It’s time to get judged, an unexpected result of the heroes in A.X.E.: Judgment Day bringing the Avengers Mountain Celestial Progenitor back to life. Marvel’s summer event rages on this week with A.X.E.: Judgment Day #3 as the heroes need to think quick before the Celestial judges everyone and something far worse than Eternals attacking mutants occurs. Will this new threat bring everyone together? Of course not. This event is only getting started!
Kieron Gillen and Valerio Schiti deliver another exciting issue with high stakes on every page. The regular average people continue to add perspective on the events, not only adding levity thanks to their casual thoughts on world-ending events, but perspective the reader can relate to.
If you’re worried Progenitor won’t take its time to judge characters, you’re dead wrong. Captain America is just one character who gets judged in the issue, and you’ll be surprised what the verdict is on him. As Iron Man puts it, “If it judges Cap by that standard, what chance do the rest of us have?” That adds another layer to the narrative as we ponder how the Celestial is judging. Based on how it judges Captain America, one can assume it’s success at what they do and not whether they are good or bad. That could be very bad for the heroes in the 616 universe.
This issue also reveals what’s up with the Deviants. The enemy of the Eternals, they have been otherwise MIA until this issue, and it’s neat to see how they are integrated into the story.
Wait, Captain America is a failure? The heroes are screwed!
Credit: Marvel
Gillen continues to do an expert job keeping everything clear and understandable, which is saying a lot given how many characters there are with critical roles. There are a few that have bigger roles–I’m looking at you, Iron Man–and a few key locations to cut to, but you won’t be confused about the roles of characters or where we are in the plot.
Art by Valerio Schiti does two things very well: It captures the scale of the giant Celestial towering over our heroes to perfection, and it renders a lot of characters in any given panel in high detail. Even background characters get plenty of detail to ensure we’re getting a premiere artistic experience. Marte Gracia always adds in a lot of details with his color, and the backgrounds get added layering or texture to create a dynamic atmosphere in scenes.
The voice of Progenitor is also well done via captions. It speaks to the reader over the human characters or, as needed in crucial scenes, creates a sense of godlike power we don’t see with most god characters in Marvel comics. These captions add a consistent voice to the issue that brings everything together.
Your enjoyment of this issue may ride or die on the purpose of the conflict, which is only revealed in the final few pages. I don’t want to spoil it, but let’s just say the heroes are left feeling hopeless and unsure of what to do next. The effect is good for the event since you won’t know what they could do next, but it comes at a cost to what the journey of this issue meant.
Big event comics give characters new problems to overcome while raising the stakes. A.X.E.: Judgment Day #3 raises the stakes tenfold while establishing that maybe there is no way out of being judged.
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