The action continues to ramp up in Avengers vs X-Men, and the tie-in series follows suit.  But is this an issue worth buying?  Read on.

The official description from Marvel:

All fights, All the time! Black Widow vs. Magik! Colossus vs. Thing!

Despite Avengers vs X-Men already reading like an action movie in comic form, Marvel made the decision that their needed to be a closer, more intimant look at the one-on-one grudge matches going on across their shared universe.  Initially I thought the idea was beyond goofy, but this series has proven itself to be a continually entertaining piece of work.  This latest outing is a somewhat worthwhile but completely unnecessary addition to the main event.

Like the two previous releases, we are treated with two matches with little to no set-up.  The first match is between Juggernaut and the Thing, and the second one is between Black Widow and Magik.  It would be easy to dismiss the issue as a pointless cash-in because of its subject matter, but somehow Chris Yost and Jeph Loeb succeed in giving readers two solid stories that work together to make this issue a worthwhile purchase.

Artists Terry Dodson and Ed Mcguinness both do solid work here, giving readers detailed characters complemented by some very dynamic action sequences.  The story flows easily from panel to panel, from punch to stab as both of these men work to compliment their respective scripts while still retaining their unique individual styles.  After reading this issue, and glancing at the art it becomes evident that both of these men were tailor made for the battles they were selected to draw.  Kudos to whoever at Marvel picked them to pencil this issue.

AVX: Vs #3 ties-in perfectly with the Avengers vs X-Men #5, and succeeds in offering a distincitve personality that doesn’t do anything groundbreaking, but will hold your interest from start to finish.  Recommended.

3.5/5