So many comic events are the stuff of slow-downs and gimmicks. Characterization and dialogue are jam-packed into rushed plots where momentum fall by the wayside. Leave it to Marvel’s most maniacal Nazi to put a new spin on the comic event. Axis is here.
Comprised of nine issues over three months, Axis sees three issues a month comprising of one single theme a month. As a result, we’d like to present our first three-for-one “Event Review” along with two very special comics in their own right.
[alert type=red ]Spoilers Follow[/alert]
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Amazing Spider-Man # 7 and Amazing Spider-Man #8:
Time for a Spidey Team-Up! This time, the web head’s allied up with Kamala “Ms. Marvel” Khan. Inhumans are popping up everywhere and much like mutants, some are quite villainous. Enter our heroes to save an Inhuman cocoon, where Inhumans either A) are born or B) receive their rebirth and new powers.
We further learn Ms. Marvel’s a huge Spider-Man fan herself and the source of several well written fan girl moments throughout both issues. She even ships “Spider Marvel” (a pairing of Captain Marvel and Spider-Man; a pairing I’m not opposed to).
The two proceed to fight an oversized monster experiment and a bunch of henchmen throughout NYC, while trying to keep the cocoon and its contents protected. Kamala’s day is made when they enact a slingshot maneuver coined by Peter Parker and Carol Danvers long ago.
In short, the bad guys are bested, the young inhuman’s saved, and a henchmen’s even redeemed in the process. This is the stuff that makes me love Spider-Man and Dan Slott’s magic touch. Read these issues for sure.
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Special Event Review: Axis #1, #2,#3:
There’s been war on our little planet since two people ever had a disagreement. People have been prejudiced almost as long. The Red Skull’s fashioned prejudice and tyranny into its unsettling art form, meanwhile. Hatred’s practically his super power, and only practically, because on top of being a super genius and excellent combatant, Johan Schmidt also received a variant of the Super-Soldier serum. If that wasn’t enough, Skull has harnessed the power of Professor Charles Xavier; the worlds most powerful telepath. Mind control should not be in the purview of a maniacal Nazi. Yet, here we are at the start of Axis, and it promises to turn Marvel on its head.
Magneto’s helping Rogue and Scarlet Witch defeat the team Red Skull’s put together. The heroes triumph as usual, but when they reach Red Skull, things go haywire. Using telepathy to make the two ladies fight each other, he and Magneto (a Holocaust survivor) are left alone to talk. Magneto and Red Skull have a well written bit of witty banter before the unthinkable happens: Magneto finally loses it. Behaving like the villain we all love to hate, he beats Red Skull senseless in all his brutality. Use of his gifts is too good a death for this scum.
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Sometime during the savage beating Anna and Wanda regain control just in time to see Magneto crush Johann Schmidt’s big red skull with a big brick. Obviously, the two ladies are not exactly pleased with his turn of events, as well they shouldn’t be. From the corpse of Red Skull rises Red Onslaught, a psionic being created by the psyche’s of Xavier and Magneto with all the power that entails and then some. How Red Skull became this is anyone’s guess, but his connection of Xavier is clearly part of it.
Arriving after Red Onslaught’s run amok, the Avengers save the mutants with the help of the X-Men who arrive on scene with a few touching reunions thrown in the mix and moving dialogue to match. Tony Stark developed psionic dampeners in order to combat the psychics the world has. These are put to use in fighting the new Reich led by Red Onslaught. Just when it seems the heroes are about to win, Sentinels arrive. These aren’t just any sentinels: they’re made of adamantium and harness Stark technology. Iron Man seems to take a page from DC’s Batman, creating weapons to fight the Avengers and the X-Men in case they turned evil. The tables are turned and the heroes are driven from the field, battered and broken.
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Magneto realizes Stark never assumed the villains would help the heroes. Stark sees too much black and white, while Magneto sees all the grey areas in between. These super-villains arrive and start to bring the pwnage to the sentinels. They bring the pain to Red Skull while their own psyches stamp out his telepathy. Even psycho villains don’t want to listen to Red Skull and live on a world in his image. They fight hard and help the X-Men and Avengers they were sworn to kill for ages.
Of course, Red Onslaught’s telepathy wins out. Everyone serves him now…well, not quite everyone. Dr. Strange, Dr. Doom, and Scarlet Witch have been weaving an inversion spell. This should put Xavier in control of the body his mind and powers have been harnessed within. The spell’s cast, we fade to white. No one quite remembers how all the heroes got on their feet or how Red Skull was defeated, but once again, they’re at each other’s throats about who gets to take him into custody. Seems more personalities than Red Skull’s were affected. Cue chapter two of three: Inversion!
I think the event is worth buying by issue, but then again, I work in a comic shop. I advise “trade waiting” and picking up the whole story in hardcover or paperback when it’s released.
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Death of Wolverine # 4:
How twisted can comics get? Judging by how long the Death of Wolverine’s been taking, I’d say very. Now Logan’s finally found his rest.
Our issue was short, brutal, and very much to the point. Wolverine finds Dr. Cornelius and discovers what he was plotting all along: to make a new batch of “Wolverines” to swipe Logan’s healing factor. There’s a problem, though…no healing factor. Cornelius isn’t one to give up and his experiments trudge on, and only the fittest will survive. Naturally, this doesn’t sit well with the strongest – and first – Logan of them all.
One combat filled lab accident later, Cornelius flees the lab to a helicopter. Seeing only one way to save the test subjects, Logan cuts the lines feeding the liquid adamantium into them. Coated in a fast drying liquid metal, Wolverine gives chase to Dr. Cornlius and slays him. Dropping to his knees, his force of will finally fading…he dies in basking in the sunrise. Now an adamantium statue has become the tomb for James Logan Howlett: the Wolverine.
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What were your favorite comics as of late? Tell us in the comments below!
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