“AVENGERS UNIVERSE”
Deep in space, the Avengers join the Council of Worlds as they declare war on their cosmic invaders.
The rebirth of the Skrull Empire.
The first encounter with the Builders.
The Good
Art- Leinil Francis Yu does stellar work this issue. Everything is super detailed and the action is illustrated well.
Alliance-So we get a really neat near past flashback of the remnants of the Skrull Empire and how they have united under one warlord to join with the rest of the universe to battle the builders was executed well. Seeing Gladiator lead the shiar tied back into the War of Kings storyline of yesterday. Seeing the Kree and the supreme intelligence was also a neat kick. The Annihilation wave and even the brood are also thrown in for good measure tying in both avengers and X-men bran galaxy types in one neat bow.
The Knight– Eden Fesi is the single most important person on the AVENGERS (2013) team. His teleportation abilities have saved this team’s lives and time so often he’s really the only real critical piece of on the chess board. It’s interesting to realize that if the enemy neutralizes him it would be so much easier to take down this Avengers team.
Action- This is war and man does the art give us just that! Strong lines, incredible inks, explosions, cloaking, de-cloaking, yes yes YES! I like it!
Continuity- I loved the small exchange between Spider-woman who was captured and impersonated by the Skrull leading up to Secret Invasion and Black Widow. This small nod to past events really worked for me and enhanced the story.
Cover– This one has a foreboding and epic feel to it with the three Skrull generals decked out in armor bathed in blue light. I like it!
Black Heroes– So Sunspot and Nightmask are on the second quincruiser which is now spiraling into a black Hole. Manifold is on the other Quincruiser and Falcon…was flying around in space. Yeah the whole crew was here minus Captain Universe.
The Bad
Continuity-There was no mention of Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel’s past with the brood. Even more than Spider-woman’s past with the skrulls this is central to her past. Without the torture and capture by them she would never have become binary
Another small nitpick for me, were the shiar not defeated in war of kings by the Inhuman’s and Kree thus making them a nation within the Skrull Empire? I can’t remember nor is it stated in the issue what the relation between both are now that the inhumans are back on earth.
The Ugly
Avengers (2013) #18 is sci fi meets comics on an epic almost mind blowing scale! Sure it lacks some of the sheer shock value of say Avengers vs X-men but it’s a damn near perfect issue. 4/5
You mentioned Carol Danvers and the Brood, so it sounds like you been reading comics for some time. I’m curious how you might compare the books of the 80s in terms of dialogue, artwork, continuity and quality control vs. the books of today. One of my first comic reads was Avengers 237, and the Avengers have been one of my favorites for quite some time. However, I do feel that Marvel has taken the approach of telling good stories trumps continuity. For me, roughly keeping the continuity has always been a sign of dedication to the craft of storytelling.
Yeah Ive been reading for a mighty long time 🙂
I agree with you on continuity! It seems to not be a high priority for marvel right now. I mean marvel has good stories but some continuity for us veterans really would enhance the entire thing. So I agree with you 100%
Appreciate your response. Have you done anything on some of the black superheroes in the Avengers? I came of age with the black Captain Marvel, but am old enough to remember the Falcon. Looking forward to reading more of the blog.
Your welcome RG. There’s allot here on the avengers! Most of their biographies are here and a few key issues centered on the black characters are also reviewed.
I’m looking forward to your feedback on just about everything as a fellow continuity buff 🙂