Review: Avengers X-Sanction #2

Falcon has been taken down from above and Captain America has been beaten into submission. Next on Cable’s hit list? Iron Man!

Issue one ended with Cap and Cable fighting each other, with Cap losing at gunpoint. The final panel has a resounding “BLAM!” across it and you are left pondering the fate of America’s star spangled hero. Issue two tells us that Cap has been stun gunned and harnessed into a chair that can scramble his neurological system. Cable doesn’t want him dead –yet! Then he decides to take on Iron Man, and every other Avenger, until they can tell him why the alternate future he just left didn’t have Hope there to save it. Oh yeah, Cable is also dying from his techno virus and only has twenty-four hours to accomplish his task!

I have to say, this one is just not working for me!

I’m sorry, but there is nothing in the first two issues, of this four issue mini, that has made me want to see where the story is going. It has no heart or emotion, save the continual moaning from Cable that he needs to save his “daughter.” There is nothing that grips the reader and makes you care about any of it. The fight scenes, though rendered well by McGuiness, are quick and bland — it is only four issues mind you. And the battle set-ups are continually the same. Cap sees Red Wing flying toward a freighter with no Falcon in sight, lets follow him and get captured. Iron Man sees Red Wing flying toward a freighter with no Falcon around, lets follow him and get captured. At this point, one has to wonder if Cable is paying Red Wing off with small rodents in order to betray his human cohorts! The story is just not there, and to have Cable come back from the “dead” after such a great send off in X-Men for this — it tarnishes the great ending of Second Coming.

I know this mini-series is just a set up for Avengers vs. X-Men, but I really expected more from the amazing talent of Jeph Loeb. Only the absolute collecting purists need to buy this book. Otherwise, spend your four dollars on lunch while you read something better!