1. Secret Avengers is running dual plots. The first, with a bunch of agents attacking Sharon Carter on a ship feels tacked on, while the second is a mystery about what’s great evil is taking over the Mars expedition and has control of Nova’s mind. Unfortunately, beyond Nova being one of my favorite characters, there’s no real reason to care. This is generic mind control by magic.
2. This is also the wrong time to do a mind-control by magic story since Brian Michael Bendis is doing the same thing with his New Avengers story. Editors please!
3. Steve Rogers is the only character who really gets any… well… character here. He’s well-defined and in control, but the rest of the team are relatively interchangeable, save for Beast, who is just interchangeable with any other intelligent character.
4. My qualms about Brubaker’s writing a team book remain after the less than stellar Uncanny X-Men run. Despite my love of these characters, if they aren’t given anything to make them stand out, I won’t be sticking around at a $3.99 price point.
5. The characters look great on art, but the backgrounds are sparse. There’s really no reason for this to feel like Mars. More could have been done to make the setting a part of the story.
6. Steve Rogers with an energy shield is freaking awesome.
7. If these characters know Nova, why didn’t they put on his helmet when they found him so the Worldmind could give them information?
8. Am I supposed to recognize the villain that confronts Beast and Steve Rogers? I don’t. Give me a reason to care guys! A mystery villain needs an agenda or something more than “who is he” to keep me interested. This is just lazy. Also, hey, was that Nick Fury? Because if it was, that’s kind of important. And if it wasn’t, some identification, even identification as NOT Nick Fury, would help.
9. I’m not getting the pairing of Black Widow and Valkyrie. Do they have history I’m not aware of? One is a former Russian superspy Avenger and one is a Norse Valkyrie who’s a longtime Defender. Are they just paired together because they’re women? Their skills don’t even compliment one another as one is suited for espionage and one is tank. Again, lazy.
10. Rating: 4/10 – It’s not a terrible issue, just rather boring. Steve Rogers could have done this solo or assembled a more fitting team just for this mission in his role as the new Nick Fury. A lot of this feels paint-by-numbers, which is a shame, because we know this creative team can do more.
