Have you ever wanted to see Shang-Chi just kick ass for about twenty pages straight? Well, you’re in luck because that’s pretty much all that happens in “Avengers World” #3
Written by Nick Spencer & Jonathan Hickman
Illustrated by Stefano Caselli
• Shang-Chi vs. The Gorgon– a fight to the death for control of The Hand.
• 20 straight pages of bone-crushing martial arts action, like you’ve never seen it before.
If you had asked me last week what the point of “Avengers World” is, I’d probably say that’s an opportunity to look at the team Jonathan Hickman built operating on the global scale that his title promised. The first issue even split up the huge team into smaller response teams all over the world to deal with varied threats. Even in the second issue, we got to see each team handling their situation with a focus on A.I.M. Island? Here? We get to see Stefano Casseli lavishly detail a fight between Shang-Chi and the Gorgon for the entire issue. Yeah, the entire issue. No cut aways, no other characters. Just twenty solid pages of the two of them going at it. If you asked me what the point of “Avengers World” is now, I probably wouldn’t have an answer for you and that’s the biggest problem facing this issue.
The strangest thing about this issue is that it is by no means a bad issue. In fact, it’s actually an incredible showcase for the storytelling talents of Stefano Caselli. For an issue that features a non-stop fight, Caselli carries this issue like no other. Caselli’s art is fluid and dynamic and conveys the weight of the fight like the best Bruce Lee movie you’ve never seen. The fluidity of the art is really what’s essential here as, when you break it down, this is just a series of still images that gives the implication of an actual fight taking place. Without Caselli’s care in implying movement and showing details through close-ups and inset panels, what you would have is a series of unconnected still images. This issue is really Caselli’s despite the two credited writers.
If you were under any doubt as to whether Stefano Casseli is the true star of this issue, the end of the issue which features three back-to-back splash pages that will convince you. Each of the splash pages features a panelled page on the left and a full-size panel on the right with each of the left-hand pages showing a different figure from the past and each of the right-hand pages showing a shot from Shang-Chi’s fight. What makes this stand out, though, is the colouring of the pages and how it conveys the feeling of ancient Chinese paintings through earthy tones with only red being highlighted to show the connection between the characters of the past and Shang-Chi. The panels even look textured like a tapestry, dipped in an atmosphere this is the crowning moment of both the fight and the issue. Following that up with the Gorgon’s retaliation shown as multiple, brutal strikes across one splash panel and it’s clear that this issue is Caselli’s and he was the difference between having this issue work or not.
For an issue that is nothing but one fight scene for the entirety of the issue, there’s something funny about there being two credited writers. Like I’ve said, this issue does work and is an entertaining read, but after having the opening of the series spend so much time introducing the different Avengers response team, it’s strange that they’d dedicate an issue so early on to something like this. Remember, this is the third issue of the series and it has effectively stopped the forward momentum we saw in the first two issues. It’s a choice I will admit, as a reviewer and simple reader, that I don’t understand, but I also can’t say it wasn’t effective. It’s hard to know what to credit to either Jonathan Hickman or Nick Spencer here, but the dialogue throughout the fight is solid and shows the definite connection between Shangi-Chi and the Gorgon and the narration has allowed us into the mind of Shang-Chi more than we ever have during his time as an Avenger. With the focus on just one character’s fight, this issue is clearly meant to stand as a character piece and we do get a better understanding of Shang-Chi for it, but perhaps Hickman and Spencer had to sacrifice some story flow to do so.
In conclusion, your honour, this was a strange one. One of those issues that comes along and really makes you go “Huh, I wonder why they did that.” While for an issue so early in the series, dedicating the entire thing to just one fight scene after establishing the numerous response teams might have been a strange move, it’s hard to deny how entertaining the fight is. This is entirely thanks to Stefano Caselli, who takes Hickman & Spencer’s script and creates a genuinely beautiful comic out of it. Without Caselli putting 110% into the artwork of the issue, it’s easy to imagine falling completely flat. Thankfully, even thought I couldn’t tell you the point of it, we still got an entertaining issue out of it.
Final Verdict: 6.8 – I can’t tell you the point of it, but you’d probably have some fun with it anyway. Browse.
