by Joe Schickman, Reporter

Official Synopsis:
The Avengers find themselves with a rare gift – foreknowledge of the dangers coming their way in the form of the deadly TRIBULATION EVENTS. But can this information be trusted? And can even Earth’s Mightiest Heroes triumph in the face of cascading disaster?

Creative Team: 
Writer: Jed MacKay
Artist: C.F. Villa
Color Artist: Federico Blee
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover Artist: Stuart Immonen

Still on the edge of my seat after the previous issue, Avengers #2 follows suit by launching straight into the action. The recently reformed veteran team hastily work on retrieving their new leader from the shrinking black hole high above Project Pegasus. But before they can enact their rescue plan, Captain Marvel emerges from Null-Time through the black hole with the limp, bloodied body of Kang the Conqueror.

Returning to the non-linear storytelling style exhibited in Avengers #1, we immediately jump forward to present day Mexico City as a Hydra terror cell threatens to use their death spore bioweapon. But an overconfident Hydra is easily dispatched when Black Panther crashes through a window and efficiently takes them out, before saying “It was just as he said it would be.”

Jumping back to Null-Time we find that Kang was expecting Captain Marvel, and had been waiting to gift her with a message of great import. Initially luring her in with the promise of information that will save 1,000 lives within the next twenty-four hours, Kang teases that this is but an aperitif of the countless lives they could save if Kang’s warnings are headed. 

Kang means to barter these lives in exchange for revenge on a purported villain named Myrddin who, along with his engineered heroes, the Twilight Court, defeated and mortally wounded Kang. Carol has little time to explore her skepticism before a dying Kang insists that he must prepare her for the coming Tribulation Events, “Cataclysmic mass-casualty events that will befall the planet…” Between blood filled coughs, Kang manages to warn of The King of Magic, The Death Moon, The Cannibal Culture, The Endless Nights, and The impossible city and the terrors it brings with it – before succumbing to his broken body’s injuries. 

Kang and Captain Marvel’s interaction does a lot of the leg-work setting up what potential threats the team will face, and lays groundwork for multi-layered stories to be built upon. This style of foreshadowed world-building harkens back to great science fiction and fantasy works, and is well placed in Avengers #2. Yet a scene like this has the potential pitfall of dragging on or feeling like an exhibition dump. To negate that possibility, the creative team continually intercut scenes of the Avengers completing acts of heroism around the world, saving the lives Kang had promised, and deftly adding to the excitement. 

Writer Jed MacKay’s dramatic bifurcated unfolding of the timeline is terrifically effective in weaving each scene into the overall story while punctuating the impacts of Kang’s foretellings. C.F. Villa’s artwork is beautifully detailed, action packed, and clearly displays the visual narrative without being too simple or overly convoluted. Color Artist, Federico Blee, utilizes mastery of techniques as wide ranging as the spectrum between Thor’s lightning and Black Panther’s suit to guide the reader’s attention and give depth to each image. Together with the work of the entire creative team, Avengers #2 is a feast for the eyes and the imagination. 

Yet we are still left with gnawing questions compelling us to keep reading this exhilarating new run on The Avengers. What truth is there behind Kang the Conqueror’s prophesied disasters? Will the Avengers face these perils alone, or will Kang recover to reveal more doomsaying? How will our team face the trials to come? And which will come first?

Rating:

ComicsOnline gives Avengers #2 (Legacy #768) – 4/5 time travel shenanigans.

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