because thirty-six pages of constant scene changing is tough to do without a lot of action. This comic has the action thankfully. Remender shows he also has a good command of Deadpool, Thor and Loki and those are also very good things because it helped to ground this book in the greater Marvel Universe.
The bad points are high in number. The plot holes include a scene where Rogers and friends speak out-loud that Doom and Scarlet Witch and Strange are the only ones that can put together the spell to put everything back. However, they also state Witch would never help. Later, she appears with Doom willing to help. This is never explained or even commented on. How about a dialogue box, "I thought you wouldn't help us put things back!?!" We are left to guess how or why she changed her mind.
Havok is a riddle. His existence in this book is completely puzzling. He apparently lies to Wasp for reasons that are never explained. They are called out basically in the next panel and never mentioned again. Why was he trying to draw her in to begin with? Later, he decides he likes being inverted, manages to stay inverted because of the twist and again goes after Wasp for reasons that appear to simply allow him to escape. Why? What happened to his motive from earlier in the book? He goes back home to Cyclops, but Cyclops is reverted. Does this mean he's lying to him or that he's now in agreement with Cyclops? It's a mess.
Sabretooth. How did this comic book become about Sabretooth's need for salvation and his aspiration to be like Wolverine? Of all the characters to land on this one is a puzzler. I can see Captain America, Rogers, Skull, Genesis or Iron Man. I can not see Sabretooth being the final character focus. Especially because Wolverine died in another event. Why not tie Sabretooth that that event?
Finally, the ending. The idea that the villains would do what they did (not spoiling it) is not absurd. It's senseless. Nothing makes sense with how this book wipes away the battles that the heroes fought against each other. And the final scenes of Deadpool on the run from the cops with Genesis or the Loki scene with the hammer are head-scratchingly scary. I have no idea what I'm supposed to take away from this. Is everyone in hiding? The broadcast claimed all is forgiven.
The artwork is a mess. There are pages in which I can't tell the character in the fight. Faces look muddy on pages to wash out the details and characters appear to walk inches above the ground as if sketches were lined over as best as could be. There is one panel where I swear the bottom part of Nomad's legs are simply missing. There are some great names attached to this book. Editorial did nothing for their reputations by allowing this book to go to print simply to meet this deadline.
The creators on this book deserved a better chance to show their talents. Having read much of Remender's work I can't believe he left this book that riddled with holes. This can't be the story he set out to do. In hindsight, the first act was fairly good and can be read alone with a decent level of entertainment. This issue is the low point. There must have been a more creative way to get a handful of characters to switch sides than this comic book event. Avoid it. It's not even worth the action.
1 out of 5 Geek Goggles
