Posted in: Comics, Review | Tagged: Avengers vs. X-Men, avx, Comics, cyclops, jonathan hickman, kieron gillen, marvel, phoenix, secret avengers, uncanny x-men

Marvelman Comes To Avengers Vs X-Men?

The big game-changing event at the end of Avengers Vs X-Men, couldn't be the introduction to the Marvel Universe of Marvelman could it?

I only ask because this week's Avengers Vs X-Men is very Marvelmanny. Specifically the final arc by Alan Moore and John Totleben called Olympus.

In that arc, we saw how Marvelman and his alien allies came to power and transformed the Earth, taking away pesky issues such as democracy, individual nations along with poverty, hunger and the limitations of mankind. But ending with a sour note, Marvelman's human wife refusing to take on super abilituies or to join the world he created, leaving him wondering why. It's a classic end scene… but the build up seems to be rather reflected in this week's Avengers Vs X-Men. We have the five recipients of the Phoenix Force beginning to transform the Earth. And how.

If last issue of Avengers Vs X-Men #5 felt like a damp squib, this does not. This is a story of five gods on Earth, and the Avengers trying to bring those Gods down, with Barack Obama on their side. Even when The Gods are finding solutions to all of man's ills and making a better world – but using a power that is not held accountable to anyone. It's a joy to read, it's wonderfully structured and the scene with Scarlet Witch shows exactly what will be happening, without saying a word. It's a beautiful comic and it feels like it goes on forever.

Well, for 36 pages at least. Yes, Marvel have stepped up and extended the length of this comic, without extending the price. If last issue felt light, this issue feels full and, yes, it does make a difference. Highlights include a scene with The Beast, in which he's never looked so goo, the depcition of Cyclops as a monstrous Roman god, his visor making him lkook more inhuman than ever, Colossus dealing with the Zzazz in a very Marvelman-like fashion, and a mandate to humanity that feels ripped from Olympus. All the while, the airborne Avengers doing their thing and the Iron Fist protocols weaving into place.

But best of all are the moral questions the comic raises. If you liked Marvelman, The Authority, Squadron Supreme, Supergods and the like, this could be the comic for you this week.

Of course, it's not the only AVX book out. The problem with the scheduling of this crossover is that books that pick up on an older plot point seem hopelessly out of date. Secret Avengers has been hitting a plot from issue 1 and 2 of AVX, and so seem stuck in an irrelevant past, this point has been lost. But the politics of both an alien plante and that of superheroing itself are played with rather nicely. It just seems a little pointless at this stage.

New Avengers has the feeling that at least it's a flashback. Which it does rather well by continuing its centiuries old flashback before bringing up up to today… or rather a few months ago, with Hope getting a trip with Iron Fist and Spider-Man to learn about a previous host to the Phoenix. And learning lessons from a very unexpected source. If feels as if this may actually be paying off in the big book itself, but preparation for a scene that has already happened two weeks ago still feels badly played out.

Uncanny X-Men #14 continues its trick of providing context for the big game, but also addressing plot points hat may have emerged in the minds of readers. Such as, with the Phoenix arriving, and Cyclops getting all intimate with it, what in the world is Minister Sinister up to? The man who created a Jean Grey clone, who has messed with the lives of Scott and Jean from their birth, with designs on the Phoenix power and clearly has some kind of inscrutable plan for it all. Kieron Gillen has said that his run on Uncanny X-Men has all been about Avengers Vs X-Men and here's where all those Sinister scenes pay off.

We start with a Dostoevsky parody, before we see Sinister's own parody of his own Victoriana-but-not-steampunk London. That also delves into 1984 and the Matrix trilogy as it all plays out rather wonderfully.

Yes, the Matrix trilogy. I went there. And we get a look, at least, at what a Mister Sinister styled Utopia would look like as well…

Comics courtesy of Orbital Comics, currently running a Dan Parent Archie gallery exhibition. Avengers Vs X-Men #6, Secret Avengers #28, New Avengers #27 and Uncanny X-Men #14 are all published from Marvel Comics today.

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