Uncanny Avengers #17 – Review

by Rick Remender (Writer), Steve McNiven, Jay Leisten (Artists), Laura Martin, Justin Ponsor, Matt Milla, Larry Molinar (Colorists)

The Story: The fate of the Earth is decided as the heroes fight for the survival of everyone.

The Review (with spoilers): Rick Remender can be a bit dark at times. With his penchant to throw several hardship and put his characters through many severe miseries, the writer knows that it’s through adversity and conflicts that actions actually hold a lot more weight. Through his work on Uncanny X-Force, his Fear Agent and many other of his books, there is a tendency to make the life of everyone there as hard and painful as possible.

With this in mind, it seems that Remender took this particular quirk of his to a whole new level. In this very book, which is the finale of a long story-arc that got started in issue five of this series, the heroes lose. Despite all the effort of everyone on Earth and aboard the ark, Exitar manages to destroy the Earth, shattering it to multiple small pieces as the attempts of everyone to save it fail.

In a genre where the usual good versus evil fight is painted in a low amount of grey, this kind of ending is something that is decidedly unusual, something that defies the norms established. Using the traditional non-ending to make things continuous for the next issue, the conclusion to this saga is something that is a bit disconcerting, yet in a good way.

Still, the ending isn’t the only thing of matter in this issue, with plenty of the strengths of Remender being on display here. With a penchant for merging dramatics with plenty of action, this issue is able to switch the focus from one character or set of characters very well, enhancing the scope of things as they escalate to their paroxysm. The way Remender switch from Thor, Wasp, Captain America to the heroes left on Earth makes for a very exciting narrative that makes the buildup to the conclusion that much more effective.

Uncanny Avengers #16 – Review

by Rick Remender (Writer), Steve McNiven, John Dell, Jay Leisten (Artists), Laura Martin (Colorist)

The Story: Thor and Captain America bring the pain to the Apocalypse twins as the world reacts to the apparition of a celestial here to execute them all.

The Review: While Rick Remender, like every single writer there is, has his share of strengths and weaknesses in terms of plotting, there is a certain something in which he excels: action. Considering the fact that super hero stories are massively known for being action-driven more than anything, it is a nice thing to know about a specific writer. However, plot should never take a back-seat in a book, which means a certain balance must be maintained in order for any capes comic to work well. Does Remender provides what is necessary for his tale of grand proportion to continue in a way that is satisfactory?

In many ways, the writer does advance the story in ways that count, providing many excitement and upping the ante for the characters. Knowing very well that super heroes are beings that usually faces high threats and confronts situations that are far larger than them, Remender gives an emphasis on action without sacrificing much in terms of the scope of the tale. While the overall action focus heavily on Thor and Captain America, the story does allow readers to understand how big it is, involving other characters from the Marvel universe in the cataclysm that is yet to come. It is event-worthy storytelling dedicated to a single issue, which does allow for a good level of excitement and entertainment on the page.

Still, despite the fact that everything feels big, it’s really the action that sells the whole issue. The fight between Thor and Uriel is something that is decidedly fast-paced, yet not so that the impacts of their words and blows comes off as secondary in importance. It’s the son of Archangel against the god of thunder and those two powerful beings duke it out in a most satisfactory way. With snippets of characterization thrown in for good measure, it doesn’t simply devolve to mindless fisticuff anywhere in the issue, with the motivations being inserted for good measures in the dialogue. Let’s just say that, in a way, the dialogue of Thor does get to the point rather quickly.

While the issue is mostly dedicated to Thor and Uriel, there are still scenes given to Captain America and Wasp, with some good developments done by these characters. While not everything they do or participate in tend to result in payoff straight away, their scenes do add to the general rising of tension, building up to the general whole that is about to blow up in the coming issues. The conflict escalate and their part in the action does not detract from the rather amazing events on display here.