Avengers & X-Men: Axis #5

By Rick Remender, Terry Dodson and Laura Martin

We’re two books into the second chapter of Avengers & X-Men: Axis and things have been good, but nothing world-changing has happened yet. We do get the chance to see what happens to the heroes that weren’t affected by the inversion, and it doesn’t end well. This is also the issue where your favorite heroes begin to act unnaturally out of character.

Rick Remender can pretty much write any character in the Marvel Universe well. This issue we get to see his take on Nova and Spider-Man, and they are both written properly. Spider-Man comes off very funny and lighthearted, which is always wonderful to see. His rapport with Sam Alexander reads well on the page and we can hope for a team up in the future. Remender is also showing us a great deal about the characters affected by the spell this issue. The X-Men finally play a bit of a bigger role here and Remender makes them very dangerous. As hard as it is to see your favorite heroes acting like villains, Remender still does a great job of making them all likable characters, with the exception of the new Captain America. Sam comes off as psychotic this issue, but it shows that he is more than capable of being a leader as he clearly is in control for most of this issue.

The art duties this time around are handled by Terry Dodson with colors by Laura Martin and Matt Milla. The art starts out very good as the first few pages really highlight what Dodson is capable of, but as the issue progresses some panels get rough. Faces of characters look less detailed and just overall bad on certain pages. Dodson best work comes in the panels with Spider-Man and Nova, but near the end, some of the X-Men look off. Martin and Milla are usually knock-out colorists, but their magic doesn’t seem to mesh well with Dodson’s work. The art isn’t terrible by any means, but it’s not as impressive as Leinil Yu’s.

This was a decent issue, but nothing that will change anybody’s mind on the event. Remender is really displaying that he can write any character he wants in Marvel’s dossier. The art takes a step back this issue, but Dodson is good enough that he can rebound with the next one. Avengers & X-Men: Axis continues to be an enjoyable read as we wait to see what happens next week.