Avengers Assemble 13, Secret Avengers 2

Avengers Assemble 13
DeConnick (w) and Woods, Bagley, and Hanna (a) and Beredo (c)

Quick aside before I start this review (which is, in itself, part of this review): I find it so adorable that Kelly Sue DeConnick and Matt Fraction are married, which makes it feel like every tie between any of their books are just incredible. Even if someone like the very talented Mark Waid tied his book into Hawkeye or into Captain Marvel it wouldn't feel like the same tie-in, EVEN IF IT WAS LITERALLY EXACTLY THE SAME TIE-IN. If Daredevil had helped Black Widow and Hawkeye, in the pages of Daredevil, with something in her ledger and the last scene was the same in that book as it was in this one (with Hawkeye holding one of Widow's karmic markers and talking to Pizza Dog), it wouldn't have the same feeling as it does here. I don't know if that's the same for people who don't know they're married and read both books. I honestly don't know if it wouldn't feel similar to me if I didn't know that; this is the first time I've seen something tie into Fraction's Hawkeye book in any way, no matter how small (the appearance of Pizza Dog is the only thing that even makes it a semi-tie-in) so maybe I would have been happy seeing it with someone else. But look, it's adorable this way. I don't know if that made sense.

Anyway, this book continues to delight me. After, as I've said, some skepticism about the book's seriousness in the Marvel Universe, being a sort of movie tie-in book in that this new series launched in step with The Avengers movie last May, I find myself more and more pleased with the book. This issue even starts with one of Widow's lines from the movie: "I've got red in my ledger." She didn't get a ton of character-building time in the movie but all of her character-building seemed to hinge around that idea, the idea of her needing redemption. So this is pretty explicitly a tie to that, or at least to that idea (which, of course, was a tie in the movie to her actual character, so it's very circular anyway) but it stands apart from the movie and succeeds on its own merits. It fits in the movie universe, if it chose to be there, and it fits very well into the 616, as it seems to have chosen to be there. This is a true Avengers book in every sense of the word. DeConnick presents a great plot with great character moments and great dialogue and tie it all together in a great issue and great arc. As her stock rises in the Marvel Universe, DeConnick proves time and again that she's earned that place and she's writing two incredibly solid books for Marvel (including one, I'd say, top book with Captain Marvel). Exciting time to be a Marvel fan.

Secret Avengers 2
Spencer (w) and Ross (a) and Wilson (c)

I talked in my pre-game post this week about where Secret Avengers was planning to go after a first issue with twists and turns all about it and we've gotten something of an answer. Of course, if the entire series was laid bare to us in two issues, it probably wouldn't be a great series, so our answers are still ever limited. However, we see a threat on the horizon, with an island controlled by AIM and headed by AIM's Scientist Supreme and villains Yelena Belova, Mentallo, Superia, Graviton, and Jude the Entropic Man, and the way SHIELD intends to deal with that threat. The new Fury (side note: it's hard to talk about the new Fury because I still need to go back and finish reading the series he spawned out of, Battle Scars, which I think I started and got confused and left thinking it wouldn't be important. GUESS WHAT. It was) enlists Taskmaster to infiltrate AIM's new island as its Minister of Defense (alongside the, in corresponding order above, Ministers of State, Public Affairs, Education, Science, and Health). After trying to break Taskmaster out of his prison in Bagalia, where the crowds of supervillains swarmed them to keep the villain to themselves, Fury, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Coulson escape and leave Taskmaster to his many enemies below. Among those enemies is one of the leaders of the Shadow Council (from the previous iteration of Secret Avengers) Aloysius Thorndrake. Taskmaster was most recently in the Marvel Universe seen ripping the Shadow Council off so it made some sense to have Thorndrake show up and tie everything back together. Of course, when Thorndrake leads Taskmaster off, the disguise is removed and Thorndrake is revealed to be Mockingbird. She delivers Taskmaster to SHIELD and his new mission starts.

If that summarization was a little confusing (it was, I had a fair amount of trouble writing it and I refuse to look back at it, lest I confuse myself further), then it's not unlike the issue. There was a lot of jumping back and forth between Fury and the Scientist Supreme, which I don't think was totally necessary and kind of stunted the book a little. However, the plot, when it eventually settled in, is a pretty good one and it's nice to see SHIELD actually doing something worth doing, which SHIELD is not always known for. I think this series might just take a distinct shape after all. Hopefully we get a Winter Soldier/Hulk team-up soon because that's seriously ALL I'VE EVER WANTED.