These days we practically have a comic book for everything. There are so many genres, characters, and franchises that can be digested in the comic book format. Some focus mainly on the superhero stories, some feature extremely dark and sometimes disturbing stories, and others can be a mix that sometimes can blow your mind.
At the end of the day, or the end of the issue, the question is, were you entertained? With the large number of Secret Wars tie-in books, Marvel has been visiting and revisiting many different eras, story arcs, and alternate versions of characters with their stories contained in their own domain on the newly created Battleworld. Some tie into the bigger story or reference it while others are content to live in their own little corner to tell their own story. That's what we have with GIANT-SIZE LITTLE MARVEL: AVX.
Skottie Young has done countless variant covers featuring his "little" take on the Marvel Universe characters. In this title, we get a complete series focusing on these versions.
What could possible cause friction between the two Little teams in this issue?
How about a good old fashioned game of dodgeball? They call it "Marvel Ball" but use dodgeballs so it's basically the same thing. When the teams are chosen, you know how it's going to go. We basically get five pages of Marvel-style Dodgeball drawn by Skottie Young (with gorgeous colors by Jean-Francois Beaulieu).
A dodgeball game isn't the only focus in the issue. Last issue we saw a couple of new kids arrive. With the extremely competitive nature between these two teams, it becomes a question of who gets the new kids on their team?
Who has more to offer?
The fact that we are getting seeds from the first issue carrying over here was a great move. It could have been easy to make each issue with just a stand alone feel, focusing on wacky moment after wacky moment. Young is telling a story and uses those wacky moments along the way.
The issue isn't just about the Little Avengers fighting the Little X-Men. We do see other characters and cameos. They add more opportunities for humor.
If you're a fan of Skottie Young's art and get sad when you can't get a hold of all his variant covers, this is a great way to turn your frown upside-down. We tend to get so focused on the serious nature of storytelling in comics and what they're adding to the grand scheme of the characters' mythos and we sometimes forget these stories are meant to entertain us. It's okay for a comic book to make you laugh. I did laugh while reading this comic. To me, that's a great thing. I enjoy laughing. This book is a fantastic ray of sunlight in the sometimes dark world of comics.