“We Were Avengers”

Written by Jonathan Hickman

Art by Jerome Opeña

Retails for $3.99

If Avengers #1 was essentially Jonathan Hickman laying out his ambitious ideas for the series, then issue two is where Hickman explains his thought process behind it. Not only do we see how Tony Stark and Steve Rogers went about building a bigger and better Avengers team, we’re given a better look at Ex Nihlo and his plans for Earth. With this and some problems I had with the previous issue resolved, Avengers #2 should have been a clear winner. However, this issue was a notch down from last week’s.

First the goods: It was fun seeing Steve and Tony recruiting new Avengers, especially the series of panels showing why certain superheroes joined the team. Adding to that, we got to know a bit about these heroes in the process, which is what I wanted to see from the original members. Ex Nihlo is also coming along nicely as a character, with his origin story continuing the religious themes from issue one and the funny way he stopped Thor from spilling his life story, after asking him a question. I’m also intrigued by the dilemma the Avengers are left with if Ex Nihlo were to succeed or fail in “saving” the Earth.

Despite the interesting revelations, it felt like Avengers #2 retraced its steps on information when it reached the midpoint of the story. Information well established early in the issue was later established again, with some scenes coming off drawn out. I did need to see why two former X-Men members on permanent vacation would join the Avengers in a flash, but I didn’t need to see Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel) and Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman) agreeing to join the team in seven panels, when nothing meaningful is learned from their conversation with Tony and Steve.

Opeña continues to illustrate the series excellently, but he too contributes to the drawn out problem in this issue. Again, all the characters look great, such as the Hulk’s intimidating face, the close-up on Thor’s eyes, and Ex Nihlo’s wicked grin. When it comes to page layout, he relied too much on the four horizontal panel structures. As cool as it was to see Opeña take on Ex Nihlo’s origin story, or the Origin Bombs ravaging Earth worldwide, it didn’t need to be told through a plain storyboard format. And some of those images could have been crop to tell more of the story, than stretched out to fill up page space. There are still good page layouts in this issue though, like the one covering Ex Nihlo’s conversation with Tony.

Even though Avengers #2 was stretched to make this story arc an issue or two longer, it was still an entertaining read. An entertaining read worth $3.99? Not exactly, but close. Either way, I’m still looking forward to issue 3 to see where Hickman takes the Avengers next.