After the explosive ending from the last issue, issue three picks up with the Black Widow, who is undercover at Culver University in Virginia, trying to keep safe after Bruce Banner transformed into the Hulk and started to fight Blonsky in his pre-Abomination form. When she goes back to S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ, she runs into Col. Fury, who’s coming out of a meeting with Tony Stark, which is an allusion to the Marvel One-Shot on the ‘Thor’ DVD, ‘The Consultant’. Before they can chat, Agent Coulson checks in to update the director on the situation in New Mexico, where Hawkeye is still stationed, but got called in too late to get into the battle with the Destroyer.
This issue felt really short. It was a combination of issue one and issue two in terms of content. It was about half a recollection of what happened in ‘Thor’ and ‘The Incredible Hulk’ and half unseen scenes involving Hawkeye, Agent Coulson, and The Black Widow. Because of this, I’d say that it was better than issue one, but not as good as issue two. However, the last page of the book made up for the short feeling. I won’t give it away, but I will say that at the end of ‘The Incredible Hulk’, I wanted to see more of Samuel Sterns.
Despite the length, or the perceived length since I might have just blazed through the book, issue three delivered more of what I wanted out of this series: scenes depicting what happened in between what we saw on the big screen. In that sense, the book was very successful. Hopefully we won’t be left disappointed by the payoff in the next and final issue of the series.
Verdict: Buy
THE AVENGERS PRELUDE: FURY’S BIG WEEK #3
Written by CHRISTOPHER YOST & ERIC PEARSON
Art by AGUSTIN PADILLA, DON HO, WELLINTON ALVES, RICK KETCHAM & CHRIS SOTOMAYOR
