Review: ‘Avengers’ #5 Fights A War On Many Fronts
by Tony Thornley
The Avengers are no stranger to fighting new threats to the entire planet. In the volume’s fifth issue though, they fight something they haven’t had to face in some time- pacing.
Jed MacKay, Ivan Fiorelli, Federico Blee, and Cory Petit inch the battle with the Ashen Combine forward.
While the Avengers battle the Ashen Combine on Earth, Captain America and Black Panther face their ship, the Impossible City, in orbit. They have found an ally in the ship’s AI brain, potentially creating an ally. Unfortunately, even with the Impossible City on their side, there may be no stopping the Ashen Combine.
I’ve been enjoying this series, sincerely, but it is struggling with pacing issues. MacKay has barely established his team, and instantly they’ve been split up. If they were entirely in duos, that probably wouldn’t be a problem, but with everyone but Sam and T’Challa is on their own, so barely any progress has been made in the story as everyone is fighting thier own fights, meaning he doesn’t have a lot of time with each, or he takes too long to the detriment of others.
It’s an interesting story, and the Combine are absolutely terrifying as far as threats go. MacKay is writing the team incredibly well too. But it’s frustrating to make so little plot progress in such a promising set-up. If this arc had come later in the series- with the dynamics of this incarnation better established and the threats better defined- I think it would have landed much better as well.
Fiorelli’s art is a big departure from CF Villa’s. His figure work and layouts are solid- keeping the eyes following the story and engaged in the action. His line on details is very heavy though, which makes some of them pop in a way that’s distracting. Just like the writing, it’s not bad, I don’t dislike it, but it’s not as strong as it could be. Blee’s colors are solid though, and bring the alien characters and landscapes to life.
Petit always shows why he’s such a high-demand letterer. He translates the script into a clear visual on the page. His font and placement choices all advance the story and serve the issue. It’s a good example of what consistent lettering does for a story.
Avengers #5 is available now from Marvel Comics.
Overview
There’s a lot to love in this issue. Even with pacing issues and art that’s not nearly as strong as the rest of the volume so far, I’m still interested to see where it goes. I just hope the story’s issues get resolved soon.
