I love this series, but, man, this issue is rough, since Remender covers little actual ground here for the amount of space spent on dialogue. Moreover, the ground that he does cover doesn't make a lot of sense.
First, the main event of the issue, the division of the team into X-Men (and Thor) and Avengers (and Havok), makes little sense if you take a moment and reflect on the circumstances that lead to it. It happens essentially because Cap suddenly decides that Wolverine is little more than a murderer. I have a number of issues with that. First, as a soldier, it seems unlikely to me that Cap would be that upset that Wolverine would kill a child Apocalypse. Would Cap not have killed a child Hitler if he had the chance? I know that we're dealing with a high level of moral relativism here, so it's entirely possible that Cap see a difference between assassinating a child Hitler and a child Apocalypse. However, Cap really focuses more on the murder part rather than the child part. As such, we're really left with the impression that he's more upset that Logan murdered anyone. Again, I'm not saying that Cap wouldn't be upset, but his rage here seems disproportionate. I mean, do we not remember that Thor essentially murdered Jan to save the world? It would seem hard to forget that, since they're both standing right there! Moreover, Logan made this decision as a member of X-Force, not the Avengers. It's not like he was running a secret squad of Avengers...like Cap was, during the Secret Avengers days. Remember when Cap stepped aside to have other members of the team torture someone? I do. Maybe he wants to confess that to the group.
But, for argument's sake, let's say Cap was really outraged that Wolverine killed a child Apocalypse and that he feels betrayed because Logan really did commit to putting aside his murdering ways when he agreed to become an Avenger. Fine. However, he and Alex decide that the best way to handle the situation is to have this discussion in front of the entire team? A team that is volatile on a good day? Logan didn't merit a discussion about these issues behind closed doors, just the three of them? Even if Cap didn't think he deserved such a courtesy, neither he nor Alex anticipated how accusing Logan of murder in front of the team might force everyone to take sides, particularly given how many times the issue of murder has divided the Avengers in the past? Really? To me, it's completely unrealistic and, more upsettingly, unnecessary. Remender had already done a good job of building any number of issues that could've split the team in the way that it splits here. For example, it would've been totally plausible for Rogue and the other X-Men to leave because they felt that Alex was debasing mutantkind by calling on the world to see him as a person before a mutant. Why chose an issue with so many obvious flaws when you could have used a better one?
I was also less thrilled with other parts of this issue, such as the somewhat awkward attempt to make Uriel human. (Also, did Remender need to rub in the fact that Havok is straight? Sigh.) But, the disastrous Logan plotline overshadowed any other qualms that I had about this issue. Hopefully, everyone will reunite next issue and I'll be able to pretend that this one never happened.
No comments:
Post a Comment