Avengers #12: Avengers After Dark

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!