Comic Books

Is It Good? Avengers #25 Review

January 22, 2014

Time to return to Jonathan Hickman’s main Avengers title: What could it have for us now? Could it possibly be better than last issue, which was shockingly decent? Is it good?

Avengers #25 (Marvel Comics)

S.H.I.E.L.D. makes a discovery: to their utter shock and bafflement, the body of Hank Pym has been found. Unknown to them, it seems to have to do with something that has happened on AIM Island. Something quite surprising.

Oh that just puts me perfectly at ease. You always know the right thing to say.

The word of the day, kids? Decompression. That is what this comic is: decompressed. The majority of the Avengers #25 is a lot of people talking about matters that could easily be summed up better in a few pages. The whole opening scene with Maria Hill coming to check the body is four pages when that could easily be done in two (also one of the agents there needs to get some glasses since he called Hill a “Sir); the AIM goons talking to each other about their job takes up two whole pages and adds nothing other than “our job is dangerous”, and some bombastic techno babble. It seems like I could be making a big deal out of this, but when someone buys a comic for four bucks and gets about 10 pages worth of real story content and nothing else, there is a reason to complain. These pages could be used for other things, like having the actual Avengers appear in the story and showing some sort of reaction.

Decompression aside, what else is there besides little story progression? Not much else. Sure, these new Avengers that have appeared in this world do have some potential, considering what they say happened to their old world and what they did, but this only happens towards the end of the book . The rest of the time, you got the standard dialogue and narration that is dry as always with very little in the way of emotion, character, or depth (any dialogue that suggests that comes off more as padding). Also, this issue seems to be butting heads with Avengers World. What I mean by that is that in that comic, the Avengers are very trusted by SHIELD and are working with them, but in this issue Maria Hill immediately suspects them of wrong doing when she sees images of the other Avengers and has them at gunpoint. What? Not even going to give them a bit of leeway without being overly hostile?

Well, somebody might be able to see something if they take their damn hands away from their faces.

Okay, so the story isn’t that good, but what the artwork on the title? The artist in question is Salvador Larroca and his work is fine. Since there isn’t any really spectacular or exciting going on in the book, it doesn’t allow for the artist to really stretch himself. It’s typical kind of comic book artwork that you would expect from this series. Decent, but nothing special with average looking characters, locations, okay backgrounds, and boring layouts. The only thing that stands out with the artwork is that the helmets that AIM wears, where they seem to constantly change in size and length, becoming floppy or perfectly straight. It’s a nitpick, but I really couldn’t help but notice it as I read the comic.

Is It Good?

Avengers #25 is a rather boring, but also a typical decompressed issue of the series. It is what we’ve come to expect from Hickman’s Avengers series with its slow pace, lack of characterization, and issues being padded out. It’s not awful, but it’s not great either. The recommendation with this series is to always just read the series in paperback… no, in omnibus format. That’s probably the only way to truly get the most out of a series like this.