The Bill January 5, 2012

It wouldn't be Thursday (because it is TOTALLY Thursday) without my ramblings about the week's new comics. That's right, those past few weeks: Thursday-less. No more! 2012 is the year of the Thursday (or something like that), so let's get to some reviews to make it official.




Starting Off on the Wrong Foot:

Avengers X-Sanction #2
Writer: Jeph Loeb
Artist: Ed Mcguiness


Avengers X-Sanction is a very frustrating book. It's exactly what it promises to be (Cable fighting the Avengers) but, somehow every issue leaves me unsatisfied. It's just superficial fluff pretending to be something much more substantial and failing miserably.

Don't get me wrong, I really want to like this book. Really! Truth be told, Cable is one of my favorite characters from my comic reading youth. There was something about the combination overly complex origins and cybernetic parts (yes, I know they're not cybernetic... anymore) that made him wonderfully intriguing to my 11 year-old brain. I grew out of it, of course, but I've always had a soft spot for him and always like to keep an eye on his exploits. Even if they mostly involve him dying and returning in increasingly gimmicky ways.

And then there's Jeph Loeb, who I really have a hard time not liking. Sure, it's easy to hate on him for Ultimates 3, Ultimatum, or whatever else is the hip thing to not like him for, but I still like him. Personally, I loved his first few issues of the Red Hulk series, with its unabashed wide screen insanity. Sure it was kinda dumb, but damn if it wasn't a good time.

So with all that going for the series, you can understand how I was really prepared to love Avengers X-Sanction.

It's not that the issue is unreadably bad or anything, it's decent but it's not anything special. The characterizations weren't out of whack, there's a sense of logic to it all, and the fight was pretty cool (and epically drawn by McGuiness), but there wasn't anything that gets me excited.

Meanwhile, Loeb keeps dropping the barest of hints to a bigger story (more than likely Hope becoming the Phoenix), but not enough that I find myself intrigued. More, I just find myself bored because I can see the obvious conclusion. Maybe that's the whole problem: This book that's supposed to be amping my excitement for Avengers V X-Men this summer simply isn't.

And that doesn't bode well for the future.

Looks like it's gonna be a long year....