In this first Secret Avengers tie-in to ‘Avengers Vs. X-men’, this team is tasked with stopping the Phoenix Force before it gets to Earth. Beast and Captain Britain built a Phoenix Cage powered by War Machine’s armor and based on information that Hank gathered from the mnemonic scrambler he placed on Jean Grey’s head the last time the Phoenix surfaced, so the team plans to capture it, or at least stall it long enough for Tony Stark to gather more information on it from Earth to form a plan B.

The Secret Avengers’ battle with the Phoenix Force is only half the book though. The other half involves the Kree and a certain Kree warrior who has died a couple of times and has connections to the Secret Avengers in the forms of Miss Marvel and The Protector. This half of the book was great! I mean, yeah, they’re bringing someone back from the dead again, but if there was any time to do it where the story line would be nothing but enhanced by it, then now is the time to do it. I can’t wait to see what comes out of this considering Noh-Varr and Carol’s positions in The Avengers.

Kudos to writer Rick Remender. The way he wrote Beast here is unlike how I’ve ever seen the character before. For how serious Beast was, Remender balanced it out with how hilariously drunk Thor and Valkyrie were before going into battle. I definitely appreciated the writing throughout the book.

At first, I picked this book up to see how the first line of defense from the Avengers would fair against the Phoenix Force. I got exactly that, but got way more than I expected by the end of the book. I have no way to be sure of this, but I think the events of this title will have big ramifications for the Marvel Universe and will effect the state of things during ‘Avengers Vs. X-Men’ and beyond. There’s some potential here to be a pretty awesome story by the end.

Verdict: Buy

SECRET AVENGERS #26
Written by RICK REMENDER
Art by RENATO GUEDES, BETTIE BREITWEISER, & MATTHEW WILSON
Cover by ALAN DAVIS, MARK FARMER, LAURA MARTIN