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Avengers Vs. X-Men #1 (spoilers)
David_D
Posts: 3,881
I had a rehearsal downtown tonight anyway, so when I got out I figured, what the hell, and dropped by St. Mark's Place to get it at their (rather quiet) "launch party" to read on the train home.
More thoughts later, but my main takeaway, and it is a bummer that this is the case, is that the the "AR" logos in the corner of certain pages, that I guess you are supposed to point your smartphone camera at to get, I don't know, explosion sounds or something, HAVE GOT TO GO. Ugly. Distracting. Sort of like those annoying logos and promos that intrude on the lower-third of broadcast cable shows. I am already sick of them. I've bought the comic. I am there, reading it in print. Tolerating the interruption of the regular advertising because, hey, it is a periodical. Don't do something that intrudes on the work. Don't interrupt the story, even in that small way, to tell me that I'm not getting the whole thing. That what is on the page is not enough, and the there is a party going on online that I need to stop and check out.
And it's a bummer because I think there was a lot of gorgeous JRJR art in that book... but I find myself after the read whistling my annoyance at the "AR" logos.
As for the book itself? I think it was okay. A start. A few memorable nuances and moments. But mostly a very workmanlike start. It was no Civil War #1 or Infinite Crisis #1 (which, lest we forget in our jaded old age, and whether you liked where that stories got to or not, were some pretty hot first issues), but I will give it a few more chances.
I plan on writing an email to Marvel about the AR logos, for whatever good it might do. If I am going to take the time to talk about it here, I may as well take the time to speak up as a consumer to the producer.
I anticipate I will not be the only one who will be complaining about that ugly logo. I'm not a visual artist, but I would imagine I would HATE it if I were someone that actually worked on those pages.
More thoughts later, but my main takeaway, and it is a bummer that this is the case, is that the the "AR" logos in the corner of certain pages, that I guess you are supposed to point your smartphone camera at to get, I don't know, explosion sounds or something, HAVE GOT TO GO. Ugly. Distracting. Sort of like those annoying logos and promos that intrude on the lower-third of broadcast cable shows. I am already sick of them. I've bought the comic. I am there, reading it in print. Tolerating the interruption of the regular advertising because, hey, it is a periodical. Don't do something that intrudes on the work. Don't interrupt the story, even in that small way, to tell me that I'm not getting the whole thing. That what is on the page is not enough, and the there is a party going on online that I need to stop and check out.
And it's a bummer because I think there was a lot of gorgeous JRJR art in that book... but I find myself after the read whistling my annoyance at the "AR" logos.
As for the book itself? I think it was okay. A start. A few memorable nuances and moments. But mostly a very workmanlike start. It was no Civil War #1 or Infinite Crisis #1 (which, lest we forget in our jaded old age, and whether you liked where that stories got to or not, were some pretty hot first issues), but I will give it a few more chances.
I plan on writing an email to Marvel about the AR logos, for whatever good it might do. If I am going to take the time to talk about it here, I may as well take the time to speak up as a consumer to the producer.
I anticipate I will not be the only one who will be complaining about that ugly logo. I'm not a visual artist, but I would imagine I would HATE it if I were someone that actually worked on those pages.
Comments
Now on to what is really important. The comic:
OMFG, I think Magneto put it best when he said Scott was sounding like him. I have to side with the Avengers here all the way. Scott has totally flipped if he thinks he can control the Phoenix.
Simply put: that's the space I paid my four bucks for. That is the content i bought. It would be the same if, say, I bought a season of Mad Men on DVD and the AMC bug still appeared in the lower third from time to time. You know what? I'm not watching it on TV. I bought it. I don't agree that if I am distracted by it I just am not liking it enough to begin with. Rather, I can like ot fine, but still not want this extra noise added for a gimmick. Again, we're not talking about promos and distractions on TV, where I am giving my eyeballs to something free. I bought this book, and after decades of not superimposing junk over the art, they are now doing so. And I think that matters.
I would feel differently if I were looking at free preview pages online. Embed whatever watermarks you want on that. This is the comic I bought in print, and I expect that content to be the pages the creators produced.
I would feel the same if the bar code got printed on a story page. Or the indicia. Or an ad. Keep that outside noise out of the content. Because, to me, that is all that AR is. It pulls focus on a page turn. It breaks up the flow of full bleed pages. It is, simply, in the context of an otherwise professionally produced comic by very talented people, a moment of tone deaf noise added to the signal. It's bad comics- It looks like something added after the fact by someone who doesn't understand how comics work. And it's a bummer.
I wish they had, instead, had whatever these extra things were just be things that you can move into from the free digital copy, and then leave the print alone. But I suppose that wouldn't be enough of a hook for new users to sign up for the Marvel App. But you know what? I didn't pay my four books to try to be sold on an App. I bought a comic book. And I would rather the ads stay on the ad pages.
@popcornsamurai : thanks for showing off the swag - like it B-)
Since I'm going all digital on this one I won't be bothered by AR logos. I wonder though, if and how Marvel will incorporate such logos/features in future trades/HCs.
I will test drive the Marvel AR app.
I couldn't agree more. I have been against the AR gimmick from the instant it was shown at SXSW and I have been completely against this AvX event that is completely built up by Marvel themselves, not the fans. I'm not surprised the launch party was underwhelming while Marvel is claiming this is THE GREATEST THING EVAR!!1! and how every fan is buying this in triplicate! B.S. The books themselves are way underwhelming and weak and like I said before I can't see how they can really do anything major with this whole thing without alienating fans of one or the other and with the Avengers film coming up it seems like they will have to be on the "winning" side. IMO it is all just a manufactured hype/money generator with close to no substance. I'd love to be wrong but I just don't see it.
Here's the problem: I went to a comic shop. I paid 4 bucks for the comic. To get it right away, I even skipped waiting for DCBS, so this (like Walking Dead and Saga) is one of the rare books I waited to get off the rack in the shop.
And then the comic has promotional junk in the art, that I guess is meant to get people to get into the shops and buy comics? Honestly, if Marvel continues to go this way, I will likely either switch to digital or trades that I would order from DCBS or Amazon, to avoid it. So if this is supposed to make me focus on buying in the shop, it is not working for me. I also question whether- whatever they said in the panel- this is really about the good of the local shop. I think they are doing everything they can to try to get everyone to be Marvel App users, because that is where they want to start reaching their customers, but that is a different topic. I haven't used the AR logo, as I don't want to encourage it by adding traffic, but I am guessing none of these logos lead to a comic shop locator to help you find places to buy more comics, right? Once you've used the logo and are on the Marvel App, then you are now just clicks away from buying related comics digitally. Is that *really* to help the shops?
At the end of the day, it just looks bad. I mean, look at that page of the Phoenix energy in space-- a black star field and then the red AR in the lower corner. It makes that panel look like a sneaker ad or something. Is that good comics? Should I be concerned that they want to sell more comics, to other people, that I should accept that they are injecting a promotional gimmick into the comic itself? I'm the end user. I'm consuming the product. At that point it should be about entertaining me, not about trying to sell to other people.
And, while comparisons to other mediums never exactly match up, sure, fine. AMC is not free. A tiny fraction of your cable bill that pays for a bunch of channels goes to it. Switch the example to NBC if you would like. But the point is, when AMC, or NBC, show you a piece of content via broadcast or their "free" (with your cable subscription) on demand service, there are ads and promos and bugs on the screen. We're used to that. That is a norm. But if you buy an episode of one of their shows on iTunes, there is none of that. Because now you've spent two bucks for a single episode (more, likely, than the fraction of your cable bill that goes to a whole month of their service). You have paid real money to watch the best version of that thing you can. They don't have ads you can't skip, lower third promos for other shows or network logos because they know the consumer would be pissed. The same goes for premium channels you pay a la carte for, like HBO. You'll notice that- unlike SyFy or AMC, HBO content airs with no interruption or intrusion. As it should be. Because, whether it is an episode via iTunes or Amazon, or a premium channel like HBO, you bought this content. You should just get a clean version of the thing you bought. And that is a norm. And, I think, a fair expectation.
The reason why, despite this being a thread that should be more about what happened in the comic, I am going on about this, is that I think to ignore the format change to include the AR logo is to bury the lead. If this is what they are doing now. If they are embedding logos in the interest of getting people to their App at the expense of the flow of the story, then how Marvel does their print comics has just changed. And they are now out of the norm. And they have, I think, violated an expectation of what we as consumers can expect to get for our four bucks. To me, unfortunately, that is the main thing that happened in AvX #1. And, sure, it also looks like the Avengers and X-Men are going to fight some.
I would rather them team up and fight the logo ;)
My issue, and my love, is always the art and the artist. David I definitely appreciate what you are saying here (and agree) but Marvel is making it more and more clear that *art* is not their focus or concern. Someone likened it all to Disneyland and I'd agree. Unfortunately the fans don't care, that has been made clear so Marvel is putting less value on it. It is very apparent as the increase of stock photo images, lacking or no backgrounds, and tons of bad Google Sketch-Up prominently displayed in their terrible glory. Not to mention the "rotating" teams and myriad people on single titles. No care or focus is here at all, AR logos are just one more sign that this is their view. I refuse to support that. I wish people cared and demanded better, but that clearly isn't going to happen and as much as it bothers me, the fans and apparently enough "artists" are out there that don't.
On the other hand, it sounds like a pretty uneventful first issue. :(
@popcornsamurai is that cover the regular cover? It looks pretty sweet with the mix of color and b&w.
Story pages- particularly inside the panel borders- are simply not promotional real estate. (I would say that parts of the cover are).
AR logo or not... Cyclops is still a douche.
Love the panel with Namor smirking at Cyclops' foolish behaviour, knowing how it is going to play out, while the rest of the X-Men look on in disbelief.
One thing that was surprising was that opening page introducing the groups on each side, which would make it seem like there were only five or six X-Men (which, at least since the 1960s, was never a problem that X-books had, too few characters!) Now maybe this was intentional, as the initial Vs. is basically Avengers Vs. the Utopia X-Men (as opposed to the Wolverine group at the school) and more X-Men will be added to the other side of the Vs. as the book goes on, but that was a little surprising. And a point is being made of putting Wolverine and Beast on that line between the two teams, but why not Storm? She joined the adjectiveless Avengers in the last few issues, and despite being pictured on the X-Men side on the cover, she is not in that lineup page and, if I remember right, not in the story. And yet we see her husband matter-of-factly taking part in the Avengers show of force in this issue. Seems an awkward place for him to be. And her absence is a little odd. To be fair, that might all get addressed later, but at the moment it is a little puzzling.
I liked the Cyclops and Captain America encounter. That felt right. And for a little moment, I liked the meta comment of whatever pedestrian falling out a building made about this, finally, being the breaking point for him living in New York.
I do think that moments like the Chrysler Building getting so damaged would mean more if any of that ever stuck. Like the raising of a ninja castle in Hell's Kitchen (wow... I feel ridiculous even just TYPING that), or the near destruction of Madison Square Garden in World War Hulk, all that damage to famous architecture just seems to get better.
So, a start. Neither bad nor all that good. We'll see.
I should have learned my lesson about this stuff Bendis writes. In six months, someone tell me what happens to Hope.
I did not even notice the AR logo until I read the full page ad at the end of the book. Afterwards I downloaded the app and went back and tried it out, since the app was free I will say it was worth every penny it cost. The effects were interesting and it was a bit of a pain holding my phone on the image long enough for me to see extras but at the same time it was kinda cool. Although on the bio of Hope I wish their was someway to increase the size of the graphic, it was too small on my iPhone. If I was viewing it on an iPad it would of been okay.
I do like that for my 3.99 I got a free digital comic and the "Augmented Reality" experience. I'll take that over some reprints or pages out of the OHOTMU like Marvel has done in the past.
Heartily agree on the Infinite story. Artwork was great and kudos to Marvel for using the digital format so brilliantly. It trod the fine line between traditional comics (which I love) and motion comics (which are a bit 'meh' to me) to great effect.
It would be like having a small established store and then the products start coming with coupons for free extras at Walmart. You wouldn't be so keen to carry them, would you?
I looked through #1 and only noticed the AR logo on one page. Anyone else have a hard time getting into JRjr's art in this issue?
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/04/25/avengers-vs-xmen-all-go-third-prints/
Storyline was boring, tried so hard to be spectacular and failed miserably.
JRJR's 'art' is lazy and uninspiring especially for 'marvels event of 2012' I quickly got fed up of seeing Cap look like a 14yr old and everyone having whiskers. Bad show marvel!