Comic Review: Avengers (2018-) #16

Avengers (2018-) #16

Marvel Comics

Writer: Jason Aaron

Artist: David Marquez

As the cover of this comic says, the War of the Realms starts in one month. But before that starts and we get tie-ins to the event, the Avengers are still dealing with their vampire civil war. In this story arc so far, Blade has become an Avenger, and Ghost Rider is being possessed by some vampire magic. Things are kind of crazy. In a good way.

Continuing from the previous issue, the Avengers are fighting one of their own. Robbie Reyes, Ghost Rider, is being controlled by the Legion of the Unliving. The Legion of the Unliving is in search of Dracula, and are in a war against the rest of the vampire world. Meanwhile, Dracula is in Russia, being interrogated by the Winter Guard, in a very brutal fashion.

I’m going, to be honest, this whole vampire civil war story is a lot darker than I was thinking it would be. But at the same time, I can’t help but love the crap out of it. When I say dark, I mean they’ve been using rats as “light bombs” against vampires. But then, in this issue, they up the ante and use rats as “blood bombs” to turn humans into vampires. And boy is it as bloody as you’d expect. Not so much as to make this book R-rated, but it’s there. This issue is mostly just the Avengers fighting the Legion and Ghost Rider, but man does it all look good. I’m a fan of David Marquez, I enjoy his work, and this issue is no exception.

The story in this issue is a little light, in terms of progression. The main focus is on Robbie Reyes, and his possession by the Legion of the Undead. We see him in hell, and hell for him is being in traffic at a complete standstill. There are also some ties to one of Marvel’s bigger events from last year, Damnation. Besides that, it’s mainly the Avengers fighting the Legion/possessed Ghost Rider. Which, in full honesty, I don’t hate, but I can understand if some people want a little more meat on their bones. Especially considering there’s one more issue before the War of the Realms tie-ins start.

I like this line up of Avengers, and I like this “War of the Vampires” story more than I was anticipating. This issue definitely has some interesting developments for a few characters, but the overall story doesn’t progress very much. But, with a good chunk of this issue being fight/action scenes, the art really has a chance to shine. I’m really digging this Avengers series, and this story in particular, and it’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out in the next issue.