By Adam Kubert, Stuart Immonen, Steve McNiven, Ed McGuinness, Salvador Larroca, Terry & Rachel Dodson, Brandon Peterson, Kaare Andrews, Leinil Francis Yu, Tom Raney, Jim Cheung & various writers & artists (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-519-2
Mass metahuman mega-mosh-ups – call ’em braided crossover events if you want – are an intrinsic part of comicbook publishing these days, and Marvel’s big thing of the moment acknowledges a few utterly basic home truths. Most saliently, fans seem to want to see extravagant hero-on-hero action and – almost as crucial – that the stories must look very pretty showing it.
Avengers Vs. X-Men employed the company’s most successful movie franchise stars in spectacular fashion as the World’s Mightiest Heroes – and Spider-Man – strove against the misunderstood mutant outcasts for control of young Hope Summers; a girl destined to become the mortal host of an implacable force of cosmic destruction and creation known as The Phoenix. The tale involved incessant turmoil, sacrifice and death, and the conquest, reshaping and – almost – the destruction of humanity before a relatively stable status quo was tenuously restored.
It also featured a blistering array of dynamic duels between a host of fan-favourite characters, and Marvel cannily produced a bombastic and winningly tongue-in-cheek subsidiary 6-issue miniseries which isolated and spotlighted those cataclysmic combats, all safely removed from the tedious task of progressing the overarching storyline…
This admittedly delicious dose of sheer, visually visceral escapism superbly caters to the big kid in all of us comics fans, giving us just what we truly want: men in tights and buxom women in very little attempting to bash each others’ brains in for the most specious of motives…
Divided into a series of Matches taken as snapshots from the ongoing epic and even boldly declaring a winner to – most of – the bouts (I’m not crass enough to spoil the fun by revealing who won any of these tussles – just buy the book… it’s great fun), the furious fireworks begin with ‘Magneto, Master of Magnetism vs. The Invincible Iron Man’ by scripter Jason Aaron and illustrator Adam Kubert…
Match 2 features ‘The Thing vs. Namor the Sub-Mariner’ by Kathryn & Stuart Immonen with Wade von Grawbadger, whilst Steve McNiven & John Dell raucously reveal the outcome of ‘Captain America vs. Gambit’ before the 4th duel depicts a seemingly mismatched travesty with ‘The Amazing Spider-Man vs. Colossus’ by Kieron Gillen & Salvador Larroca.
Ben Grimm returns as ‘The Thing vs. Colossus’ (by Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness & Dexter Vines) tears up the Blue Area of the Moon and Match 6 features another bout of moon madness as rival Russians rumble in ‘Black Widow vs. Magik’ by Christopher Yost and art-team supreme Terry & Rachel Dodson.
Martial arts mayhem ensues in Match 7 as ‘Daredevil vs. Psylocke’ by Rick Remender & Brandon Peterson adds a darkly human scale to the proceedings before it’s back to peril of godlike proportions when ‘The Mighty Thor vs. Emma Frost’ (by Kaare Andrews) literally shakes the Earth. Match 9 from Matt Fraction, Leinil Francis Yu & Gerardo Alanguilan features a nasty, dirty grudge fight in ‘Hawkeye vs. Angel’ and emotions spiral completely out of control in ‘Storm vs. Black Panther’ (Aaron & Tom Raney) as the married couple work out their domestic problems in eye-popping combat.
The key clash of the parent series and this sidebar excursion occurs when the planet’s twin saviours spectacularly butt heads in ‘Scarlet Witch vs. Hope’ by Gillen, Jim Cheung, Mark Morales & Mark Roslan, after which the remainder of the book is taken up with lighter moments and outright comedy capers beginning with the insanely cool ‘Verbal Abuse’ by Brian Michael Bendis & Jim Mahfood.
The hilarity continues with ‘Science Battle!’ by the Immonens, ‘Captain America vs. Havok’ by Mike Deodato Jr. & Adam Kubert, the insanely manic ‘Red Hulk vs. Domino’ by McGuinness, a duel of devoted domestics in ‘Toad vs. Jarvis’ by Christopher Hastings & Jacob Chabot, the wickedly lascivious daydream ‘Spider-Woman vs. X-Women (kinda)’ by Loeb & Art Adams, the eccentric ‘Iron Fist vs. Iceman’ by Aaron & Ramón Pérez, and it all ends with a resumption of the appropriate perspective in the gloriously silly ‘How We Roll’ from Dan Slott & Katie Cook…
The covers and variants gallery collects the stunning artistic efforts of Kubert, Immonen, Javier Pulido, McNiven, Terry Dodson, Andrews, Raney and others and, although this fast, funny and furious collection doesn’t boast any of the App-augmentations of the core series (if you are experiencing web-based withdrawal you can always resort to the digital sidebar episodes available on Marvel’s Avengers vs. X-Men: Infinite website), the sheer rollercoaster riot of exuberant energetic comicbook action will indubitably delight and enthral any fan of Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction.
Magnificently simplistic, this adventure extravaganza also packs the prerequisite punch to stun and beguile comics-continuity veterans and film-fed fanboys alike.
™ & © 2012 Marvel and subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A,Italy. All Rights Reserved. A British edition published by Panini UK, Ltd.