Secret Avengers #1 – Review

by Ales Kot (Writer), Michael Walsh (Artist), Matthew Wilson (Colorist)

The Story: The Fury, A.I.M agents and an evil Latverian agents walk into a bar…

The Review: With the previous volume still freshly concluded, it’s a bit hard for those who rather like the continuation of regular numerical order to be happy. With many titles being launched and relaunched, some might be skeptical to see some concepts being merely tweaked with a whole new number one on the cover, especially if it’s a continuation of previous elements established prior. However, there might be some reasons why renumbering can also work.

Case in point, this new volume of Secret Avengers, while using several ideas and characters of the previous volume by Nick Spencer, is one that feels justified in its new number one. The reason is very simple: while it keeps the espionage vibe and some of the plot threads introduced in the latest arc co-written by the sole writer here, Ales Kot, it has a decidedly different tone that makes this another book altogether.

The first notable thing is the fact that Kot, in his own ways, allows for the absurdity of super heroes to resonate on the page, playing with comedy for all its worth. Using the seriousness of each situations to its advantage, the writer presents another side to allow the ambiguity of the characters, their relations and many other smaller details to present a good dose of humor without hurting the very scenes themselves. How Black Widow relaxes, what happens after Hawkeye manages to flee the A.I.M agents for a second, the type of experiments M.O.D.O.K. has been doing and many other smaller details are put in to make it a fun ride.