Avengers VS X-Men: Jason Aaron, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Jonathan Hickman, Adam Kubert, John Dell, Laura Martin, Larry Molinar, Chris Eliopoulos, Jim Cheung, Justin Ponsor, Jerome Opena

It’s a strange world, indeed, when Namor’s the one wearing pants and Colossus goes without. It’s also a strange world when a hero brings the ocean up to drown a proud, heroic nation. Goodbye Wakanda, and goodbye the world’s source of vibranium. Looking at the beautiful city, I really feel sorry for them. I feel like I would have loved to live there, with all its scientific advances. I also just noticed for the first time that Namor still has his winged feet. Heh. Even as a Phoenix Five, he still dresses like a pansy.

Speaking of, there’s another new artist on board. Well…that was fast. And also not fair. We had to deal with Romita Jr.’s bullcrap work for a whole bunch of issues, then we get this beautiful, Jim-Cheung-like work from Coipel for ONLY TWO!? Kubert comes aboard and I already have problems with a couple pieces of Kubert’s over at DC. In this case, I really don’t know how I feel. The art is good, I’m not even going to be stupid enough to deny that. Because it’s good. It’s really good, actually. But the style is also…I dunno. It’s the faces. Their…funky. Blessed is the time to be Black Panther or Spider-Man and to have your full face covered. Look at Cap’s face on the last panel of page 3. Weird, right? I can’t get over it. But everything else is really, really great.

So the Avengers attack Namor all at once and it’s pretty impressive, really. Though why T’Challa thought it’d be helpful to bring a gun that fills ALL of both his arms really doesn’t make me think he’s one of the smartest people on the planet. Which I know he is. Then the unthinkable happens…it really does show you how powerful the Phoenix Five are…and only solidifies my point of WHY DO THEY THINK THEY STAND A CHANCE AGAINST THEM?! Namor breaks Red Hulk’s arm. Yeah, breaks it. Almost clean off in fact. It’s a gruesome scene I thought I’d never see.

Wanda goes up against Namor, and then because of Kubert’s crazy layouts, we’re unsure of exactly what happens. But, in the next panel, the Phoenix bird appears around Namor and Wanda’s passed out. It’s absolutely, totally unclear at this point, but what’s actually happened is they’ve beaten Namor and drew the Phoenix Force out of him. Great job, Kubert, in making that completely clear as mud for us readers. It’s kind of a big moment, and you botched it.

The Phoenix Force is then divided up between the remaining four, making them stronger. …Yay! Oh wait, this is bad. Because I’m suddenly rooting for the Avengers again. Good lord how many more times is that going to happen?! I mean, credit to the writers for making me switch sides a couple times, but still…it’s crazy. I guess we’re meant to think that neither side is ever really better or more right than the other. They’re both dicks.

Then the coolest thing happens. The coolest thing ever. Professor X intervenes and speaks to the Phoenix Four. He warns them that he’ll stop them if they don’t stop what they’re doing. The art here BLEW ME AWAY. I loved seeing Chuck’s face like this! The coloring and artwork is really well-done. I can’t wait to see what the Prof’s got cooking up. All in all, for a Bendis script, it’s a good issue. I was excited, at least. What I liked best was the lack of dialog during fights. That’s how it’s done.

Avengers VS X-Men #8, the verdict: Well, the pencil’s changed hands - yet again - and I feel like we’ve lost a good soldier, you know? “Poor Coipel, he went in hard and never looked back. Except that one time when Andy Kubert came up behind him and bashed him on the head.” We’re finally seeing some HUGE events that will have major, major repercussions in the future of the Marvel Universe. Though, to be honest, I’ll be pretty pissed off if the whole attitude toward mutantkind won’t have changed at all in the world once it’s all done. Because, come on, there’ve gotta be people who now realize that they can make the world a better place. And I’ll be REALLY pissed if the whole world is reset and none of it will have happened.

(Photo Source: Comic Vine)