Avengers

Avengers #1

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The new volume of Avengers launches with the team fighting Terminus intercut with events of the past few days in which Carol Danvers has assembled her new team. Avengers #1 is a fun issue, providing some action with the current battle (with admittedly a mostly throwaway baddie) while providing more character beats and humor in the flashbacks. With the assembly of the team being my favorite aspect of the issue, my only real concern is what the comic looks like without that interwoven story as the team moves onto various threats.

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Black Knight: Curse of the Ebony Blade #1

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Black Knight: Curse of the Ebony Blade #1 comic reviewI’ve always liked Marvel’s Black Knight, the mix of super-hero and Arthurian legend (although I must admit my favorite version wears a leather jacket on top of chain mail armed with a lightsaber). Black Knight: Curse of the Ebony Blade #1 offers some insight into the mental and emotional state of hero and part-time Avenger Dane Whitman who is in possession of the cursed Ebony Blade which offers him the chance at heroic action but only by diving head-first into dark emotions and power he doesn’t fully understand.

While there is still quite a bit of story to get introduced, the first issue does showcase the Black Knight’s role on the team, why he feels the need to play the fool, and the concerns some of the other heroes have about him. It also features the character’s death at the hands of an unknown assailant in front of the Avengers (but don’t fret, a bit of blood and our hero is back in action by the issue’s end).

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Avengers #35

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Avengers #35 comic reviewThankfully the problematic racial overtunes of the last issue are left behind here as “The Age of Khonshu – Part Three: You Don’t Beat the Devil by Being an Angel” puts to focus back on Khonshu‘s attempts to accumulate power by sending Moon Knight after the Starbrand Baby protected by Iron Man and Carol Danvers. Despite his goal to protect the child, a freaked-out Tony Stark nearly hands the baby over to Moon Knight at the mere mention of Khonshu’s enemy.

Khonshu’s murder of Mephisto appears to have not have stuck as the Moon God is attacked by several different versions of Marvel’s Devil Incarnate. Are Khonsu’s fears about what Mephisto will do to the world well-founded? Or just the excuse needed to seize power and remake the world in his own image?

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Avengers #34

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Avengers #34 comic reviewAvengers #34 opens with a flashback to explain the recent actions of Moon Knight in targeting allies to draw power from them to feed his god Khonshu in an attempt to prevent something far worse from happening. The powers taken have allowed Khonshu to remake the world, but is it truly for the benefit of mankind or is the god, yet again, playing with Marc Spector’s mind for his own ends?

The latest issue features a memorable appearance by Mephisto who appears, in part, to be behind the danger to come (although it doesn’t look like he’ll be around to savor the fruits of his labor). While most of the Avengers have been beaten, and Black Panther is prisoner to Khonshu’s acolytes (in the comic’s most problematic scene featuring the white-clad minions whipping a black man in chains which is at best ill-conceived), there are still a few heroes left whose powers the god covets.

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