To avoid having to purchase Marvel: Zero, be sure to head to the comic shop today to buy Free Comic Book Day 2023: Spider-Man / Venom and Free Comic Book Day 2023: Avengers / X-Men. Both promise to give readers hints at future stories in their mainline books while delivering some of the best comic art you’ll get for free all year. The Avengers / X-Men free comic may be the hottest one today, thanks to a new era of X-Men coming soon and the Hellfire Gala around the corner. It also reads like a direct lead into some major ramifications.
Free Comic Book Day 2023: Avengers / X-Men opens during Hellfire Gala night. A mysterious figure enters the New York treehouse headquarters of the X-Men. We soon learn he’s after the Captain Krakoa suit, but Cyclops is quick to stop him. Or at least try to. So begins an exciting sequence with a fight sequence that ends in death–poor Scott–and an attempt on Captain America’s life. Key Avengers are clearly targets, but we learn in this comic it’s mutants who are the real target.
Joshua Cassara draws this issue to perfection. The fight scene with Cyclops is brutal and you’ll feel every blow. Thanks to Cassara’s fantastic art, I found myself eyeballing the mysterious Captain Krakoa costume thief longer than usual. There isn’t a wasted panel or page here, from a few Hellfire Gala looks to an epic splash of Captain Krakoa flying off.
Gerry Duggan does a fantastic job with the captioning in this issue. Captions appear to be from a third-party voice–maybe it’s Duggan himself–giving us good context as infiltration and, eventually, direct assaults occur. You’ll believe the X-Men are in more danger than ever, and Orchis is willing to take things as far as possible to put the mutants in a very bad place. Krakoa is in big trouble.
That’s never more obvious than with the second story, also written by Duggan with art by Javier Garron. This portion shows us the assassination attempt on Captain America while also looping in an essential mutant. The assault on Washington, D.C. is also present. Captain Krakoa does not play around, folks. The kicker is the final page, which connects to Duggan’s Invincible Iron Man series. The threat may look a little different, but it’s the same story regarding mutant extinction.
But wait, there’s more! This comic also features a short chapter from Jonathan Hickman, Valerio Schiti, and Marte Gracia’s G.O.D.S., coming out later this year. The scene is clearly what was used for the G.O.D.S. trailer, with Doctor Strange speaking to a man named Wyn. The question of whether Stephen is good comes up, and the concept is introduced that Wyn has no idea what good is anymore since he’s been alive for so long. There isn’t much to go on beyond that, though the floating bits of rubble may hint at some calamity taking place, or maybe it’s the effect of Wyn’s power. Either way, it’ll wet your whistle.
If you were worried for mutant lives with the Fall of X looming, prepare to be even more worried after reading Free Comic Book Day 2023: Avengers / X-Men. Even if this comic were four dollars, it’d be worth picking up. Highly entertaining and nerve-wracking, with bold twists, you’re not going to only worry about the heroes but fear for them.
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