After finishing Avengers vs. X-Men, I'll say that I was pretty disappointed. The crossover seemed to drag on forever, getting solved by a convenient deus ex machina and leading to one of the most confusing death decisions I've ever seen in a Marvel comic. However, from the ashes of that event we get Uncanny Avengers, an effort to combine both mutants and metahumans into something more.

But how is it pulled off?

Things I liked

• John Cassaday can draw some good mutants. He's been at this a while, so he should be able to by now.
• The reveal of the series' big bad was good, and completely led me down a different road of thinking. I like people who can pull things out of left field, and make me look back and think "oh, it makes sense now!"
• Seeing the fallout from AvX was nice because it allowed us to both get some closure and some background I don't think we got in the original crossover. I liked Wolverine's eulogy and the interrogation of Scott Summers; they were necessary to kick this book off, and ground it to something.

Things I didn't

• Unnecessary costume changes tend to morph characters into something different, but uncomfortably so - seeing Thor and Captain America not looking like the people they did in Avengers vs. X-Men is weird, considering the two books are so closely related. I'm not resistent to change, but Cassaday tends to have this thing where he redesigns costumes - he did it with Astonishing X-Men in the early 00's, and he's doing it here. I'm sure we'll get used to it, but this "Marvel ReEvolution" thing really stinks of a bad answer to DC's New 52.
• Speaking of Thor, I'm really afraid that Rick Remender is going to forget about him like other team books tend to. Thor's character is an important one, and all the work Matt Fraction did to the character seems to be coming undone in favour of "Let's make him like the Avengers movie Thor! A completely one-dimensional strong guy! Who makes references to lattes, because ain't that precious!"
• Avalanche was one of my favourite mutant characters, as I have a soft spot for reformed (or reforming) villains. Seeing him getting jobbed out just felt cheesy, and I don't want writers thinking it's fine to treat good mutant characters as expendable just because there's more of them, now.
• If Captain America and Thor don't think that Wolverine is suitable to "be the face" of Mutantkind, why is he on this team? Why is he featured more prominently than Havoc? Why is he even a factor here? If Marvel want us to believe in Alex Summers, they have to give him a chance.
• The villain dialog in this book is painful to read. The lettering that goes along with it is even worse.

Uncanny Avengers #1
Marvel Comics
$3.99

The Verdict: This book wants to be strong, but there are so many weak areas that just kind of pile up. Expect to be lost if you've avoided Avengers vs. X-Men, but stick around if you like any of the characters involved: you may want to keep your fingers crossed for the quality to improve, though.