Avengers vs X-men 2

The avengers and X-men battle each other to protect Hope the vessel for Phoenix entity. A lot of match up from Colossus against Red Hulk to Namor against the Thing and Cage. The Utopia island turns into a battle fest as Emma Frost bundled Hope into safety inside the X-men hq. Emma Frost usage of her telekinesis power to shutdown the avengers is thwarted by Ironman's technology and Frost turned into diamond shaped form which packed a punch into Ironman's suit. Magneto joined the fray and it seems that Ironman can hold himself against the master of magnetism for a while. Before long Quicksilver the son of Magneto joined in and gave Magneto a jaw punch he won't forget.

Meanwhile Wolverine and Spiderman sneak their way into X-men's hq through a sewer to locate Hope. But Hope is almost totally possessed by the Phoenix and gave Wolverine a roasting as he tried to approach her. When the avengers and X-men found them, both Wolverine and Spiderman are toasted literally as Hope makes an escape by running through water. Hope seems to gain much more power as time goes by. Meanwhile in outer space, Thor together with another team of avengers prepare to confront the Phoenix but it looks like their effort will be in vain. The frantic search for Hope continues in the next issue.

Avengers vs X-men 1

The first issue of the event of the year starts of as the Phoenix entity destroys a planet and is en-route to Earth. The first sign of warning comes in the form of a foreign object hurtling to New York and struck a plane passing through. The avengers was at scene and saves the day with Thor saving the plane by conjuring a hurricane to bring the plane safely down. The avengers got a shock when the foreign object is none other than Nova who is one of the intergalactic Nova Corps . All Nova could utter is the it is coming and obviously it is known who he is referring to.


Before long the avengers makes out who is coming and they are a concerned bunch. Wolverine was consulted and he knows who the Phoenix is going to posses when it arrives. The avengers have non other choice which leads directly to the confrontation with the X-men. Hope was already showing signs of the Phoenix's power and Cyclops has decided that this Phoenix will be a catalyst for the rebirth of mutants. Captain America arrived at Utopia island where all the current X-men are and a heated argument ensues between Cap and Cyclops. Before long in preventing the avengers from taking Hope, Cyclops struck the first blow at Cap. Cap has no choice but to declare war on the X-men. All hell breaks loose as the avengers on the heli-carrier descended upon Utopia in what proves to be an epic battle, albeit over a girl.

Hellblazer 286

The final part of the devil's trenchcoat storyline wraps up a lot of unfinished business. Firstly Constantine confronted Tamsin the with that has been terrorizing his niece Gemma. Constantine wastes no time in burning the book of demons the books used to summon demons. Constantine leaves without much of a fuss from Tamsin. More troubles lies ahead as Constantine still has to negotiate with Terry his father in law on the Italian mob problem and locate his crazy trenchcoat.

Apparently the coat has a mind of its own and going around manipulating people to kill. Constantine managed to locate the coat but not before few people died because of the coat. After nearly getting shot by a mad man donning the coat, Constantine managed to subdued it by some chants. The messed up coat is back to normal and Constantine finally gets to put it on with all the blood and dirt on it. On returning home Constantine has the shock of his life when he saw Terry sleeping with his niece Gemma. Constantine flips out and screams at Terry but there's not much he can do anyway. Gemma asks Constantine to do a favor for her just so that she will stop seeing Terry but the favor comes at a huge price which will be addressed in the next story line.

Punisher 6

Punisher is back on the hunt again after recovering from the bruising encounter with Vulture. This issue is very straight forward not much dialogue and a breeze to get through. All the action are depicted in a way such that no dialogue explanation is needed. There is a newcomer to story, a female assasin. Both are after the same people here. Now the interesting part here is how the story unfolds as to how both use different skills to gain entry to a resort in a snowing background. The female assasin uses deception and charm to gain entry while Punisher uses stealth and brute force to get the job done.

So it wans't a surprise Punisher have to take down a few guards in a new white snow outfit while the female assassin only needs one kill. The feamle assassin got into the venue much earlier and dispose of all the targets at once in a meeting while Punisher is still skulking around somewhere in the snow disposing of guards. But soon both of them confronted each other in a showdown stunningly depicted in the final pages just like in the movies.

Captain America 5

Captain America continues to tangle with Bravo in the alternate world trading punches. In the real world Sharon Carter is confronting the Queen of hydra in a hostage situation with Jimmy Jupiter. In a bid to stop the Queen and foil her plans Sharon tried to save Jimmy but the Queen reacted by shooting Jimmy. The Queen slips away in the ensuing chaos. With his last dying breath Jimmy transferred Captain America and and Bravo back into the real world. Both still slugging it out but Bravo were soon overpowered by Falcon and Sharon.

The events put some doubts in Cap's mind about how he had failed America helped by Bravo's continuing insult of Cap's failure to right what is wrong with America today. Meanwhile the Queen have other plans for hydra and with Baron still in the frame. What the Baron is up to exactly here is not known but surely he will resurface few issues down the road. Not the end of the new villain the Queen. Overall plenty of action as always and two pencilers are at work here. So it is quite obvious to see the penciling differs from one page to the other especially in the final few pages. A solid ending to a story arc.

Wolverine and the x-men 2

All is not well at school as Wolverine and the x-men are being attacked left and right. The hands behind them are the new underaged hellfire club. First there's is an earthquake causing part of the school to collapse. Then the people from the education department turned into wendigo and sauron. Whats next is more bizarre as frankenstein soldiers appears by the busload to terrorize the school. Wolverine as his usual self starts to slice and dice with the help of other x-men, iceman, husk and Kitty.


Just as the zombie soldiers are beginning to overwhelm the x-men, iceman saves the day by conjuring multiple of his own iceman self and turned the tide against the invaders. So iceman is hero of the day which is rare and he discovered a new found ability. Even gets to romancing Kitty in the middle of it. The chaos is not over yet as the hellfire club unleash the thing that caused the massive earthquake and it is a thing called krakoa. It is big, angry and have a long history with the x-men. Another cliffhanger which still didn't end where the book started, more killing and maiming in the next book.

New avengers 19

Norman Osborne's new outfit the Hammer with a few notable supervillains such as Gorgon and Madame Hydra is at it again trying to disrupt the world. After previous incident where Wolverine's blood is taken by a robot commanded by Hammer, the rest of avengers are left to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of the destruction caused by the robot. With Wolverine's blood Osborne's plan is complete with the forming of his own avengers team. His plan is to set up some mayhem only for his own avengers intervene instead of the real avengers.


The confrontation between both Osborne's avengers and the real avengers is sure to make the next issue an action  packed one. With the offspring of Hulk Skaar on the side of Osborne, its going to be a close fight. Other side story includes Daredevil swinging by the avengers mansion and getting hit on by squirrel girl. And Spiderman with his fast tongue pissing off Victoria Hand at the mansion. Deodato's artwork as usual is consistent and nice to look at.