Just who, or what is the Black Swan? Black Panther and the Illuminati make a shocking discovery about their mysterious ally! All this and…..everything dies!
The Good
Cover-A painting-esque rendition showing Black Swan in the foreground while statues of the Illuminati surround her in the background.
Art- Simone Bianchi’s art is pitch perfect this issue with, I have no complaints. Complimenting the line work of Bianchi are some bold and dynamic colors courtesy of Adriano Dall’alpi. Good stuff!
Action- Not a whole lot but dismemberment and disintegration are used to break up the rather exposition heavy plot.
Reveal– Clearly we expected the Black Priests to be kill-able but the casual nature by which the Black Swans do it was rather anticlimactic. Nonetheless it was good to know they are not the threat they originally seemed to be.
Story– The Illuminati use their devices to check the background of their “ally” Black Swan. They discover she will betray them and has seemingly more power than they realize. Later they jail her once more hoping to prevent the dismal future they watched from ever happening.
Black Hero– Black Panther the King of the Dead/Most dangerous man alive is present and accounted for.
The Bad
The Reveal-So the big reveal is that the Black Swan is not an ally? Really? Did the readers or the Illuminati trust this chick when in her debut issue she betrays her allies and has them all slaughtered (See New Avengers (2013) #1 for details?
Fight– Am I the only one who would have loved to actually see the Illuminati vs. the Black Swan? No? I didn’t think so! I would have paid good money and enjoyed it allot more than I did this issue if I witnessed a good old fashioned knock down drag out fight.
Somber– It’s becoming a bit overbearing that everything is doom and gloom always with this title. You can only see so much dismemberment and death before it really loses its ‘sting’.
Exposition– At some point it just gets too much, this book is heavy on the exposition
The Ugly
New Avengers #15 was surprisingly average and dull. We have great art sure but the “big reveal” lacked any kind of punch. This issue gets a 2.5/5
