1742 ( )

I thought the Avengers vs. X-Men event was excellent; a good story with real consequences for the Marvel Universe. In a lot of ways, it was a mirror for the Civil War event. And like Civil War, the event reaches a new level with the inclusion of the tie-ins. The AvX tie-ins truly enrich the story, providing a depth not only to the plot but to the characters as well.

Though I found some of the stories collected here boring or ridiculous, such as Mr. Sinister's sections (the Avengers couldn't contain the Phoenix 5, but he somehow manages to? *eye roll*) for the most part the material here is all top notch. What is most essential is seeing how the various X-Men begin to understand how the Phoenix 5 have lost their humanity and what that means for the world. In the main event, this is incredibly rushed. They're all gung-ho to support Scott and then suddenly... they're not. Now readers get the nitty gritty. The parallels with Civil War were especially strong in those parts. For instance, Rogue realizes how corrupt Magik is when she sees the prison the Avengers are being kept in, literally hell on Earth. This was not so very different from Spider-man when he saw the hell-not-on-Earth that Reed Richards built for the unregistered heroes. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The impact on the super-powered children (whether mutant or otherwise) was also well done. The sections from Avengers Academy are some of the best included here. War affects everyone, and war always has casualties. Though this book contains many more "match-ups" between heroes and mutants, perhaps most importantly it includes the fall out. What happens after the war is over. Easily five stars for everything that's collected in this companion.

While the material is excellent, I had to deduct a star for the production. AvX utterly fails when compared to Civil War in how it is collected. This book has a lot of material and even for the retail price it is a very good value. That said, this volume of tie-ins is MASSIVE at 1100+ pages, and that makes it cumbersome to hold and read. Worse still, the binding is glued rather than sewn! This means you can't lay it flat without risking damage to the spine and pages coming loose. Honestly, this is an epic fail on Marvel's part. The Secret Warriors omnibus was also huge (though not quite as big) and I found it much easier to read since I could lay it flat on a table when my arms got tired. My other omnibuses are the same. I would have happily paid a bit more for better quality. The Civil War tie-ins were collected in several beautiful, hardcover, sewn-bound editions that were grouped in logical fashion by the material they contained. This omnibus has all the tie-ins, but they do not flow logically. I read the main event first and then this entire volume, and despite jumping around in time and place, I was able to follow it well enough but it could have been better done. Overall, though I am disappointed this wasn't sewn-bound, it's still a must read and preferable to a dozen individual trade releases. Highly recommended. ( )