Comments

1. vadamowens says:

   April 18, 2012 at 6:33 am

   aaaand this is what I was waiting for. I had a feeling this would be another bummer.

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   • KenOchalek says:

     April 18, 2012 at 9:33 am

     Sounds like confirmation bias to me. 🙂

     I’m not brainlessly championing AVX, and I’ll drop it if I’m not having fun, but I find it fascinating how it seems like many fans don’t want the event to be good. They’ve decided not to like it, therefore the first negative reaction is proof that they made the right decision. @vadamowens — were you really waiting for negative review? Seems like an awfully cynical approach to a hobby/pastime.

     I’ve been slowly but surely reading through Claremont’s X-Men run, so I’m curious to see if this really feels that similar. Claremont had his good moments (I just read Uncanny 200, and it was pretty solid), but more than a few annoying affectations (if another character mis-uses the phrase “to coin a phrase”…).
   • vadamowens says:

     April 18, 2012 at 8:47 pm

     @ken You don’t know me, so it would probably be best to assume nothing. I’m a VERY fair judge of books and I’ve had an online friendship (if you can call it that) with akammu for the last 3-4 yrs. He and I have very similar tastes, so I know if he doesn’t like a mainstream comic, I most likely will not enjoy it either. I’m not trying to be snarky, but I do get pissed when people assume shit when they’ve never met me or have an understanding of my tastes.
   • KenOchalek says:

     April 18, 2012 at 11:07 pm

     Fair enough. I wasn’t intending to accuse you of anything personally, bu there is a contingent of fans that always seem like they just can’t wait say “see, I told you it was gonna suck”, and your comment reminded me of that.
   • vadamowens says:

     April 19, 2012 at 6:08 am

     I assure you that I am not that man Ken:)
2. flapjaxx says:

   April 18, 2012 at 9:09 am

   A few things:

   As always, thanks for the early reviews.

   Secondly, it seems like a lot of writers often turn into different people (worse writers) when they do event books.

   Thirdly, for better or worse (usually better) Jason Aaron has a lot of range. For me, it doesn’t even seem like the same writer doing W&XM and Scalped and his regular Wolverine stories. He can do different styles quite well. . . . and there are other styles that he doesn’t do so well.

   Lastly, do you really think “bad wordy” always = Claremont? I haven’t liked much of what he’s done in the last 20 years, but his style was pretty successful from the late ’70s to early ’90s. No one complained about it back then, and if you go back and read those old X-comics it does seem like there was very much a point to his wordiness. He was building a universe that became the top franchise in comics. I agree that he’s turned out some horrible stuff since then, often due to excessive verbiage, but it just dismays me to always see Claremont’s name used as an insult. I think that in some part people are just projecting our own current, less wordy sensibilities back onto the past, and dismissing all of Claremont seems to say more about ourselves than it does about someone who did have one of the best, longest runs on any franchise ever.

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   • akamuu says:

     April 18, 2012 at 11:51 am

     @flapjaxx: I make most of my living through writing, a lot of it poetry based. I’ve read most of the revered authors of history, and definitely respect their importance to the canon. Some of their work I enjoy, but many of them I don’t enjoy reading. I understand their importance, and that they moved the art to a place it needed to go, but I don’t really enjoy it. I feel that way about Claremont. He wrote some fantastic story plots. I think he was to 80s Marvel what Stan Lee was to pre-1970s Marvel. His run is very impressive, and while I enjoyed parts of his style (his “every issue is someone’s first” mentality), I didn’t enjoy his over the top narration boxes. This doesn’t make him a bad writer, but it’s a trope that I don’t enjoy, and it’s the one Aaron has used here. It would be like if Aaron had used a lot of odd time travel and world crossing tropes and I’d said “I would have thought Morrison scripted this issue.”

     I agree on Aaron’s range. I’m not sure why he used this approach here, as it’s not only unlike *his* other work, it’s unlike Bendis’s first issue. I think someone reading this is trade is going to be able to sue Marvel for whiplash. Nothing about the tonal shift makes sense to me. I would have imagined he would ape Bendis’s style, and I wouldn’t have found it as jarring. I’m curious to get your (and others’) opinions on this issue later this week.

     @vadamowens/KenOchalek: I was really looking forward to this. I agreed with issue one being PoTW and think they laid down some interesting plots. And to be fair, the plots in this are fine. If they get out of the ridiculously overwrought narration boxes, issue three might be as much fun and great as issue one. I hope that’s the case. I don’t ever go into a comic hoping I won’t enjoy it.
   • vadamowens says:

     April 18, 2012 at 8:53 pm

     @akamuu I’m sure there’s plenty of possibility of rebound, I just really hate events. I went into this one promising myself I wouldn’t get any of it, and I did because…well, just in case. I was already teetering on not getting the second issue and your review just affirmed my convictions. I’m very sick of events and to demonstrate that, I must not buy them.
   • akamuu says:

     April 19, 2012 at 9:19 pm

     @vadamowens: One of my really good friends pledged after Fear Itself to not reward Marvel for their $3.99 per issue crossover events. He’s sticking to his guns. He also said he was “glad to hear it was not good” not because he’s vindictive but because he wasn’t buying it out of principle and was hoping not to have sacrificed his enjoyment for the sake of said principles.
3. Notsoevilsteve says:

   April 18, 2012 at 11:54 am

   I was fine with the word boxes (although “The most expensive punch in history” was really bad) but nothing else really worked for me; art or story. It could certainly pick back up but this issue didn’t live up to the promise of issue 1.

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4. KenOchalek says:

   April 18, 2012 at 11:13 pm

   Thanks! I just find negativity to be kind of a waste of time. If I don’t like something, I try not to complain about it, but just seek out something else instead. I’m not always successful, but I try.

   As for this book, I agree that some of the captions were a bit…uncharacteristic…for Jason Aaron. Not that the dude isn’t allowed to try out different styles, but it sometimes felt like the captions were added in after the fact. I could see someone getting the art from JRJR and thinking that they couldn’t have that many silent panels in a big event book like this so those captions were hastily added to up the gravitas. I dunno.

   And Romita’s art was inconsistent. When it was good, I thought it was really good, but that was balanced by some markedly weaker panels. Have they announced how the art chores are breaking down on this? Does each artist have 4 sequential issues?

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5. akamuu says:

   April 19, 2012 at 8:29 pm

   @TomSwift: I’m not worried about Aaron and Fraction. Personally, I enjoy Fraction’s non superhero material more than his super hero work (man, I HATED his X-man run). Aaron, on the other hand, is really writing some fantastic superhero issues. This just isn’t one of them.

   Have you read his Wolverine & The X-Men? If you enjoy character work more than plot work, I highly recommend it. (Also I love Bachalo’s work with the same amount of fervor that I’m unexcited by Romita Jr’s self-described “Meet The Deadline” style.

   @KenOchalek: Thanks to TomSwift’s bee progeny comment, I’m now picturing your user pic with tiny antennae. I’m also imagining bees would be much more popular if they had your level of positivity.

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6. wallythegreenmonster says:

   April 19, 2012 at 9:33 pm

   ” Round Two is a wet fart in a janitor closet.”—-hahahaha i don’t know if its constructive criticism, but it sure was funny.

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7. Jaedence says:

   April 20, 2012 at 10:06 am

   Maybe I’m in the minority or maybe just the first one to disagree… Or maybe I’m just a bad writer.

   I liked “Irradiated muscles strain. Organic metal groans. Windows shatter miles away. The San Andreas fault shudders with each blow.” It reminded me of Alan Moore on Miracle Man. I also liked the most expensive punch in history line. And the hulk saying Strongest one there is

   Side Note: I really have a rough time believing that Thunderbolt Ross would become Red Hulk, completely change personality and become just another superhero.

   I do agree that the fights seemed short changed. I want to see Collosusnaut fight Red Hulk and kick his ass. I also want to see how ANYONE has a chance of beating Namor while IN THE SEA.

   Namor grabs The Thing and Powerman, drags them a thousand feet deep and lets go. See ya suckers.

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   • akamuu says:

     April 22, 2012 at 7:25 pm

     I’m glad people like it, I just think that that sort of writing is really outdated. If applied to a series that plays off the golden or silver age, then that could work. For me, it didn’t seem to fit the tone of this series.

     I am tentatively excited about the AvX fight issues.