She has great power over the weather, but Lei Ling is up against a foe that may be even more powerful than she is in “Secrets of the Crystal Heart”: the fifth chapter in the Aero series. Writer Zhou Liefen continues an action-focused drama in which the heroine of Shanghai largely battles crystal monsters that have risen from the water. Keng continues to bring impact to the action. The “Origins & Destinies” back-up story has Aero and her friend Wave facing underwater soldiers as they investigate the company that gave Wave her powers. Greg Pak and Alyssa Wong tell a story balanced between action and drama that is rendered on the page by artist Pop Mhan. 

Aero faces-off against crystalline monsters that are rising up out of the Yellow Sea off the coast of Shanghai. A master of air, Aero hits the monsters with everything she’s got. They don’t even crack. Clearly, they’re made out of crystal, but it’s a very, very strong crystal. Aero has to use cunning, as well as her power, if she’s going to defeat the monsters. Meanwhile, in the back-up story from Aero’s past, she and Wave face giant sea monsters capable of tearing them to pieces.

There’s a really sharp sense of action about Liefen’s combat-based main feature that continues to show Aero almost exclusively during combat. There isn’t much in the plot that features her outside of her work as a hero. That is, until the very end of the chapter, when she is finally able to sit down to that date that she was so rudely taken away from. There IS some interest in her personal life, but it’s more of an afterthought. The relatively narrow focus on the superheroing of the superhero is a refreshingly intimate look at a hero amid action that makes for a briskly moving story. The Origins & Destinies back-up continues to provide a more traditional Marvel counterpoint to the main story as Wave and Aero’s investigation pulls them beneath the sea. 

Once again, Keng is given quite a range on the page to deliver the powerful impact of superhuman combat with monsters. The slicing and whipping of action across the page make for a very quick-moving story that occasionally allows for the somewhat peaceful beauty of a still moment. With Wave and Aero now fully engaged in combat deep in the sea, Mhan is given a similar opportunity in Origins & Destinies. Still, with intrigue building in the background and Aero conferring with Wave, there’s more opportunity for interpersonal drama between the two of them. Mhan delivers on that drama with solid emotionality, but coming as it does after Keng’s massive action whipping across the page, Mhan’s work feels a bit tight and cluttered, which is really too bad. It’s solidly good work. It just feels claustrophobic in contrast to the big movements which precede it. 

By now, Aero has established a really nice rhythm about it that could quickly start to feel repetitious if things aren’t broken-up a bit more. It might be nice to see Keng given an opportunity for a non-action-based issue to provide the character with a bit more of a personal grounding for the action in issues to come.

Grade: B+