Friday, November 20, 2009

Mighty Avengers #31

Dan Slott does a nice job wrapping up the Unspoken story. What impressed me the most was how well the story eventually intersected with the personal journeys of a few of the cast members. It was never clear to me before now, but this was a Quicksilver story. Pietro came in at the start of the story, and each time his supporting buds got taken out, he made it through. In fact, I found it fascinating that the last few heroes to make a stand against the Unspoken were Vision, Quicksilver, Radioactive Man, Hulkling and Scientific Beast. Only those few were able to shake off or resist the Terrigen mists and avoid being mutated into Alpha Primitives. There are some great moments in this finale; when Hawkeye and Bucky team up to get Stature aboard the Unspoken's ship while sacrificing themselves, Hercules describing his seduction of the ship itself, and even the last stand of Radioactive Man and Quicksilver. I didn't see it coming until the moment arrived, but having the Unspoken ramble on and on about his past to Hank Pym was genius. That moment where Pym realizes how annoying it is hear that kind of self-pity was great, and was a great lead-in to Pym's "owning" of his personal history in the closing pages. That taking of responsibility plays perfectly against Quicksilver's integration back into the Inhuman society. While Pym owns his own past and wants to move on, Quicksilver refuses to take any blame and tries to pass it off on skrulls. I love that while the Inhuman society as a whole buys it, Quicksilver's daughter does not. The most important person in Quicksilver's life (aside from his sister) knows what a fraud he is, and the dismay on his face at the issues end is great drama.

Sean Chen is a better fit for this title than Koi Pham. The action is much less sketchy and everything looks more classic. Chen has been around long enough that his Hercules, Tigra, and Pym are all spot on, and he quickly makes the other Avengers his own too. I do think the Unspoken's design ended up kind of boring. I don't think he has much staying power due to his lack of a memorable look.

Good

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