With Avengers: X-Sanction out of the way, another pit-stop on the road to Avengers vs. X-Men is done. And that's about all issue #4 accomplishes in the end. It offers a drawn out battle between Wolverine and Cable, a handful of revelations that seed AvX and establishes whether Cable has any role left to play in the X-Men franchise. But given how the previous three issues played out, it would have been foolish to expect anything more from the finale.
The big conflict wraps up with a physical brawl between Wolverine and Cable, with Spider-Man tossing in a little color commentary. For once, Cable isn't allowed to go all Mary Sue on his opponents, so the results are more satisfying than most of the action X-Sanction has offered before. It's a fight that would have been extremely bloody were Cable not more machine than man by this point.
Emotionally, however, this issue falls flat. The weird family dynamic between Cyclops, Hope, and Cable forms the crux of the final pages, but the characters all seem strangely detached. Jeph Loeb never delivers the heartfelt reunion between father and daughter readers might have expected. Other than the Spidey banter, the quality of dialogue is pretty lackluster throughout, so that may be the culprit right there. X-Sanction #4 also becomes the second X-book this week to completely ignore the potential drama in a post-Schism Wolverine/Cyclops reunion.
Ed McGuinness at least does his part to keep the issue humming with his artwork. The Wolverine/Cable brawl is one of the more visually memorable showdowns McGuinness has tackled recent years. But again, the lack of subtlety to elements like facial expressions does no favors to the more dialogue-driven pages.
If it was big, dumb action you craved, X-Sanction delivers well enough. If it was teases and revelations for AvX, it offers a few morsels. But in the end, even a humble four issues seemed too long for the meager conflict. Trade-waiters may be better off skipping this book entirely and moving straight ahead to AvX #0 next week.
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IGN reviews the hottest comics for the week of March 28, 201...