A+X #17

Intro

As the time this series was out I was pretty interested in what they could come up with the characters I never seen teamed up before. But as soon as I jumped onto the series, I was really disappointed. Mainly, because of the format of two team-ups split into two stories. This format was a big problem for the series because it caused the stories to be rushed and uncared for. The writing was pretty terrible and there was many out of character moments. Plus, the art was pretty bad as well. I don’t understand why this series was even made when Marvel never put any effort in making this series good. Even the good writers made these stories read terrible. They were so bad it looked like I was reading a book from an alternate universe. I couldn’t possibility believe that so many good writers wrote many bad stories for this series. Another problem was that each issue had a different story and none of them connect which is why I felt DC Universe Presents was a much better series. It really delivered great character arcs that expanded for more than one issue and gave much character development for many obscure characters. So, since this series was failing Marvel decided to do a five-part story with Captain America and Cyclops which still failed. Because it still had the same format being split by another unnecessary story. Plus, the story and the characters remained not interesting and out of character. Also, the art didn’t improve as well. But to say at least issue was decent enough for a pick up. It had a great first story followed by another terrible unnecessary story. So, you might have mixed feelings I like did.

Story

Broo teams up with Iron Man for a school assignment meanwhile the story of Captain America and Cyclops with the Skrulls continues.

The Good

The Broo and Iron Man story was really good and probably the best in this series. They had a really good chemistry and it’s definitely one I would like to see progress in the future. What I like about this story is the character development. It was really great see the relationship grow from Iron Man being bothered to actually loving Broo. They really found their strengths that helped get along more and seeing the glimpses of that relationship grow in future gave a very great charm. The art was pretty good as well with solid character models and detail. The only problem I had was the villain. He pretty much was D-listed character that was just there to move the story along.

The Bad

The next story was all kind of terrible. For the majority of the issue it was placed in Dr. Doom head fighting off the Avengers. Everyone was really out of character and gave off that old school superhero cheesiness. Hulk was back to being dumb and everyone else was acting like an archetype hero and villain. It definitely felt very off-placed for this issue. What makes it even worst is that soon as the dream is over the story immediately rushes to a cliffhanger without expanding on anything. It really made the story pointless. The only semi-good thing about this issue was the art. There were some really good looking panels during the fight in the dream. But after that, it got really bad looking panels.

Verdict

I give this issue a 3.3/7.3 out of 5/10 stars. This issue was definitely a step-up but still fell in the okay range and I pretty surprised because every issue I read was pretty terrible. If the first story was alone I would have gave this a better score. But since the other story was pretty awful I had to put it done a notch. I really don’t even understand why is it so bad because it’s written by Gerry Duggan that writes Deadpool and Nova which, is too series I love. That’s the main problem with this series, it’s like the writers or Marvel didn’t care much for the added effort in this series. I can see this as many of the reasons why this series is cancelled. So, I guess the only reason to pick up this issue is to see the great chemistry Iron Man and Broo has and there’s also neat art to look at for the story. But besides that I don’t see as a worthy pick up. So, it really up to you to pick this and the final issue up.