This past week may have felt a little light for comics, but not for want of action. There’ve been nothing but big events in comics lately and I’ve not lost interest for it, but I might be struggling to curb my urge to impulse buy every great-looking title out there. As some of you may know, I manage a comic shop and I get a substantial discount on comics as a result. I’ve since cut my pull list from over sixty issues a month – down to twenty-nine as of January, spread out over Marvel, DC, and plenty of smaller publishers.
I’ll still pick a big event or two to follow and review, but I’ll be concentrating on the really good stuff (in my perspective) from here on out. I’m a long time Spider-Man fan and I’ve been a bit of a Marvel zombie following all of the Spider-Verse. I won’t review it here, but it’s a decent read, if not a tad convoluted. Read it only if you really love Spider-Man.
I’ll be reviewing Wayward and Rat Queens regularly once my shop A) gets undamaged copies and B) shipping becomes more regular on those titles. there are some great books by Image though, so by all means, try them out.
This week, I review all three painful issues of the Axis story arc “Inversion” and the turbulent romances of Superman/Wonder Woman just for you. Read, enjoy, and long live comics.
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Axis # 4, 5, and 6:
Everything’s turning upside-down for the Avengers in Issue 4. Our heroes are behaving like totalitarians and the X-Men like mutant terrorists. What happened? Inversion happened.
Scarlet Witch, Dr. Strange, and Dr. Doom decided to cast a spell to invert Red Skull’s personality last time and guess what? It worked on everyone, heroes and villains alike. How have things changed? Magneto leads an all-villain Avengers team and Captain America (Falcon) leads the all new, all jerk Avengers. Apocalypse leads all mutants. As you might imagine, our Inverted Avengers don’t work as a team with Thor and Tony Stark both major problems, though no more than everyone’s else that’s running amok.
Last but not least, there’s one more “Hulking” problem for the Avengers and our comic writing alike. The Hulk’s inverted too and he’s now a calm, thoughtful being while “Hulked Out.” When Hulk gets mad, though….it’s the Hulk’s Hulk that comes out. Yes, I can’t believe I’m writing this either. A black and red striped Hulk is who runs amok in New York City – one I assume is stronger and dumber than old-school Hulk. It’s safe to say that issue 4’s terribly terrible Hulk was a genuine let down and only after I really enjoyed its first three predecessors.
Issues 5 and 6 bring us our actual heroes and their mutual reactions to all of this and rightly heading the struggle is are Captain America and Spider-Man. It all gets a little tense when they have to work with inverted super-villains turned heroes, including none other than Magneto, but the X-Men come back for Red Skull and are soundly thrashed by the Inverted Avengers.
Worse, discover that the Avengers are secretly working on a gene bomb that’ll destroy all non-mutant life. Terry Dodson’s art might be the best thing about Axis‘s overblown story arc and we still have three more issues to go. Hopefully it’s all uphill from here, but trade-wait this event if you can.
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Superman Wonder Woman # 13:
Is Superman and Wonder Woman’s relationship on the rocks? Sort of. Clark and Diana butt heads in a disagreement over threat assessment in a battle with Darkseid’s minions. Do you save civilians or slay the villain? Superman leans towards saving people first. Wonder Woman prefers to get her battle on. What then? They argue, they fight, and they make-up like real heroes do.
Date night ensures for our two, super lovebirds, albeit it with some well meant ribbing. Clark gives away one too many taxis in the rain and Diana starts to get a little miffed. As luck would have it, Superman’s saved by the call of duty.
Super-villains are attacking Metropolis, one of which is the Atomic Skull –a force Superman’s had trouble besting on his own, at times. Major Disaster joins him and they start creating mayhem. For the first time ever Superman and Wonder Woman are on the ropes for real. This looks like a job for…Wonderstar! Who’s Wonderstar, you ask? We’ll find out next issue but he’s a big fan of this dynamic duo and he single handedly put the boots to two dangerous super villains.
I can say that I really liked this issue #13 and it felt mostly self contained and concentrated on the chemistry between two heroes in and out of costume. The plot itself might’ve been a rehash of various origin stories, but it still fulfilled all intents and purposes and was a great read overall.
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Did you read any great comics this past week? Tells us in the comments below!
