Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Leinil Francis Yu
Inker/Colorist: Gerry Alanguilan/Sunny Gho
INFINITE AVENGERS
The Illumnati, a group of the most powerful minds in the universe. They have made many decisions among themselves to determine the fate of the world. With the secrets of the world slowly coming to the light, Captain America is starting to have nightmares of a meeting with the Illuminati he was not suppose to remember and Tony is going to be the first to feel his wrath!
The Ups: This story has been a long time coming for the confrontation between Captain America and the rest of the Illuminati, but first he’s after Tony Stark. While this story takes place after the events of Original Sin #2, Hickman does a fantastic job retelling the events of the ‘Colliding Universes’ arc, bringing readers who may or may not have read that story completely up to speed. The retelling plays out as a nightmare Cap is experiencing, as the events flow back into his memory, which blends with the present story properly as you see Cap struggling in his sleep. These sequences don’t feel out of place with the story. Yu, Alanguilan, and Gho also help retell the past events by redrawing all the events of ‘Colliding Universes’ with a horror movie feel, done in such wonderful detail and not just reusing old panels from the original story. The intense shading and gloomy coloring by Alanguilan and Gho brought out the immense tension between Cap and Tony, but for the most part Cap’s rage was depicted very well with just the white of his eyes being shown as he stared through Tony during their confrontation. I felt that Gho’s coloring stood out the most with a great blend of colors that fit each scene perfectly while not taking away from the drawings for a great combination.
The Downs: Unfortunately for me the rest of the issue felt like it’s all been done before. As Cap put a group of Avengers together to confront Iron Man, I couldn’t help but think of ‘Civil War’. Two of Marvel’s greatest heroes, fighting over a difference of opinion, a story that has been done a number of times in the past. While the build up to this story has been in the works for the longest time, I felt instead of having the Avengers fight among themselves once again, Hickman should have taken a different approach, one with a little more mind games involved considering Cap is dealing with the Illuminati. Yu’s drawings, while really good for the most part, had some inconsistencies during crowded scenes. A lot of character lost details and their anatomy was a little off. While it was all minor, it’s a shame the whole issue could not look as pretty as the scenes that focused on Cap.
Overall: Not the most powerful of starts for the Avengers tie-in but the ending did leave me with a good cliffhanger that I cannot predict where Hickman is going. While the minor inconsistencies with Yu’s drawings, the issue was very good on the eyes but Gho’s coloring stood out above the rest, making this issue a pleasure to look at.
Grade 3 of 5
ComicsRefueled 