The X-Men want to nuke the world’s human population with a “Gene Bomb.” and the Avengers are too late or beaten bloody. Who’ll save the day? A psychotic, mass murdering, redneck named Cletus Cassidy, that’s who! Yes, this is Axis at its finest.
That’s right! Carnage saved the world. Realizing what terrible a person he was after being Ko’d with the Inversion Spell, he wrapped himself and his symbiote around the bomb, giving his life to save us all. And of course, singing “And this bird, you cannot change!” the entire way. The only witness to it all was, of course, Peter Parker, who swore to build a statue in his enemy’s honor that “plays Free Bird on a loop.” Aww.
Meanwhile, we have a retcon to beat all retcons: a giant middle finger aimed at 21st Century Fox. Marvel’s hereby drawn a line in the sand. Here, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver aren’t Magneto’s children. (Someone wants to put them being mutants to rest and bolster their Inhuman lines for movie sales.)
I’m not a fan of this retcon, to say the least, but from a business standpoint, I have trouble finding fault. My Google-Fu fails me, yet I’m certain that mutant power inhibitor collars (employed since Genosha was a slave colony for mutants) stopped Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch from using their powers quite as efficiently. Deadpool talked Apocalypse – Apocalypse out of all people – into helping save the day.
Axis brought us many things comic fans never thought they’d see outside of a “What If?” comic. Seeing Thor and Apocalypse throw down was the highlight of the issue and easily one of the greatest fights of the event. Plus, we got to see old man Steven Rogers save his own nemesis, Red Skull, from certain death.
We got a look into the darkest parts of Marvel’s protagonists in a far greater way than we did in Original Sin. The villains knew what kind of world they’d be returning to in the inversion spell was reversed, but they saved the world anyway. Some of them wanted to go back to being monsters. Still others found ways to stay inverted, while most were just terrified of what happens when the Earth’s heroes are inverted. Nevertheless, these ‘heroes’ proved to be the dictators, curmudgeons, the monsters of our nightmares and, in one case, an Adonis beyond compare.
Overall, Axis – as a whole – is a worthy read with dire some consequences and permanent “inversions.” Tony Stark will remain as the Superior Iron Man, pushing “bodies by design” for an annual fee. On the flip side, we have a new Wolverine: Victor Creed, a.k.a Sabretooth. Will these changes make for good stories or just some groan worthy moments? We look forward to the rest of 2015 to find out.
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What did you think of Marvel’s Axis? Is anyone else as tired of Wolverine and Wolverine adjacent as I am? Who likes Iron Man better as a jerk anyway? Let us know!