The Four Color Media Monitor

By this, I mean that he wrote in not one, but three character deaths for no good reason. First off, this review tells that:

Wolverine knows all too well the consequences of killing from his days leading X-Force. He is wracked with guilt over having to kill Daken in Uncanny X-Force. Wolverine is supposed to be the one capable of shouldering the burden of murder, but even he hasn’t had the same stomach for it since killing his own son and seeing the death of his mentor. Worse, he knows what the burden of murder can do to those less prepared for it than himself. His X-Force team, and the individual teammates, crumbled under the guilt of what they had done.

This Daken has been resurrected here. Before I get to the three new victims of this nasty cycle, let me say that, while I'm not sure what happened in Uncanny X-Force (most of these series have become too dreary and so numerous I can't pay attention to all, and it doesn't matter much anyway), but if they really did force Wolverine and company into a position where they murdered innocent people, that is truly awful.

Now, what else does this Broken Frontier review say:

Wolverine has to stop Rogue from making the same mistakes.

The scene where Daken is holding back Wolverine from saving Scarlet Witch’s life and Rogue’s soul is devastating. The resurrected Daken, a painful reminder of perhaps Wolverine’s greatest failure, prevents Wolverine saving the two women. There is further blood on Wolverine’s hands, and he has again failed.

Suffice it to say, I thought the first half of this book was brilliant.

Unfortunately, the second half of the issue falls prey to some of the same problems that often crop up in the major death issues.

From there, Rogue is brutally murdered by another of the Horsemen. Wonder Man then sacrifices himself to complete the spell that Wanda was working on to stop the Apocalypse Twins. All of this action happens in a blur of storytelling and much of it just feels muddy. Some of the problem here lies with Steve McNiven. Taken on a character to character basis, this is still the old McNiven you have come to love. But taken as a whole, panels are too packed and because of the chaotic nature of the action, the drawings look rushed. I think the brunt of the problem lies with Remender’s script though which runs at too brisk a pace after the death of Wanda. This issue could have used a few extra pages at least.

But by far, my biggest complaint with this issue is the death of Rogue. Where as the death of Scarlet Witch was poignant and earned, Rogue’s death felt cheap and gimmicky.

Rogue has just committed murder against an innocent. She ignored Wolverine’s warnings and acted brashly. Rogue’s death not only alleviates her from having to deal with the consequences of her actions, but also comes across as juvenile in its gore and how out of nowhere it feels.

Well I'm glad the guy reviewing this monstrosity came to his senses when he got to the second half of it. But only by half: what's the big idea of letting Remender off the hook for killing Wanda? It wasn't bad enough what Brian Bendis did to her in Avengers: Disassembled and House of M? Simon Williams deserves better too. If Rogue's death here is cheap and juvenile, so too is Scarlet Witch's. No sooner was she seemingly exonerated of her offenses in Disassembled (and even that's disputable), they kill her off entirely in this new bloodbath.

All that being said, there is the eternal comic book door of superhero deaths and resurrections. None of the characters who were apparently killed are even confirmed dead. But even if it turns out that Wolverine’s healing factor saved Rogue at the last minute, it wouldn’t take away from how over-the-top and unearned the death was. In fact, it would probably just make that sequence even more annoying knowing it was solely meant for the shock.

Indeed it was; it's become a pretty commonplace tactic in mainstream comics over the past decade. Yes, deaths are reversible, and the same can be said and done in fantasy novels. Likewise, it's always possible reverse situations where decent characters are turned into criminals who commit offensive crimes, something that's entirely unearned to boot. But it's no excuse for actually doing it in the first place, when it should be painfully obvious it serves no organic purpose, offers no character development, and only adds up to nothing.

And too bad the reviewer is otherwise being quite favorable to this issue, when it should be pretty obvious by now that it's only built on meaningless character deaths, nearly all at the hands of heroes. How can anybody take these comic review sites seriously when they're so biased in favor of the editors and writers who approve of all this garbage?

Update: IGN's review is also fluff-coated, but does tell that Rogue's not the only one who's forced to become a murderer: even Sunfire is put into this terrible position. While the reviewer may be biased in Remender and company's favor, some of the comments show there's audience members who aren't fooled.  For example:

My second time trying to give Remender's Uncanny Avengers a try and this will be the last time. None of this makes sense. Why did Rogue kill Wanda instead of talking to her first. Funny tactic for someone who claims to respect Prof. X so much. Remender makes me hate characters that I used to like. He continually plays up this distrust card and it's lame. This book is crap

No doubt about that. Another says:

I'm not loving this book so much as well. I don't know if it's such a good idea in the first place, this Unity Squad. Feels like fanfic.

Yep, that's exactly what it is. Bad fanfiction can take many forms of the worst kind.

Unfortunately, there are some juveniles in the audience here too:

This is how you do a bloody X-Men comic! If it wasn't for this I wouldn't get my mutant fix thanks t the rubbish Bendis and Aaron are putting out. Highly recommended to anyone who dropped all X-titles once Gillen left.

Talk about being all screwed up! How is this any better than Bendis and Jason Aaron's own junk? And another adds insult to injury:

I will always have a deep hatred for Wanda and seeing what happened to her literally made me jump for joy. I doubt it'll last long but it just felt so nice to see after years of pretty much no punishment for M-Day.

As another person asks, "Why the hate for Wanda?" What kind of people do we have still reading these books who actually accept this as fait accompli like the characters exist in real life and the writers are fully exonerated for shoving them into these horrible situations in the first place? The old saying "the customer is always right" is not true in all cases. I suppose that kook resents Stan Lee and Jack Kirby for daring to create Wanda Maximoff in the first place? Once more, famous creations are rejected by modern readers with no gratitude to hard-working veterans. This is exactly the kind of thinking the writers in charge now go by: they consider somebody else's creations trash for no discernable reason and set about to desecrate them.

Labels: Avengers, dreadful artists, dreadful writers, golden calf of death, marvel comics, misogyny and racism, violence, women of marvel, X-Men