Marvel Comics' big event for 2012, Avengers Vs. X-Men, begins today with Avengers Vs. X-Men #0, from Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron, and Frank Cho.
Anyone going to follow this?
I'm not a Marvel guy, to be honest, but I received issue #0 in my shipment today because I was curious.
It's a book of two halves. The first half, by Bendis and Cho, focuses on the Scarlet Witch. The second half, by Aaron and Cho, focuses on Hope Summers, the Mutant Messiah.
As someone who last picked up an Avengers book with Avengers/JLA #4, the first half of the book was incomprehensible.
I'm on slightly better footing for the second half, because I'm a little more aware of what's been happening in the X-Men's world. The mutant population is down to about 200, Scott Summers has taken one group of mutants out to San Francisco where they have a refuge, Wolverine has taken another group of mutants to New York where they're trying to uphold Professor X's ideals. (Basically, Schism split the X-Men in two, with Scott taking after Magneto and Wolverine taking after Xavier.)
So, is issue #0 any good?
I felt unsatisfied after reading it, to be honest. Again, not being a Marvel reader is probably going to be a big part of that, because I had no emotional connection to any of the characters or their situations. Aaron does a better job in the second half of making his story accessible to the non-X-Men reader, while Bendis' story in the first half assumes that the non-Avengers reader knows the backstory.
Unless there's some deeper meaning to Bendis' story here and it makes sense around AVX #9, I think AVX #1 next week will make a better entry point for the casual reader into the event than AVX #0.
- The return of the Scarlet Witch! What does this mean for the "Mutant Messiah" Hope?
- Three of the hottest names in comics kick off the biggest event in Marvel history!
- And did we mention Frank Cho on art?!
Anyone going to follow this?
I'm not a Marvel guy, to be honest, but I received issue #0 in my shipment today because I was curious.
It's a book of two halves. The first half, by Bendis and Cho, focuses on the Scarlet Witch. The second half, by Aaron and Cho, focuses on Hope Summers, the Mutant Messiah.
As someone who last picked up an Avengers book with Avengers/JLA #4, the first half of the book was incomprehensible.
I have no idea what's happened with the Avengers. I don't understand why Scarlet Witch seems to be an amnesiac or why Vision is such a dick to her. To be frank, I'm really not sure what any of this had to do with anything.
I'm on slightly better footing for the second half, because I'm a little more aware of what's been happening in the X-Men's world. The mutant population is down to about 200, Scott Summers has taken one group of mutants out to San Francisco where they have a refuge, Wolverine has taken another group of mutants to New York where they're trying to uphold Professor X's ideals. (Basically, Schism split the X-Men in two, with Scott taking after Magneto and Wolverine taking after Xavier.)
There was nothing wrong with this. Hope feels like she's trapped on the island of Utopia and she wants to do something, anything, while Scott is a serious dick to her and basically grounds her, whereupon she goes off and does what she was going to do in the first place, which was to fly off into San Francisco and beat up some bad guys. And then Scott and Emma turn up to take her home and ground her. Again.
So, is issue #0 any good?
I felt unsatisfied after reading it, to be honest. Again, not being a Marvel reader is probably going to be a big part of that, because I had no emotional connection to any of the characters or their situations. Aaron does a better job in the second half of making his story accessible to the non-X-Men reader, while Bendis' story in the first half assumes that the non-Avengers reader knows the backstory.
Unless there's some deeper meaning to Bendis' story here and it makes sense around AVX #9, I think AVX #1 next week will make a better entry point for the casual reader into the event than AVX #0.