5-Star Review: "AVX: Vs" #1

[Rheged]

Proof that CBR will publish bad "reviews:"

"AvX: Vs" #1 was terrible. Imagine the worst fan fiction ideas you can consider, and they'll look a lot like this. There are two fights, and neither make a lick of sense, with Magneto channelling Alec Guinness from 1976 and Namor ... oh, Namor. Wow."

From Hannibal Tabu's Buy Pile. This was in his 'No, just ... No" pile.

I have to agree on Magneto's Obi Wan moment, as well as his assessment of the Namor fight.

[MDV]

Thing: "Thermal vent! Air! Bubbly with a mineral finish. Dee-lish!"

I seriously believe Kathryn Immonen has early onset dementia and should be in a nursing home, not writing comic books. Every character speaks like a 1950's vaudeville comedian and has their thought bubbles provide a 'hilarous' monologue to the readers. It's insane.

[ArnoldoAAD]

James Hunt gives "AVX: VS" #1 5 stars saying of the issue, "the real joy is seeing the characters deploy their powers in interesting ways on an unusual stage, without any interruptions."


Full article here.

0.0

were you on crack when you read the book!

really, the book with no plot justr characters fighting each other gets 5stars
really?!

wow

[USERNAME TAKEN]

Yeah, I'm not really seeing the humor in Namor saying, "I'd advise you to put that down." And Magneto repeatedly referencing his Holocaust past? That's supposed to be funny? Iron Man doing his RDJ impression, okay, that I can see some one saying was funny. I'd have loved for the Namor and Thing fight to be completely over the top, Looney Tunes fun. In fact, from the preview, that's sort of what I was expecting.

And of course lots of people have problems with the outcomes, when they deliver a 'believable' fight, within the unbelievable superhero context. Even people that don't like Namor think the outcome of that fight was bogus. Their fight should have moved out of the water, if they wanted Thing to win. And it would have been loads better for the banter, as in Thing and Namor could actually exchange verbal insults, instead of Namor feeding Thing all the lines for his mental 'jokes.'

But hey, if you and the reviewer thought it was the pinnacle of the comic art form worthy of 5 stars, that's fine. Ditto if you thought it was funny. I didn't.

EDIT: Wait. There was that glug glug glug translation of It's Clobbering Time, I assume. That was amusing.

From the introduction page it was pretty clear that this wasnt going to be anything serious.

I'm not saying it was a five star review. However, you cant complain about a book that was advertised as purely fights as having no plot. The first page of the book immediately made that clear. My point is that the outrage (from what I've read on these forums) is more about the outcomes.

Yes, the fights could have been done differently but I don't think we are going to get conclusive winners in the battles simply because Marvel doesn't want to make the X-men or the Avengers look bad.

I find it really hard to believe that anyone will take a comic where Thing talks about Namor "swinging his big fish" around or how "no one in the FF wants to marry him" seriously.

I also think its not really nice how people are insulting Kathryn Immonen and the reviewer. Sites like Newsarama and Ifanboy gave the issues good reviews too.

[XPac]

From the introduction page it was pretty clear that this wasnt going to be anything serious.

I'm not saying it was a five star review. However, you cant complain about a book that was advertised as purely fights as having no plot. The first page of the book immediately made that clear. My point is that the outrage (from what I've read on these forums) is more about the outcomes.

Yes, the fights could have been done differently but I don't think we are going to get conclusive winners in the battles simply because Marvel doesn't want to make the X-men or the Avengers look bad.

I find it really hard to believe that anyone will take a comic where Thing talks about Namor "swinging his big fish" around or how "no one in the FF wants to marry him" seriously.

I also think its not really nice how people are insulting Kathryn Immonen and the reviewer. Sites like Newsarama and Ifanboy gave the issues good reviews too.

And ultimately that's the downside of these hero vs heroes stories.

They're fun, but the bulk of the conversation ends up being swallowed up with Rumble Boards discussion. I can't say I'm not at times taken up in it too... I went on and on about the Thor vs Superman fight in JLA/Avengers just as much as anyone else for example. And unlike this story, it actually DID have a fairly meaty story going on... but the hero vs hero discussion still swallowed it all up.

Not saying that's a good or a bad thing, but thats just how it is. Regardless of how great or shallow the story is, 90 percent of the discussion will be about the outcomes of the fights.

[USERNAME TAKEN]

And ultimately that's the downside of these hero vs heroes stories.

They're fun, but the bulk of the conversation ends up being swallowed up with Rumble Boards discussion. I can't say I'm not at times taken up in it too... I went on and on about the Thor vs Superman fight in JLA/Avengers just as much as anyone else for example. And unlike this story, it actually DID have a fairly meaty story going on... but the hero vs hero discussion still swallowed it all up.

Not saying that's a good or a bad thing, but thats just how it is. Regardless of how great or shallow the story is, 90 percent of the discussion will be about the outcomes of the fights.

Agreed.

It simply a case of damned if you do or damned if you don't.

A good number of people loathe JLA/Avengers simply because Thor got punched out by Superman regardless of the context or the background story. I'm not a battle board guy and I don't really care if Captain America punched out the Hulk once. That being said, I was rather pleased at the light feel of the book.

Like I said earlier, AVX:VS was simply a fight book and nothing more. It was said on the first page that there is no real story or plot. It's definitely not everyone's cup of tea. While I won't go as far as give it a perfect 5 , i will say they did what they set out to do.

The irony though is that the X-men have been depicted as more powerful so far. Magneto was about to clean out Tony until he discovered a planet being destroyed (which just shows how powerful Mags is) and in Uncanny X-men, Colossus let the Red Hulk win because he didn't want to take down utopia.

[Suiciety]

I gotta agree with the vast majority of ya. To put it eloquently, Mags loss was lame. Namor's loss (for now) was idiotic. But all of this reaks of Marvel editorial staffs intervention and prodding. It's obvious these "loses" had to occur in order for the story to continue in AvX. So, Joe Q, et al probably said to writers: this is what we want you to write about and oh, don't worry if it doesn't make any sense. The fanboys/girls will still buy the issues. They can vent on CBR all they want, we already have their money, and like lemmings, they'll continue to drink the Kool-Aid (even if it leaves 'em with a bitter taste in their mouth).

Scorecard:

1. Iron Man (W) - drunks ftw!
2. Luke Cage (W) - hey, might as well count it as a thumpin' of Namor, right...? ;)
3. Thing (Wx2 - I'll tell ya why in a minute) - yeah, yeah...for now

1. Mags (L) - way to pull a Colossus self-sacrifice moment, sir
2. Namor (Lx2) - meep!
3. Colossus (Lx5) - let me count the ways: 1. Marvel editorial staff aka Rulk. 2. Spidey - cuz he does whatever a spider can. 3. Thing - Loeb! 4. Hulk - cuz bending Petey's arms once wasn't enough. 5. Kitty Pryde - she's gonna put him back under her cock-hold spell.

[BrotherUnitNo_4]

Honestly I can accept that Mags concentration was broken enough for Tony to knock him out. The Phoenix just ate a planet and she's coming right to Earth.

[Mundungus]

I feel like these fights will be weighted against the X-Men.

Though Iron Man didn't really win; Magneto just kind of gave up. And I feel like Namor should have won. Well, that fight isn't even really over. Namor is coming right back for him in the final page.

But the book did do as advertised. It was a couple of big, dumb fights. But, they were entertaining and well-written. Jason Aaron captured the arrogance of both combatants and Kathryn Immonen wrote a pitch-perfect Ben Grimm. I'd kind of like to see the Immonens' take a stab at the regular Fantastic Four book in the future.

[wc662]

Namor getting beat by The Thing UNDERWATER? Bullshit. And I imagined Tony would win somehow, even though if Magneto went for the throat it wouldn't really matter about the non-ferrous suit and anti-magnetic shit, like he said Utopia is mostly metal - Remember AOA Magneto killing Cannonball WHILE HE WAS BLASTING (supposedly invulnerable) by crumpling metal around him and just squeezing until he was a pulp.

[Gnarl]

From the introduction page it was pretty clear that this wasnt going to be anything serious.

I'm not saying it was a five star review. However, you cant complain about a book that was advertised as purely fights as having no plot. The first page of the book immediately made that clear. My point is that the outrage (from what I've read on these forums) is more about the outcomes.

I also think its not really nice how people are insulting Kathryn Immonen and the reviewer. Sites like Newsarama and Ifanboy gave the issues good reviews too.

The problem is, if you don't have a plot except big fights...then the fights should be good. And thats not the case here.

This is a book that is built around big fights, and the fights we've seen have been...not so good. Not, in fact, on the same planet as good.

Also, the central premise of the conflict requires the ereasure of 80 % of the continuity of a central X-Men concept. If you decided to retcon 80 % of Dooms contiuity in a FF crossover, or 80 % of Jameson in Spider-Man, people would have been displeased too.

Finally, a good superhero comic book story normally contains more elements than just fights. If you give a top-rate review to a book that admits it does not try to hit any other cylinder than the fights, and hit that badly, you must expect to have your integrity questioned. Especially if the book that gets such a sterling review just happens to be the flagship crossover title. Nothing going for it but the fact that there is money riding on it, and it gets obviously undeserved top reviews? Yes, motives will be questioned.

It is flat-out reasonable for people to question whether such a review can be in good faith.

[passer-by]

The fanboys/girls will still buy the issues. They can vent on CBR all they want, we already have their money.

Not necessarily.

And it could bite them in the backside in the longer term, because the "Movies first, comics last" approach might reduce the comics buying public even more.

Then again, the movies are what brings the big profits, the comics are just the way to keep the character rights.

[mikekerrIII]

Not necessarily.

And it could bite them in the backside in the longer term, because the "Movies first, comics last" approach might reduce the comics buying public even more.

Then again, the movies are what brings the big profits, the comics are just the way to keep the character rights.

Even before the movies, character rights were far more important than the comics, with Comics being their least profitable (both in income and margin) division. that is according to the last financial statement they published

BTW the showed a net profit of 30% on publishing, that is a fantastic margin

[psynetrix]

I still don't understand why this series even exists. All these fights could be showcased in the ongoing titles, since it looks like they are currently being used as filler -just look at Avengers and New Avengers #25. The art was nice, though; I particularly liked Adam Kubert's. Other than that, this is a waste of money.

.

[mikekerrIII]

I still don't understand why this series even exists. All these fights could be showcased in the ongoing titles, since it looks like they are currently being used as filler -just look at Avengers and New Avengers #25. The art was nice, though; I particularly liked Adam Kubert's. Other than that, this is a waste of money.

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this event exists for the same reason every mainstream comic book exists, a quest for profit