Avengers 29, New Avengers 18, Secret Avengers 3

Avengers 29
Hickman (w) and Yu (p) and Alanguilan (i) and Gho (c) and Petit (l)

Steve Rogers has been having bad dreams but they've gotten clearer. Suddenly he remembers his time with the Illuminati and the way in which they parted. Furious, he grabs Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Thor, who subsequently grabs Starbrand and Hyperion, and the team of core Avengers and muscle confront Tony in his lab. Steve accuses him of all of his sins and it pretty quickly comes to blows as Tony regrets nothing about fighting to save the world through whatever means necessary and has a whole ton of suits with him. It's a bitter and brutal fight but it's ended abruptly (for now) when the time gem, the only one of the Infinity gems that didn't shatter right away (BECAUSE IT'S TIME, GUYS), appears and shatters in Cap's hand, sending the story to 48 years in the future.

Story
This is the one we've been waiting for since Tony ordered Steve's memories wiped way back in NEW AVENGERS 3 and everything's fallen nicely into place for Hickman and company. The story is appropriately dark and tense and it's impossible not to be impressed by how well Hickman has crafted his Tony Stark. Stark has never been above doing whatever it takes to do what he thinks is right but it's all come into focus here as the last two issues of AVENGERS (coming nearly thirty issues into a book that started by casting Steve as life and Tony as death) have found longtime associates of Tony accusing him of unthinkable crimes only to discover that they're entirely correct. Tony manages to convince one but not the other and, unfortunately for him, the other rather commands respect from just about everyone, including Thor, Hyperion, and Starbrand. Not really the best guy to go up against. 5/5

Character
This is very much meant to be a turning point moment for AVENGERS as it will fundamentally shake the two real leaders of Hickman's team. As such, it rather has to be a big moment for character and it certainly works out that way as we see the rage building in Steve and his swift decisiveness, immediately calling on Black Widow and Hawkeye as well as Thor. It's also worth noting that character is often built just as much on how other characters perceive someone and the fact that he can turn to this set of core Avengers and immediately have them trust him enough to storm their friend and fellow hero's home speaks volumes about both Cap and Tony. It's really brilliantly executed and enormously important. 5/5

Writing
I've pretty much covered this already, though I'll add that the tone of this book, as with the tone of the last issue, is that perfect blend of darkness and increasing hostility that this story absolutely needs. This will also tie to Yu and Gho's art and colors in the book but it comes first and foremost from the writing. 5/5

Art
Pretty much already said it all above but Yu, Alanguilan, and Gho capture the dark tone and the anger as well as anything Hickman wrote. Really strong work to tie everything nicely here. 5/5

Miscellaneous
The first ten pages of this issue or so are taken directly from NEW AVENGERS and serve as a really good point to get into this issue. On top of that, the book is an extra ten pages long to make up for the summary. Still, I continue to question Marvel's pricing as this one jumps up a dollar to $4.99, a disturbing trend recently. I understand that a bigger book means more cost to Marvel but I steadfastly maintain that keeping the price $3.99 does far more to gain readers/keep readers and to keep readers from getting skeptical and cynical about your prices while still not, I would think, bankrupting your company. Also, you're now forcing people who already know what's going on to pay an extra dollar to get recap they already have. This book itself is really good (and will get the score it merits on that alone) but it's another example in a worrying trend from Marvel.

Total score: 5/5


New Avengers 18
Hickman (w) and Schiti (a) and F. Martin (c) and Caramagna (l)

With a very short time before the Illuminati know they'll have to face another world, this one populated with innocents and heroes alike, it's time for some serious soul-searching. T'Challa seeks and receives counsel from the dead kings of Wakanda who allow him his moment of sadness and heavy-heartedness before reminding him that the very act of keeping Wakanda so secluded has cost many innocents in the outside world their lives, that the kings of Wakanda (or any place) have always been beyond these sorts of decisions, and that he needs to do what is best for Wakanda. Meanwhile, Beast shows Banner around their antimatter bombs, a powered-up and soulless Stephen Strange returns to the Illuminati, and Stark and Reed confront Black Swan in the hopes she has more information for them. By issue's end, though, it's time for the Illuminati to square off against heroes.

Story
It's fitting that this issue and this arc comes out alongside the current AVENGERS storyline (certainly, you guys, that's not by mistake) as it's the first time that the Illuminati are tested in exactly the sort of way Cap feared they would be when he "left" the team. Now, as Cap returns to dole out some justice on Tony over in AVENGERS, the Illuminati has to deal with a world populated by real people and real heroes alike in order to keep their own world alive. Will the most heroic among these men falter? The question is asked here and, though it puts off seeing the actual fight we're waiting for until next time, it's given the room linger for an issue, allowing the audience to understand just what everyone's going through. As this is a book driven by these consequences, it's important to give this fight the space it needs to really breathe. 5/5

Character
The characters are al highlighted by how troubled they are to enter into this fight. For T'Challa, that means his ongoing struggle to do what's right by his own moral code while also protecting and upholding Wakanda. Panther has always been a great character for seeing that sort of struggle and it's at a fever pitch right now. Tony Stark is the same way, though his feelings come out through anger and frustration where T'Challa's really border on abject sadness. Also worth seeing the characters who aren't seemingly struggling with this, including a somewhat-repowered Black Bolt, Namor, and Stephen Strange. Next issue should show us a lot. 5/5

Writing
Hickman's writing continues to be very strong and, as with AVENGERS, you can see the strengths of his long game all through these issues (long con). He has spent over a year building these stories and now it's all coming together wonderfully. He's also doing a solid job developing the tone really switching back and forth between all of the various emotions that the team is feeling. 5/5

Art
The talented Valerio Schiti steps in to provide the art for this issue and, while I quite like Schiti's art, I'm not sure it totally works here. It's at its strongest in this issue on the various emotions, particularly when we see Black Panther with his council, but it occasionally feels too clean for the dark things that are happening. Schiti is helped tremendously by Frank Martin's colors, which set up the tone really well, but it's hard not to feel like Schiti might have been a bit of a strange choice on this one. 4/5

Miscellaneous
Extra points here to Christian Ward's unbelievable variant cover (at right).

Total score: 5/5


Secret Avengers 3
Kot (w) and Walsh (a) and Wilson (c) and Cowles (l)

A deranged poet has built a superbomb and is planning to sell it on the island nation of Sokotra, possibly to Latverians. Hill sends Coulson, Black Widow, and Spider-Woman to the scene to try to capture the bomb and dispose of the poet while Fury and Hawkeye go on a different mission. Things start to break down in Sokotra as Coulson experiences a bit of PTSD from his recent mission and as Black Widow has to learn to trust her colleagues to do what they do. She covers Coulson while he snaps out of it and Spider-Woman attacks the poet, managing to subdue him and talk the superbomb out of committing suicide (yes, the superbomb talks and thinks). While Black Widow wonders if this isn't all a weird set-up (there appears to be no buyer for the bomb present after all), Lady Bullseye turns up and attacks before Coulson drives her off a cliff after hitting her with a jeep. They begin to return home as we learn that Fury and Hawkeye's mission is to go out and find and capture the Fury, who Fury and Coulson managed to dispatch in the last issue.

Story
Pretty standard story here as part of the team is sent to stop an arms deal that could put a devastating weapon in the hands of enemies (or of anyone, really) and part of the team, separated from the others, is sent to do something shady for SHIELD. Coulson's PTSD seems a bit forced as, although he only first appeared a few years ago in BATTLE SCARS, he's touted to be this big super agent who has had his hands in plenty of soups up to this point. Not to say his PTSD isn't warranted, it just kind of feels like it's here to develop Natasha more, who is forced to figure out what to do in this situation. Also, though the story is pretty standard, that doesn't mean it also doesn't feel a bit forced, particularly the criminal mastermind poet bit. 3/5

Character
The two biggest complaints I have about this issue's characters are that Kot is set on doing the somewhat standard Black Widow-team-writer thing of making her a cold and relentless killing machine, someone who revels in murder as much as any supervillain. I've always felt the best Natashas are the ones who don't get hung up on the killing but also aren't exactly licking their lips while they think of how best to kill someone. Here, she's absolutely flippant about murder and I think it weakens who she is. Kot is also set on making Hawkeye something of a twelve-year-old, which I think is a cue taken from Fraction's Hawkeye. The difference is that Fraction shows us all sides of Hawkeye; he's immature, sure, but he's also a guy with a dark past just trying to do what's right in whatever way seems best. Here, he's little more than comic relief and something of an audience stand-in, apparently needing explanation of what the team does because he's too dumb to understand it any other way, despite the fact that he recently ran his own Secret Avengers team so probably he's not too unfamiliar with it. It feels very much like it's trying way too hard on a lot of fronts, more of which we'll get into in the next section. 2/5

Writing
It's trying way too hard on a lot of fronts. I talked in the review of the first issue (and the second issue) about how Kot himself has called the tone of this book something akin to Breaking Bad, a Michael Bay movie, and Arrested Development. I think that all of those tones are coming at the expense of the overall quality of the book which feels like it's trying just so very hard to be different or to challenge common comic book conceptions. There's a poet screaming about Mailer and Plath as he prepares to detonate a reality ending bomb, there's a mention of Scarlett Johansson playing Black Widow in one of the inane introductory captions, and there's a page of the book dedicated to Natasha playing a weird text adventure sort of game in her mind as she decides how best to proceed, meaning that Natasha's mind is working in precisely the last way anyone would expect it to. I'm going to stop harping on this book trying too hard now because, in finding those links above, I looked at my last two reviews and saw that I'm just repeating myself OVER AND OVER AGAIN so I'm going to let you all assume what I'm saying. 1/5

Art
In case you missed it, I don't like the tone of this book and I don't like how hard this book is trying but I will say that the art is doing its job to keep up with whatever tone Kot wants to put forward. Though I'm not onboard with the book so far, I think the art is doing everything it can to make it palatable. Credit to Michael Walsh and Matt Wilson for doing some strong work to keep this book moving. 5/5

Miscellaneous
As with everything, this is all just based on my personal opinion as well as whatever technical knowledge I've gained throughout my life (that's why I tend to focus so much more on writing aspects than art aspects; I'm far more experienced with writing than with art). Maybe this book is working for you. For me, though, I tend to get super skeptical and cynical when you can smell a book trying too hard and this is nailing that (I thought FEARLESS DEFENDERS was doing it too but I was more willing to forgive that on some levels because it was at least doing it with C-list characters).

Total score: 2/5