A + X #2

Natasha Romanoff is enjoying her day off from avenging the world and Tony Stark is interested in recruiting new talent. Toss in a couple of X-Men, and shenanigans are clearly bound to happen.

Writer: Chris Bachalo & Peter David | Artist: Chris Bachalo & Mike Del Mundo

Cover: Chris Bachalo | Publisher: Marvel

After the somewhat grim aftermath of what was Avengers vs. X-Men (AVX), it was apparently time to lighten the mood over at Marvel so we’ve now received the second issue of A + X, to which if you’re reading into it seriously, you’re probably reading it wrong. So far A + X has just been a whole lot of light hearted stuff, nothing too serious and a good dump of fanservice while we’re at (they paired Rogue with Black Widow, if no fanservice came from a series like this, it would have been mildly surprising). Just reading the first page with the intro into the comic it’s already apparent just how not serious these are meant to be, but they’re such a good break to have from everything that has just went down.

A + X is separated into two stories, the first starts with all sorts of great ridiculousness, Natasha in a spa pampering herself and prattling on about her new car and it’s not until her precious baby (the car) is ruined (it was her day off afterall!), before she’s ready to kick some threat to New York right where it deserves. Cue Rogue and her sassy southern self to make an appearance. Of course Chris Bachalo, the writer and artist wouldn’t just leave it at that. We’ve also got some poor guys drooling over Nat like junior high boys and while someone was lucky enough to kiss the Black Widow, it wasn’t one of the lovestruck boys (Here’s a clue: They’ve paired someone who absorbs power by touch with the Black Widow, just what are they going to do?).

With a fun story like that it’s hard to beat, the next team up with Kitty and Tony isn’t a shabby follow up. The premise of Tony wanting to hire Kitty for his own company isn’t totally unwarranted but Kitty goes to prove him just how bad of idea it is. The story itself is probably mediocre but with two smart wits, it has its funny moments, sometimes just looking at Iron Man and the expression of the armour paired with what he’s saying is just plain hilarious.  At the very least, Mike Del Mundo’s art is especially aesthetic to look at.

As earlier mentioned, this series is basically all in good jest and just overall fun to read. There’s no serious plot, and it’s kind of nice to see our favourite heroes a bit more on the happier side. And for light reading, A + X is genuinely a pleasure, though maybe more of a pleasure if you actually like the paired up characters, seeing as the so called villains have been pretty harmless so far, you have to like the heroes beating them up.