Today’s Comic> Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes #19

Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes #19

Marvel Comics (March 2010)

WRITER: Paul Tobin

ARTISTS: Rob Di Salvo, Scott Koblish, Jacopo Camagni, Derec Donovan, and Terry Pallot

COLORS: Sotocolor

LETTERER: Dave Sharpe

COVER: Niko Henrichon

PRODUCTION: Damien Lucchese

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Michael Horwitz

EDITOR: Nathan Cosby

Iron Man leads the new(est) Avengers to their new headquarters, surprisingly the old SHIELD base where Captain America was thawed out. They don’t have time to settle in, however, as the Vision has sought out Diablo in order to learn more about himself, and the others find themselves protecting supervillain Plant Man from superhero Silver Surfer. The Surfer is strangely violent, a current trend in Avenger matters, but Vision is able to cure him thanks to Diablo’s laboratory. We also learn that Mr. Fantastic (here boyfriend of the Invisible Woman) is responsible for Black Widow joining the Avengers, to make sure Sue is OK.

What they got right: While each story is “done in one”, there’s an interesting mystery with the unstable emotions, Mr. Fantastic worried about Sue, and Vision striving to learn more about himself, that links the previous comics and this one together. That’s how you do continuity in comics! Watching the Avengers tackle Silver Surfer as a team works, although they battle like they’ve been a team for longer than they have been. The little character touches are the best part, however. Each character feels like an individual person, which I think is important in a team book like this one.

What they got wrong: Too many artists. Sometimes the art is good, and sometimes it is rather bad. Choose one art team and stick with them, please. Also, the cover claims the focus character for this story is the Invisible Woman, and the art has every villain they could fit apparently having had their butts whooped by Sue. (Is that Red Hulk? In an MA title?) However, the only focus she gets is one scene that she’s not even in! It has Reed and Natasha. That’s false advertising. Snell, there’s a lying Marvel cover for you!

Recommendation: The most fun Avengers story you can find doesn’t even have “Avengers” in the title. That would be this one.

I'm noticing a disturbing trend in this week's selections.