Avengers #12
Recap
The Agents of Wakanda are recruited from across the world, (apparently Jason Aaron found my dream journal) including personal favorites such as Ka-zar, Gorilla Man, John Jameson (astronaut secret agent werewolf!) and Odin in an advisory capacity. The Agents begin gathering intel on some bizarre subjects and locales ranging from Namor in Atlantis (see why Ka-zar is my favorite?) to vampires in space. Strangely most of the action this issue takes place offscreen with this issue highlighting recruiting and day to day operations in the Celestial's body. How have we gotten this far in the series without a neat cross section like they used to do for the Fortress of Solitude and the Baxter Building!
Review
Strange now that we’ve had 2 issues where not a ton happens on panel in a row, between these two cooldown issues, the previous cooldown issue (#8, true believers! *looking for editing work JJ) and a prehistoric Avengers issue (next issue is another BC Avengers issue btw, hm.) roughly 1/3rd of what we’ve recieved so far has been setup or downtime. I really do enjoy the story I am getting, but I would really love to get it without what has essentially boiled down to an entire arc of setting up base, like an old RTS, Warcraft 2 or whatever.
That said I love the vampire angle being played and the Agents of Wakanda have a real supernatural vibe to them like the Dugan ran Howling Commandos or Justice League Dark. I really hope Morbius ends up doing more than a cameo especially given he and Blade’s history the scene with he and Janet was probably the biggest point in the issue action wise and holy crap I got so insanely excited when I saw Man-Wolf, although if we’re going supernatural I would really love the Werewolf by Night himself Jack Russell to be involved. Maybe he’ll be in league with Dracula they did meet once or twice back in the 70s but not as friends haha.
Speaking of cameos Roz Solomon made an appearance (check out her adventure in Thor #9, on sale now! *makin my own editors notes! – JJ) as an Agent of Wakanda. I love the way the team seems to have expanded beyond the pages of the series, making it feel bigger than what we see. What a phenomenal team it is as well!
Speaking of teams Ed Mcguinness and Cory Smith (who is really vaguely credited but I think he did something art related) is pretty great, much less cartoony then I felt it looked in the first arc. I particularly loved the scene with Odin in Asgard, Odin looks phenomenal, although he really needs to switch hats (he had a friggin giant epic pile of helmets for years he only seems to have one these days and it makes me sad) I also loved the shot of Ka-zar jumping into the ocean. Really great.
I’m not sure why there were 3 inkers credited in this issue, just wanted to mention it, ink work looked good and I didn’t notice any obvious points where changes were made staffwise if inkers were rotated it was done smoothly, which in and of itself is a credit to the inks team I suppose. Maybe it took 3 inkers due to the sheer amount of ink needed to render Black Panther, Gorilla Man and Blade, even Wasp has a new dark suit. Not that Wasp getting a new suit is newsworthy…
I did appreciate a minor plot point regarding the reconstruction of the Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge to Asgard. The Bifrost was destroyed at some point (I think it was Thor v2 #85 but I could be wrong) apparently the Agents of Wakanda are gathering the shards and preparing to rebuild the bridge, just in time for War of the Realms! How convenient!
Final Thoughts
A somewhat fun relatively standalone issue. I would have preferred something more substantial to the plot, if we're just gonna tread water until the upcoming event what is the point of buying the next several issues? As I said in earlier Amazing Spider-man issues a couple months back cramming a book full of great cameos and guest stars doesn't always improve the story. That said my personal enjoyment of the collection of characters in this issue did make it a pretty rewarding read somehow.
Avengers #12: Avengers After Dark
- Writing - 8/108/10
- Storyline - 6/106/10
- Art - 8/108/10
- Color - 8/108/10
- Cover Art - 7/107/10