All-New Invaders #2 – Review

by James Robinson (Writer), Steve Pugh (Artist), Guru-eFX (Colorist)

The Story: Revelations are always better after a violent battle against an alien being.

The Review: There is a certain complaint about comics nowadays saying that perhaps super heroes are now a good lot darker than they once were in the past. Some camps are in accord, while others disagree, much like any topic, but many people seem to particularly like comics that have a certain sensibility toward lighter or more heroic dispositions. Series like Mark Waid’s Daredevil or Action Comics by Greg Pak are currently critically acclaimed for their general positive tone, or at the very least for their capacity to let their heroes be good in an outspoken manner through their actions and words. Still, despite it all, there is always room for every type of tones in the sun, though there seems to be a certain affection for the regular super hero adventures nowadays.

However, even though there is a certain appreciation for the genre, it doesn’t mean that everything that tries to do just that will find success. All-New Invaders, so far, possess everything it needs to succeed, yet is plagued by some particularly big problems that weights it down, never letting it reach the quality it could very well attain.

Using regular super hero tropes, James Robinson does not do much of anything new in this story to warrant any actual excitement or surprises. To make matters worse, there is a certain use of the much-less appreciated faults associated with the genre that makes some moments rather cringe-worthy, like the boasts of Tanalth the pursuer, the fact that she runs away even though she is winning, the general acceptances of Captain America over rather important revelations and a few jumps in terms of logics makes this issue rather simple and much more easy-going than it needs to be in some places.