AVX vs. 3 (of 6)
Finally, an AVX fight that not only makes sense, but has a definite winner. While this series is still kind of pointless, this issue is much better than the first two. There will be spoilers in this review, although the outcomes won’t surprise you anyway. It’s worth noting that the fights on the cover seem to be in reverse order. Not complaining, but it’s worth mentioning. As before, I’ll talk about each fight separately.
The first fight is between Colossus and The Thing, written by Jeph Loeb. The fight isn’t anything special, but it’s a little entertaining and the end is much more decisive than Colossus’s fight with Spider-man in issue 2. Despite The Thing’s massive blows against the new Juggernaut (Colossus), he’s not even knocking the Russian back. Even so, Colossus still pushes The Thing outside the blue area of the moon and out of the atmosphere. The Thing is soon knocked out cold and Colossus wins.
The second fight is between Magik and Black Widow, written by Chris Yost. This is easily the best fight in the vs. series so far. Black Widow holds her own fairly well while the two of them are in Limbo, but there was no way a human with no special abilities could beat a teleporting mutant who is not only the overlord of Limbo, but has a sword powered by her innocent soul. The two Russian characters speaking un-translated Russian was a nice touch.
I still won’t recommend this as it’s nothing but two fight scenes for $4, but it’s much better than the first two issues. I’m not just saying that because I like the X-Men more than the Avengers. Unlike The Thing vs. Namor’s bull crap ending and factual errors in the Captain America vs. Gambit fight, there’s nothing serious to complain about in this issue. As this issue is nothing but two fights, you don’t even need to be paying attention to the event to understand it.
X-Men Legacy 268
This AVX tie-in mostly focuses on Frenzy and her origin story. Is it any good though?
Well … to be honest, it’s not much of an AVX tie-in. The only AVX material is a light teaser of what is to come next week. The phoenix five have outlawed war and are reshaping the world. That’s not the focus of this issue though, so enough on that. I’m also too tired to think about it deeply.
Frenzy’s back story itself works well enough, although it’s nothing special. It does help her connect with a human in a way she’s never even wanted to before. It’s nice that Christos Gage tried to have her connect to a human, but it felt a little dry.
The main problem with this issue isn’t necessarily the message it tries to send, or Frenzy’s origin story. It’s that this issue doesn’t feel like either an AVX tie-in or an X-Men comic. The fight scenes have no tension whatsoever since Frenzy’s pretty much invincible and is fighting normal humans. The whole situation with the militia doesn’t feel the least bit original. There’s just nothing special about this issue.
I can’t recommend this one, even if you like Frenzy. Hopefully the next issue of Legacy will be better.
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