Monday, December 09, 2013

Avengers vs X-men

I've been watching the new Marvel Agents of Shield show which I so much want to like, and so much want to be the resurrection of Firefly that Whedon clearly intended it to be, but I'm still waiting for it to get into its groove, but worried it will be cancelled first. In the mean time, I was inspired to take advantage of the kindle's new comic book versions (a little cheaper than the trade paperback and comixology versions, and less shelf space) to catch up on some comics on the kindle app on my ipad during my train commutes.

I made my way to the Avengers vs Xmen cross over (inspired it part since its written by Bendis one of my favorite pop comic writers, like Ellis and Whedon, all a tier below thought the more middlebrow likes of Moore and Gaiman and Miller), and also inspired by the Avengers movie, since I never really read any Avengers growing up at all.

Some have called the story derivative and just an excuse to setup epic fan service fight scenes between avengers and x-men characters. Still, it may be derivative but it derives from the best. The Phoenix returns (the classic x-men storyline) giving the x-men ultimate power, and forces them to confront how to maintain humanity given infinite power (like Alan Moore's Dr Manhattan) and the nature of just government in either a life is a Hobbseian nasty brutish and short justifying autocratic rule sense, or a Kantian perfectibility of rational man in the image of God that Miller (and later Nolan) explored in Batman the Dark Knight Returns.

I read a recent interview with Picard and Gandalf, talking about their appearance in the X-men franchise, and both made some gesture about how the tremendous influence of X-men and how it deals with some of the big issues of our time in thoughtful ways. The Marvel Civil War Cross Over from a few years back had debates about privacy and homeland security that seem especially relevant today. Oh yea, and also lots of men and women in tights beating each other up.

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