Mark Waid and Mike Del Mundo take a break from their stellar Avengers run to tell a story about Secret Empire‘s Hydra Avengers.
***SPOILERS LIE AHEAD***
Taking a break from your regularly scheduled Avengers fun, issue #10 focuses solely on Captain Hydra’s goon squad. While investigating a disturbance with the planetary shield around Earth, the team finds a giant squid monster and destroys it.
This is an instance where halting the ongoing series for a tie-in was intrusive. Secret Empire has been mostly great, and so has Waid’s run on Avengers. What this ends up being is a forced distraction from something that was really clicking.
Del Mundo has been doing wonderful work on the title, this issue was a step back. His art style didn’t take to certain characters as well as the regular cast. Odinson and Octavius were particularly jarring. The whole issue just seems rushed for Del Mundo’s standards.
Vision is unaffected, he still sings in Del Mundo’s art and is the most compelling of the team from a narrative standpoint. That comes as no surprise to those who have been reading the series already.
Deadpool also looks great despite every bit of dialogue being overly irritating. It’s satisfying how unbearable Ock finds Wade, but not worth the eye-roll inducing dialogue.
I’m no Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice apologist, but how many unfunny jokes can Marvel writers make about “Martha”?
It’s worth noting that through all the appearances this team of Hydra Avengers has made throughout the event, nobody has found anything for Black Ant to do. It makes me wonder why he’s even on the team. Even when he utilizes his one skill, shrinking inside the enemy, he proves to be utterly useless.
For the most part, Secret Empire tie-ins have been surprisingly enjoyable and relevant. The biggest problem with this one is the same issue plaguing the other lackluster issues. Tie-in issues need to progress the story in the background, not continuously go to the beginning and show more about a planetary shield.
At least this is a quick read. I imagine the creative team wanted to get through it as fast as readers will. It’s a shame sometimes when creators are forced to shove an event into their book that was otherwise great. Hopefully this issue doesn’t defer people from reading the rest of Avengers.
