A Bit Of A Stretch — Reviewing ‘New Avengers’ #5

What would happen if any superhero, from the most powerful to smartest, were to turn evil- is an eternal question. It’s one that has been asked time and time again across the vast history of comic books featuring any heroically coded or heroically adjacent characters.

Right now, New Avengers #5 ponders what an evil immoral clone of Mr. Fantastic might get up to across the Marvel Universe. Sam Humphries, Tiago Palma, Fabi Marques, Matt Milla, and Joe Sabino deliver the latest chapter from the team-that’s-not-quite-a-team’s adventure.

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Messy.

A perfect word to describe what is on the page in every conceivable sense. This team is a mess, a bunch of characters that should not be together pulled into a team-style situation. Their results are extremely messy; just ask Mr. Ouroboros, the twisted clone of Mr. Fantastic. There is an inherent messy roughness to the artwork that enhances things.

At the same time there is a messiness to the artwork, paneling wise, that breeds some confusion. Events are happening in a way that is hard to follow. The dynamics of the team and their character beats are kind of messy in a strange way. Humphries has some fun ideas here and throws a bit of intrigue in, but some of the humor moments aren’t landing well.

This is a team of warriors, assassins, symbiotic killing machines, dark universe magicians and more. They should have more firmness to what they do at times, and less really sophomoric quips. I get what is being intended, but it’s really having a hard time hitting the mark (for me at least).

As noted above, Palma’s artwork has a really rough textural appearance at all times. Characters are sharp, angular, and often have features exaggerated or blurry. It’s an interesting effect that at times misses the mark just a bit, especially some of the faces that feel squishy or stretched, not counting those like the deformed Illuminati clones. Expressions are mostly working though, again, some feel a bit over the top or incorrect for the moment.

There is a heaviness to the colors as they tend to skew towards the more fantastical. Really rich and vibrant colors are surrounded by the darker and tonally correct palette bits. Marques and Milla do a good job at teaming up, their transitions smooth. It is nice when compared to the roughness found all over the place.

While the dialogue might feel out of place at times, Sabino makes sure it, and all the lettering, is delivered. He gives it the right little pushes and pulls to get the most emotion, visual energy, and more from every single letter we see. Hulk’s dialogue bubbles have that really scary horror thing going on from his own series which is nice. Other bits really allow the volume and tone of a character’s utterances to really be felt.

Overall the book still has a bit of a fun element going on. This issue just felt a bit all over the place to follow, with the “most dangerous” member of this warped Illuminati feeling really tame and very typical supervillain coded. It’s full of big plans but no actual way to deliver on them and make them actually make any true sense.

Here’s hoping the final reveal has some teeth and leads to something interesting.

New Avengers #5 is now available from Marvel Comics.