Secret Avengers #24
Story By : Rick Remender
Art By: Gabriel Hardman
Review Score: 7/10
“There is no such thing as paranoia ; the real situation is always worse than you imagine” With that quote by Hunter S. Thomson Remender drops us back into our story. Its a bit jarring considering last issue The Irredeemable Antman was getting stomped into a bloody pulp. Captain Britain is the first to make it back to the Realm of the Adaptoids and Descendants and the plot unfolds at a breakneck speed from there on out . It’s hard to catch your breath and Remenders choice to break up the team hurts this issues narration . It feels to scattered and the pacing is a bit skewed . Again I think it’s because the last issue was focusing heavily on AntMan .
Remender continues to give Beast the best of the character moments . Choosing to write him as sarcastic first and intelligent second. It’s a fresh take on a character that rarely ever is anything but the moral center or thinker of the group in the X – Books. I also enjoy his use of The original Human Torch and enjoy that the Adaptoids have a history with the character. Again as I said most character and writing choices are spot on. However I’m still not buying the main villain of this arc Father yet. He’s spent the last three issues giving the readers one expository monologue after another , it’s time Remender shows us why he’s respected and feared by his peers. Also poor Flash Thompson aka Venom has been left alone the last two issues at base…in his wheel chair …without access to his symbiote. It looks like next issue will be Flash’s Avengers initiation party , until then he sits .
One thing that’s always consistent is Gabriel Hardman’s art . This is definitely his strongest issue yet from panel to panel. This issue is full of action and he doesn’t disappoint . He uses many different angles to create a great sense of weight and motion with his characters and you never get lost in the action. He’s slowly becoming one of my favorite artists working in the business.
Due to the constant jumping between his team of characters that are split up and a last second bait and switch I feel like this is the weakest of Remnder’s three Secret Avengers issues so far. I have faith that these plot points will come back together in a cohesive fashion but this issue felt too disjointed for my taste. However I still will continue to recommend this book for the amazing artwork and crazy concepts that jump off the page.
Mike DeVivo
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