Secret Avengers #31 – Review

By: Rick Remender (writer), Matteo Scalera (art), Matthew Wilson (colors), and Clayton Cowles (letters)

The Story:  Only Venom and Ant-Man stand in the way of the Abyss’ plan to infect the world.

The Review:  Comics like this are the worst to review.  I can honestly say that Secret Avengers #31 doesn’t do anything truly wrong.  The problem, however, is that it also did nothing to truly blow me away and, in many ways, just felt kind of “there.”

It’s difficult to pinpoint why I had this lackluster feeling about the issue but, honestly, that vague mediocrity has kind of attached itself to Remender’s Secret Avengers as a whole for me.  It’s a solid comic and yet, it could be so much  more than it is.  Looking at this issue specifically, I feel that perhaps it’s the fact that character-work seems to take a backseat in Secret Avengers, which is a pretty direct contrast to Remender’s other Marvel work.  It’s very much a plot-driven book and so, in some ways, it just feels like pieces being moved around on a board.  Take, for example, the Venom/Valkyrie relationship; it’s a solid idea and when Remender has given it page time, it shines…but it’s never really been given enough space to breathe and develop.