The final month of Marvel.1 releases begins very promisingly with Uncanny X-Men #534.1, I’m always a little worried by such a large issue number, and with a team as wide and varied as the X-Men, I am concerned I will spend most of this issue on wikipedia searching every other characters back-story. But no, writer Kieron Gillen smartly splits the action and creates a duel narrative, not to confusing or over reaching to a new reader. On one side, Gillen puts together a slow burning discussion between Magneto and the X-Men’s public relations representative (Yep, the PR guy), a great narrative device which asks all those questions a new reader has (Magneto in the X-Men… ok) but Gillen never lets his dialogue become over-expositional. On the other side we have the action, but again Gillen limits the team to a group of well-known characters, not over-whelming the reader. Uncanny X-Men was great, I will definitely be buying the next issue.

Next to hit my doormat is Avengers #12.1 and I hate to say this, but I just feel the whole issue is a tad bland. There is nothing wrong with the comic per se, the story is adequately set up and resolved quite comfortably within the allotted 30 pages, and we even get a snippet of things to come at the end. It’s just nothing jumps out of the page, the characters all seem one dimensional (Steve Rogers and Wolverine come off as especially poorly written) and there is nothing special about the art work. Brian Michael Bendis tries to let too many characters have their 2 frames in the spotlight, and whilst this could have been an attempt to let the new reader meet the whole team, it just comes off as overly confused and cluttered. The last twist in the final few pages does interest, but not enough for me to buy the next issue.

The final .1 release is Secret Avengers #12.1; I am instantly grabbed by the bold yet simple cover art (Shadowy figures standing against a harsh orange backdrop) and hopefully read on. Admittedly helped by the fact the team is small, writer Nick Spencer manages to give each member of Steve Roger’s elite team a moment to shine, a clear voice over among the crowd, and successfully changes the mood between scenes from super serious to really silly; an exchange between Ant-Man and War machine is particularly good fun! My only problem with the plot is a huge narrative jump towards the end of the comic, whilst this may seem quite small time and petty, it really is a big jump (we are talking grand canyon sized). The artwork is so-so, but some nice use of frames and interesting page set ups save the issue. Whilst I did warm to Secret Avengers, considering how many comics I’m buying now, I don’t think it will make the cut and end up on my pull list.

So that’s it for the Marvel.1 releases, I would say the line was a success since my pull list is now much longer than it was 3 months ago, I’d better get reading!

Will Pond.