Avengers Academy 37 review

This is it, the conclusion that Avengers Academy has been building up towards. Final Exam part 4 pits all the Academy kids against Jeremy Briggs (alchemist) and Sylvie. Briggs is about to de-power the vast majority of super-powered beings on Earth (he calls his “solution” clean slate), and the AA kids are the only ones who can stop him.

This was easily the best comic I read this week. Most of the issue is one big fight between the Academy and Briggs, while Lightspeed and Veil try to disarm the clean slate missiles. Even with everything that’s happening, there’s still enough room for some of the kids to have character development. Finesse in particular has a great character moment near the end. The conclusion is both satisfying and a little surprising.

The art isn’t as good as the story, but it’s not bad. The action is easy to follow and on occasion, characters enjoy a fair amount of detail. The various effects from magical and energy-based powers make this book very colourful. On the down side, facial expressions sometimes look lazy. When Briggs is seriously injured at one point, he appears to have what Mystery Science Theatre 3000 describes as dull surprise. Also, X-23’s eyes are supposed to be green, yet they’re brown in this. It’s obvious that the artist is capable of green eyes because Veil has them. At least the Youngblood’s disease from last issue is gone though. The art is better than this series usually has been, but it’s still nothing special.

This is simply a great comic. If you’ve enjoyed this storyline so far, this is a satisfying conclusion. If you like books about teenage superheroes, check this series out. Unlike most teenage books, this is about a bunch of trouble kids who could just as easily become super villains. It’s a little late to start, considering there are only two more issues left, but the first four paperbacks should be easy to find.