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AVENGERS #53
"The Last Castle"
Recommended (7/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writer: Kurt Busiek
Pencils: Kieron Dwyer
Inks: Rick Remender
Colors: Tom Smith
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Price: $2.25 US/$3.75 CAN |
Like many others, I've grown somewhat disenchanted with the seemingly endless "Kang War" story in Avengers, but as we move closer to the
conclusion, we've been getting some strong issues. This penultimate issue is not
quite as impressive as the last couple have been, but it provides some good,
Silver Age style epic action and a couple of interesting wrinkles in the stories
of a pair of Avengers villains. Dwyer's artwork is stronger in this issue than
it has been in many of the preceding ones as well, and he does a capable job of
dealing with an army of heroes attacking a sizable force of villains, a true
test for any super-hero artist.
Probably the weakest element
of the "Kang War" story has been the inclusion of the Triune Understanding story
resolution right in the middle of it. There's no doubt that it has drawn out the
story, and while the use of the Triune's "Triple Evil" as a means to give the
Avengers a weapon was a nice dove-tail into the plot, the rest of that story
seemed an odd fit with the overall story of Kang's conquest. It also gives us
one of the cheesiest (and I mean that in a good and bad way) elements of this
issue, a giant holographic Captain America duking it out in space with a giant
holographic Kang. Stan Lee would be proud.
Busiek started his run on Avengers off with a story that gathered a veritable
army of Avengers, so it seems fitting that as his run winds down, he would bring
the same large number of characters in. The numerous teams of Avengers attacking
Kang was a good way to give a sense of the level of Kang's threat, as well as a
great excuse for the kind of super-hero crowd scenes that work so well in
comics. There's definitely a sense of the epic in this issue, just as there has
been for this storyline as a whole.
Amidst those moments, though, there are some very nice and sometimes surprising character moments. Though I find Warbird's hand-wringing over having killed the Master somewhat repetitive, I was surprised and pleased to see Jonathan Tremont meet an accidentally noble end in this issue. I was also quite pleased to see Justice rescue Iron Man, and demonstrate the sort of leadership and strong will that was part of the character in New Warriors but seemed lost in most of his Avengers appearances.
Though this was probably one of the weaker stories in Busiek's Avengers run, as the long-winded epic starts to wind down, I find myself respecting Busiek's attempts at such a massive story. It may have faltered in places, but it was a good Avengers story, surviving several artist
changes and shaking up the status quo of a long-running villain as well as
several of the team members in the process.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board. |
