AvX #10

Ed Brubaker has handled a couple of the stronger chapters in AvX, and once again, he has some cool stuff to throw out there. After Colossus and Magik took each other out last issue, the Phoenix Five are down to two, the headliners Cyclops and Emma Frost. We’ve seen Emma being pretty bad over the past few months, but Scott Summers seemed to be doing a better job retaining his humanity. That’s just about gone now. Cyclops is enraged that the Avengers won’t give in, and he takes every opportunity to knock them around to prove his point.

I’m not sure how I feel that the Avengers are clearly the good guys now. I mean, this has become an Avengers story, where the X-Men have taken on the role of villain for the length of the series. There are some saving graces, like the fact that Magneto is now about to switch sides too, but it’s just weird that the X-Men are getting piled on like this. There is going to be a whole new reason to hate and fear them after AvX.

Iron Fist gets some time in the spotlight as the tries to take on Cyclops (to little effect). It also seems Scarlet Witch is about tapped out; she can’t stop Cyclops now, he’s got too much power. Hope attempts to channel both the Witch’s power and the abilities of the young dragon of K’un L’un, and that’s the only reason she’s’ able to pop Cyke out of there. Disappointingly, he’s just planning on going back to attack again, this time bringing Emma. No thinking or planning here.

This just feels like a middle chapter. I'm not sure we learned a lot more about any characters, or saw anything different than we've seen in any of the X-tie ins over the past few weeks. I'm ready for the climax!

Adam Kubert’s art is wonderful once again. I’d love to see him draw more characters for this. He makes the Thing’s FF costume look awesome, and I love his Scarlet Witch. It’s too bad Hope doesn’t have a more dynamic look.

Fair