Avengers & X-Men: AXIS #2 Review


Can this events start to generate momentum? Or will it fail to impress? Read on to find out.

The official description from Marvel:

ACT I: THE RED SUPREMACY
• The heroes of the Marvel Universe storm the beaches of Red Skull’s Genoshian Reeducation camps. What they discover within will lead to a bleak new era.
• The revelation of Tony Stark’s dark secret promises to shatter the fragile alliance between A and X.
• The all-new Captain America pays a terrible price.
• Nova’s attempt at solving the crisis leads to disaster.
• Magneto betrays his alliance to join an army of evil.

AXIS #2 variantAXIS got of to a rather underwhelming start, as though it was far from terrible, it was nowhere near as good as I had hoped. Unfortunately things don’t get any better here, with events becoming slightly poorer if anything. Being focused on Tony Stark, this issue sees how the almost Unified Avengers/X-Men/Inhumans collaboration deal with the events of last issue, with the interaction between Tony and Magneto being very heated.

Rick Remender has taken the rather intriguing concept that he’s built up in Uncanny Avengers and sullied it by making it Marvel’s next big events. Fair enough the scope of the story has enough to merit such treatment, but it really needs refined a bit, with the overdose of characters making the events feel rather bloated. Despite this Remenders gives some rather intriguing moments, with the narration from Tony allowing for moments of regret. Despite this the lack of appearance from Red Onslaught meant that things seemed a little too laggy, and unfocused.

Adam Kubert shows a slight improvement in his art, as though the abundance of characters still causes some rough, cramped panels, the artist is definitely showing why he’s one of the best artists in the business. I especially loved how he handled some of the action, with Tony’s facial expressions showing how desperate times are for our characters. I also found his final page double spread to be awesome, having me excited to read this weeks Magneto #11. Despite this I still found the AXIS banner at the start and end of the issue to be rather cheesy, sullying the art in between.

Avengers & X-Men: AXIS #2 doesn’t do much for the latest in Marvel’s long line of events, reinforcing the notion that these events need to be spread further apart. It does however give some exciting moments, with the narration at times being engaging. All and all I find it hard to strongly recommend this, and only recommend it to people who’ve already tried the first issue.

OUR RATING
6
  • + Tony and Magento share some intense words.
  • + Adam Kubert's art is certainly better than last issue.
  • - Rick Remender should have left this as part of Uncanny Avengers.
  • - The Red Onslaught felt more like a background character here.

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