Avengers & X-Men: AXIS #7

Writer – Rick Remender
Artist – Adam Kubert
Colours – Edgar Delgado, Jesus Aburtov

The first part of New World Disorder starts here in the final act of AXIS and it finds the inverted X-Men versus the villains.  It also sees Spidey and Deadpool go up against Apocalypse in the hopes of stopping the gene-bomb with a slightly shocking ending.  Remender thankfully picks up the pace once again as the book was becoming quite boring for a while there.  If there is one thing that should not happen during your company’s big event, that is losing interest or being distracted by what is going on.  This issue turns that around though and the action is fairly heavy throughout.  It would be nice to see the book continue along this path as there are a lot of things that need fixing, from the villains, to the Avengers, the X-Men and the Scarlet Witch who has gone off the rails once again, echoing her ‘No More Mutants’ phase.  Out of all the crossovers that Marvel has done in the past couple of years, this one has been the weakest so far, and it is not to say that it has been completely bad, but it could have been so much stronger if the second act could have been tightened up and shortened from its three issues.  The story had felt padded out, but it is good to see the book picking up steam again, so hopefully Remender can keep it on track and deliver a solid ending.  There were some good moments in the book such as Scott and Havok having a little heart-to-heart and the ending which left the issue on a good cliff-hanger.  While the title has made some interesting changes in the Marvel Universe, it will be nice to see it end.

3.5 out of 5

Batman Eternal #36

Writer – Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Ray Fawkes, Kyle Higgins, Tim Seeley
Artist – Fernando Blanco
Colours – Marcelo Maiolo

Suffice it to say, and it is not much of a spoiler, but Batman does not die in his car as was hinted at last issue.  Instead, he is saved by some quick thinking by Julia Pennyworth after which he goes to confront Bard.  Batman Eternal delivers the goods once again and sees the history of Commissioner Bard come to light thanks to Vicki Vale.  To say that the man is obsessed is putting it lightly, and it was just a little bit of a letdown to see the man get away with everything he has done.  There is still a mystery going on though as there are many things that fail to add up and are not due to the actions of Bard or Hush.  This issue also brings Harper Row back into the picture after having been absent for quite some time, as well as the problem of the nanites that were introduced much earlier in the series.  Even though most of the main problems that faced the Dark Knight and his compatriots are over, there are still many more to solve and it looks like the book is far from over having been left on a bit of an ending that promises a lot more to come.  With some great pencils from Fernando Blanco, the title continues to be a great read week in and week out and puts DC’s other weekly books to shame.

4 out of 5