War of the Realms: Avengers #19: Gorilla Warfare

Just before we begin to settle into Jason Aaron’s Avengers series it flips the script yet again, this series lacks focus at times and now that it’s telling stories of 5 different teams, it seems like we can’t get a single issue without needing to change direction. It’s jarring and a bit upsetting when we get something awesome like the Agents of Wakanda then don’t see a single glimpse of them for 7 issues. Then when we do get them it’s in an exposition laden slog of an issue that describes events that happened weeks ago.

That said there are some great moments, the initial reveal that Ursa Major is watching the Red Guard undercover for T’challa was actually way cool. I am a big Gorilla Man fan so it is nice to see him and have a story focusing on him. The ending twist was exciting and made me feel like the Vampire War isn’t over, which is good because I didn’t like the end of the last arc much. I was stoked to catch a glimpse of Ka-Zar but he’s only in like one panel.

The art by Ed Mcguinness is exactly what you’d expect, it’s a bit on the cartoony side for my tastes but is what you would expect from him. I think his Gorilla Man looks really good and the fight scenes are awesome.

Last week the industry was crushed to hear of the untimely passing of Justin Ponsor after a long battle with illness, I won’t be so crass as to critique his work as I speak of his passing, and can only offer my condolences to those who knew him and his family. Heartbreaking. This issue is likely one of his last works.