Uncanny Avengers, Vol. 5: AXIS Prelude

Uncanny Avengers by Rick Remender

by Rick Remender, Cullen Bunn, Sanford Greene (Illustrator)

Collects Uncanny Avengers #23-25, Magneto #9-10, Uncanny Avengers Annual #1.

The march to AXIS begins here as the Uncanny Avengers are reunited! The threat of Kang is over, but what are the repercussions? A dark secret is revealed in Genosha, and Havok and his team are defeated at the hands of the sinister S-Men. The Red Skull's revenge is now unstoppable! The great vanishing has begun, the Uncanny Avengers are too late, and Havok witnesses the Skull's greatest atrocity yet! Meanwhile, Magneto discovers the Skull's possession of his dead friend Charles Xavier's brain and powers, and becomes determined to shut the villain's scheme down! Prepare for a Magneto vs. Red Skull blood match that will result in a terribly altered Marvel Universe! Plus: The Mojoverse gathers an all-new, all-creepy Avengers! It's the shocking debut of the Avengers of the Supernatural!

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, X Men, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction

139 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 7, 2015

About the author

Rick Remender is an American comic book writer and artist who resides in Los Angeles, California. He is the writer/co-creator of many independent comic books like Black Science, Deadly Class, LOW, Fear Agent and Seven to Eternity. Previously, he wrote The Punisher, Uncanny X-Force, Captain America and Uncanny Avengers for Marvel Comics.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

Post Apocalyptic twins, we get a Mojoverse story - I say skip it, it is devastatingly terrible and pointless! Next - Magneto and the Unity Team get tangled up with what Red Skull and the S-Men are doing on Genosha! The Magneto stand-alone series is wonderful and the reimagined character continues to be so in this Uncanny Avengers volume. So many significant changes to the Unity team, prior to this volume, including an unlikely couple, a power reversal and a mutant's new condition all making this March to Axis that more interesting. 7 out of 12. Three Stars.

2018 read

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

It wouldn’t be a smart move for the coordinator of the 50th Anniversary Evildoers Soiree (roasted crow won’t be on the menu) to put Magneto and The Red Skull at the same table. During a super-villain team-up years ago, the two were paired together. Magneto, an Auschwitz survivor, promptly tortured, Hitler’s super-pal, The Red Skull. Let’s face it, that Nazi bastard had it coming.

Fast-forward to this volume, a set-up for the miserable Axis crossover event (Avengers & X-Men: AXIS). The Red Skull, after serving up the brain of Charles Xavier, once Magneto’s best friend, and gaining Xavier’s powers, the Skull has turned Magneto’s former island home of mutantdom, Genosha, into a concentration camp for mutants.

Magneto is the first one to step up against the Red Skull. Magneto has used questionable methods to advance the cause of mutants in the past. His time in Auschwitz garners him some sympathy, but does it counter-balance the next 50 odd years of violence against humans. It’s a tough assignment for any writer - to have the reader “root” for Magneto.



Magneto’s motives for doing anything are always colored with selfishness, meglomania and his past mistakes, which are conveniently thrown up in his face.



Of course, Magneto does have a measure of revenge…



…but it’s at a heavy cost.



Are those tentacles?

The Axis event set-up is sandwiched between a wrap-up of the Kang storyline, which finds a frightened Rogue once again in possession of someone else’s essence (Wonder Man)…



…and a Mojoverse storyline that mixes the Supernatural Avengers…



…with the team re-imagined as a high school drama.





D & Ders take note of the top left panel. Heh!

Bottom Line: Rick Remender has got to be one of the more exasperating writers out there. He’s got a decent sense of humor as evidenced by the Mojoverse storyline and some of the dialogue between Magneto and the Scarlet Witch is powerful and rings true, but because he’s served up crap in the past, the reader never knows which Remender (ace writer or phone-it-in guy) you’re going to get.

This one’s a mixed bag. Cullen Bunn wrote the Magneto issues.

More Skottie Young baby super heroes:

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than I expected, but it is purely just setting up AXIS (which is why the title of the volume is Prelude to AXIS). The Annual set in the Mojo-verse is pretty fun, even though it doesn't fit in well with the rest of the volume. It's got Remender using lesser know Marvel characters, which seems to be his favourite thing to do.

The two issues of Magneto in this trade also surprised me. It's Magneto on a quest for vengeance against the Skull, even though part of Charles Xavier still lives on inside of him. It's a little influenced by Fassbenders Magneto from the movies, as well as what happened to him after AvX.

[Travis Duke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably deserved 2 stars. Another mashup graphic novel including two issues of magneto, which is the reason I gave it 3 stars. The annual issue is garbage, I get the humor of mojo but it didnt belong in this issue at all. The story picks up with Rogue, Havok, and Scarlet Witch getting free from their stasis and going to Genosha. Magneto is captures there as well and is being tortured by red skull. Magneto finally gets the courage to end Red Skull but alas it only makes him stronger. I was starting to like the beginning but just wasnt that great. The art isn't all the special either.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now that the Kang story has wrapped, what does Remender plan to do with the remainder of his run on this nutso series? Well, guess we're headed back to the Red Skull subplot - and somehow try to turn it into something more awesome and threatening than Kang, Immortus, Celestials and planet-killing?

Yeah, good luck with that Rick. Let's turn Red Skull into a Thanos-level threat while we're at it, then stretch the premise into a 9-issue Event. Will it be better or worse than Shadowland? What's the over/under on that bet

The Magneto subplot is tolerable in the main title; in the Magneto pre-issues, it's positively excruciating. Cullen Bunn spends pages upon pages exploring the tortured, self-loathing and pointless inner world of Erik/Max/whoever anymore - almost as bad as Liu/Way's Daken schlockfest of yore. Enough with the decompressed/lazy Anguish Parade - I'm so glad I avoided picking up this Magneto series from the beginning.

What a way to wrap the end of this run. I think I'll go back to working on a Sunday, if this is what happened to fun.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay after 4 fantastic volumes.

The thing is this isn't really a Uncanny Avengers story. Half of it is based on Magneto and his part in leading up to Axis. On the flipside you have a annual which is more of a joke, but it is pretty funny at points. Then there is two issues of Uncanny Avengers, and while I wish it was a actual ending, it instead leads to Axis which I haven't read yet.

This is 100% a set up book. Nothing horrible but nothing great. It's just what leads to Axis, the big event Rick handles. I've heard Axis is the reason Rick Remender left marvel and you can tell he had BIG plans for Uncanny X-Men but Marvel just HAD to have an event.

A 2.5 out of 5.

[Emmett Spain · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid lead-in to the Axis event, collecting some Uncanny Avengers, a couple of issues of Magneto and the weirdest one-shot annual I've read in a while. Oh, that wacky Remender. What will he conjure next?

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

So first issue shows Rogue going crazy because Wonder Man is still trapped inside her mind. This sets up a later story beat. The next two issues are from Cullen Bunn’s Magneto series. He tries to take down Red Skull but is not at full power so he gets caught. Rogue and company get ambushed by the S-Men and captured along side Maggy. This was solid and makes me want to check out the rest of that series. Anyhoo, having Wonder Man still in her head, Rogue is able to break everyone free. But unfortunately, Red Skull, using Xavier’s brain, takes his final form, Onslught!! Bring on Avengers/X-Men Axis! The last issue was an annual dealing with Mojo. Kind of a useless add on that wasn’t all that interesting.

[Michael Church · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was going to be a tough sell no matter what. It's a follow up to an amazing run by Remender wrapping up the Apocalypse Twins storyline. Plus we all know it's a significant tie in to yet ANOTHER event book. It almost has a hard time finding its footing. Most of the art was pretty terrible. Acuña on the final issue and Renaud on the annual were notable exceptions.

The biggest issue I have with the plot is the Red Skull. Admittedly, I've not read much of anything with him before, so my knowledge is limited. But if he is so anti-mutant, why does he want to take the powers of one? And why does he surround himself with S-Men who have superpowers? Seems counterintuitive.

Otherwise, not much of import happens. It's mostly in limbo to remind readers "Hey, this is the original conflict we hinted at." I can take it or leave it. Probably would have enjoyed it more with more Acuña. Maybe the main Axis event will redeem it. LOL!

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uncanny Avengers volume 5: Axis Prelude. This volume is a mishmash collection. It collects issues of Uncanny Avengers, Magneto (that lead to Axis), and the Uncanny Avengers annual.

So you can probably tell from the title this is a lead in to the Axis crossover event. Unfortunately this is a pretty disappointing follow up after the epic events in the previous volume involving Kang and the Apocalypse Twins.

We return in most part to the storyline involving Red Skull and his stealing of Charles Xavier’s brain, the powers he has gained from this and his hatred for mutants.

The Magneto issues make some sense being collected here as it shows how the character ended up being captured by Red Skull. However these issues are a better read as part of the Magneto series to give the story more context.

Uncanny Avengers annual seems like an unconnected and silly one off. It involves Mojo and Mojoworld, something I’m aware of but not that familiar with. Essentially the character of Mojo wants to create a daft mashup tv show that pits our Uncanny team against a Supernatural team. We get to see Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider and Blade along with other supernatural characters.

Overall a mixed bag that serves to set up the Axis event. The artwork is also mixed. It doesn’t have a consistent feeling.

[Tesutamento · Rating 2 out of 5]

Serinin en kötü kitabıydı. AXIS hikayesine hazırlayacağını düşündürten kitap keşke sadece o kısımları içerseymiş. Annual sayı tamamen zaman kaybı. Son sayfalarına geldiğimde bitirmeye takatim kalmamıştı. Annual dışındaki kısımlar da pek iç açıcı değildi. Red Skull vs Magneto mücadelesini görmüş olduk. Bir eski Nazi ile Auschwitz gazisi karşı karşıya geliyor. Belki de geç bile kalınmış bir mücadele. Magneto Red Skull'dan ne kadar iyi sanki? Bir faşist bir diğer faşistten ne kadar iyiyse...

Kahramanlar cephesinden Rogue, Havok ve Scarlet Witch ağırlıkla hikayede yer alıyor ama onlar da bitmek bilmeyen dramlarını tekrar ve tekrar yaşadığı için okuyucuyu sıkmaktan öteye gidemiyorlar.

[Mantis (¯ ³¯)♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 ⭐️

🇵🇱
Powrót z planety X i przebudzenie Onslaught’a..
+ annual pominąłem..

🇺🇸
Return from Planet X and the awakening of Onslaught..
+ annual omitted..

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

After Earth-X (#23). This is the follow-up to the long-lived alternate reality that's taken up most of this run, and it's cool because there are repercussions. So often alternate realities are cast aside afterward and ignored, even if major things happened in that other world, but here we get something better — major character growth, mainly for two characters who lived a lifetime together. [5/5]

Axis Prelude (#24-25). This is barely an Uncanny Avengers story since only three of the team are involved. Beyond that, it doesn't have any closure because it's all a setup for Axis. So, though there's nothing specifically wrong with these issues, it feels like they should have just included them in the Axis volume as "Act 0" [3/5].

Annual. The Annual that finishes things off is horrible. I can't believe this is Remender writing, because it's got almost no plot and is entirely uninteresting. And the funny isn't. Bleh. Oh, and this doesn't fit into continuity; it seems to be years old. [1/5]

Overall, the is the sort of fractured Marvel volume that I've come to hate. It's a mess of plotlines that don't go together and that don't build on each other. This isn't serialized storytelling, it's throwing everything at the wall. And the worst part is that it wouldn't have been hard to do right. The first issue should have gone with the previous volume, because it's an epilogue. The four Axis issues should have gone with Axis. The Annual should never have been reprinted.

[Ryan Morris · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Stars
Certainly the low point in Uncanny Avengers to date. Volume Five suffers from being the down-time between the Apocalypse Twins and Axis storylines. Good to see the Red Skull back and I actually didn't mind the Magneto-heavy bits (2 issues in the collection are from the current Magneto series), but there's still plenty of head scratchers here. Just why is Havok's face half-melted off? No, I know HOW it happened but WHAT is the purpose of Remender having done this? Doesn't really serve the character or story at all. Are Thor and Cap and Sunfire still on the team? They mostly act as background noise here. And what was up with the Uncanny Avengers Annual story at the end? Felt totally out of place in this series.
The art is a bit of a jumble too, with five different artists on six books. I know in the next volume Daniel Acuna will return as the regular artist, which will hopefully (Axis event aside) get Uncanny Avengers back on track after this slight blip.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is really a mess, from different artists on every issue (and wherever did they find Sanford Greene? worst artist ever), to stories that do little more than move characters into place for the next big Marvel crossover (enough with the crossovers, already!). They had to include 2 issues of Magneto and an Avengers annual to even fill this out to book length.

[Brent · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is lots of talent on display here...
The conflicts serve to set up the big AXIS crossover, to intermediate effect. Drawing and characterization are good throughout, however, from an array of art talent. Then there is an off-the-wall annual, the last story in this collection, which reads better the second time.
Mildly recommended.

[Jackie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, that was disappointing.

[Mike McDevitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fourth star is MOJO!

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 5.
The Uncanny Avengers paid a heavy price for defeating Kang the Conqueror and are still dealing with the fallout. However, Scarlet Witch, Rogue and Havok find themselves captured by the Red Skull and taken to his mutant concentration camp in the ruins of Genosha. There they encounter Magneto, who is determined to stop Red Skull but risks unleashing something even more terrible.
Then, in a bonus story, the Avengers run afoul of Mojo's latest attempt to grab ratings.

There is something very powerful about having the Red Skull, a Nazi, face off against Magneto, a survivor of Auschwitz, inside a newly-built concentration camp. We all know that Magneto is pretty much a ruthless psychopath, but what lengths are too far to go to in order to prevent another holocaust?
For a long time the Red Skull has felt like a bit of a joke of a villain, but by again making him emblematic of the Nazis' evil (and for those who've somehow forgotten, the Nazis were definitely the BAD GUYS), it makes the threat he represents much more visceral.

I was pretty worried, after the powerful issues dealt with in the main body of the book, that the reading experience would be spoiled by the bonus story at the end. I have always hated Mojo as a character and every appearance of Mojoworld I've read before has been utter trash.
Here, however, Remender gets a bit clever. This story reminds us that Mojo was created as a critique of soulless movie executives and here we see him beholden to even-more soulless execs than him. The dialogue they're given is a very clear critique of how the entertainment industry sacrifices artistic integrity in favour of hitting buzzwords and generating marketable imagery. It could easily be seen as Remender pushing back against Marvel editors (because all of the things critiqued here are absolutely things the Marvel editors have done) but it's done in such a meta way that he even pokes fun at writers who use meta stories to comment on the entertainment industry.
It could easily be construed as pompous and smug, but Remender has his characters undermine that by literally saying "That sounds like a classic excuse for directionless writing by a pious blowhard".
So, it's meta in a good way and actually made the only Mojo story I've ever enjoyed. Kudos.

* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *

[Krzysztof Grabowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Piąty tom Uncanny Avengers spod pióra Remendera jest dla mnie pozycją pełną sprzeczności. Początek ma wyśmienity, rozwinięcie jest średnie, a końcówka... Quo vadis, Mr. Remender?

Zacznijmy po kolei. Starcie z Kangiem ma swoje szeroko pojęte reperkusje. Sunfire stracił swoją dotychczasową formę, Rogue ma w głowie dodatkowego pasażera, a największym przegranym okazuje się być Alex Summers. Nie dość, że porwano mu córkę, to został jeszcze potwornie oszpecony. Szczęśliwie Janet nadal przy nim trwa, a wraz z pojawieniem się Immortusa na horyzoncie widnieje nadzieja na ratunek córeczki. Za wszystko jednak trzeba zapłacić. Cena nie jest może wygórowana, a zarazem jest zgodna z emploi Avengers. Trzeba powstrzymać Red Skulla.

Mamy więc dwa zeszyty poświęcone Magneto, które są zaczerpnięte bodajże z drugiego tomu solowych przygód mutanta, który mimo, że ma takie a nie inne korzenie i przeżycia z czasów wojny, to nadal zostaje megalomanem i psychopatą nastawionym z reguły na siłowe rozwiązania problemów. Potężny niegdyś mutant udaje się na Genoshę, gdzie dzieje się źle, bo Red Skull stworzył tu kolejne obozy koncentracyjne dla "opornych" jego władzy, w tym mutantów.

Flashbacki do czasów wojennych to mocny punkt tych zeszytów, a i "zabawa" pomiędzy Erickiem a przeciwnikiem na poziomie podświadomości należy do czegoś ciekawego. Niestety potem mamy festiwal średnio interesujących pojedynków i clue programu. Magneto konta Skull. Ofiara kontra nazistowski oprawca. Tak zaczyna się Axis. I to nie było w sumie takie złe. Nadszedł annual.

Co to był za odpad. W założeniu miało być śmieszne, autoironiczne. Nie wyszło. Nie było dla mnie strawne w jakiejkolwiek formie, bo Remender bawi się tu koncepcjami. A to wrzucę Mojo i jego chorą koncepcję, w którą wrzucimy Avengers plus tych mistycznych Avengers. Zamieszam to Ghost Riderem. Ledwo co przebrnąłem przez ten kawałek. Absolutnie zbędny i czerstwy jak tygodniowy chleb.

Graficznie mamy całe zatrzęsienie różnych stylów i mimo, że część naprawdę mocno ze sobą kontrastowała, to nie przeszkadzało mi to w odbiorze całości. Król może być jednak tylko jeden więc wybieram Acunę. Całościowo piąty i przedostatni tom Uncanny Avengers w tej linii wydawniczej dostaje ode mnie 3/5. Mogło być znacznie lepiej.

[Alex E · Rating 3 out of 5]

After the defeating the Apocalypse twins, the team has to deal with the fallout... all while a new threat gains power.

So Rick Remender was pretty busy shaping a big portion of the Marvel Universe at this point, and here we have a volume where we pause the action to do not only a bit of catching up, but to also build up the next threat - which is the Red Skull with Xavier's brain!

Remender kind of takes a brief look at each of the members, and highlights some of them, like Rogue who now has Wonder man in her brain and how she is really affected by this. But the bulk of the book is dedicated to Magneto, once he finds out that Genosha has been turned into a concentration camp. I believe these particular issues were written by Cullen Bunn, and he has a fantastic grasp on Magneto and the world around him. Here, he's able to conjure feelings from the past, as Magneto is obviously familiar with this situation. It's all to lead into Axis, which promises big things (that last page reveal is crazy!).

Overall, pretty good but alot of setup. If you really want to get into the origin of the Axis event, this one is for you.

[Mr. Stick · Rating 3 out of 5]

"ZEST? WHEN I WANT ZEST I HAVE SIX STUNNING WOMEN IN A GOLD-PLATED RUMPUS DUNGEON."
- TV executive to Mojo

The first three quarters of this book was Red Skull, and his self-deluded ambitions for total conquest using the brain of Charles Xavier, and Magneto's desire to slaughter Red Skull for having pilfered Xavier's brain. Not bad, just didn't interest me. This series has been mostly about the Red Skull and it's all rather well done, but it eventually leads to AXIS which according to comments on this site, is a raging disappointment.

The last bit, however, was all about Mojo and his noble crusade for higher interdimensional TV ratings. While Mojo's an obnoxious attention whore for the prime time masses, there's nothing routine about writing him into a cohesive story. Always fun.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

The inclusion of the Uncanny Avengers Annual #1, a Mojoworld-set slightly satirical riff on reality TV with Captain America, Dr. Strange, various X-Men, Wonder Man, Wasp, Blade & Thor being roped into 'Martian Transylvanian Super Hero Mutant Monsters Hunter High School's with Mojo under the whip of various focus groups, until in an utterly facile and easy way the multitude of heroes free themselves and get returned to Earth. The art's quite good though.
Some things here are in place; fallout from previous storylines especially the most recent defeat of Kang, but by the end I did want to know what Red Skull, with the power of both Professor X & Apocalypse, would do next...

[C · Rating 2 out of 5]

Continuing the great x-read of 2017/18...

I haven't been in love with this book from the beginning but I kept giving it a chance due to Remender. But ugh. I have no interest in Red Skull in general and this story has done absolutely nothing to show him as a capable or interesting villain. About the only saving grace here is Magneto and he is handled so heavy-handedly that he can't even save this tale.

The only thing keeping this at two stars is the Mojo tale (though even that is bland compared to the typical Mojo story).

[Villain E · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's called "Axis Prelude" and for once the title is accurate. This bridges the gap between the end of the Kang/Apocalypse Twins storyline and the resumption of the Red Skull storyline. The Red Skull has turned Genosha into a concentration camp for mutants. The Avengers a try to stop him but the situation escalates, ending on a cliffhanger. What's here isn't bad but it doesn't stand on its own.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a little all over the place and wasn't even entirely an Uncanny Avengers book. Instead, the meat of it was probably the issues of Magneto that were included in this compilation more than the Uncanny Avengers stuff. But given everything that had happened after the battle with Kang and now the AXIS event looming, that didn't leave a lot of room for much of a story in-between.

The Mojoverse bit at the end was the most bonkers part of things.

[Judah Radd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very awesome. I love how this tied in with Magneto (which I’m also loving.)

The red skulls is especially scary here. Also, huge reveal towards the end.

The Xavier’s brain stuff is a little silly... it works from a dramatic standpoint. The Wanda/Rogue frenemy thing is actually pretty well done. I’m emotionally invested.

Great art. Exciting moments. This is really good.

[Chris Browning · Rating 2 out of 5]

These things do tend to work best when they leave the fascism to metaphor rather than making them literal, because once you do you run the risk of trivialising real human evil by weaving into a story about costumed weirdos slugging each other out. It also does itself no favours by being stuck in a book with a rather weary attempt to update Mojo as a villain so it feels a bit glib o two fronts

[Joey Amorim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This basically becomes just an X-Men book after the first issue, but I don’t see that as a bad thing. Magneto vs. Red Skull just makes too much sense for a rivalry. I’m surprised Marvel hasn’t explored that dynamic more. I don’t really have any interest to read Axis, just because I’ve heard it’s bad, but hey, Red Onslaught looks cool and I’m sure everything worked itself out.

[Dubzor · Rating 2 out of 5]

No sense of continuity or cohesiveness. Where in the time line does the Annual take place? What happened to Magneto's vial of MGH? What's up with Red Skull's mask? Is this still when he's posessing other's bodies?

All unadressed...