Avengers 30, Uncanny Avengers 20, Mighty Avengers 10

Avengers 30
Hickman (w) and Yu (p) and Alanguilan (i) and Gho (c) and Petit (l)

The group of Avengers heavies from last issue (Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Hyperion, and Starbrand) have been transported to the future, which seems nice on the outside but is hiding something darker, as a fifty-years-older Hawkeye shows up remembering this day and his team starts to intimate the deaths they've seen and future-Hawkeye ends up beating the crap out of Stark until he's pulled off. He gives the team a few warnings about the futures they'll travel to next (the time gem will keep pushing them further) and a secret warning to Cap. Then the team is, indeed, transported away, though Tony returns himself to the present with the device in his palm that warns his team of incoming incursions. Next stop for the rest of them: betrayal+422 years.

The fight between Tony and Steve continues to be remarkably compelling though it ends quickly as they have to get their bearings and figure out the next step. The tensions raise higher, though, as Tony points out that whatever he did must have worked because here the world is, just 50 years later, looking great. Steve's argument is helped by the enraged future-Hawkeye (though he's admittedly not the best judge of character). Some strong stuff in here, some typical Marvel time-travel stuff (note who is and isn't on the team here, Hawkeye makes mention of kids, and so on), and the surprise ending of Tony returning to the present to do what he needs to do and leaving his fellow Avengers bouncing through time. Overall a pretty strong book and, though I find I can't particularly fault it for asking these questions as they're natural questions to ask, I could always do with a little less "HEY AUDIENCE, ASK SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS FUTURE!"

Total Score: 4/5


Uncanny Avengers 20
Remender (w) and Acuña (a) and Cowles (l)

Havok, Beast, and Kang's group fight against the X-Council and X-Force on behalf of trying to save the world. Cyclops turns on Magneto to help his brother, deciding that a chance at saving Earth was better than what they had. He and the rest of the X-Council turn on X-Force to give the others the chance to get away, which they do, going with Kang to attack Eimin and restore Shiro and Wolverine. With the surviving Unity Squad reunited and Eimin out of the fight, punished by her adoptive father, Kang and Magistrate Braddock send the team back.

There are a lot of really strong character moments in here for our team, between Thor seeking retribution on Eimin and eventually giving the speech that should serve to unify the broken team, Wolverine threatening to sabotage the entire plan if Kang doesn't send them far enough back to save Rogue and knocking out Shiro when Shiro tries to rebel against the plan and Kang's involvement, etc. Plenty of great character moments even in a book loaded with plot and with fight scenes. It's a testament to the strength of the writing that we come out with a bigger and better sense of our players even with so much action. Daniel Acuña's art and colors continue to amaze as well. Very strong stuff.

Total Score: 5/5


Mighty Avengers
Ewing (w) and Land (p) and Leisten (i) and D'Armata (c) and Petit (l)

The Watcher's been murdered and everyone is on the case. Blue Marvel, a friend to Watcher, goes to meet with Ulana, wife of Uatu, on the moon. He swears revenge but she requests something different from him: that he be the godfather to their newborn child. Meanwhile, Cage, Spectrum, and Falcon take down one of the Mindless Ones in New York before agreeing to jump into the case as well. Finally, Blade has been brought down by a legion of were-birds after plenty more were-animals have attacked him over the last few weeks and now he's at the center of a plot to unleash a new breed of Deathwalkers.

I was thinking a lot about the role of UNCANNY AVENGERS in the present Marvel Universe and, while I love the fact that these characters all exist in this rich and detailed world where they can run into one another and where the events of the world affect everyone, how nice it is to see a book that feels so removed from all of it. Okay, so obviously UNCANNY AVENGERS is driven at its core by mutant-human relations and what that's meant the universe over (and it obviously impacted a lot of other books early on in its run) but it hasn't touched the last couple of events and it hasn't crossed with many other books (they pop up more in other books than other teams pop up in theirs) and it feels SO REFERESHING. Meanwhile, this book seems to want to get its hands into every little thing the comes along and that kind of works for what Ewing has built, a team that exists only to intercede where it's needed, but it makes it hard to see this book as its own thing. It's not an awful issue by itself but it doesn't really feel like it's about to come into its own, even with the ongoing Blade storyline and the Blue Marvel storyline.

Total Score: 3/5