Comics

Wolverine and the X-Men
#9 & #10 by Jason Aaron & Chris Bachalo
#11 by Jason Aaron & Nick Bradshaw

Here we go, then: super-mega-event-crossover AvX hits the usually-brilliant WatXM for the next few months. Has this involvement ruined it? Well, things start off fine. There's plenty of unavoidable AvX stuff, but the book's own ongoing stories continue and the tone remains the same -- lots of good laughs in #9, for instance.

But there's a shift as it goes through #10, and by #11 it's in full-on part-of-the-event mode. #9 flows well enough into #10, but #11 has to open with a kind of "previously on" for things we haven't seen -- events that have taken place in other books that have an effect on characters covered by this one (primarily, Wolverine). It feels like skipping an issue.

Also, I've seen some complaints from fans that (despite claims from the honchos at Marvel) you can't follow AvX just by reading the main miniseries, and based on the content of WatXM #11 I can well believe this. As well as pages given over to excerpts of Avengers-on-mutants battles from around the globe, there's a significant chunk of plot with Wolverine and Hope that would seem essential to the story (says me, who's not reading AvX... yet). Unless this is all duplicated in an issue of the main series, I don't see how you could get by without reading this. Maybe I'll find out later.

WatXM's own subplots do still continue, Aaron's writing can still be good fun at times, and the art by both Bachalo and (especially, for me) Bradshaw is still enjoyable, but AvX is definitely starting to get in the way. Shame.

It has, incidentally, persuaded me that maybe I should return to Uncanny after all, if I can easily pick up the missing issues. While I presume that has become similarly embroiled in the Big Damn Crossover, I also presume it has similarly continued its own story threads, and I was being interested by them.