When it comes to deities in the Marvel Universe, very few are stronger than the Celestials, the cosmic caretakers who oversee a number of things throughout the galaxies. But when Kang the Conqueror’s latest plot produced unstoppable versions of the Apocalypse Twins, Uriel and Eimin, a Celestial was exterminated and the pair refocused their attack on Earth.
In the last issue of ‘Uncanny Avengers’, after the twins laid waste to the space station known as the Peak, debris hurled towards Earth putting countless people in danger. When the Avengers Unity Division is informed by teammates Captain America and Sunfire who is responsible and what weapons they have at their disposal, both Wolverine and Thor see things from their past that they wished had stayed there. Before team leader Havok could give an order, the God of Thunder was already en route to Brazil to stop the damage that his former weapon of choice had played a part in.
Now, Thor is joined by Sunfire, who escaped the exploding space station and is intent on searching Apocalypse’s ship for clues. During that same time, Captain America is at risk of causing an international incident in Sudan and the rest of the team speeds to the North Pole to seek out answers from the Metropolis of Akkaba, a society dedicated to serving Apocalypse.
As I was reading this issue, I started to get flashbacks of the old school ‘Superfriends’ cartoon. In that show, a narrator would lead the audience by the hand through the story and occasionally utter phrases like, “Meanwhile, at the Legion of Doom…”. It seemed like Rick Remender was drawing from that series when he was writing this issue. I felt like the narrator was doing a whole lot of that. I’m not sure if this has been happening for a while, but this is the first time that I’ve really noticed it.
Seeing as comics have always included some sort of narration like this, I’m not against the practice itself, but comic books are a visual medium. The writer could have shown us a lot of that narration instead of spelling it out for us. Or better yet, just not include it. There were times where it wasn’t actually necessary. We already see it in Thor’s face that he’s about to make a tough decision. You don’t need to tell us about it and crowd up the panel with unnecessary text boxes.
Meanwhile, on the Quinjet…
Despite the distracting text, there were some cool moments that I really liked in this book. In my review of the first issue of this series, I noted that I liked some of the comedy involving Thor. Well, some of that’s back, but this time the Asgardian has Sunfire to play off of. Their exchange about hugs is a particular standout moment that comes to mind.
Another one of these moments is attributed to Wasp and Scarlet Witch when the team is heading towards the North Pole and they take note of Wolverine holding out on them. There’s quite a bit of mistrust in the team as it is, but including the passive-aggressive sarcasm is a fun way to highlight this fact.
On a whole, there are a lot of interesting pieces at play in ‘Uncanny Avengers’ right now. With the next issue tying into ‘Age of Ultron’, I’m curious to see how involved Kang, the Twins, and the whole dysfunctional team play into the whole event. Currently, I’m wondering if it’ll be a separate thing all together or if what we’ve been seeing in this arc will play a part in Ultron’s master plan. After all, both Kang and Ultron are utilizing time stream manipulation to get what they want right now. Either way, we’ll find out in the next issue.
Final Score:
UNCANNY AVENGERS #8
Written by Rick Remender
Art by Daniel Acuña
Cover by John Cassaday & Laura Martin
