Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Ed McGuinness and Paco Medina
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: January 15, 2020

I would love to tell you that the Avengers is my favorite book, but it’s not. It kinda hangs around that “good enough to not be bad” space that makes it an okay read when it pops up, but I rarely know when that is going to happen which speaks volumes for my overall excitement level. Every release is a new opportunity to wow me, though, and I always want to be wowed! So, is this the one? Let’s find out…

The issue opens in the Ravenstarr Prison Galaxy with the War Widow kicking ass and talking trash. Alright, that’s a good start! Plus, everything looks great, but the art has never been a problem in this series.

We continue with a little Mos Eisley “We’re wanted men” speech that doesn’t impress Natalia one bit and then after rinsing and repeating maybe one too many times, we get down to the heart of the matter…where is the new Starbrand?!? We don’t find out just yet, however, as Silver (yes, silver) Surfer shows up and it’s round two of the battle royale!

I didn’t find the Sufer/Widow stuff that interesting overall, but I did like what’s going on with Blade. With Robbie jacked directly into the Hellcharger, Blade takes it upon himself to help Natalia, but he’s sick, right? Well, yea…but he has help!

It seems that Jason Aaron is going for a bunch of subtle references for this issue. Blade is a little Marsellus Wallace and a little Neil Young…all while wearing Boy Thing! Overall, it’s a pretty good scene that doesn’t advance the story that much, but we do get some hints at what the Starbrand is going to be.

We then head off to watch the rest of the Avengers fight Terrax. When he is taken care of, they move onto Firelord and at this point, I was wondering who the hell else was going to show up! I’m all for some action, but I need a little story mixed in.

We do get a big moment near the end, but it does expose what lead up to it as just filler. Yes, we do get to see who the new Starbrand is, but like everything else in this issue, it was another wait and see kind of moment. I feel like I’ve been waiting to see a whole lot in this series so far.

Final Thoughts:

If you are invested in finding out who the new Starbrand is, this is the issue for you…or the start of a series of them…maybe. Jason Aaron pads out the affair with fight scenes galore and while it all looked fantastic, it could be skipped since the big explanations are yet to come. It’s a shame something this big didn’t feel like it was.

6.0/10