Avengers #8
Marvel Comics
Written by Jason Aaron
Art by David Marquez
Colors by Justin Ponsor
Letters by Cory Petit
Robbie Reyes is on his way to his new gig as an Avenger and that new gig brings him to their new headquarters at the North Pole, Avengers Mountain. The fact that their new headquarters is made out of the hollowed out corpse of a dead Celestial isn’t at all creepy and geared up to bite them on the ass later. As the team settles into their new base, Robbie finds out that being an Avenger is going to require some more training. Something Captain America is more than happy to help him with in a sparring session in the gym.
Doctor Strange continues to examine the new powers that Jennifer is generating and becomes exceedingly more concerned about how they are manifesting. Jennifer assures him that she is fine and can handle it as she and Thor resume whatever weird unspoken thing they have going on. T’Challa tries to deal with the responsibility of being named leader of the team as he contemplates Loki’s last words. Tony, to his credit, decides to try and mend some fences with Carol Danvers and the end result is pretty much what you would expect. At the same time, a new mission the Avengers decide to look into will bring them to face to face with an old friend and new threat.
I really enjoy the pacing of this issue. After the giant arc that brought this team together, I like the fact that Aaron decided to slow things down and give the reader the opportunity to learn the new character and relationship dynamics that are going to fuel the stories going forward. There was great care shown in maintaining many of the personal animus that some of them share and I like that their working relationship continues to evolve as well. The dialogue was natural and none of the moments felt forced, which made the story flow really well and keep me interested to see where these dynamics would move next.
Marquez does a great job on the art, especially with the facial expressions and the softness of the features. It shows a contrast between the big action of the previous issues and the more character driven focus of this issue.