Superior Avengers #5: More Character, Less Plot

Four issues of build-up finally pays off in Superior Avengers #5. But the payoff is not for the Superior Avengers who rush headfirst into their own hubris. It is Kristoff’s.

Kristoff’s character arc in Superior Avengers has been so lowkey over the course of the series that readers could be forgiven for wondering if Foxe was intentionally developing it or if it was just a happy accident. Foxe definitively answers that question this issue when someone, in an attempt to kill Kristoff, comments that they had hoped he’d gained his father’s favor at least once before he died. Superior Avengers #5 gives Kristoff the first meaningful character advancement in the series. To this point, the character was spinning its wheels–very intentionally on Foxe’s part. Everything about Kristoff was shot through the lens of him desperately trying to earn his father’s approval. He finally takes action to satisfy his own ego in Superior Avengers, and it’s a surprisingly triumphal moment despite the fact that he has been a minor supporting character in the series.

Killmonger’s connection to Kristoff continues to propel her development in Superior Avengers #5. Foxe reveals more of her past, and the revelations once more affect how the reader is likely to view her. Fighting her way into Wakanda believing it to be a sanctuary and finding it to be a wasteland turned her into an almost tragic character despite her deceitful actions in the present. She remains the most complex of the Superior Avengers and even rivals Kristoff on that score since his arc, while very effective, is largely one note in how it focuses almost entirely on his relationship with Doom.

The larger Superior Avengers plot is mostly stale here. Foxe has developed the various characters’ machinations to the point that some are more interesting individually than the time travel heist that the series was seemingly built upon. A shocking reveal in Superior Avengers #5’s final pages has the potential to breathe new life into this main plot. But at this point, the series is largely successful only when focusing on certain isolated characters.

Both art and color duties have been split for most of Superior Avengers with Maresca and Iacono handling art and color for present day sequences and Hotz and Rosenberg handling the flashbacks. The art and color styles are significantly different with Maresca’s art and Iacono’s coloring feeling very soft in comparison to Hotz and Rosenberg’s which is visceral and in this issue speaks to a horror story sensibility.

This division works particularly well in Superior Avengers #5 as the story cuts back and forth between Killmonger’s past and present. The striking contrast in visuals is a kind of character development in itself. Whether intentional or not, the contrast between Killmonger’s past depicted in such a visceral way only to have her transition to a softer time and place in the present adds an extra level of brutality to the character. It’s an excellent example of how a visual style can shape a story all on its own.