User blog:S-Man-X-Men6/Uncanny Avengers 14 Review

MAJOR SPOILERS!!!!!!

I warned you...

Alright, I haven't done one of these in a while. To start off, I'll just do a really quick review of the series up to this point. I've been reading Uncanny Avengers from the start. Art-wise, it's been great. The story has been great too, but I have at least one problem with it. While the first four issues were a nice intro story with the Red Skull (and then a fill-n issue with great art by Olivier Coipel), I feel like the series hasn't improved too much. I really like Rick Remender's writing story; it feels like he's telling you the story from the future, like all of this has already happened. Also, he's not one of those writers who only write enough for 3 word balloons per page (meaning you get your money's worth in art AND text). So you may be wondering, "what's this dude's problem with the comic then?" Well, as we are now coming up on issue #15, if you divide this series into story arcs, we are still on the same one as we were in #6. Yet there seems like it's not going to be ending until AT LEAST 2-3 more issues. Thing is, the story also connects actually all the way back to #1. The Apocalypse Twins were raised in the future by Kang in a world where the Red Skull rules (in the near future). So basically what I'm saying is, I feel this story has begun dragging due to it's length. We were introduced to the new 4 Horsemen which was great, and the Unity squad got a few more members, but those things among others have only kept the story from sinking, not rising. Now, if the story wasn't the first of the entire series, I'd go for it more. Like I said though, this is essentially still the FIRST story though, so it just seems way to long and large in scope to be the first story of an ongoing series. (Unless the series is secretly set to be canceled after all this) It almost feels like this should've been saved for an event (or at least used to replace one... like let's just say AoU for example). It at least has a large and diverse enough cast for an event.

So now we move on to the actual issue at hand, #14. Daniel Acuna had essentially become the main artist of this book, as apparently John Cassaday is never returning, yet he still did most of the covers (which, really? If he's not coming back, then let Acuna do the covers to his own books...) Sadly I don't think Coipel is coming back either... but his amazing talent is a topic for another day. This issue though, we get a new artist in Steve McNiven. The same guy who, when he left Guardians, is when I believe that series started to tank. Hopefully he'll be staying on the book for an extended time (or on any other books I get for that matter).

Time for the actual story! As we start the issue, we have a few pages of Kang recruiting a bunch of characters from different future timelines (Doom 2099!!!). I can only assume he's planning to use these people to somehow get revenge on the Twins for betraying him. It feels a little out of place to be honest, but then we get into the main story. Scarlet Witch and Wonder Man are planning to bring all the mutants in the world (I doubt actually ALL of them) to the dimension where the Twins have been keeping them to fight and defeat the Twins. (They think Wanda is going to perform a rapture and move all the mutants to their own planet). Rogue, Sunfire, and Wolverine however don't know this. There really isn't too much of an involved plot the rest of the way. Rogue borrow's Wolvie's powers and goes and kills Wanda. SNIKT! OW! Apparently she is too caught up in having to kill Wanda (which turns out she didn't), or the Grim Reaper is so quiet, that he comes up behind her and stabs her. Then Wolverine is fighting Daken, tries to plea with the Reaper, but nope, ZAPP!! and that's the end of Rogue. Wanda is still barely alive though, but Wonder Man helps her to... successfully or unsuccessfully, bring the mutants there before she completely keels over. Well, you'll have to wait till next time to find out!

Now for the review, I fear, itself. Let me begin by saying, this was NOT a good issue to read before trying to go to sleep. Rogue is one of my favorite Marvel characters, and there's very few X-Men that I feel come close to her awesome-ness (yes, I know that's not a word... and not just because of the red squiggly under it!) Almost the entire series so far, I've felt like Remender wasn't too fond of her. In the first few issues, yeah, I can understand why she doesn't like Wanda. Since then though, he's written her as a mostly cold character, besides when she talks to Havok (another good choice for her. Anybody but Magneto, please!) Yes, she can be stubborn sometimes, but she's also a very caring person. If Remender thought she was such an uncooperative person, why would he have even had her join this team with people she supposedly hates? It doesn't quite make sense.

It also stinks that when she finally gets more panel-time, it's only because she dies. On that note, I also feel that she's been underused the past year. Since X-Men Legacy Vol.1 ended, I haven't seen much of her. The only X-book she's in is X-Men, which was only the first 3 issues. In BotA, she barely appeared. She also wasn't in Infinity, but there's an actual reason for that. If the other writers knew she was going to be killed off (maybe they didn't?), you'd think she'd get some more light thrown her way the past few months before she went poof!

So as you can tell, I was pretty shocked (and very, VERY, angry) when she died. I just had this happen last year Spider-Man, please, stop the pain! So now Captain America is the only one of my big 3 still standing. (Although to go off on a tangent for a minute, wasn't it also Remender who killed off Sharon Carter? UGH. Marriage would have been a great story to explore for Cap.) Just the fact that she died wasn't bad enough though (similar to Spider-Man here). She didn't die in an honorable way to show how much she had changed since her early days as a villain. No, she just killed Wanda, which I felt she would never really do, under a false notion. To boot though, she didn't just die from a wound, she was disintegrated! Into dust! All that was left was her skeleton. So now I really, really hate the Grim Reaper too. I don't know much about his scythe-arm, but I'm pretty sure when people are disintegrated into dust, you can't bring them back from the dead. I mean even in comics, how? How can she come back? She can't. Unless... time travel! Which I'm sick to death of after the past year! Don't get me wrong though, I didn't like seeing Wanda die either. Since AvX till now, she's been growing on me. If only Wolverine could have stopped Rogue in time...

Overall, while the issue had good art, and yes, LOTS of drama, it wasn't GOOD drama. These deaths were literally unnecessary for the story (besides possibly uniting the Unity squad together). The deaths were cold and harsh. I do not think I like Rick Remender as a writer anymore. I do not think Marvel has been doing too good of a job lately (outside of Infinity). I DO think this issue deserves a 1/5. I do think that's being generous.

R.I.P. Rogue and Wanda :(

So tell me, what did everyone else who read this issue think of it? Did you think the deaths were gut-wrenching? Or did you think the deaths were sweet, and the characters deserved to die! (<--you better not choose that one...) Do you like the direction this series is headed? Let me know in the comments!