Avengers #2 Review

Kang is quite possibly the coolest Avengers villain you don’t even know, but that’s because he’s a tricky character to write. Time travel is a fickle business that’s more headache sometimes than it’s worth. Enter Mark Waid, one of the best character writers in comics today. We check out issue #2…is it good?

Avengers #2 (Marvel Comics)

So what’s it about? You can find out by reading the preview.

Why does this book matter?

This is the primo superhero team book for Marvel and thus involves the primo heroes. Add to it a time-hopping tale that has all the heroes dead…yet alive…and you have a rather intriguing story. Plus, it’s all rendered in Mike Del Mundo’s gorgeous art.

Fine, you have my attention. What’s good about it?

What a fun opening page.

This is fun comics with a lot of crazy superhero antics that bend time and space to work. While the heroes must make sense of time travel quandaries with a version of Kang (who’s seriously mental) in pursuit, Hercules continues to be on a quest of his own that will depend on the main heroes living and dying. These two stories help balance each other out, as Hercules’ has a slower more detective style pace to add exposition while the main team contemplates the weirdness of time travel.

Waid writes a solid Hercules who is boastful and loud in an endearing sort of way. His storyline adds a nice wrinkle in regards to where gods end up in our modern times, but also allows him to acquire an item that Waid will assuredly play with. Both narratives lead towards a compelling cliffhanger that Wasp fans will be excited for.

Del Mundo’s art is exceptional as always with a lot of weird and trippy scenes. With the help of Marco D’Alfonso, both color a book that’s glossy, bright, and rich. There are panels that remind me of an animated film with their very loud expressions, while others are so trippy they wouldn’t even work in an animated film for fear of making the audience puke. There’s also some neat smoke and blur effects throughout. Regardless if this art isn’t your thing, you have to admit it’s unique and makes the story feel important.

It can’t be perfect can it?

The main Avengers spend much of this issue in some kind of zero gravity white room (leaving out where to avoid spoilers), which is disorientating to be sure, but somewhat boring. It doesn’t help that much of these scenes involves the characters struggling against their will or floating about with nothing to do. These scenes have a lot of dialogue about time paradoxes which isn’t the most interesting of topics since it’s hard to wrap your head around to begin with.

You gotta own the snap.

Is It Good?

A gorgeous book, Avengers plays with time travel well, with big choices to make and high stakes to boot. Vision, Wasp, Hercules, and Spider-Man all get to shine too. What’s not to love?