Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Avengers Vs X-Men #4 of 12
Marvel Comics
Hickman, Romita, Hanna & Martin
This issue is a complete misdirection in the series and the story shift is a most welcome one. The Avengers continue to look for Hope as they are met with more X-Men to fight. However, both sides have aces they have yet to play and Hope proves to be more resourceful then it seemed in previous issues. The art is good and the story moves quickly, but still this is just above average as the story continues to feel light in story and, amazingly, light in action. It doesn't seem like the series can decide what it wants to be as it seems like the direction continues to try to cater to every single reader rather than just telling the best possible story.
When we left off last issue Hope was missing and Captain America turned on Wolverine, leaving him in the snow. The interesting question is if Captain America was headed for Africa then why were they traveling over Antarctica? Just to ditch Wolverine? The X-Men and the Avengers were picking up five signals as to where Hope might be, setting up a race to find her. It's an overused plot device that feels like it mimics something like the Amazing Race TV show.
Thankfully, this entire plot is abandoned as Hope shows up to acquire an interesting ally. The issue creates a new race that ends with all sides getting confronted with the Phoenix Force as all the various plots seem to converge in the ending.
The story is okay but the issue doesn't really have a lot of fighting. Scenes are shown where there is fighting, but they are not explored. Marvel decides to not add any footnotes as to where these battles may continue, presumably in the tie-ins. This is a massive misstep in my opinion.
Romita has a more even issue than the previous one, but it is much less detailed than his usual work. The lines over his pencils are also a lot looser as the story seems to present a pre-1990 kind of super hero story, which is fine but probably not what a lot of people might expect in such a highly promoted event such as this one.
This event is shaping up to be okay, but nothing special. This particular issue seems to send the event into a direction that might make the remaining eight issues more interesting. Not a lot happens in this issue with the plots from the previous ones, but the turn of events within this issue (there's a spoiler I am eluding to) seems out of character, not once, but twice. This was a solid, but average read.
3 out of 5 Geek Goggles
