Review: Facing Hard Truth & Consequences In ‘Avengers’ #17
by Tony Thornley
The Blood Hunt is over, and frankly, the Avengers failed. The Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are about to have the chance to make up for it, as a new face joins them.
Jed MacKay, Valerio Schiti, Bryan Valenza and Cory Petit rebuild the team.
The Avengers are split. Their failure to stop Varnae’s vampire invasion is hanging over them and now Doom is the Sorcerer Supreme. Some believe that they failed due to the preventable loss of life, while others see their victory as something to be celebrated. Unfortunately, the debate may be cut short when Hyperion delivers an ultimatum to the planet: prepare for your destruction. Can they save the world again, even with Ororo Munroe joining the team?
A friendly philosophical debate is such a rare thing in comics and MacKay nailed it in my opinion. This isn’t the angry and sometimes nonsensical choosing of sides from Civil War or its sequel. This is a group of friends and colleagues disagreeing while maintaining the relationships they have with one another, with Petit making the flow back and forth seem so natural. It’s refreshing.
The scene where the issue really sings, though, is when Sam Wilson invites Storm to join the Avengers. Sam returning to the Captain America role was one of the best things that could have happened to the character. He simply just fits best there. He’s not Steve Rogers, but he’s able to inspire and uplift others like Steve does, but in his own, much more down to earth way. Somehow, MacKay is able to translate that into a natural connection between Sam and Ororo that immediately worked for me.
Schiti is an incredibly welcome presence here. He’s made the decision to shift his style a little bit, and while it took me a minute to get used to it, I like it. He still has the same dynamics in his layouts, with the characters all getting a chance to be a part of the story and not just serve as set dressing. The page of Sam offering Ororo membership, in particular, was simply stunning, and both Schiti and Valenza stepped up to make that so great.
Avengers #17 is available now from Marvel Comics.
Overview
I was surprised by how much I liked this issue. This run has been good, but this is probably the best issue to date. I really hope this uptick continues.
