Secret Avengers #1 Review *Spoilers*
SECRET AVENGERS #1Written by Ed Brubaker
Art by Mike Deodato Jr.
First things first, this issue was amazing. It's been a long time since I've been this hooked with the debut offering of a series. I was a bit tentative coming in with Ed Brubaker's track record on super hero team books, but he knocked it out of the park with this one. It's like he's taken his espionage/noir styled early Captain America run and chanelled it with this team book, creating something unlike your typical Avengers or other super hero team books.
What's great about this setup is the diverse cast of characaters. We've got Steve Rogers leading the charge of this black ops SHIELD funded Avengers team. At first, you might wonder how a team consisting of such conspicuous members, such as the cosmic powered Nova or a big cat-like Beat or even a Norse goddess in Valkyrie, but somehow Brubaker makes it work.
We've got Valkyrie and Black Widow undercover as escorts for a Roxxon employee, Ant-Man and Moon Knight breaking into and hacking Roxxon files at a different facility and Beast, War Machine and Sharon Carter coordinating things on the sidelines. Even Nova comes into the picture organically with Rogers requesting his help with an off-world mission on Mars, where Roxxon supposedly found the artifact Valkyrie and Black Widow recovered from their mission. In short, it's a lot of fun to read about each character and the eclectic mix works extremely well together.
For the record, she stores the sword in the heavenly realm with her flying horse...
Speaking of team building, that's another excellent point about this issue - it's not just a series of random recruitment pages for each member of the team. We are introduced to each member on the fly as they accomplish their objectives and learn of the mission as we go along. It's like watching the opening of a James Bond movie. You know the characters already and don't need introductions, so Brubaker just throws us into the thick of things. It's like the team has been together for an extended period of time already. This isn't like the tenth time in a row reforming a new Justice League or Avengers team when a new creator comes on board like we've seen in recent years and we won't have to sit through six issues of the team coming together and Brubaker gradually introducing us to each character as we go along.
Now, some might read the issue and say, "Kirk, you're wrong, we had recruitment pages for Ant-Man and Moon Knight!". To this I say, you're right, but these were a handful of panels and actual backstory for two of the more dubious members of the team (Moon Knight is trying to make it as a super hero lately, but is typically anti-hero/insane while O'Grady is, well, irredeemable) that helps show how Steve Rogers recruited each and why they are a part of the team. These scenes felt organic and like they added to the story more so than the typical issue long recruitment drive/introductions of other team books. These two characters are also less well known than the others, so it makes sense to at least give them a little more spotlight in this way.
Bat-, er, Moon Knight in action
The actual plot of this series, or at least this arc, is also quite interesting. It centers around the Roxxon corporation and a mysterious artifact they uncovered on Mars that was rumoured to be the Serpent Crown, a powerful artifact that chanels the powers of the serpent god, Set. Steve Rogers has gotten wind of this and takes a proactive approach with the Secret Avengers by having them investigate and extract the artifact if it is indeed what it is rumoured to be before it falls into the wrong hands. This leads to the escort service and Roxxon facility missions that kicked off the issue. Once they discovered it was found on Mars, that caused Rogers to bring in Nova to investigate. The problem with this is they lose contact with Nova, who, while under fire from missing Roxxon employees, stumbles across the real Serpent Crown, which takes possession of him and forces him to remove his helmet and place the crown on his head. The team then heads to Mars to find out what's gone wrong.
The kicker to all this is the ending of the issue, which features the men that were attempting to steal the false Serpent Crown at the start infiltrating the team's base of operations, where only Sharon Carter remains, and claiming the fake crown. The big revelation as to who the mystery bad guy is? Nick Fury!?! He's wearing a strange costume with two random foot soldiers behind him and they are all wearing the same strange uniform while he claims to be retaking the crown for the "Shadow Council", of which the only Shadow Council I know of for Marvel was in Blade a name for one of the vampire groups. Probably unrelated. I'm not sure how to feel about this.
Nova discovers the Serpent Crown of Set
First, it's shocking that it's Nick Fury. Did not expect that. However, it's Nick Fury, the same guy already embroiled with similar territory (secret councils, betrayals and various skullduggery over in Secret Warriors), and having him involved with another secret council is stretching it a bit. I'll wait and see where Brubaker goes with this and how it syncs up with Jonathan Hickman's Secret Warriors work before passing judgement on as I like this cliffhanger, but it's just hard to accept at face value in light of what's going on in Secret Warriors. But make no mistake, I don't think it's detrimental to the issue in the least and not something to be overly concerned with. Just me thinking out loud and doing the comic book nerd thing fitting pieces together and trying to work it all out.
By this point, you must be wondering if there was anything wrong with the issue. Me being me, you had to expect some kind of negativity and there is something that bugged me. Two things actually. One, the Worldmind's dialogue was way off. It was like your standard, generic computer interface droning off information. There was little to no personality. I'm not sure if they just didn't want to get into the details explaining the Worldmind or just glossed over that detail, but it stood out to me as a Nova and Marvel cosmic titles reader.
Secret Avengers from left to right: War Machine, Black Widow, Moon Knight (back row), Ant-Man, Steve Rogers (front-center), BeastValkyrie and
The other point of contention was the art. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed Mike Deodato's art and it's a perfect fit for this book. However, I've come to expect certain concessions with his art, from exaggerated 'super hero' musculature and dynamic poses all the time, but a few poses were really awkward looking, such as Valkyrie and Black Widow's "bad girl" poses during their action sequence or the constant 'spread legs' pose of Steve Rogers and other men whereby Deodato would routinely show Rogers or other males standing around chatting while posed with their legs spread wider than their shoulder's width. You can see an example of this with the first scene with Beast in it where both he and Rogers stand this way while examining the crown. Another is the team group shot before heading to Mars where War Machine looks like he's about to do the splits, as do several other members, like Valkyrie and Steve Rogers (though his legs cut off at the edge of the page, making it less obvious for him).
These are minor nitpicks in the grand scheme of things, but it would be disingenuous to ramble on this long about how great the issue was without mentioning the one or two things I disliked. Most won't even notice these problems, so I wouldn't even really worry about them and only mention them for completeness. Even the art quibble is stretching it as I loved his Nova action sequence and Deodato did a great job on everything else in the issue, particularly the Moon Knight section (chanelling his Batman art days, perhaps?).
Verdict - Must Read. Don't wait for the trade on this series, you'll regret it. It grabs you immediately and doesn't let go. Can't recommend this new series enough. It's a fantastic start and unlike any Avengers title you've ever read.
Beginnings and Ends: Nova & The Guardians of the Galaxy
Posted: 26 May 2010 03:23 PM PDT
It seems that lately I find myself writing nothing but cancelation notices, farewell letters, and helping with petitions to save series. We may be at the moment of two spectacular series coming to an finish: both Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy are going on hiatus while the cosmic event of Thanos Imperative rages on. While logic would dictate that these series are bound to make a comeback once that event is over, they would not the first series to not come back from a hiatus: Ghost Rider and Immortal Iron Fist never came back from their respective breaks. And yet, if these series are indeed coming to an end, and after reading the "final" issues, I find myself not terribly upset. Hit the jump to see more.
There hasn't been any official confirmation that the titles are cancelled, though both of the latest issues sure felt like a send off for both the characters and the titles, in different ways. It makes sense for these two titles to end differently, as they were both separate beasts that while they intertwined often, they could easily be tackled by themselves. Both series were written in their entirety by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, along with a stable of talented artists.
The Human Rocket
Let's start with Nova. From the very beginning, the series was about the struggle of one man to accept and learn the limits of these new found powers and responsibilities. Nova must not only deal with the burden of carrying the entirety of the Nova force, but also with the task of helping a universe that is in ruins from the wide chaos and destruction that a series of galactic conflicts left it in. It is at its core about learning and growing up, set against the backdrop of the whole universe. Throughout the length of the series Nova deals with threat after threat, a human rocket not only in name and powers, but also in the way he must act. Nova knows that the whole universe needs his aid in one way or the other, and he must race from one galaxy to the other to deal with crisis after crisis. In the very first issue of the series, in the very first page, Nova is responding to a call for help, one of the many he must attend to. In the very last issue, in the very last page, we have Nova once again responding to an emergency, in a scene that was purposely designed to be symmetric with the opening scene of the series, yet they are a world apart.
Though the scenes purposely mirror each other, much happened in the life of Nova in between them. While from the beginning of the series there wasn't a sense that Nova was a kid, in the early issues there was a certain uncertainty on what effect this new found power would cause him. One of the main reasons to recreate the Nova corps was so that Richard could unload some of the Nova force onto other people, the burden was weighing heavy on his shoulders and it could lead to insanity if he had kept it for too long. At the end of the series, once the Nova corps are up and running again, Richard does not have to act as the sole protector, he can finally slow down and let other people do the job for him. As I mentioned earlier, in the last page of the last issue, we see Nova responding to yet another threat, rocketing ahead of everyone else to protect the universe. Not because it is his sole burden to carry, but rather because that is the kind of person he has become over the course of the series. What was once a situation for the character now has become a character trait. This is comics, so nothing is set in stone, but the team of DnA have given Nova a personality that is bound to stick to the character for a long time.
If Spider-Man's moral tale is "With great power comes great responsibility", then Nova's responsibility is of immense proportions, but that's where the comparison ends. With Spider-Man, there's a sense that whatever he does is never enough to solve problems (which is what drives the character), while Nova DOES have the power and the ability to end these problems. We've seen this plenty of times, whether it's alien invasions, power-mad dictators, or evil God-like beings that are ruining people's lives, Nova always tries to be there. Nova's biggest enemy is time itself, of which he never has enough to solve every problem in the universe. At the same time, that lack of time is what drives him to try harder, run faster (figuratively), to fight every battle, and to come up at the top of every conflict. It makes for a welcome change of pace with a lot of other heroes, who are constantly drowning in self pity: Nova loves what he does, and if every day had more than 24 hours, he would spend those extra hours being the human rocket he is.
The Butt-Kickers of the Fantastic
Guardians of the Galaxy is a completely different book from Nova, a team ensemble compared to a solo book, but also because the series acted as a spiritual prequel to the previous Guardians of the Galaxy series, the one published during the 90s. While Nova was the continuation of the character, Guardians of the Galaxy was the thematic prequel to a past book. I know that sounds a bit confusing, but the previous series was set in the distant future, while this recent one is set in the "present" of the Marvel Universe. The nature of the book meant that a lot of themes running through it were the shaping of the future, predestination, and the fulfillment of that destiny. All throughout the series there are visits from characters of the future reminding them of how important their mission is, how relevant and influential their actions can (and will) be.
The series starts with the formation of the team, leaded by Star-Lord's actions and motivations, and their mission is simple yet of Herculean proportions: protect the universe from the next big threat. How can one man alone shape the future? Easy: networking! Peter Quill assembles a misfit group of renegades and strong personalities and wants to make a well functioning team out of them. With people like Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Rocket Raccoon, Adam Warlock, Groot, and others in the team, this proved to be no easy task. Much of the book is dedicated to these individuals coming together, developing small clusters of friendships (Groot and Rocket, for example), and just generally working together for the betterment of the universe. The stabilization of the team as a functioning unit is meant to mirror the stabilization of the future incarnations of the team.
From the first issue of the book, DnA use a very unconventional story telling method, the "Debrief Logs", which run throughout the whole series. They are little snippets of recorded video that the members record after the mission, to log and record what happened. More often than not, they would appear in the middle of the action, delivering exposition and motives behind actions. In the final issue of the series, we learn that the person viewing these logs are actually the future members of the Guardians of the Galaxy. I thought that was an incredibly clever twist, further cementing the importance of the Peter Quill's and his kooky band of warriors: their day-to-day adventures are literally becoming the history books of the future, which is in constant flux.
Like I mentioned earlier, the shaping of the future is a constant theme throughout the book. From issue one, the Guardians of the Galaxy declare themselves a pro-active force, not sitting idly for problems to come to them, but getting involved in all kinds of situations before the trouble arises, though they often fail to prevent them. In the process they become a deadly team, one that many foes may underestimate, a galactic force to be reckoned with, one that will ultimately shape and affect the cosmos. Through sheer force of will, through team work and perseverance in the face of adversity, the Guardians of the Galaxy come together, even if things were a bit touch and go in the middle. They had to overcome betrayals by their own team mates, distrust among themselves, and the death of several of their friends. All in a day's work for the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Conclusion
If this is the end for both series, they can go proudly, knowing that they left behind a rich and incredibly entertaining body of work, one that will inspire future generations of creators and readers alike. For Nova, his past is set in stone, his series shaped the character and he will not go back to being the rookie kid from Long Island anymore. For the Guardians of the Galaxy, the future is what they make of it, full of possibilities and open to the imagination, but at the same time dangers and threats for them to face. Either way, if these series do indeed make a comeback, you can count me there, and if not, I have plenty of issues of Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy to go back and re-read.
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