So. Yeah. That happened.
Secret Avengers is awesome. I have no idea if the continuing series will kick as much complete and total ass as this one has, but if not, Secret Avengers #1 for Marvel Now is about as good as it gets. Everything works here. The script, the art, it all clicks together and creates a UFC fighter fist that smashes right into your grill. I really can’t say enough good things about this issue, but let me try and control myself long enough to let everyone in on the excellence.
SHIELD and The Avengers have struck up an alliance. However, there are some issues that arise for which the Avengers are too high profile an organization to be associated with. Always one to stay ahead of the killing, SHIELD agent Maria Hill has put together a Black Ops version of the Avengers for just such unsavory missions. While that might be the premise of Secret Avengers, it has little to do with the first issue.
Writer Ales Kot has crammed as much as is humanly possible into the pages of his inaugural issue. Opening with Nick Fury and Agent Coulson going up against a heavily armed robot called The Fury, then jumping to a girls’ day out at the spa for Spider-Woman and Black Widow, to Hawkeye running from AIM agents, to a break-in at SHIELD from a Latverian looking for revenge, and Maria Hill hanging out with MODOK who, as I quote from the book, “makes things that kill people good.”
All hell breaks loose almost instantly, and the action never lets up. Coulson and Fury’s battle is awesome. Fury actually tries to beat up the robot, and when he calls looking for help screaming about The Fury, Agent Hill thinks he’s being egotistical. I love that Kot keeps Hawkeye as funny and bumbling as he is in the brilliant Matt Fraction series. Running from AIM agents, Hawkeye manages to screw up the spa day for Black Widow and Spider-Woman, who also happen to be his ex-girlfriends. Meanwhile, SHIELD has been infiltrated and, as always, there is MODOK, who just makes everything better.
Where things go from here is a mystery, but I hope it continues to be this awesome. Kot makes every page snap, and his dialogue is second to none. With so much going on, the story never gets convoluted and flows with an insane grace. Outside of the action, the humor here is key. Some of the pages are laugh-out-loud funny, a trend I hope Kot continues throughout the run of Secret Avengers.
Kicking just as much ass as the script is the art from Michael Walsh. Some may not dig his specific pencils, but I think they fit the story perfectly. Walsh has his style rooted firmly in late ’70s, early ’80s comics. Think old school Ghost Rider or Doctor Strange. There’s a certain amount of fun to the style, a light and breezy way of defining the action, and the facial expressions. The type of humor Kot is laying down demands something outside the box visually, and Walsh nails it.
Secret Avengers #1 is staggeringly good. Kot and Walsh have swished a three pointer in the game of Marvel Now. They are, by far, in the lead.
