AvX: Versus #2

Man, poor Gambit doesn’t get too much respect in this one, does he? Cap spends the entire issue talking with Iron Man on the phone while Gambit desperately tries to get Cap’s attention. It’s a great battle, with Steve McNiven delivering some great visuals with Gambit’s powers. Gambit has been around long enough that he seems like he should be able to stand up to Cap for a bit longer than this, but Cap’s powers are almost off the charts these days. Immense mainstream popularity seems to be a nice power-boost in the source material!

The art is the star of the show, of course. McNiven gets to write a bit, but it’s hardly high-level drama.

In the second story, Spidey takes on the new Juggernaut-ified Colossus. I was pleased to see the underdogs finally get a win here; too bad it’s taken four rounds for it to happen. And in fact, Spidey doesn’t totally lose this encounter; it’s more accurate to say that nothing he does fazes Colossus in the least. In fact, Colossus spends the entire issue begging Spidey to give up so that he doesn’t kill Spidey by accident!

I’m not up to date on the Cyttorak powers that Colossus has, but it’s a tad disappointing that Salvador Larrocca has to draw this issue featuring Colossus with this obviously intermediate look. There is no way this is the long-time status quo for Colossus. I really missed Larrocca’s “pencil” work, his Invincible Iron Man material is all so digital and textured looking. I’m really excited to see him working in his old style. I remember loving his Ghost Rider work that looked a lot like this!

Fair