Comic Review: Avengers (2018-) #21

Avengers (2018-) #21

Marvel Comics

Writer: Jason Aaron

Artist: Jason Masters

The War of the Realms is finally over. There are some clear winners and some clear losers. Being Earth’s mightiest heroes, and pretty good friends with Thor, the Avengers were on the front lines. All of that is over now, but there’s still work for the Avengers to be doing. Instead, in this issue, most of the team is sitting around in a hot tub. No joke. Iron Man and Thor are sitting around in a hot tub together, and one by one the other Avengers join them. Meanwhile, the Black Panther sneaks up on and confronts Phil Coulson, and his new Squadron Supreme of America.

Honestly, going into this issue I don’t know think I was expecting anything like this. But I like what we do get. We went from the Vampire Civil War story arc, straight into a couple of War of the Realms tie ins. This is an issue of the characters decompressing a bit, and you can’t really blame them. They literally just fought off a multi-realm invasion, some R&R isn’t too unreasonable. As far as the story being told, it’s a lot of setting up the characters for what’s to come next. 

We haven’t seen much of the Squadron Supreme yet, and we know they’ll be fighting the Avengers soon enough. Blade is off to fight more vampires because that’s not over just yet. Judging from the cover for the next issue, Robbie Reyes may step into the spotlight for a bit, and it’s nice to see where his head is in this issue. There’s some humor in this one too, like She-Hulk trying to flirt with Blade. Thor is constantly playing with his hammer, literally, picking it up and checking if he’s worthy or not.

I like the art in this issue. It’s pretty dynamic, and in some parts that’s appropriate, but not so much in others. Black Panther is being sneaky, and a bit confrontational. He looks muscular and imposing. Same with the Squadron Supreme, they look tough and imposing, same with a few other scenes. But, when they’re in the hot tub, it doesn’t quite fit. At least for me. There’s a lot of detail, and the characters look good. It looks good, don’t get me wrong. I just don’t think it matches the more “chill” mood the characters are in.

I like this issue, It’s a nice breather issue. We just had a kind of big story arc, followed by tie ins to one of the bigger events of the year. The story is mostly just a recap/primer for the stories to come, but the framing of it is nice. The art is good, but I don’t think it entirely fits the more relaxed mood part of the story has. I don’t think this is the worst issue of this Avengers series, but it’s also not the best.

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