Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Uncanny Avengers (@Marvel)

I'm really digging Uncanny Avengers, the in-Marvel Universe attempt to bridge the Avengers and X-Men teams (and therefore humans and mutants) to the larger fictional public.

The two factions have had a rough few years - Largely culminating in the Avengers Versus X-Men crossover arc that reset all the positive PR and goodwill mutants had built over the years.

It's a solid book, and bridges deep mythic concepts, universe-wide stakes, and the internal group dynamics and relational muddiness of bringing several former teammates and enemies together and trying to make it work, while balancing idealism with the unavoidable practical veneer work, politics, and public relational messiness.

Writer Rick Remender is doing a stellar job, with my only criticism being a few of the setups and dialogs feel a little artificial as he moves decades-long relationships in slightly different directions. But you'd have to have read all of his Marvel work in the past few years to see that pattern, and to be fair, even then it's arguable that that's what's happening.

Art-wise, whether it's John Cassaday  early in the series or Daniel Acuña later, this is stellar stuff to look at.

It's a gritty, thematically rough title - Definitely not your Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes younger-reader-friendly. That makes it great, though, as Marvel serves a more mature, core fan audience (though it's not Marvel MAX mature).

Very much a recommended read, and I'm liking the stuff Remender is setting up in the first 6-8 issues that probably won't see fruition for 6-8 more. I like costs, the "not-clean win", and the long games in storytelling.