Avengers: X-Sanction #1

Writer: Jeph Loeb
Penciler: Ed McGuinness
Inker: Dexter Vines
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99

In a few months, there will be a huge crossover between the Avengers and the X-Men. If you want to find the no-nonsense doorway into this, pick up Avengers: X-Sanction.

The book opens with the Avengers fighting the Lethal Legion after they’ve escaped the Raft, which is a super-villain prison that everyone in the Marvel Universe can break out of all of the time. While rounding up the bad guys, the Falcon ends up shot and Captain America, after handing Whirlwind his ass, goes to investigate his teammate’s disappearance.  Upon locating the Falcon, Cap winds up in a fight with Cable. After explaining some future scenario, the book ends with Cable having beaten Cap and putting a gun to him.

The biggest problem I have so far with the premise of the story is that Cable, who’s so much of a soldier and sometimes an actual thinker, cannot go to people he’s fought beside and explain why he is back from the future and what he’s seen, but instead, shoots the Falcon and hold him hostage while waiting for Captain America to show up so he can act like the bad guy. For such an interesting character, he just comes off poorly in this. I didn’t expect much from the Jeph Loeb script, because his work nowadays tends to not be very good, but I do remember a time when he wrote books that were very entertaining and well-written. It’s hard to think that this was the guy who wrote The Long Halloween and Dark Victory.

The art is the saving grace of this book. Jeph Loeb’s long-time collaborator Ed McGuinness handles the art chores on this book and with any book he does, it’s up to you to decide if his art is for you. I have always enjoyed his style and it’s a book that looks and feels like a super-hero book. His style is perfect for these types of stories. Sadly, his involvement in this story is easily my favorite thing with this.

There’s a lot going down in the X-Universe right now that’s loads better than this. If you hate the Avengers and want to see them on the losing side, then this might be the book for you. This book is just a precursor for another project that’s coming down the line and this may have lots of implications for that series. Unfortunately, this is not a book that I feel I could recommend to anyone.

-Josh