Avengers #22 // Review
There is moment missing. This is perfectly normal. Time goes missing quite often in the Marvel Universe. This particular missing moment is kind of a big deal, though. At least...that’s what Kang the Conqueror told Captain Marvel. Now she’s in position to try to get ahold of information about that missing moment. The Scarlet Witch is familiar with the situation and knows who possesses that information and she shares that knowledge with Earth’s mightiest heroes in Avengers #22. Writer Jed MacKay continues his work with some of the most popular heroes around today with the aid of artist Farid Karami.
The information in question is being auctioned-off by people who could outbid even Tony Stark. So if they’re going to get ahold of the information, they’re. going to need to steal it. And they have to steal it from a casino in deep space that was created by an Elder of the Universe. The team may not have a whole lot of experience in theft, but they DO have skills. Stark knows a hell of a lot about security. Everyone else seems to have the right skills and powers. Then one of the Marvel Universe’s greatest thieves shows-up. Things are going to get a little difficult.
MacKay sets the issue-up as the opening of a heist featuring some of the most prominent heroes in the Marvel Universe. This should be a lot of fun, but MacKay has a few too many characters to juggle to keep it from faltering a little bit. The overall format of toggling back-and-forth from planning to the actual moment of the heist in progress is actually kind of fun. But it seems a bit unevenly-paced. That being said, it’s still a great deal of fun to see it play out on the page as MacKay puts everything in place.
Karami has little difficulty bringing the weirdness of high tech Kirby-inspire visuals to the page with style and poise, but there’s a tight sense of tension in MacKay’s script that the art seems to be having some difficulty bringing to the page. Emotion and drama ARE brought tot he page, but not with the kind of intensity that would have been needed in order to make it work as well as it should. There’s a clever and witty sense of things that MacKay is bringing to the page that isn’t quite transferred as well as it. could have been done by Karami.
And then there’s the fact that Black Cat is fashionably late for her guest appearance in the issue. She’s right there on the cover--the ONLY character on the cover who appears in person and she doesn’t even show-up until right around the end of the issue. So it’s a bit of a disappointment that she’s not playing a bigger part in the outset of the multi-issue story. It’s too bad that she couldn’t have been brought-in a little bit earlier.
