A.X.E.: Judgment Day #2
As the X-Men get unexpected allies to fight the Hex, Iron Man, Sinister, Ajak, and Makkari create their new god in A.X.E.: Judgment Day #2, by writer Kieron Gillen, artist Valerio Schiti, colorist Marte Gracia, and letterer Clayton Cowles. This issue is phenomenal, and there’re no two ways about it.
This issue follows the battle on Krakoa. The X-Men fight to keep the Hex from destroying Krakoa as Iron Man, Sinister, Ajak, and Makkari build their new Celestial. The Avengers come to help the mutants, which is a shock to everyone. The battle starts to affect the outside world, and most of the Avengers go off to fight them as the X-Men make headway against the Hex, which is trumped by the Machine’s resurrection capabilities. Meanwhile, the geniuses enlist the help of the other Eternals to create their new god, combining Celestial relics to make something new, based on Iron Man’s nervous system. As things are looking drastic for the X-Men, the new god stops the conflict, but it has a dire message for the world.
It’s impossible to say enough great things about this issue. Gillen gives readers an action-packed, intriguing comic. He levels the big action moments with cool little character asides and balances the whole thing. It’s an engrossing read. No panel is wasted, and even when a page seems like there’re way too many dialogue balloons, it never feels like it’s overstuffed or messes with the pacing. Gillen starts the chapter with six random people, and anyone who reads Eternals and counts the Hex knows why. However, the way he does it is so interesting and actually talks about how civilians deal with the world-rending battle.
Seeing the Avengers team up with the X-Men is brilliant. Marvel events for a long time now have played up how little the different corners of the Marvel Universe get along, and this event could have gone that way, especially with a lesser writer at the helm. Gillen plays it right; he puts Marvel’s two greatest teams together. It’s not a perfect melding because there is bad blood, which is referenced, but it’s just nice to see the two teams actually working together. The twist at the end of the book completely changes the event. This is suddenly a much more compelling comic than it was before, and it was already pretty amazing.
Schiti and Gracia kill it with every page. So much of this issue is based around the battle against the Hex, and that fight never looks anything less than brilliant. The Hex designs are wonderful, and the battle scenes are skillfully laid out and detailed. The page layouts are quite interesting as well, pacing what happens on each page effectively. The last few pages with the reveal are breathtaking, capturing the grandeur and fear of the moment beautifully.
A.X.E.: Judgment Day #2 is a wonderfully paced action comic that completely changes the tenor of this event by the end. Gillen, Schiti, and Gracia do a bang up job. This event’s first issue was brilliant, and this one is somehow better than that, which speaks to just how well this creative team is doing.