Avengers Vs. X-Men #0

So the moment is finally upon us and in my opinion it has delivered. A lot of times the first issue of a major event has already been largely revealed thanks to previews however I felt this issue still had plenty of surprises to offer.

Good:

Scarlet Witch's Story

Well for starters I'm always happy to see M.O.D.O.K get some page time especially in his new Superior form. His new minions, whatever they were, were just awesome. The appearance of the Scarlet Witch to stop him felt natural enough. I did not read the conclusion to Children's Crusade but it doesn't seem entirely necessary to pick up what is going on here. As was the intended effect I suppose, I read Avengers #24.1 before this which helped explain more about the Vision and Wanda's history. Seeing her return to the mansion and Vision's reaction were HUGE!!! I felt Bendis did a great job at not making things feel too forced or rushed which are 2 big issues with crossovers.

Hope's Story

Even though we've seen a good portion of this story through previews the beginning half is a lot of good dialogue between Hope and Cyclops. Unfortunately that's all the good I have to say about Hope's run.

Bad:

I really felt like there wasn't much to Aaron's story about Hope. It largely just repeats the same issues about Hope/Phoenix that we all know are coming to a head finally. Maybe it's because I read more X-Men than Avengers so the story feels rather redundant at this point. Also the inclusion of the Serpent Society was rather pointless. I get it needed to serve a purpose for the issue but I feel a more relevant group of villains could have been used.

Art:

I'm also torn between Frank Cho's artwork. At times I think his individual characters are great such as M.O.D.O.K., Scarlet Witch and Cyclops (really felt he captured the "Slim" look). However I also felt M.O.D.O.K.'s minions looked a little cartoony, they had the potential to be truly fierce and gruesome but came off a little silly. At times Hope looked a little too bulky which I feel Cho does to his women sometimes (as seen in his work in the Ultimates - New Ultimates).

Conclusion:

With the slight art issues aside I felt this was a great start to the highly anticipated crossover. I only hope this level of quality continues through out the series. I will be signing up for everything A vs.X and will try to review every bit of it I read.