It’s hard to believe that out of Cable Reborn, we got Avengers X-Sanction. Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuiness had fans curious just with the return of Cable and then the Avengers were put in the mix. Stir these ingredients together with the announcement of Avengers vs. X-Men and Avengers X-Sanction is now the setup for the April 2012 event. Spoiler warnings on full alert from here on out. Cable is taking out the Avengers one by one because somehow the Avengers are responsible from stopping Hope from being able to save the World. To make sure she’s around, he’s taking the Avengers out one by one within 24 hours. Because Cable’s Techno-Organic virus is starting to overwhelm him. That’s the setup for this story, somewhat giving us the back story on what could end up leading to Avengers vs. X-Men. We’re still in relatively murky waters here.
The last issue of Avengers X-Sanction focused on Cable taking out Captain America and the Falcon. That’s not immediately followed up as we get transported back to Iron Man dealing with the Living Laser from the Lethal Legion escape from last issue. My favorite part of last issue was the initial Avengers fight against the Legion, and I like the way Ed McGuiness handled the Iron Man vs. Living Laser fight. Truthfully if this wasn’t set up the way it was, Avengers vs. Lethal Legion alone would have made a fun Avengers story. Though that’s not our focus here, as we’re put back into Cable’s war against the Avengers. The strongest part of this is the Hope flashbacks. They’re hit or miss but it’s the closest thing we get to giving Cable that extra motivation. Loeb is doing his best to give this story a more human element than what it should really have.
The spotlight of the issue is the Iron Man versus Cable fight. There is something fun to be had with Loeb’s creative way of handling Cable’s fight with Iron Man. Having Ed McGuiness helps out in making Avengers X-Sanction a solid action comic. Loeb’s dialogue isn’t bad at all, just it serves to move along the fight. I liked how the fight was handled overall. Leading us to the eventual and hopefully what will make for a fun next issue, Cable versus Red Hulk. The final image makes you wonder just how crazy that fight will get and I find myself looking forward to that one.
Avengers X-Sanction is a comic that’s better than it should be. Ed McGuiness is doing an superb job on art, making every panel just pop off the page. It’s action packed and makes this book sing. Jeph Loeb is giving McGuiness solid material to play with on this series, just set up a basic story and let McGuiness cut loose on the art side of things. It’s not a perfect issue by any means, sometimes this book feels like two disparate stories are happening at once though next issue looks to be more focused on Cable’s task. We get two mixed issues and hopefully this leads to having two stronger issues. It’s going to be interesting to see the final result of Avengers X-Sanction and just what truly catapults us into Avengers vs. X-Men. Let’s see what the next issue holds for us as Cable faces down the Red Hulk in Avengers X-Sanction.
