Secret Avengers #13 – Review

by Nick Spencer (writer), Scot Eaton (penciller), Jaime Mendoza & Rick Ketcham (inkers), Frank D’Armata (colorist), and Dave Lanphear (letterer)

The Story: Beast infiltrates congress in the midst of the blitzkrieg as he attempts to rescue an old friend.

The Review: Event tie-in issues are often a rough job.  It’s always a struggle for the writer to manage to tell a good, self-inclusive story while also paying attention to, and advancing the interests of, the story of another comic.  It’s a difficult task, but judging from this issue, Nick Spencer is completely up for it.

Taken as a part of a Fear Itself, Spencer does a really good job of encapsulating everything that is meant to make Fear Itself feel relevant in 2011.  It fully captures the feel of a desperate America, down on its luck and struggling against massive odds and, well, fear and anxiety.  There’s a constant, nerve-racking climate to the book and a real anxiety to it all that goes beyond the giant Nazi robots shooting up Congress.  Spencer manages to make the story feel very real on an emotional level while also making the absolute most of his Capitol Hill setting.  Things are very “in the present,” and when Spencer has congressman Lenny Gary call for solidarity and courage and has him draw on American’s history, it feels powerful instead of cheesy and can be linked as easily to those robots as to current social issues and anxieties.