Secret Avengers, the story so far

When the Secret Avengers title first came out I was hooked because Moon Knight was part of the team.  Eventually Moon Knight was no longer in the issues as a regular player so I stopped getting the title.  Then I saw after Marvel shook things up with the Marvel Now movement, that there was a new, revamped Secret Avengers title and I decided to give it a chance.  One main reason I wanted to give it a chance because Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Agent Coulson were part of this new team.

After reading issue #1, I wasn’t fully committed but I told myself to give issue #2 a try, especially after I saw that the Taskmaster was going to be in it.  I am so glad I did, because things really heat up in issue #2 and it is still heating up.  What you need to know is that the Secret Avengers are a S.H.I.E.L.D. task force when missions need to be done by other channels.  They have certain members for different missions.  That is why the members may switch from time to time.  The core members of the team are Fury, Hill, Coulson, Mockingbird, Hawkeye, and the Black Widow.  They have had help so far from the Hulk and Daisy Johnson (Director of  S.H.I.E.L.D.) with more heroes promised to be introduced in the future.

The story line so far has been very interesting.  The main villain element is the organization known as A.I.M., but this isn’t the aim from your parent’s Avengers comics.  Trust me, this A.I.M. is more deadly as well as determined to win no matter the cost.  In issue #2, we find the Secret Avengers breaking Taskmaster out of his prison to get him in the ranks of this new A.I.M. movement.  It appears to work, for now.  Issues #3 and # 4 finds the A.I.M. movement stealing Norman Osborn’s Iron Patriot suit and making an army of sentient drones to do their bidding thanks to the work of Mentallo, a member of this new movement.  The end of issue #4 has the Hulk taking out a lot of these Iron Patriots, but it also appears that S.H.I.E.L.D. didn’t keep Bruce in the loop and are using him for a scape goat, definitely as a distraction.  A distraction that was needed so the rest of the team could go after A.I.M.  What is going to happen next?  Well, get issue #5 to find out.

The writing of Nick Spencer is extraordinary!  I always thought A.I.M. was a pushover villain society until I saw how bad ass they are in this story line.  The artwork of Luke Ross compliments the story very well.  Marvel picked a great creative team when they put these two together.  I don’t say enough about coloring in my reviews but the coloring of Matthew Wilson, help you drown yourself into the story.  With that being said, I give the first four issues of the Secret Avengers a perfect rating of 10 out of 10.  I now conclude this post with a panel showing you how Coulson has no fear. I just love this exchange between Agent Coulson and the Taskmaster. (Issue #2)