Avengers and X-Men: Axis 6

Avengers and X-Men: Axis 6
Remender (w) and T. Dodson (p) and R. Dodson (i) and Delgado and Aburtov (c) and Eliopoulos (l)

The X-Men have taken over Manhattan and have started to expel humans from the city, promising that soon, attempts at taking back the city would be met with violence, all while secretly building a gene-bomb that will soon kill everyone without the X-gene. Sabretooth and Mystique have learned of the bomb's existence and have joined with other inverted villains like Loki, Enchantress, and Carnage in a group assembled by Steve Rogers to set things right. Also, Scarlet Witch attacks a repentant Doom in Latveria.

Let me make one thing clear: there are some interesting dynamics here. I've talked in the past (though probably not for a year and a half now, since DARK AVENGERS) about a soft spot I have in my heart for alternate dimension stories. Because I'm a nerd, like you, and we like these possibilities. I think we like them even more in long-running comics because we so intimately know these characters that twisting them allows us to wonder, if I may, "what if...?" That's 100% what this feels like. So, you say, perhaps I've come around on AXIS? Nope. It feels like that but I don't want my mainstream universe to feel, at any point, like an alternate universe. That's why it's my mainstream and that's the appeal of an alternate. However, it does leave me in a weird position with this event where I'm able to recognize that maybe occasionally we need a big shift like this, even if it's only going to be righted a couple months down the road. However, this continues to feel very much like a shoe-horned "let's write heroes as villains and villains as heroes!" sort of pitch. I cannot respect that. Even if this wasn't billed as a major event and was instead advertised and sold as a WHAT IF...? or a separate alt-universe story or something like that (which, I understand, wouldn't sell at a fraction of an event), I'd be rolling my eyes at it. The complications are that some sort of marginally interesting plot is developing amidst this terrible premise and the tie-ins (which we'll, I'm assured, get to at some point this week) are a little more compelling than the main series (which occasionally happens, at least in my view, because it gives us a sense of how things are affecting our characters at a more personal level). At the end of the day though, my rating has to be based on whether this is worth reading? And guys, obviously it's not.

Total Score: 2/5