The new New Avengers are more than a rag-tag bunch, like the lineup of last summer’s Thunderbolts*, from which this comic got its synergistic inspiration. Sure, it’s got a Black Widow and the Winter Soldier, but the movie couldn’t have gone as off-the-wall as New Avengers has.
For one, this is a book in which Carnage is a team player. Sure, the symbiote is wrapped around more congenial host, Eddie Brock, and not the psychotic Cletus Kassady, but the optics are crazy nonetheless. You might expect a Hulk to be on an Avengers team (or a Wolverine to be on a New Avengers team), but you’d be hard pressed to find a lineup with a demonic mage like Clea, the sorceress supreme of the Dark Dimension. And Namor? Why not put famously above-it-all Namor (usually a Defender) on the team?
Marvel
It’s a wacky but compelling cast, and it has been put together for an equally wacky purpose: to bring down evil clones of the original Illuminati.
Killuminati sounds like a joke, sure, and the oddball versions of Charles Xavier, Namor, and Mr Fantastic seem like jokes, horribly twisted and somewhat goofy. This version of Iron Man speaks in tech-bro buzzwords; this version of Doctor Strange is maliciously New Age. There’s a sort of subtle, vindictive social commentary running underneath the characters.
The action is fairly nonstop – our “heroes” utilize Clea’s magic to teleport all over the world in order to stop Mr. Fantastic Clone (known as Mr. Oroboros) from super-sciencing reality to death. Each stop sees them face off against one of the Killuminati, each like a mini-boss of a video game.
The book’s artwork – initially the clean, realistic lines of Tom Lima and then the scratchy, macabre style of Tiago Palma – is lovely, even when the action and violence is not. The book looks great, which keeps the reader going even when the narrative trips over itself trying to find its next target.
Killuminati collects the first five issues of the series, which form a strong foundation for further adventures. It doesn’t solve all its problems – members of the Killuminati remain to be defeated – which winds the book forward. It might feel gimmicky – a team like this one is perhaps too volatile to last as it is – but it’s compelling enough to demand more adventures.
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