A lot of them I get the feeling have not been reading comics long.
There will always be fans who don’t like events/mini events. When things get shaken up there isn’t always a uniformed support. Whatever. That’s fine.
But for everyone who complains this is “the worst” CLEARLY needs to maybe check themselves.
And everyone who is like “it doesn’t make sense” and dismiss it…I have no trouble following so far. It makes sense. You know what doesn’t make sense? 99% of comics when I was growing up. Tell you what, read silver age comics. Manhattan floated away once and Spider-Man lassoed it and towed it back into place and it was resolved in a day. Ok? Check yourselves.
Wiki, like, any character. Your favorite character, follow the arcs and stories they have been involved in. Some of them are so convoluted and straight up stupid that they have actually been stricken from memory and even retconed by Marvel.
Trying to make Red Skull invert back to Charles and that go wrong (because Wanda chaos magic was involved) and some of the big players have become newly alined as good or evil (opposite of what they were) is not really confusing, I don’t honestly think it’s stupid (this is my favorite mini event in a while) and it’s interesting. No one HAS to be in character to do shitty stuff because they are inverted. No one is gonna be like “Cap would never do that, Wah!!!” Because now that really good guys are really bad guys, they really would do that. It also definitively shows you people’s alignment. People thought Magneto was a hero? Sympathizer and excuser fans? Well, he’s good now. So clearly he was bad. People who thought Wanda was evil or bad? Well, she is now, so she wasn’t before!
I find it a fascinating writing exercise. If someone was a really noble person. Does that make them a particularly depraved villain?
And it’s temporary. Because it’s a freaking mini event to get us to the Avengers Now January/February point one.
I get it, I don’t trust Rick either. But, damn it, people need to stop acting like spoiled brats and realize these are some of the greatest times for stories.
I have to respectfully disagree on this with two rebuttals, one subjective and one objective.
Subjective: The event, like many events, excludes characters that really should be there and have a huge stake in the event just because they’re “not popular enough” or because some editor at Marvel has a hate-on for them. Meanwhile, popular characters or ones the editors love to death can get all kinds of crazy and ridiculous excuses for them to get to be involved. I really don’t like that attitude.
Objective: This idea that the inversion “definitely proves” alignment of various characters is false. It is not editors and writers discerning the one true knowledge of these characters and laying it all out for the masses. These people didn’t create Magneto, or Scarlet Witch, or Red Skull, etc, nor were they the most influential players in making them big characters today. No, this is editors, writers and executives deciding that their personal biases are akin to the word of God from on high. In so doing, they’re being egocentric as all hell, and trying to cut off all actual dialogue as to who these characters are or what they’re like. It discourages thought and reflection on narrative.
Your remarks on Magneto and Scarlet Witch show this. Because Axis says “Magneto is evil” and “Wanda is good,” it shortcircuits all conversation as to the nuance of certain characters like Magneto, who are willing to do bad things for good reasons. Wanna have a discussion about how Magneto killing people is bad, but it may be doing more good than harm? “Nope, he’s evil, he’s a terrible person, nothing about him or any actions he takes can be construed as good.”
Now, personally, I’m not reading Axis and I really don’t care what happens in it, because of what I said in the subjective section. However, if someone asked me if it “counts” as an actual reflection on any of these characters, my answer would be no. It doesn’t. It’s nothing more than editors and writers trying to enforce their personal biases and agendas on readers, at the cost of the purpose that fiction is meant to serve in the first place.
At best, I’m going to walk away from Axis saying that the criteria for “good” and “bad” here is a complete fluke based on exceedingly restrictive criteria. That’s the only way I’ll accept Axis as real continuity. Otherwise it’s just fanfiction I have to pay for when there’s unofficial stuff equally good or better. That’s my take on all of this. All in all, I hope you enjoy your purchases anyway!
salarta 