A+X Volume 1 = Awesome
Collecting A+X #1-6
Writers, artists: Various
Marvel Comics, $17.99, color, 144 pages
Of all the repercussions of Avengers vs. X-Men -- including the re-launch of a number of titles -- this one is my favorite.
Maybe I was the only one who didn't realize it, but A+X isn't just a team-up book featuring one Avenger and one X-Man per story, but a continuation of the AvX title that featured Avengers vs. X-Men waling the tar out of each other. The signal selling point of this book, if you believe Marvel's hype, is that you didn't need to know anything about the overall Avengers vs. X-Men story, or really any continuity at all. Instead, there was a jokey intro to each issue emphasizing that you didn't need to be a Marvel expert to read the following book, but just a reader ready for a big ol' fight. Or, as Stan Lee would have put it 45 years ago, "Action! Action! Action! In the Mighty Marvel Manner!"
A little silly? Yes. Light-hearted? Sure. Completely continuity-free? You betcha.
What you have is The Thing and Gambit playing poker. Cable showing up in WWII and trying NOT to tell Captain America anything about the future, even though Cap starts figuring things out right away (Cap: "You shouldn't have let me know we win the war. ... You're from the future and you're speaking English. Not German.") Beast and Spider-Man battle zombies and beast-people while arguing Schroedinger's theorems (not just the darn cat). Iron Fist and Doop demonstrate such fighting techniques as the "La Paz Strike" and the "No. 6 Chicken." Kid Loki pranks Mr. Sinister.
So it's a lot of stories pairing an Avengers with an X-Man, two per issue, for 12 stories. Which means 12 creative teams, many of which are pretty big names.
And it's one more thing: A lot of fun. And isn't that why we read comics?
Replies
Not according to Dan Didio?
This might be one I eventually pick up. I liked that it featured some different creative teams on each issue. I also liked some of the team ups they featured. I am curious about the Spider-man/Beast team up. Both are some of my favorite characters. When I got into comics as a wee lad, the first issue I picked up with Spider-man: The Mutant Agenda #2 which not only starred Spider-man but also Beast! It was an action packed issue and was funny. I read it several times. I always wanted more of Spidey and Beast.