A.X.E.: Avengers #1 (September 28): Gillen delivers one of this event's best issues as he uses the team's invasion of the Progenitor to take a deep dive into Tony's psyche.
As hackneyed as this sort of premise is, Gillen does a solid job of not letting Tony take the easy road to redemption. His seemingly heart-felt acknowledgement that he isn't the strong one (in context of his fellow Avengers) is met with derision from the red-headed ladies in his life. They harangue Tony for continually reassembling the same broken machine without focusing on the missing parts. It's his father who points out most people would've stopped trying to fix said machine a long time ago. He (i.e., the Progenitor) tells Tony that he's too hard on himself and passes him.
It isn't just pschyobabble, though. The experience makes Tony realize that the Progenitor is still judging people, which gives the team the possibility of passing.
The best part of the issue, though, is Tony's banter with Jean Grey and Mr. Sinister before the melodrama begins. I wish Gillen would've cut down a little on the journey into the dark night of Tony's soul so we could've seem him verbally spar with Sinister some more.
Amazing Spider-Man #10 (September 28): Holy shit, this issue was fucking CRAZY.
It didn't come as a surprise that the Progenitor took the form of Gwen Stacy to judge Peter or that he passed Peter because his heart shines so brightly it blinds him and "baffles the mind of man." I have to hand it to Wells, though: Peter's heart blinding him is truly an excellent summation of how Peter gets into the messes he does.
Although it isn't surprising that even the Progenitor was moved when seeing into Peter's heart, I very much didn't see him temporarily resurrecting Gwen! In fact, I almost thought Wells was permanently resurrecting her, explaining why he broke up Peter and Mary Jane. But Wells goes even one better: the Progenitor only temporarily resurrected her because he still needs Gwen, to judge Norman. Ha! I almost feel bad for Norman. The segue of Gwen moving from a still grieving yet marveling Peter to an oblivious Norman is perfectly done.
Moreover, this issue flows better than "A.X.E.: Avengers" #1 since Wells uses it as a way to give us a tour of Peter's current life, avoiding Gillen's navel-gazing approach to Tony (even if navel-gazing is probably appropriate for Tony). Also, Dragotta's art is such a welcome relief from JR, Jr.
I wish it didn't take a forgettable cross-over event for Wells to produce the first issue of his run that really felt like a Spider-Man story but here we are.
A.X.E.: Starfox #1 (October 5): This issue reads as if Marvel has big plans for Starfox, as Gillen ably presents his life story for everyone who doesn't follow his every move. Starfox's history is muddled to say the least, yet Gillen somehow manages to impose some order on it.
First, Gillen answers my questions from "A.X.E.: Judgment Day" #3 by explaining that Stafox was in the Exclusion after Thanos killed him and the Machine resurrected him. Since the Eternals didn't know he had linked to the Machine many years ago (the reason why Mentor and Sui-San had him, to prove a point Mentor was making at the time), they threw him in the Exclusion while they figured out how to make sense of a non-Eternal Eternal.
As an avid reader of the "Avengers" in the 1980s, I was perfectly happy to spend this time with Starfox, atrocious art aside. But if you aren't a die-hard Starfox fan I think you can skip this one, as I'm sure the main title will explain his deal with Zuras to save humanity by bringing them into Eternal spaces.
A.X.E.: Death to the Mutants #3 (October 5): I read this issue after "A.X.E.: Starfox" #1, which I think was helpful even if this one clearly happens first.
As a result of "A.X.E.: Starfox "#1, I know that this issue addresses one of the four plans the heroes are currently putting in place to save Earth. They tried to destroy the Progenitor, but, as we see here and in "A.X.E.: Judgment Day" #5, they weren't successful. We know that Tony's team in "A.X.E.: Avengers" #1 is trying to kill the Progenitor, and we saw in "A.X.E.: Starfox" #1 the remaining heroes trying to save who they can.
Here, we see the other plan go into effect, namely Phastos hard-rebooting the Machine that Is Earth to slow down the Progenitor's efforts. (I'm not sure I totally followed this part, as the Progenitor is apparently somehow using the Machine to destroy Earth, but it's small potatoes at this point.) The Machine assists Phastos in his mission, as it watches in panic as the Progenitor destroys the Resurrection Engines and is poised to destroy the Reality Loom.
Gillen tries to get us to mourn the Machine, our narrator throughout this issue. But the bro-ish voice that Gillen has used for the Machine throughout the series has never really connected with me. It's hard to connect with an abstract entity, even one with a voice. As such, though I get Phastos' devastation when it's clear that the hard-reboot has destroyed the Machine's personality, I can't say I was particularly moved by it.
Oh, well. Onwards and upwards.
A.X.E.: X-Men #1 (October 5): Jean Grey is a complicated character to write. She's always so...good. It's the Captain America/Superman problem. Of course, the exception with Jean is the one that the Progenitor notes here: she destroyed a world.
I was excited about this issue when I saw it advertised at the end of "A.X.E.: Avengers" #1, and it didn't disappoint. It's a direct sequel to that issue, as the team makes its way through the Celestial. But Jean takes center stage here as the Progenitor marvels, somewhat indirectly (and in a way in which I've always marveled), at the number of men who love her. Despite all that love and respect, the Progenitor denies the idea that the Phoenix, not Jean, destroyed that world. Jean weakly argues that she wasn't in control and that she's saved enough world to be in the black. She finally segues into wondering when she's balanced the scales enough. The Progenitor says never and fails her.
But Gillen totally nailed what makes Jean great and what so many authors overlook: she's human. She's pissed that she failed. As Logan says, she was Charlie's star pupil: she isn't used to failing. She calls the Progenitor on his own bullshit as she notes that he judged her for destroying a world as he does the same thing.
The Progenitor at one point in this issue recalls how Cyclops told him to be scared of Jean. This issue reminds us that he should be.
X-Men Red #7 (October 5): Although this issue involves Magneto's death, its emotional core lies in the conversation that the Great Ring has as they face the aftermath of Uranos' assault and the coming of the Progenitor's justice.
Isca the Unbeaten leaves the Great Ring after the Fisher King challenges her to a game of who understands the meaning of loss, forcing her to face - seemingly for the first time - her long history of betraying the Arakkii. (Is it really for the first time? Has she really not internalized the betrayals she's committed over her long life?)
With Isca's departure, the entire Table of Dawn is empty, as Magneto is dead and Isca killed Idyll the Future Seer in issue #5. To address the imbalance, Storm yields the Seat of All-Around-Us to Lodus Logos so a dreamer and a poet will rule Arakko. She then takes up Magneto's Seat of Loss.
Arakko continues to be the most interesting corner of the mutant books to me, and I look forward to see where we go with this change in its status quo.
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