Not Your Parents’ Super Team — Reviewing ‘New Avengers’ #3

Do you want to fight a Hulk? Cause Wolverine surely does, even if her mixed up batch of teammates don’t.

That and a whole lot more is in the way of the so-called New Avengers. Their third issue brings clone fights, new teammates, and further soap opera tensions. It’s a whole barrel of wild and wacky fun from Sam Humphries, Ton Lima, Rain Beredo, and Joe Sabino.

<<SPOILERS FOLLOW>>

I’ll say it. This series is actually kind of fun.

Sure it’s really messy, in various ways both planned and not, but there is something authentic about what it’s going for. It taps into that old school team drama while barely holding themselves together feeling of old comics. Including the classic Avengers type of team.

Humphries isn’t holding back on the dysfunction and brutality. These characters are Avengers in title (and now in name of sorts thanks to Bruce Banner) but not in action. No, Thunderbolts likely was the better moniker if one based thing is on their murderous intentions when it comes to threats. They’re the team that gets its hands dirty when no other team is willing or able.

Their dynamic is all over the place as many of the characters are using one another for their own situation. Every one of them is ready to throw the others under the proverbial bus when time comes.

Last issue I pondered how Carnage/Eddie Brock would get here and here they come. Easily strolling into the issue and being recruited to the kill squad.

The artwork that Lima is presenting is as sharp as the characters. Sharp angular lines mix with smoother elements. There is just enough exaggerated whimsy injected to remind that this is going down in a warped kind of ‘heroic’ space rather than a really fully grim spectacle. Sequences have dynamic expansive feeling to them as they remain dense and detailed.

Darkness is the key here in many respects, both in how Lima presents things but also in how Beredo brings the colors, wrapping them in shadowy bites while the overall color palette plays in a space that is toned down and heavier in many respects. Even those with flashy costumes are not as vibrant as they might otherwise be elsewhere. This keeps to the idea that this is a killer squad of characters who are not operating in the proverbial light at the moment.

Some color and fun do also find itself into the overall lettering as Sabino plays around with bubbles and fonts while crafting the unique voices of the various beings inhabiting the pages of this story. Especially for the Hulk and some of the Killmunati members who keep throwing a wrench into things. Good thing some of them are already dying off.

Sometimes a comic just needs to wear what it is on the sleeve and call it a day. That’s where this series finds its groove.

New Avengers #3 is now available from Marvel Comics.