After a successful debut issue, Avengers #2 cuts back on character development but gives us a better grasp on the trials and tribulations our new team will face in the coming arc. The issue is written by Jed MacKay, with art by C.F. Villa, and hit shelves today.

The issue picks up where the previous issue ended, with Captain Marvel returning from the null-time with a dying Kang in her arms. The rest of the issue takes readers in between two different timelines, one during the conversation in the null-time that we missed out on between Captain Marvel & Kang before she returned with his body and another during the present where we see individual Avengers stopping mass casualty events from happening. We learn the two timelines are related when Kang offers Captain Marvel a bribe — information on how to prevent 1,000 civilian deaths in 24 hours in exchange for the Avengers help in stopping the evil forces who left him in the state he’s in and have plans for far worse for far more people.

Villa does an amazing job telling a visual story with the art, especially for the scenes where we see Avengers saving lives in different settings. Each scene gives the hero involved a “moment” that highlights their abilities, be it strength (Thor), stealth (Black Panther), or humanity (Captain America). My only criticism would be that some of the character’s faces can seem too undefined in certain panels due to inconsistent lines depending on the angle or if a character is in the background.

So far MacKay has done a decent job in sharing the pages amongst the full team, though this issue was a tad light on Iron Man and Vision. It’s never easy to give everyone the same amount of work to do in any given issue with a team full of this many A-listers, but I’m hopeful we’ll continue to at least get a line or two from everyone in each issue.

Overall, I think this issue suffered for me personally because I read it after I read Ultimate Invasion #1 which oozed with suspense and kept me at the edge of my seat. The stakes felt a lot less in this issue and I’m worried that may continue into the next few issues as the two series run concurrently. There are some of the same characters across both titles and Ultimate Invasion has been hyped as setting the stakes for a major game-changer across the entire Marvel Universe giving it an air of gravitas that I’m not yet sure I feel for Avengers.

Rating: 7.5/10

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