Comic Books: What's Going On!?

As a reader, you have to expect the good and the bad. I've hyped up many stories, been excited for many series, but lately, Comics have just taken a bland turn given what we were presented. The two big stories, Marvel's "Avengers VS X-men" and DC Comics "Justice League" started out as amazing ideas, but this far in I feel they've performed below expectations. Both Marvel and DC presented us with two qualities that really grabbed the reader's attention at first.

Marvel presented a war between the Earth's Mightiest Heroes, The Avengers, and the mutant population of the ever-so-famous X-Men. With a summer blockbuster in theaters, and a pretty steady popularity of the X-men, this seemed like a no-brainer. Add in the official return of the Scarlet Witch, both an X-men and Avengers icon, and the return of the Phoenix force, and you begin to brew one of the best concepts you can expect from a company in Marvel.

On the DC side, you reboot your entire series, rewrite the Justice League, and in an explosive 6-issue opening, you have the introduction and defeat of Darkseid. You also see the addition of Cyborg into the series, and your "New 52" Justice League is born. This brings out the best DC has to offer; Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, Green Lantern, The Flash, Superman, and Batman are all showcased really well.

But let's fast forward. You had a great premise on the Marvel side- where did it go? Personally I feel as though we were ripped out of what we all wanted when you pitted the X-men versus the Avengers. Yeah, you had those "WOW, that happened!?" moments like when Cyclops blasted Captain America, or when Hope incinerated Wolverine, but at the end of the day, what did we really get? The AVX series is a lot of talking, and feels more like it as I read the first four issues.

If you were brave enough, you picked up the special "AVX: VS" series, which showcases two fights from the AVX series but separate from the main story, but now with detail. Um....I'm sorry, but what happened? Magneto VS Iron Man- Yeah, I guess Iron Man could and would build a nonmetal suit, but the only reason Magneto "lost" was because he became aware of the Phoenix Force. I guess we can ignore Magneto pulling in all of the electro-magnetics from the entire galaxy?

Next you had this no brain fight between a living rock and a man who can swim in the water at high speed and has super strength. No brains needed because most of the fight is underwater. When you have such a heavy character like the Thing, you'd think that Namor would have such an advantage. This is not the case, somehow the Thing gains the movement needed to not only maneuver in the water, but also manages to rip the gigantic teeth out of a large fish. He also manages to cross the teeth and pin down Namor against the floor, and the Thing leaves. How this is ever possible is beyond me, but hey I guess the Avengers had to win these ones given the movie had JUST came out.

Looking back, neither fight had a "Winner", only an individual who wasn't completely incapacitated. You look at the next issue and Captain America knocks Gambit out with one punch, while Spider-man loses to Colossus on account of needing to leave for more important things (Like the plot of the freaking story..)

If you fast forward to issues 7,8, and 9 of Justice League, you're not given much more Justice. Issue 7 is no better than a sappy soap opera between Wonder Woman and her boyfriend, issue 8 is a joke building up to the Green Arrow NOT being a member of the Justice League, and issue 9 is just a plot filler to introduce a new villain. Here's the kicker- as you read these issues, they show little fights against enemies, new and old. Where are these fights?They have three separate plots, but no new arc. There's an advertisement for one way down the road, but what about the here and now?

It's almost like they're teasing us, giving us a shaky plot so we hope somewhere down the road we'll get a great story that we won't be confused for, while at the same time confusing us by barely having any big league fights. What happened to the action we were given in the first 6 issues? It seems like it's been so long since I've been graced with teamwork and fighting evil. There's a complete lack of unity, and it's not something that appeals to me.

There's more, of course. Both sides of this coin have a bonus feature. For Marvel, it's their Augmented Reality. After going into it a bit more, I realized how little it really matters. For one, you have to be connected to a network, so why you wouldn't just look these perks up online is beyond me. Secondly, reality isn't really augmented in every AR image, the AR stuff is actually separated so you're really just given a small presentation.

Compared to the AR apps already available based on the Avengers movie or Spider-man movie, this one lacks the excitement. If you ask me, it should be more or less a 3-D rendering of the characters fighting. Tell me you didn't want to see a Cyclops image blasting a Captain America? Instead, you got to see it sketched and then inked...I guess it tickles someone's fancy, but not mine. It was cool the first time, to see that they went that extra mile , but now it's just an unnecessary add-on.

For DC, you're just given a bonus that really hasn't amounted to anything yet. After Justice League they've decided to reintroduce SHAZAM!. And again - why bother? They just add a few pages to the end of the Justice League issue and you hope they're piecing together the story. It was nice seeing it in that very first sneak peek. It was really nice seeing the image of SHAZAM!....but where is he?

They're taking way too long, and even though they're adding little bits to move the plot along, I'd rather be given a great story in one shot, rather than a mediocre story become broken up over a number of weeks.This origin is taking way too long to complete. With such a hint towards a powerful character, at least give the guy his own book. After reading the most recent issue, I still don't know where this story is going, and I'd rather have action now with flashbacks to what we're given.

So where does all this leave us? It leaves more to be desired, and I get the feeling that getting these issues are doing me no good, and that I'm better off waiting for a trade paperback to come out that compiles everything into a concrete story.