Uncanny Avengers #17 – Review

by Rick Remender (Writer), Steve McNiven, Jay Leisten (Artists), Laura Martin, Justin Ponsor, Matt Milla, Larry Molinar (Colorists)

The Story: The fate of the Earth is decided as the heroes fight for the survival of everyone.

The Review (with spoilers): Rick Remender can be a bit dark at times. With his penchant to throw several hardship and put his characters through many severe miseries, the writer knows that it’s through adversity and conflicts that actions actually hold a lot more weight. Through his work on Uncanny X-Force, his Fear Agent and many other of his books, there is a tendency to make the life of everyone there as hard and painful as possible.

With this in mind, it seems that Remender took this particular quirk of his to a whole new level. In this very book, which is the finale of a long story-arc that got started in issue five of this series, the heroes lose. Despite all the effort of everyone on Earth and aboard the ark, Exitar manages to destroy the Earth, shattering it to multiple small pieces as the attempts of everyone to save it fail.

In a genre where the usual good versus evil fight is painted in a low amount of grey, this kind of ending is something that is decidedly unusual, something that defies the norms established. Using the traditional non-ending to make things continuous for the next issue, the conclusion to this saga is something that is a bit disconcerting, yet in a good way.

Still, the ending isn’t the only thing of matter in this issue, with plenty of the strengths of Remender being on display here. With a penchant for merging dramatics with plenty of action, this issue is able to switch the focus from one character or set of characters very well, enhancing the scope of things as they escalate to their paroxysm. The way Remender switch from Thor, Wasp, Captain America to the heroes left on Earth makes for a very exciting narrative that makes the buildup to the conclusion that much more effective.

Uncanny Avengers #14 – Review

by Rick Remender (Writer), Steve McNiven, John Dell (Artists), Laura Martin (Colorist)

The Story: As Wanda and Simon prepares to betray the Apocalypse Twins, it seems that Rogue and Sunfire have other ideas about what they should do. Hilarity ensues.

The Review: Well, I can’t properly review this one without actually spoiling a lot of what happens here. so here’s the regulatory warning.

*Spoiler Alert*

Now that this is dealt with, let’s get into the heart of the matter. Death in comic books have become gradually cheaper as years went on, with many issues actually presenting them in their solicits as points of sale. Their importance and impact now being significantly lower, they have become gimmicks that have lost quite of their charms, since most of them are then retconned or repaired sooner or later. It’s easy to become jaded now when a character dies in the end of an issue or when an issue promises to be important because someone will die. It’s a simple fact.

Rick Remender goes forth here and actually goes on to ”kill” three of our protagonists here. With the word kill used in this way, some of these deaths are either too big or simply dubious, as some of these characters are either too big to simply go away ( I sincerely do not believe that Scarlet Witch will actually die, considering she’s supposed to star in the next big Avengers movie by Joss Whedon).

Despite the overall negativity of the previous statement, credits should be given to Rick Remender for not pointing death as a big finality of his storyline as he actually does not give character cheap deaths or simply waves them away in a nonchalant way. The way Rogue, Wonder Man and Scarlet Witch are mortally wounded is done in a way that adds drama and gravitas to the story, with their deaths having a direct impact on the story and the relationship between those characters. Despite the fact that it could be perhaps seen as overkill, this issue does actually use these deaths rather well by putting them in a much better context than what could be normally seen.

Uncanny Avengers #11 – Review

Rick Remender (Writer), Daniel Acuña (Artist, Colorist)

The Story: Quite a lot of the members of the Avengers unity squad gets explanation about what is happening and what might just happen if things continue the way they are.

The Review: Exposition is always useful. It can bring people up to speed on the status of certain events or characters quickly, reinstate the gravity of a situation and throw new concepts to the readers to appreciate. It’s the perfect tool to bring in new readers to make sure they won’t be lost and to make sure that the regular reader don’t forget the important information in the wait between each issues.

However, it is also something that can severely hinder an issue if it indulge too much in it, which this issue unfortunately does. There are a good number of things to explain, of course, as the connection between some of the horsemen and what made it so has to be explained and certainly put on spotlight for it to be effective, yet there is simply not a lot going on in this issue because of the heavy emphasis on the dialogue and exposition.

It’s not an issue-breaking problem, fortunately, as there are some good concepts brought up front which does advance some of the themes of this series forward, however slightly it does. The scene with Scarlet Witch and the Apocalypse twins does bring some interesting ideas as it mixes some of the older ones like Magneto’s brotherhood of evil and Archangel to the newer ones like what Red Skull is trying to do and what he might achieve if he succeeds. It creates an ominous conflict that plays well with the ambiguous antagonism of the Apocalypse twins, who seems to possess larger plans and a certain nobility despite their methods. It does make those characters a bit more interesting as villains.

Uncanny Avengers #10 – Review

Rick Remender (Writer), Daniel Acuña (Artist/Colorist)

The Story: With the teams divided and searching in their own ways for what is going on with the children of Archangel, the horsemen of death each gather their own specific target.

The Review: There will always be a gap between generations when it comes to appreciation of a particular title. Every fans of a certain franchise always will look up to a certain era or a certain writer when it comes to the very best representation of what they like. Some people prefer the Chris Claremont era of Uncanny X-Men, while others loved when Grant Morrison went in with his New X-Men, as the future may see the construction of a generation that will praise the Bendis era with All-New X-Men. Each team, characters and general franchise in superhero comics have been handed down throughout the years to others, with some resonating with their audience and their time. However, does Rick Remender, with his dual X-men and Avengers team make something that caters more to one group or the other?

In ways, it is admirable to see him try to combine two of the biggest franchise that Marvel has the right to. In a purely conceptual level, this is a book that could work in a big way, as some of the biggest characters comes together to fight threats that are new to some of its member, creating a melting pot of the best that Marvel could offer. In theory, the fact that Captain America, Wolverine, Thor, Havok and others need to fight the Red Skull, Kang, the children of Archangel and other likely foes to create a better reputation for mutants is sound as it should be exciting.

However, while the concept is grand, there are some problems in its execution, which can be seen in this issue. One of the bigger one, so far, is the narration and some of the bizarre throwbacks Remender use in its dialogue and explanation of events. In a way, this title tries to emulate both the old Avengers and Uncanny X-Men comics, providing us readers with narration enhancing the visual effects as well as somewhat melodramatic dialogue that makes things somewhat akin to a soap opera, a practice that was very popular in the 70’s and 80’s in comics. While it is an efficient and sometime well-handled throwback to those comics, it can be sometime a bit too much, even used in ways that slow down the pace and effect some scenes have. While the way some of the characters talk gives the readers a touch of mystery and a good showcase of their personality, it is also rife with tons of exposition and an over-abundance of melodrama, creating something that may be a bit goofy at times. It is, I suppose, the very point of such a practice, yet it does its job a bit too well as it just slows down or dumb down some of the better elements of the issue.