- August 17, 2022
A.X.E. Death to the Mutants #1 Review
Written by: Kieron Gillen
Art by: Guiu Vilanova
Coloring by: Dijjo Lima
Lettering by: VC’s Travis Lanham
Editing by: Martin Biro, Annalise Bissa, Tom Brevoort
It’s always nice to see that a crossover is more of a team-up than a battle between heroes. The covers may say one thing, but the main Eternals we know (from the movie), the Avengers, and the X-Men are all on the same side. A.X.E. Death to the Mutants feels #1 like it should just be part of the main series or a part of the Eternals series. It’s too important to skip in my opinion. It establishes several players who I would be shocked to learn don’t play an important role in the climax. This book is also about the Eternals.
The name of the book may be A.X.E. Death to the Mutants, but I can’t think of one mutant who spoke in this entire issue. Instead, this book has me caring about the Eternals. Not gonna lie, if Kieron Gillen’s Eternals series is like this, I might be a fool for missing it. This issue makes them likable, and in through the religious undertones, human.
They are coming to question their faith in their gods, and in their realization that their gods are not just, they seek to create a new one. There’s an incredible level of subtext that’s sitting near the surface of that idea, and this book was already peeling like an onion. The way this book challenges heroes among the privileged to not overshadow the oppressed is another idea that does small things here and hints at bigger things to come.
My only complaint about this issue is how inconsistent the art can be at times. The facial expressions don’t match the tone of the dialogue in certain scenes, and that takes me out of them. It’s also strange when some panels that are almost equal in how closely they frame the characters, have different levels of detail. The art is far from terrible, but it’s far from the strongest among all the books in this event so far.
Otherwise, A.X.E. Death to the Mutants starts well, and I’m excited to read more. Are you going to pick up this tie-in?