Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

AvX Consequences #3AVX: Consequences #3 of 5
Marvel Comics
Gillen, Eaton, Hennessey & Charalampidis

The midway point in this mini-series continues to tinker with the mindset of Cyclops while in prison. While this issue provides an odd, unexplained, shift in the character's motivations, the comic book is still a very solid read. This mini-series has, thus far, been far more exploratory than the preceding event. This issue also begins to provide some drips into some of the other primary renegade mutants. Overall, this is a good issue and is shaping up to be a good mini-series.

When last we left off, Cyclops was trying to convince Wolverine to kill him. His death would become a beacon for all of the new mutants popping up everywhere. Cyclops finds one of these new mutants in prison, Jake, and this apparently leads Cyclops down a different path.

This is the unconvincing part of the comic book. In too short of a span of time, Cyclops goes from asking for his death to then defending his life in prison. Couple that with dialogue stating how he is a political prisoner and not a criminal and it really confuses the character's motivations. To this point I would never classify Cyclops as anything but decisive, as we saw during and immediately after Avengers versus X-Men. I saw progression for the character in the two previous issues but not in this one. Perhaps this is just a pause, but I wasn't thrilled to see this apparent about-face.

The rest of the comic has little surprises here and there dealing with Emma and some of the other X-Men that were deemed as the villains. There isn't a ton of context given to these characters and their situations, but the interaction is solid and welcome to this mini-series.

Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle ReviewsThe artwork is very good. When you consider there is barely any action, but drama building, the artwork conveys this very well. I really admire how Cyclops is wearing a helmet that covers his face and, yet, he can still project his emotions and feelings through the artwork. The story is definitely enhanced with the artwork.

There are a lot of unknowns as to the end point for this mini-series. Even if this all ends exactly where it started (a common tactic for these post event mortems) the book is still an entertaining read. It's providing character exploration for one of the key characters and those he interfaces with. Plus, the book gives a good look at the "what happens next" aspect of the Avengers versus X-Men crossover. This is an enjoyable book.

3.5 out of 5 Geek Goggles