A+X #5
Okay, I was really looking forward to this issue. Team-ups are kind of a guilty pleasure of mine, especially when they come out of left field.
Iron Fist and Doop teaming up? Yes, please! Iron Fist is one of my favorite characters, thanks mostly to Matt Fraction and David Aja.
Mr. Sinister and Loki getting into mischief together? Brilliant! Two of my favorite villains that sometimes aren't too bad performing hijinks?
It all sounds perfect on paper, but it wasn't. Which is really unfortunate for me. The biggest flaw of A+X as a series is that the stories are just too short. I'd rather see both of these stories as a full-length team up issue.
The Iron Fist and Doop story was fun, which is how it should be. If you tell a story with Doop, and it isn't fun, you're doing it wrong. The story itself was a little weak, but that's okay. You don't need a strong story to enjoy Doop. In fact, if you told a strong story, Doop would seem out of place.
Doop was a great partner for Iron Fist, in a Odd Couple kind of way. Some hints at a shared past were funny. There was a great dynamic, but it really could have been anyone else and Doop. I didn't see much in their interaction that was unique to Iron Fist.
The art was great, but it wasn't a good fit for Iron Fist. Maybe I'm just spoiled by Aja's work on Iron Fist, but David LaFuente's art doesn't seem right to me. It was just a bit off.
The Loki and Mister Sinister story, though, was better. It was definitely stronger, but then again, there wasn't Doop. This was actually a bigger problem, because it suffered from being so short. It was incredibly rushed, and there was almost no motivation for the characters actions.
I have absolutely no idea why Sinister was doing what he was doing. It certainly has all the hallmarks of something Sinister would do, but an actual reason would be nice.
This story felt like only the second act of a three act story. If it was twice as long, it could have been amazing. The art was great and I was hooked by the story, but it was actually worse than the previous story.
It just felt incomplete, so compared to the complete, although not as well crafted, Iron Fist and Doop team up, the Loki and Mister Sinister team up just fell flat. It just left me wanting more with questions that I know won't be answered.
It's a topsy-turvy world when a better story is a less-enjoyable read, but that's what happens in A+X. For clarity's sake, my 6/10 review is going to break down as follows:
Iron Fist/Doop gets (a ridiculously biased) 4/5. Favorite characters in a fun little story with art that isn't bad, just not a fit for one guy.
Loki/Mister Sinister gets 2/5, because it was just incomplete. If this was a full-length issue, it would have scored much higher.