I’m not giving up on this title despite those who disagreed with my last review. I’m seeing this event and comic through to the end. Where can this comic go after that cliffhanger? Is it good?
Avengers #22 (Marvel Comics)
The Avengers are on their way back to Earth to stop Thanos. And that’s it. Nothing else is going on in terms of story.
There’s also this guy getting ready to fight them off I suppose.
I would describe this issue as a prologue (a prologue with an event. Don’t see that often.) to the final act of Infinity. I don’t know honestly about this. There’s not much here that justifies an entire of issue of the characters doing barely anything with only occasional recapping of events. Honestly, it feels like an intermission you might get with some very long movies, which is very unneeded in terms of this event. It’s not like any character arcs are advanced or this issue sets anything up very important so the whole issue comes off as if it could be skipped entirely without any loss. Heck, that cliffhanger in the last issue which implied big things were about to happen does not even get any follow up. It was even mentioned on the “Previously in Avengers” page. Damn, don’t be a such tease Avengers.
Beyond that I would grant this issue something that I haven’t during this entire event: there is characterization to it. There are character beats, moments that dive into peoples’ thoughts and concerns that make them feel fully realized, and some decent dialogue exchanges.
This is the first time in a while I felt the characters felt genuine. There are some bits to the dialogue that come off as weird or strange and the bit where Smasher (hey, she was actually focused on for once) makes out with Cannonball seems like it came out of nowhere. Yes, I know that she mentioned that she was falling in love with someone in a previous issue, but since these two barely spent any time together and if there is any connection, it feels forced and random. A little bit more build-up could have made this sort of work (there was plenty of time to do so due to the decompressed nature of this series).
Ah… sir? You do realize that your family and friends were at stake with the threat of the Builders, right?
The artwork is by Leinil Francis Yu and looks fine as always. Since not much happens in this issue, there is much here to draw that could allow the artist to stretch himself and show off something incredible, outside of two panels. That does not mean the artwork is bad, since it looks good as always, it’s just not the most interesting to look at issue. Though there was something off about the comic. There are two colorists on it and there are moments when you can tell the difference; so that it feels a bit off in areas.
I’m guessing that this artist is a bit of an ass man.
4.5
- The artwork by Leinil Yu and Gerry Alanguilan is decent enough.
- There are some genuine character moments.
- The issue comes off as filler.
Is It Good?
Avengers #22 does not have much to it. The story is stretched thin to the point that it could have been told in two pages and there really isn’t anything interesting for the art to show, resulting in an issue that could easily be skipped. There are some good character beats and moments, but not enough to justify the price. Just skip this or read this in the store if you really want to know what happens.
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