AVX: Vs #6(of 6)

Okay, here's a comic that I wished I hadn't read...  Why?  Well, let's dig into it.

AVX: Vs #6

Summary: If you haven't read Avengers vs X-Men #12, then you probably shouldn't read any further........  Still here   Cool.  This one starts off with Hope vs the Scarlet Witch from AVX #12.  Wanda is more skilled, while Hope swipes Wanda's power and tosses it back at her.  Eventually Captain America and Iron Man walk over and Cap tells them to cut it out.  Wanda shakes Hope's hand, which leads to Hope punching Wanda out to "win" that fight...  Oh the hilarity...  My sides are splitting...  Ha.  Ha.  Yeah.  And then?  It got WORSE!!!  After that "battle" we get 8 other battles.  Cyclops and Cap argue(written by, who else, Bendis!) in what I guess was supposed to be funny, while all the scientists from each side battle to a stalemate(apparently).  Havok beats Cap in a splash page because, "the X-Office put this book together."  Next up Domino defeats Rulk with her probability powers, while Jarvis defeats Toad after knocking him out of a window with a punch.  Hawkeye then fantasizes about Spider-Woman fighting Storm, Emma Frost and Psylocke, followed by Iceman defeating Iron Fist with a hailstorm, because he's Storm now...  Finally something awful happens between Pixie and Squirrel Girl, but since I hate both characters, I'm going to ignore THAT one.

Thoughts: Humor, my friends, is a very subjective thing.  What one person may find funny, another may find childish and unbearable.  This comic?  For me?  Was not funny.  AT ALL.  It was obviously meant to be funny, but it sucked.  NONE of the humor connected with me, except for maybe the Hawkeye story, 'cause it was something I could see Hawkeye doing.  As for the main story?  It was what it was.  I hated Hope prior to reading this issue, and I hate her after reading this story.  It changed nothing.  Instead of doing the mature thing and shaking hands after her little skirmish with Wanda, she cheap-shots her.  Why would I ever like a character like that?!  One who starts a fight, while the Earth is being destroyed, and then punches an unsuspecting woman in the face?!?  Cue the Hope fans saying that she had to punch Wanda because... I don't know, Wanda is a jerk.  Anyway, this comic was awful, and doesn't compliment the main AVX book in the least.  My best advice is to save your $4 and skip this one.

Score: 2 1/2 out of 10.

Sure, the reasoning may be asinine, but the picture is pretty awesome.

JT's Take: AvX: VS. #3

Hey Todd Squad (Yep, you've slowly converted in X's absence), it's time again for another review! This we're looking at AvX: VS. #3, for those unaware this book features more fleshed out versions of the fights between the Avengers and X-Men during their big battle. Prior to this issue the score was Avengers: 3, X-Men: 1, so let's see how our two teams fared in this issue.

AvX: VS #3

Summary: As you can see from the cover above, our two fights this issue were Black Widow vs. Magik and The Thing vs. Colossus. We started things off with a fight between Red Hulk and Colossus, which I would have much rather seen, but instead we ended up with Colossus and The Thing, both victorious from past fights against Spider-Man and Namor respectively, facing one another. Since this issue takes place on the moon, due to the events of Avengers vs. X-Men #5, the fight drastically changes once The Thing and Colossus's fight take them out of the Blue Area of the Moon, which is a side that has oxygen. Once outside of the Blue Area, Colossus is able to make short work of Thing since Colossus doesn't have to breathe apparently, while The ever-lovin, blue eyed, oxygen sucking Thing does. This brings our total up to 2-3, with the Avengers still leading. Next we saw Black Widow take on Magik in a fight that really wasn't a fight, Magik sent Widow to hell but Widow brought her with her, then proceeded to beat the hell (No pun intended) out of Magik before making her return them back to the Moon. After the ass-kicking she dished out, Black Widow is literally stabbed in the back by Magik with a sucker punch using her Soulsword. Magik then looks up at the quickly approaching Phoenix as this issue comes to a close.


Thoughts: This issue was kind of a let-down for me. The prospect of Red Hulk vs. JuggerColossus was way more interesting to me than seeing The Thing again, I get that they needed some wins for the X-Men and probably didn't wanna job Rulk out to Colossus but seeing two people who have already had fights when we have people like Wolverine, Thor, Hawkeye, Beast, Cyclops, Storm, Emma Frost and other people that haven't had fights yet seemed odd. Add that in with the fact that Widow basically kicked tons of ass and was beaten by a sucker punch and that left a sour taste in my mouth. Once again, I realize that was done to tie up the score I guess, but I hated seeing Widow taken out like that. Plus, a lot of the dialogue in that fight was in Russian because they're trying to push that Augmented Reality App, not everyone has a Smart Phone Marvel, and those that do, may not feel like scanning a page to read a comic they already purchased...

Score:  6/10

Black Widow: You think I'm not ready to die for what I believe in? Think again.

AvX: Vs #2

Check me out, here's another review being posted a day earlier than I had expected! Bah, see that, a full time job and I'm STILL managing to keep this blog somewhat up to date!

AvX: Vs #2(of 6):

Story Points:
-The first story is drawn AND written by Steve McNiven, which should give a big hint at who's winning. Btw, the first fight is Captain America vs Gambit in the Savage Land.
-Cap spends the beginning portion of this fight talking to Iron Man, thus pissing Gambit off.
-Gambit manages to snag Cap's shield, charge it up and throw it back at Cap, narrowly missing him.
-Cap manages to get his hands on Gambit, but Gambit proceeds to charge Cap's UNIFORM, blowing it up, at which point he figures he'd won the battle...
-In actuality, all he's done is managed to get Cap's undivided attention, at which point Cap thrashes Gambit, adding another victory for the Avengers.
-Next up, Spider-Man vs Colo-naut in Latveria.
-Spidey tries to use all of his old Juggernaut strategies against Colo-naut...
-That goes poorly for Spidey as Colo-naut is a way more skilled fighter than Juggy was.
-There's literally nothing Spidey can do to stop Colo-naut's barrage.
-In the end, DD arrives and tells a battered Spidey that Hope wasn't in Latveria, at which point Spidey and DD take off, leaving Colo-naut victorious, and giving the X-Men their first win.

Thoughts: Again, much like the last issue, I really love this concept. No stories, no real thought, just a full-on fight. So this issue puts the Avengers up 3-1, as well as making my guesses 3-1 as well(damn Namor/Thing fight...). I liked the way the Cap/Gambit fight went, because, let's face it, the only way Gambit had a chance was if Cap was distracted, and once Cap wasn't distracted? Game over. Now, I WAS a bit surprised that Spidey took the loss to Colo-naut... Spidey is probably the most popular Marvel character(if not the most popular character in all of comics), so while logic dictated that he should lose to Colo-naut, I wasn't sure if he'd find a way to emerge victorious. Honestly, I'd have been fine if he did win, but with that said? The more powerful character definitely won. Much like after reading issue #1, I'm eagerly anticipating the next issue.

Score: 9 out of 10.

AvX: VS #1

First review of the night? The first issue of the AvX: VS mini-series. From my understanding this mini is supposed to bring us the battles from the AvX event in more detail... So this should either be a great companion to the AvX event, or a serious waste of money. Let's hope it's the former and not the latter!

AvX: VS #1(of 6):

Summary: Well hot damn, this comic was EXACTLY what I was hoping it would be! One issue, two fights that took place during AvX #2. The first one gives us Iron Man vs Magneto. Now in theory, Mags should trounce Iron Man, right? WRONG! Iron Man has been able to counter Magneto's powers since the 1980's(yeah, for THAT long!), and this battle proves no different. Eventually, the two have to resort to a fistfight high above Crazy Mutie Island(since power-wise they were too evenly matched). Mags becomes distracted when he senses the Phoenix Force eat a planet(I'm not sure how, but whatever), and Iron Man brings the hammer down, defeating Magneto... Hell yeah baby!! Avengers 1, Brotherhood of Evil Mutants 0! Next up we have Namor taking on the Thing. The two combatants wind up plummeting into the water and Thing manages to pin Namor to the bottom of the sea with the teeth of a giant sea creature, defeating Namor yet again... Yeah, the FF owns the fish-man. That ends this issue with the Avengers 2, the X-Men nil.

Thoughts: Well hell, I LOVED this comic book! The Iron Man/Magneto battle was PERFECT. Jason Aaron had those two characters DOWN. The banter, the dialogue, the fight itself, I couldn't have dreamed up a better fight between those two. And yes, it ended the way I'd have expected it to end. Tony Stark is just too smart to be defeated by Magneto, and his massive intellect was the x-factor in that battle. On the other hand, while I enjoyed the fight between the Thing and Namor, I was fully expecting Namor to win... Yeah, the Thing is strong and all, but he was fighting Namor in Namor's element... On the land? Thing wins, hands down. But under the sea? I'd have expected Namor to pull out the win. So yeah, I can't say I agreed with that outcome. Regardless though, this issue, and this mini-series? It's an absolutely BRILLIANT idea! Seriously, I don't know why Marvel or DC didn't think of something like this before. Oh, and before I forget, they also had awesome little fun facts that were in caption boxes during the battles... Yes, they thought of EVERYTHING! I only have good things to say about this one, and you know what THAT means...

Score: 10 out of 10. Yep, it's the second perfect score of 2012! Huzzah!!!

Stark resilient all the way, baby!!!