A new team and new leader mark Jed MacKay and C.F. Villa’s first story arc on Avengers, but the new team of villains might take the cake. The first Tribulation Event has come to Earth, and the Ashen Combine is ready to do major damage. The first issue of Avengers made it clear the team exists to protect Earth, and across the globe, these new villains are doing major damage—time to enact some vengeance.
Avengers #3 opens with the Impossible City hovering over Earth. It’s a giant space station-looking vehicle the Ashen Combine used to get to Earth. From there, MacKay and Villa introduce each member of the Ashen Combine, each of which picks a location on Earth to attack. It’s a clever way to showcase their abilities and motivations when they attack innocent people. It’s also quite eclectic, with different abilities at work. One could argue each one would be a handful for the Avengers, but soon we learn the team will split up to deal with them.
MacKay once again shows he’s got a good handle on writing a team book. Some discussion takes place with the team as they organize. That includes Black Panther seemingly taking charge, but that’s rectified quickly. Carol comes out on top as the leader, and it’s cool to see them interact before they embark on taking out the villains.
That’s a freaky villain!
Credit: Marvel
On the reverse side of the Avengers — namely, the heroes themselves — the plot structure allows MacKay to showcase each hero with slick visuals by Villa. Each character gets to show off a bit of swagger before throwing down with their chosen villain to take out. The cliffhanger is a nice surprise when it comes to threats you won’t see coming, either. That threat is a nice bookend to how the issue opened as well.
The plotting does feel a touch slow, and it’ll read far better in the collected format. Thanks to the introduction of each villain and then a chance for each solo hero to meet them, the progress is quite slow. It’s a tough element to judge since it reads well here, but by the end, it ends up feeling like a short read.
Avengers #3 should get your pulse pounding with a bevy of intriguing and scary new villains. The Ashen Combine are serious contenders for the weirdest and scariest villains in Marvel Comics.
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