A Good Avengers Comic For A Change

Last week I railed against the re-launched Avengers title, sorely disappointed that it was the same talking heads baloney that's turned me off that franchise of late. This week's debut of Secret Avengers was quite a different tale, however.

Writer Ed Brubaker and artist Mike Deodato were in fine form as they kicked off what I hope will be a long collaboration on Secret Avengers. Steve Rogers, the recently-resurrected Captain America, has told former sidekick Buckey Barnes to continue as the current Cap, while Rogers functions more as a Mission: Impossible operative out of costume. He's also the head honcho at S.H.I.E.L.D. in the post-Siege version of the Disney Universe (replacing Norman Osborn who took Nick Fury's job), which is probably what gives him the resources to form his own, covert group of Avengers: Black Widow, the Beast, War Machine, the Valkyrie, Moon Knight, Ant Man and Nova (an eclectic group if ever there was one).

Brubaker packs more plot and action into this first issue of Secret Avengers than I imagine we'll see in the first five- or six-part Avengers "epic". He's just so good at mixing up the characterization moments with cool stuff actually happening, making him something of a throwback in the modern era of comic plotting. This is definitely the Avengers title that I want to follow now.