Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Avengers vs X-Men #11 of 12
Marvel Comics
Bendis, Coipel, Morales & Martin
Avengers versus X-Men rolls into the penultimate issue with a couple of mild surprises and a lot of action. I don't intend to be spoiler free because the issue's success hinges on Bendis pulling off these plot points. In some cases he does, while in other cases it just serves to confuse the overall "plot" that this series has had. The event is not interesting, it's not cohesive, it's not organized well and it doesn't make a lot of sense. However, this is an issue that serves a level of entertainment that manages to raise it above average. If you like fights then this is a pretty good issue. This is what the other mini-series, AVX: Vs, should have been all along.
As you may have guessed, this is the issue where the Avengers and many of the X-Men confront the Phoenix Force, which is controlled by both Cyclops and Emma Frost. As the combined forces of "good guys" fail to stop them, they eventually turn the pair on each other through some good usage of Professor Xavier.
The issue concludes with the unified Phoenix Force and the apparent death of perhaps one or two characters. To be honest, it's not entirely clear what happens to a given character when they are engulfed in Phoenix's flames, but this has been consistent throughout the series. Hawkeye looked dead earlier in this series but he is good as new in this issue which means when a character seems to be on fire, he might be perfectly fine.
The book just isn't constructed all that well. For example, the book opens with Captain America making a plea to the Hulk for his help. However, he really only has two panels worth of action in the book as it seems his involvement just didn't matter at this point in the series. Why open the book with something so non-essential as it pertains to this issue? Perhaps opening with the Xavier piece with Rogue would have made more of a meaningful opening. These little things have built up in helping to make this series such a mess to read through.
The book has a lot of fighting and a lot of characters get some panel time. In that regard, the book is a decent read. It's not terribly creative in terms of the methods the characters use to try to knock out Cyclops, but at least the book moves quickly.
The artwork is average. Sure, the pencils are detailed and the colors are vibrant, but the art doesn't tell that great of a visual story. I'm not even sure if characters are dead or not, which really shouldn't be the case because it loses any emotional punch the story hoped to gain from the scene(s). Even little things, like facial expressions, are not all that clear. Xavier looks so creepy when talking to Rogue. It honestly looks like he's trying to seduce her. Overall, the art does a good job in the action sequences but leaves a lot to be desired in terms of enhancing the outcome and explanation of the story.
The mini-series moves into the big finale. There is now a clear bad guy. It's completely unclear what role, if any, that Hope will play in the ending. She was almost entirely absent in this issue. If you like action and don't really care much for a story that makes a whole lot of sense logically or plot-wise then you should check out this issue. This was a decent to above average book.
3 out of 5 Geek Goggles
