The politically outspoken Nick Spencer takes a handful of Marvel’s espionage characters and throws them into situations that hit startlingly close to current events but make perfect sense in a world of superheroes and villains.
Written by Nick Spencer
Illustrated by Luke Ross“Tehran”
• The Scientist Supreme and the new High Council of AIM ignite global war!
• The Secret Avengers welcome their newest recruit: The Indestructible Hulk!
The issue begins with a mass of SHIELD’s (and by proxy, America’s) Iron Patriot drones being repurposed by A.I.M. to launch attacks against areas that would look like American targets of interest. Though these were noted terrorists hot spots, we all know that actual attacks must be carefully planned and decisions must be made that will lead to minimal collateral damage, both physically and politically. The main conflict of the issue is SHIELD needing to find a way to disown and prevent the random attacks that could look very much like reckless, unsanctioned American attacks while being able to take AIM head-on. This is rather heavy stuff that Spencer is putting our heroes through. But this being a comic book of course, the approach to SHIELD’s dilemma is to throw a Hulk at the problem.
The idea of unmanned drone attacks is a very current hot-button issue in international politics and our ongoing military conflicts with the Middle East. Seeing a mass of Iron Patriots blowing up terrorist cells and insurgents, while both terrorists and innocents run screaming for their lives evokes some of the recent images of the horrors of conflict that we’ve seen throughout the years. Spencer has a knack for taking these events and applying them to a world full of super humans. The solution that SHIELD comes up with is a clever one and the way that the solution springboards the “Secret Avengers” into their mission feels logical. Take the superheroics out of the equation and you have a compelling political thriller about spinning a bad situation into an advantage and how that sort of thing is presented to the public. Throw the superheroics back in, and that tight thriller ends up making for a very entertaining comic book.
Luke Ross’ art is clean and detailed, making the political allegory look realistic and therefore more identifiable as something that reflects what is going on in today’s world. It’s his art that really sells the panic of the random attacks of the drones and makes the mayhem personal and gritty. Some of the finest artwork of Ross’ career is within these pages. Just as well, he handles the espionage and talky parts of the issue with clean talking head panels that make good use of perspective to keep things interesting. He is also able to draw The Hulk’s new armored costume where other artists have stumbled with his obviously unconventional attire. His approach nicely depicts the way the armor expands and contracts based on the state of Bruce Banner’s being. Furthermore, he crafts an espionage scene near the end of the issue that is too cool to spoil, except to say that it is very well-paced and contains some nice surprises.
Spencer and Ross are trying to line comic books up with reality in a way that feels legitimate and as current as possible. They’ve succeeded by building a team that makes sense and trying to imagine how that team and the people they work for would deal with international affairs. But aside from how prescient it might be, it’s also just plain fun to look at.
Final Verdict: 8.0 – a must buy for fans of modern political/spy stuff. Tom Clancy stuff.
