Avengers: The Initiative #16 – Review

By Dan Slott & Christos N. Gage (Writers), Stefano Caselli (Artist) and Luca Malisan (Colors)

Yowza. First of all, you should know that Avengers Initiative #16 has an ad for the new season of The Sarah Conner Chronicles, featuring a full page of Summer Glau in all her lithe, terminatrixy glory, and I have to say I would buy the book just for that ad.

Fortunately, I don’t have to. AI just keeps getting better and better. Unlike a lot of the summer books, where the Secret Invasion just seems an impediment to the ongoing storyline, here we’re in the thick of things, and things are very thick indeed:  1) Because of an over-dependence on Starktech, the virus that brought down Iron Man has also caused technology to fail across the entire U.S. Remember what everyone thought Y2K was going to be like? Imagine that, times ten.  2) Skrulls are everywhere—not just in Times Square and the Savage Land—everywhere.  3) The Skrull Kill Krew is back, or at least those whose brains haven’t been eaten by Skrull prions. I didn’t think much of the original mini-series (as a rule, I steer clear of hate groups with more than one “K” in their initials), but if there was ever a time for their unique brand of murder and mayhem, it’s now.

3D-Man, having fled  Camp Hammond, has crash-landed in the desert where he meets and joins up with the Krew. They set out cross-country to rid the Initiative of Skrull infiltrators, one by one. Meanwhile, in New York, Crusader, the Skrull with the Cosmic-Cube-style Freedom Ring, is forced to decide whether to fight alongside his fellow Skrulls or with Nick Fury and his new super-commandos. Back at Camp Hammond, things are in complete disarray. The only people who seem to have any chance against the Skrull Yellowjacket turning the base into command central of the Skrull army are the new Ant-Man (or, after Scott Lang, is that the new New Ant-Man?) and War Machine, whose armor is still functioning because, ironically, it still has back-up systems designed by Obadiah Stane.

All in all, it’s tremendous fun, with interesting characters, a fast-moving, convoluted plot, and lots and lots of action. My only complaint is that, in weaving their tale, Slott and Gage are drawing upon over at least half a dozen different comic series spanning over thirty years of continuity, so it’s practically impossible that any reader would truly “get” everything that’s going on. Of course, that’s also part of what makes it so fun. (Grade: A)

– Andrew C. Murphy