Avengers 8 review

Avengers 7 was vague and confusing, but there were creative storytelling to help it out. Some unknown kid suddenly spawned explosive superpowers in relation to some white event. The white event wasn’t working the way that it’s supposed to because “the system is broken”. Nothing was really explained, so thankfully this issue explains things. Is it good though?

For the most part, this was an enjoyable comic. It starts off with the Avengers confronting the unknown kid, Kevin, and trying to help him out peacefully. Of course it’s not easy to keep things peaceful when the Hulk is around, and Thor doesn’t help de-escalate the fight either. After the fight scene, the story starts explaining itself. It’s clear that Jonathan Hickman is building up toward something big, yet it’s not clear as to what that is yet.

The art is fairly good. The action is easy to follow, facial expressions are well done and there’s plenty of detail both in the characters and in the environment. The panels that take place in orbit are particularly neat in that we see city lights on the dark side of the planet – you don’t see that very often in comics (at least the ones I’ve read).

On the downside, the only real characterization in this issue was Kevin’s proper introduction. He’s appropriately confused about his situation, but there’s not much more to him than that. The Avengers who do show up feel in character, but there isn’t much characterization.

If you could be interested in a long form story that’s epic in scope, this might be for you. If you’re looking for a fun comic with plenty of action and a large cast, this comic could be for you. If you’re looking for deep characterization, this series doesn’t have much of that so far. If you’re an Avengers fan, this is worth checking out, but the lack of characterization for the existing Avenger characters is what’s holding this series back the most.