Avengers World #2 – Review

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

The Story: Smasher gets a lesson in what the world will soon turn into, courtesy of A.I.M.

The Review: Beware what you desire, for you may get it.

I am pretty sure I am quoting this incorrectly, but the message behind this is abundantly clear, as expectations and desires should always be kept balanced and in check. One of the main problem I had with Avengers by Hickman was that I though there could be a better emphasis on characters instead of just big concepts and ideas, which made the title a bit frustrating at times. With Avengers World being released with Nick Spencer at the helm, I had high hope that this title could reverse the trend and give readers a title which could focus a bit more on the characters instead of the general huge ideas that Jonathan is rather good at writing.

It seems that this is what both Spencer and Hickman delivered with this issue, with a certain emphasis on Smasher, the new character created by Hickman during his first issues on the franchise, combining certain elements of the whole Marvel universe for his team. With an issue explaining a bit the character and giving us an insight on her philosophy and approach, there is unfortunately a certain oversight that makes this generally less enjoyable that it could be. Simply put, there is close to no progress to this story that is exciting and enticing enough to provide plenty for readers to latch unto.

For sure, the manner in which Spencer and Hickman are able to connect some of A.I.M.’s manifesto to Smasher to her vision and her past with her grandfather makes for some rather touching moment, as the philosophy of her beloved elder and how he says the world is does help in setting the character more for readers potentially interested in who she is and what she does. The manner in which the tale of Captain Terror and how she does her stuff in the Avengers makes for a good exploration of the character, which is something that extrapolate in the issue that focused on her in Avengers.

Secret Avengers #3 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (Writer), Luke Ross (Artist), Matthew Wilson (Colorist)

The Story: Marcus Johnson* and Daisy Johnson visit a weapon exposition, while Coulson and his team investigate an A.I.M base that has been blown up.

The Review: Nick Spencer has fooled me. I freely admit it. I had expectations on how certain elements in this issue were going to play out, which were easily explained by the older work he did for Marvel. I thought I knew what he could throw at me and he easily manipulated said expectations to provide for something far more interesting, which I do believe he actually did twice in a row, the first time being with Taskmaster and now with Iron Patriot.

Secret Avengers #2 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (Writer), Luke Ross (Artist), Matthew Wilson (Colorist)

The Story: Nick Fury Jr. gets to Bagalia and has to rescue Taskmaster from there. Meanwhile, the scientist supreme of A.I.M sets some of his machinations in motion.

The Review: After a debut issue that, despite its share of problems, managed to be particularly enjoyable, Nick Spencer’s version of Secret Avengers continues, bringing us the espionage of the previous issue, while adding some considerable elements and surprises along the way.

Indeed, the way the first issue was structured, we could have easily foreseen that a series of one-shot issues would probably have been the norm for the series, but it seems that the actual plot of the series begins here. From what we can see here, Nick Spencer does give the Secret Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D a particular challenge, rising the A.I.M agency from low-grades scientific criminals to downright menaces, akin to what Jonathan Hickman had done with Hydra in Secret Warriors. As a matter of fact, a lot of things here do look a bit like that series, which should be seen as some high praise indeed.