Avengers & X-Men: AXIS #3

 
Writer: Rick Remender
Artists: Leinil Francis Yu, Gerry Alanguilan, Matt Milla, Laura Martin, Edgar Delgado
Cover: Jim Cheung & Justin Ponsor
Publisher: Marvel  
 Maybe I’m a huge sucker for team ups, seeing almost all my favourite characters together in an issue but this issue of AXIS hits it all in just the right places to serve as a reminder in why I’m such a sucker for this franchise to begin with.
 
It has been said on many occasions by many people that Remender writes a solid Deadpool and once again, this is no exception. And I think it really sets up what we’re expecting for the issue. It’s something that Remender was certainly meant to write, these are characters he (mostly) gets or at least is capable enough to give them dimension as the story progresses. Seeing Deadpool in the beginning pages is an indicator that Remender knows exactly what he’s doing right now, and I’m inclined to agree. Especially spinning from the events of AVX two years ago, this is finally the story that I was truly waiting for, a story that is severely dealing with the consequences of what has happened.
 
I think this is what I’ve really been enjoying from AXIS so far, beyond the ‘unity’ of the Avengers and the X-Men, but the unity of the story telling—drawing from not juts AVX but from other events, arcs, series, altogether, truly unifying what we’ve seen from the Marvel universe.
 
Raving for Remender and AXIS aside, the highlight of the issue is certainly the call upon the more notable villains to step up to the plate in an effort to take down Red Onslaught, and let me just say they come much closer than our heroes did. My regular penchant for this characters withstanding, it’s an entertaining read because each and every one of them have so much attitude that even while these serious events are happening, a little chuckle escapes from the readers, because having too serious of a read would be exhausting and not necessarily fun. Even though we’re talking about World War Hate here, as a reader, we should still have some fun.
 
And even though we’re still talking about AVX here, AXIS takes these characters and pushes them beyond what we saw in AVX or takes them back to where they need to be in the case for some others.
 
An event like this also hasn’t been stingy in the talent department bringing in names like Yu into the mix who provides stunning panels of mutant, hero, villain, or sentinel. Each character (minus Red Onslaught and his sentinels duh, they’re the big bad they only get to look terrifying) looks absolutely stunning.
 
This has certainly been the best issue of Axis yet. I love the callbacks to some of the characters and their history with one another or otherwise, I love the spotlight on the villains, and their sassy nature, I love the art, and at the end there, I just really love when the X-Men are together.