Secret Avengers #8 – Review

by Ed Brubaker (writer), Mike Deodato (art), and Rain Beredo (colors)

The Story: The Secret Avengers try to defend Hong Kong against Shang-Chi’s father and his rampaging hordes while Max Fury and John Steele set up an ambush.

What’s Good: While it’s  not quite as awesome as the past few issues, rest assured that Secret Avengers remains a very good title in this, its second arc.  Essentially, some of the pulpy kung-fu goodness gets toned down a bit this month, but that only makes it an issue that’s clearly an easy one for Brubaker to write; it feels quite a bit like his Captain America in tone, at times.

Part of the reason for this is the Shadow Council.  Since the comic returned to Earth, Brubaker has done a fantastic job with these guys.  They’re a pulpy secret society, but this month they also come across as the kind of covert commando operation that Brubaker writes so well.  It makes them fun to read and ominous, yet highly capable bad guys.  Steele and Max Fury also make for compelling and very dangerous adversaries.  Their presence and their actions make this month’s issue into something of a spy book, and I quite enjoyed it.  This makes for a book that’s fast, but also one involving scheming, planning, ambushes, and diversions.

The real star this month though is Mike Deodato, who puts out excellent work this month as Brubaker allows him to go wild.  The action scenes are nothing short of incredible and the layouts and splashes are expertly done.  Everything is fluid and dynamic, and really, really cool.  Put in Deodato’s always polished look, and you’ve got a very nice looking comic.

Secret Avengers #7 – Review

by Ed Brubaker (writer), Mike Deodato (art), and Rain Beredo (colors)

The Story: Steve Rogers and friends fight to protect Shang Chi while the Prince of Orphans and Valkyrie journey to Fu Manchu’s tomb.

What’s Good: With Secret Avengers #7, Ed Brubaker proves that Secret Avengers’ massive upshot in quality as of #5 is here to stay.  As I said with last month’s issue, this is what we were expecting from an Ed Brubaker covert ops Avengers book, not bland trips to Mars.  This sudden turn is nothing short of brilliant, particularly in that it brings together everything that Brubaker does so well.

First off, you’ve got your pulp, specifically the kung fu breed that’ll really wet the appetites of fans of Brubaker’s Iron Fist run.  From the bad guy (Fu Manchu) to the sheer amount of awesome kung fu fighting, parts of this issue feel like kooky fun from a bygone era, updated in 2010, and that’s exactly the sort of thing that we’ve been getting for years from quality Brubaker comics, particularly Iron Fist and Incognito.  All told, the martial arts base of this arc continues to be absolutely wonderful.

But it’s not just that; Brubaker also lives up to the conspiratorial, shadowy, covert ops part of the equation, something that was also somewhat lacking in the first arc.  This feels like a Steve Rogers spy book at times, with great mysterious enemies that can only just barely be fathomed.   The Shadow Council is as foreboding as ever, and seeing Thorndrake secretly worshipping some Cthulian statue was delicious.  Better still is the emphasis on Rogers’ keeping the teams activities a secret, something that hasn’t really been broached since the first issue.

I’ve complained last month about the continued lack of team dynamic.  Brubaker, on the one hand, is slowly making it clear that this isn’t a conventional Avengers team; really, it’s closer to “Steve Rogers and friends.”  Regardless, we still get subtle character moments this month of the sort we’ve been lacking for some time.  Ant-Man’s youthful eagerness and consequent sloppiness and Rogers’ tactful encouragement of him were high points, while the Prince of Orphans’ team-up with Valkyrie led to a really neat dynamic that was also all kinds of badass.

All told, this was just the sort of issue that, thematically, brought everything together.  Much like the team-up of Fu Manchu and the Shadow Countil, this issue was a wonderful balancing and mixing of retro pulpiness and shadowy conspiracies that led to the comic I’ve always hoped Secret Avengers would be.

Secret Avengers #6 – Review

by Ed Brubaker (writer), Mike Deodato (art), Rain Beredo (colors), and Dave Lanphear (letters)

The Story: Steve Rogers and co. look to halt the resurrection of Shang-Chi’s father.

What’s Good: I’m happy to report that the sudden upsurge in quality with last month’s issue continues in a big way this month, with this new story-arc really playing to Ed Brubaker’s strengths.  Finally, Secret Avengers truly feels like a Brubaker comic.  Were the series to have started out like this, I never would have felt disappointed by it.

Secret Avengers #6, and this whole arc by the looks of it, is Ed Brubaker through and through, doing what he does best.  There’s that wacky pulp element that’s present in all of his work; the ninjas, kung fu, and major presence of Shang-Chi and his father, Fu Manchu, make sure of this.  This is that wonderful sort of retro comic goodness that Brubaker does so well.

Moreover, Secret Avengers finally lives up to its mission statement.  The book actually is starting to feel like a real black-ops superhero team, something which all the Mars stuff didn’t allow for.  There’s a wonderful sequence where Steve narrates by outlining a plan, while said plan plays out on the page.  Better still, this plan features breaking into a museum exhibit in a skyscraper, including the mandatory elevator shaft rappelling scene.  It’s incredibly slick and feels like a superhero heist film.

Then there’s the involvement of the Shadow Council, the masked bad guy, the sudden ambushes, the scheming bad guys, and the digging for mysterious artifacts.  All of it leads to an excellent cloak and dagger feel.  The comic ends up being a blend of modern superhero, 70s pulp, and Indiana Jones styled adventure.  There’s just so much to like here.  It’s a beautiful mix of enjoyable elements, all of which Brubaker excels at.

It certainly doesn’t hurt that Mike Deodato continues to truck out excellent work.  Things are dark, as they should be, and the bad guys are foreboding but pulpy.