Secret Avengers #36

Hoo boy, I sure hope Rick Remender can fix Hank Pym after this. For those of you who don’t remember, Pym was “Deathlok’ed” by Father and his minions a few issues ago. Pym spends half the issue until Beast manages to free him from the control of the Descendant robots, leading to a pretty spectacular page. Remender gives Pym some great dialogue on his statement page, but I can’t help but think it would be a bit neater if Pym didn’t look like a Deathlok!

The rest of the team is finally gathering together too, as Beast, Hawkeye, and Captain Britain escape the world of the Dead Avengers. It ends up being fairly easy, although I find myself curious about what will happen to Brother Voodoo turning back into flesh in a world of the dead. (A story for another day, or a throwaway?)

Beast really steals the show for me this issue. He’s looking ape-like, running his mouth, and full of heroics, just as the character should be. Matteo Scalera’s art has improved with each issue. He started off doing his best work on the more monstrous characters like Beast and Venom, but now his Captain Britain and Hawkeye look great too.

Hawkeye gets quite a few moments to shine in this one too; it’s always neat seeing him debating killing his enemies. Remender actually writes him the way I remember from those old Steve Englehart West Coast Avengers. The Avengers have a way to easily defeat the Descendants and halt their plan of world-wide cyborgification, the problem is, it will kill all artificial life forms. That’s a great quandary, I’m glad I only have to wait a few weeks to see the resolution.

Good