Avengers & X-Men: AXIS #5
Minor Spoilers
Avengers and X-Men: AXIS #5 is definitely my favorite issue of the series so far. It finally moves the plot in a direction that could, y'know, actually be classified as a plot.
First of all, it really gives us two characters that we can actually focus on, rather it not having any central character. I quite liked this, since it seems like a pretty big issue with most events is that they don't really have a central character we can witness the event through the eyes of. Except, of course, by the end of the issue we're back to the main character-less storytelling.
The best thing about this issue is that, finally, we're not just jumping from point to point introducing plot point and plot point that will be expanded either never or in some spin-off book. Although, there are a few points where we do go that route (such as what causes Nova to depart from the issue is really just an introduction to what's happening in the Nova title.) For the most part though, we follow Spider-Man as he starts to learn what's happening and (finally) what is at stake due to this whole thing.
All right, I'll admit it, the X-Men stuff in this issue had me super excited. I love Apocalypse and I'm glad to see him back and teaming up with the X-Men. All we really get here is an introduction of what the X-Men and Apocalypse have planned, but it (hopefully) is what is the rest of the series is focusing on... instead of something that's kinda going on in the background... or maybe the foreground... since so far just about everything has been in the background.
As far as negatives go, I don't really have a whole lot here. I mean, it still all feels like setup but it feels like we're going somewhere finally and I'm happy with what sort of setup we're getting. I'm not really sure I'm a fan of everyone just doing what they do because of mind control (kinda defeats all character development,) but that's really the basis of the event so that's not going to change.
As long as the rest of the series goes along like this one, it may not be that horrible after all. All in all, I quite liked this issue.
