Thursday, February 14, 2013

Laid Back Comics: Secret Avengers #1

Not fond of this cover either

It is no shock I am a fan of Secret Avengers and I was very nervous hearing about Marvel NOW coming in as it might scrap the book for perhaps something else. But, I was relieved hearing that it was going to be coming back with a new writer in Nick Spenser and another roster change-up ; though upon reading the issue I did wonder if this was the right change to make.

If anything the book having the word ‘Avenger’ in the title seems a bit false. Make no mistake; this is a S.H.I.E.L.D. Book from the cast and the missions, which is not the only real secret the book is currently hiding. For what it is worth the first two ‘recruits’ Hawkeye and Black Widow didn’t seem interested in joining and then suddenly all read for the chance a panel later. Of course we don’t know why the sudden jump but only one of the many questions the books leaves us with as we get through it. The next plot point to all of this was that Hawkeye and Black Widow get nanoparticles that allow memories to be altered remotely. This all sounds pretty comic book super science which I have no real problems with. So in the end the missions are so secret they won’t even remember being on them or in the case of poor Hawkeye why he was in Bubdapest to start off with.

There are two things wrong I feel with this book and to start out it is trying very hard to connect with the Avengers movie using the ones who were working for S.H.I.E.L.D. Heck they even manage to make Coulson here look like actor Clark Gregg even though his first few appearances had him look nothing alike. But, if anyone is going to see this and expect the same Agent Coulson we fell in love with in the movies, we are sadly going to be disappointed. This Coluson along with Nick Fury ‘Jr.’ are out to save the world and in some way screw over Hawkeye and possible Black Widow. The reveal at the end to me seems to point to that happening sooner than later.

Spencer writing has never been bad, but never something I could say has blown me away either. Here is a book that has a lot of dialogue, and at times very witty, but low on the actually action portion.  It is hard to get behind a book that has so many talking heads and then quick action or off panel action. Art is much better with Luke Ross though wouldn't mind Black Widow having her zipper a few inches higher. I often don’t mention this and should but Matthew Wilson on color for this book did an amazing job and little disturbing job with a scene involving demon possession!

But, as the book comes to a close I felt more depressed than I was excited for the future issues. Maybe under has this been promoted as an S.H.I.E.L.D. book proper my expectations would be different and not blinded by volumes past. Here this title just lightly jogs in and stands around not doing much at all and doesn’t have much of a hook to keep me coming back.

OVERALL: 5.0 out of 10

Bryan "BAC" Clendening is a comic book reviewer and sometimes video producer on the internet, you can follow him on Twitter by Clicking Here.

No comments:

Post a Comment