Avengers #23 – Review

by Jonathan Hickman (Writer), Leinil Francis Yu (Artist), Sunny Gho, Paul Mounts (Colorists)

The Story: The Galactic Council gives one last push for the Avengers to reach Earth and save it as the titular team needs to save the day.

The Review: It’s always a bit disheartening to see something done wonderfully in one aspect, yet somewhat fails in another one. Enjoying anything is to accept its strengths and weaknesses, letting both get together for a cohesive experience. However, when there are two extremes, it leaves for a somewhat confusing experience, neither knowing it was superb, weak or simply acceptable.

This is pretty much what happens in this issue of Avengers, as it pretty much close to the bigger cosmic parts of the storyline attached to Infinity, doing it in a way that does feel satisfactory.

Giving one final focus on those cosmic characters for this event, Hickman present how these characters have evolved during this storyline, with one last hurrah given to them. With a few choice lines said by them and a particularly memorable action scene near the very end of the issue, Hickman does more with those beloved characters than most did with them in the last two years. Those that really liked the Giffen and DnA era of cosmic Marvel will be pleased to see Gladiator, Ronan and Kl’rt being so preeminent and awesome here.

Avengers #22 – Review

by Jonathan Hickman (Writer), Leinil Francis Yu, Gerry Alanguilan (Artists), Sunny Gho (Colorist)

The Story: The galactic council and the Avengers prepares for their final battle on Earth as some people express doubts and a certain sensation of feeling small.

The Review: While big action scenes are the very foundation of capes comics, a series cannot strive on punches being thrown and huge super powers being used to vanquish foes. During big arcs, events or any such things where a lot of action will be one of the main focus, there usually breather issues where the focus comes a bit more on characterization or how things are simply shaping up, where they will go. Results may vary, but those kind of issues can break down the monotony of repeated clashes if handled right.

This issue of Avengers is one of those, as it acts as a bridge between the latest issue of Infinity (issue 5 to be precise) and the last one. Focusing on the Avengers and the galactic council as they prepare and plan ahead for their eventual fight against Thanos, it serves up as a character piece as well as setup for what will come next. However, does it manage being a satisfactory issue with the action being toned down?

Secret Avengers #9 – Review

by Nick Spencer (Writer), Butch Guice (Artist), Matthew Wilson (Colorist)

The Story: Daisy Johnson deals with the fact that she is no longer the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. , with some help from her friends.

The Review: Real-world politics is hard to do right in a super hero universe. In a setting where some people can bench-press Manhattan or fly to the moon, it can be difficult for a writer to make the shadowy and downright secret aspects of international terrorism and secret agencies count for something interesting and relevant. It’s certainly not an impossible task, mind you, but it does mean there is supposed to be a balance between the surrealistic and normalcy.

So far, Nick Spencer did a pretty good job at incorporating the super heroic to the conflict between S.H.I.E.L.D. and A.I.M. with the inclusion of several staples of the Marvel universe. However, this issue deals a bit more with the regular folks with a tale that is starring Daisy Johnson, the recently demoted director of the world’s premiere spy agency. With a focus less on the fantastical and on a character that hasn’t been seen very much since the beginning of the series, does this issue continue the quality streak established?

Curiously, it’s a bit of a hit-and-miss, as there are some particularly strong moments in this issue, yet there doesn’t seem to be much accomplished or any piece moving in a direction that seems particularly exciting for this issue alone.* It uses some of the previous concepts established in other titles smartly and it provides a lot of materials for future issues, yet on its own it’s not that exciting.

Avengers #17 – Review

Jonathan Hickman, Nick Spencer (Writers), Stefano Caselli, Marco Rudy, Marco Checchetto (Artists), Frank Martin (Colorist)

*Spoilers alert*

The Story: The Avengers realize that they have to get even bigger and soon as they make concessions for the greater good.

The Review: Payoffs are nice. Readers crave them, cherishing the situations that escalates to a climax as a resolution or conclusion to a particular problem arrive and lead the story or a character to new areas ripe for development or surprises. Payoffs are what nourish the whole industry and pretty much every stories since the beginning of carefully-written fiction.

Well, it seems like both Hickman and Spencer have a rather tenuous grasp on the concept, as this story does not do much in term of satisfying conclusion to an arc or as a prelude to the upcoming event.* In many ways, the story does use a lot of what has been introduced in the multiple stories by Hickman, yet it does not feel particularly satisfying after what has been basically 17 issues of teasing and hinting at bigger things.

The recruitment of Ex Nihilo and Abyss, two characters that are genuinely interesting and full of potential for further storylines and moral conundrums for the team, it feels a bit hollow in terms of payoff. It makes sense if it’s seen as a series of slow development, yet as far as building up to Infinity and as the conclusion to a good chunk of teasing concerning the fact that the team will have to get bigger and that the universe is still broken. The addition of Starbrand and Nightmask also seems logical and build up naturally to their new role, yet there’s no surprise or twist that makes it fun or merely entertaining. It just happens.

What is perhaps infuriating, or at least annoying down the line, is the fact that despite the fact that several plot points have been handled in this issue, close to none are close to an actual resolution. Worse, Hickman and Spencer continues seeding new subplots and giving us hints that things are coming, something that comes as just annoying now considering that it’s what the title solely did since the beginning of the new volume.

Avengers #16 – Review

Jonathan Hickman, Nick Spencer (Writers), Stefano Caselli (Artist), Frank Martin (Colorist)

The Story: A big robot comes crashing down on the Avengers as we see some development on Starbrand and Nightmask.

The Review: It must be really hard to write a proper team book. Having to juggle with different characters, different personalities that can clash together as they face bigger threats that the members might not be able to overcome all on their own. We can all name some team books that are or were more successful than others, yet what made them so memorable for us? Was it the fact that each characters were important and distinct enough so that we got to see enough of them in order to grow to like them? Was it the numerous large or innovative problems they had to solve? Was it simply the action, seeing the characters display their fighting abilities and powers in ways that were impressive?

Many could argue that it takes a bit of all three elements named earlier in order to make a really good superhero team book. When all these things align, we know that we have something that we’ll look forward to each month. However, does Avengers, by the standard of this issue, possess these elements?

Plot wise, I’d have to say that this issue does deliver in a lot of ways, as both Hickman and Spencer advance several elements that can catch the interest of the readers while advancing the main plotline. Here, not only we catch up with what happened in all those early and confusing issues dealing with what happened to the planet, but we also see Nightmask and Starbrand again, two characters that had been teased as being quite important to the future of this title. While both plotline are significant for their own reason, the writers balance them quite well, giving us the burgeoning awareness of Starbrand and his discovery of what he can do and what he has become with the more action-oriented Avengers part. Of course, the issue also delves into other parts as well, as this arc does use what has been built before in order to prepare for Infinity.*

Avengers #15 – Review

By: Jonathan Hickman, Nick Spencer (Writers), Stefano Caselli (Artist) Frank Martin, Edgar Delgado (Colorists)

The Story: As the signal is constantly sent from the Perth site in Australia, the Avengers tries to understand what it is as what it does as they try to stop the madness it causes.

The Review: I have to admit, it is refreshing to see this title being written differently in the past few issues. From what we could see, the pattern that had been seen was that we’d get some action, some exposition and a whole lot of teasing and hinting at something larger. Starting with the prelude to Infinity that began with the latest issue, the whole pacing and the presentation has changed, for the better.

Sure, we still get some exposition, teasing and action, yet the amount in which Hickman and Spencer does so varies by a large margin. Instead of showing quick glimpses of action and of the general situation, both writers focus on a single situation and allow it to develop completely as the Avengers tries to deal with it. It is a much more satisfying read as we can see the depth and the gravitas of what they have to solve.

Avengers #14 – Review

By: Jonathan Hickman, Nick Spencer (Writers), Stefano Caselli (Artist), Frank Martin (Colorist)

The Story: The Avengers check out the sites that have been altered by Ex Nihilo as they deal with the multiple repercussions of his actions.

The Review: I had said once that this run on Avengers was full of wonderful ideas, yet almost no execution for them, that there was a lot of build up for close to no payoff. For the last thirteen issues, the book was planting seeds for further stories, giving us some pretty solid visuals and some terrific actions, yet those aren’t always enough or synonymous to a great book. Jonathan Hickman needed to do better as we knew he surely could.

Well, while I cannot say that this issue really paid up for all these previous issues, it can definitely be seen that Hickman is beginning to use all those issues so far. In this issue, the whole team is seen as they try to deal with just what Ex Nihilo has unleashed on their Earth as he tried to make the planet sentient. Here, Hickman and Spencer goes in full scientific mode in a way that is close to Warren Ellis as they gives us the full explanation to what is exactly happening and what the effects of these sites has on the rest of the planet. Giving us a whole unfamiliar and catastrophic scenario, it is there that we see just why the Avengers are so large a team under their pen as the threat they are dealing with is nothing short of planetary.