Avengers & X-Men: AXIS #5

Writer – Rick Remender
Artist – Terry Dodson
Inker – Rachel Dodson
Colours – Laura Martin, Matt Milla

Spidey and Nova head to an all-Avengers meeting where the newly inverted Captain America blames one of them for freeing the Red Skull.  With his handy spider-sense, Spidey and Nova get out of there before they are hit with Pym particles like the rest of the group.  They meet up with Steve Rogers and his resistance of two only to find that things are getting much worse with Kluh on a rampage and Apocalypse and the X-Men coming to town.  The latest issue of Remender’s epic was all right, but not as good as the previous books.  Spider-Man had some good lines, Falcon-Cap is not a very nice person in his inverted self and having Steve head up the resistance was seen coming a mile away.  So there were some good and some not so good things about the book.  Probably the most exciting part of the whole issue was seeing the X-Men break into Avengers Tower, take charge and offer Captain America a deal.  It is nice to see the X-Men get some good face time in arguably one of Marvel’s biggest books of the year after so many stories of them being less than a priority at the publisher.  The artwork by the Dodson’s was dependably great looking and it is doubtful that there would be any complaints if they stayed on for the remainder of the series.  It would be great if things got a bit more interesting than what this issue delivered in the next one though, as compared to Infinity and Original Sin that left you wanting more with every single issue, this event has ceased doing that.  For the moment anyways.

3.5 out of 5

Batman Eternal #32

Writer – Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Kyle Higgins, Ray Fawkes, Tim Seeley
Artist – Jason Fabok
Colours – Brad Anderson

Hush is determined to teach Spoiler a lesson, so she is quite lucky when Batman shows up before it gets out of hand.  But even after suffering a minor defeat against the Caped Crusader, Hush has plans that will cripple Batman to an extent that he cannot even imagine.  Week after week, Batman Eternal just keeps getting better and better.  Every one of the plot threads that began from the very first issue have all been leading up to what is happening now and it is a very exciting moment to be reading the book.  The fight with Spoiler was a lot of fun and it was quite humourous to see her pull a ‘Batman’ on Batman.  Alfred finally made his way back home to the Batcave, but it is then that Batman realizes just what it is that Hush is up to and there is nothing he can do to stop it.  Bard also makes his return this issue, working with Hush and blindly following orders without possibly knowing the full ramifications of just what it is he is doing.  As the series progresses, it does not look like there will be anything of Gotham left as Hush is destroying it piece by piece.  This is DC’s best weekly series by far, with the strongest writing and art out of the three.

4 out of 5