A Broken Looking Glass — Reviewing ‘New Avengers’ #2

Clones. One of the messiest shared subjects for a significant portion of the Marvel’ Universe’s multitude of heroes and villains. The number of clones tracked back to Mr. Sinister or the Jackal alone is staggering.

Unfortunately for everyone, the Jackal played with forces beyond his ability and now a warped Illuminati is ready to strike. The Killuminati is fully born in New Avengers #2 from Sam Humphries, Ton Lima, Rain Beredo, and Joe Sabino.

Silly concepts meeting dangerous reality is bread and butter for superhero comic books.

As noted in the first issue review, Humphries is pretty good at balancing the duality in this series so far. There are a few moments where characters feel a little extra in the crust cheesy but it’s not a dealbreaker. For once, the slow build of a team cast makes sense for the overall plot and previous desire not to form a team.

I’m still not sure how Carnage is going to come into this, but we’ll find out at some point.

I kind of like the really hard dynamic of this team. Not just easily agreeing to work together, all in it for their own things, not entirely committing to doing the team thing. I always love to see more of Clea after her recent runs in Strange books helped cultivate an interest in the character I never had before.

All the voices are pretty solid, even with the cheddary cheese vibe mentioned before. Sabino makes sure they all land on the page and flow so well. I will say there was a bit of confusion on my part at first regarding who the caption boxes were from. Those cations during the recap of the real Illuminati had one box at the end that threw me off phrasing wise.

That being said, the way the different characters have their own distinct visuals for voices is always nice. Just such an easy thing to help differentiate but also give everyone their own bit of power.

Also keeping a balance well is the overall artistic style going on here. Lima manages to stand firmly on the line between rough, smooth, exaggerated, and whimsical, dipping a toe into each without fully committing to any more than another. There is an overall dynamic feeling and presence on every page as the characters and spaces have depth and liveliness.

Superhero friendly artwork with a darker touch to mirror the overall darker nature of this particular team. One that is ready willing and able to draw blood if necessary.

Beredo’s color palette taps into this same energy, keeping things in the more middle-ground sort of space. This allows the more vibrant pops of colors to happen but against a backdrop that is toned down in most places and a heavier darkness in others. This is not a typical hero book so there aren’t even a lot of the flashiest colors.

No, these versions of the Illuminati and even the New Avengers themselves are something less than vibrant. They remain in the realm of the outlandish fantastic but dip away from it more often than not.

New Avengers #2 is now available from Marvel Comics.